A Lot of Free Life Models

[Linda Brandon]

Paul, from what I can tell on your site, you are an exceptionally talented artist who is terrific with people - I predict lines going out the door. And I'd like to be drawn by you, too!

[Paul Foxton]

Heh, Richard, that's a good point.

Linda - are you sure you were at the right web site?

You've convinced me. If it goes well I'll come back and report, if it goes badly and I get beaten up, arrested or laughed out of town I'll just go very quiet and pretend I never went in the first place.

[Linda Brandon]

I've been getting a few emails recently about photos vs. life work and so I want to clarify my own feelings about the subject. My best day is when I get to work from life. My second best day is when I get to work from a photo. (I think I am paraphrasing a sports coach here, maybe Vince Lombardi...?) The point is, I'll try to get it done however I can.

All I'm trying to say is that any way you can get good work done is better than no way at all. What ultimately matters is your product, and you must get your work done before your lights go out and your time to make art is over. But working from life will make any work you do from photos much, much stronger.

[Jonathan Hardesty]

This is a great idea. This sounds like something fun I could do with my students as well. Although I might need to wait till it's fall here in Texas...right now it's excruciatingly hot.

It seems like this might be a great way to get models for more involved paintings as well. You hook them with the first one .

[John Reidy]

Thank you, thank you, thank you.

What a wonderful idea!

I'm going to take a gut check and see if I can do this. If I do I'll report back as well.

[Richard Budig]

I have been doing this for more than two years at my local library here in teeny-tiny Skiatook, OK. I go Tuesday and Thursday afternoons and do free sketches of anyone who will be by "victim." Usually kids. I try to spin out simple pencil sketches in five miinutes, or thereabouts.

It's challenging and fun, and definitely helps the old "eye/hand" duo, and it definitely helped my painting.

I invite mothers (especially mothers) to stand behind and watch it all go together. Whether it's good, or not so good, they ooh and aah, of course because they can't do it.

One day, a little girl stood beside my watching me sketch a teen boy. Quietly, she leaned forward and said softly, "That doesn't look like him."

I asked her if I had ever drawn her.

"Yes," she replied.

"Was it any good?" I asked.

"Oh yes," she replied, "you're a very great artist, you know."

I've always wondered how I could be great enough to sketch her flawlessly and not the teen boy.

But it's always fun, and a great source of free models. It also lets me pick the good heads for later development in oil.

[Ngaire Winwood]

Dear LInda

Thank you for this thread.

It is hard to gather the courage to start out in public. I will try to get hold of a plain cast to start off with as you have suggested.

I have a part time job now (that is worked usually over 5 and a half days) and am arranging other responsibilities to allow time to focus on my drawing once again. I am hoping to cut my hours down to just 3 days (say 10-12 hours a day instead of 6 or so hours a day) so that will leave time to practice. I really have missed my practice time, I certainly have gone backwards that is for sure. Your suggestion of how to get from chook scratch to something reasonable would certainly work.

[Marcus Lim]

Originally Posted by Richard Budig

I've always wondered how I could be great enough to sketch her flawlessly and not the teen boy.

Hi Richard,
This sentence rekindles a recent event i had, when i was doing public portrait drawing for a charity event raising funds for the "special athletes". I had 7 portraits done throughout the day, and 2 of them were of special people.

My first model, an intellectually disabled person, couldn't sit still as he couldn't understand fully what i meant. Fortunately he wasn't fidgeting a lot so i could capture a general likeness of him. But i wasn't happy with the work, and had the same question you had, reeling through my head.

By the 2nd special model, who seemed to be attention deficit and couldn't sit still, i had realised the most important thing that we could do for these live sessions, was to challenge ourselves to get a "general likeness within that time period".

I had works with pretty good likeness for a couple of models in between the special models. That was after i'd cleared up my thoughts, and went down to measuring and assessing them quickly.
But it helped the most by breaking out of my routine - varying the start-out points when drawing the faces! That was when "the holy light of creativity" shone of me!!
So i hope this little story will be helpful in your next public art session, Richard!

[Clayton J. Beck III]

All my friends thought I was crazy when I did this. I would trade anybody a charcoal that they would sit for, for an oil that they would sit for me. I saw it as getting two models for free but most of my friends thought I was giving my work away too cheap. The good thing as I am not my biggest collector. I still do it now only it cost them three settings. Ha! Hey, an artist as to do what he's gotta do.

Clayton

[Chris Saper]

What great idea! ( I am still my biggest collector)