Thursday, September 17, 2009

Figure drawing workbook

After borrowing John Raynes book from the library I was very tempted to try his exercises. There were many excellent photos in the book, which is rare since models these days do not like being photographed. I took on one photo and decided that my painting skills could do with some more practice.


I liked the composition which was a play on triangles, there are triangles on the quilt, her legs and arms. In fact in the photo there was a spiky plant which made more triangles. But I omitted it on the basis that there was enough going on in the picture. Here is a close up.


I also decided that it was time to get some art works on the wall. I've produced quite a number of works but because I didn't use similar subjects, colours, media or canvas sizes it was going to be difficult to hang art aesthetically. I've since concentrated on canvas as it's cheaper than framing and if something didn't work out, I could just paint over and start again. Of course I could learn how to frame but that is another diversion I can do without. On that basis I decided that the painting of Joanne could do with a plainer background that was painted thickly, more in the style of the body. Here are the before and after.






Sunday, September 6, 2009

Belinda

Our model for the sketch club this month was Belinda, we had her before. She works in industrial abseiling and has powerful shoulders and arms. Sarah agreed to try longer poses : this is to help us paint. I found it difficult to draw Belinda. Because she is so muscular I kept drawing her like a man but she is obviously feminine. This last pose was more successful than the others in capturing her, mainly because it does not highlight her muscles.



Tuesday, September 1, 2009

Acrylic painting revisited

After spending most of this year using pastels or charcoal I was led by chance to reexamine paints. In my first post I attended a painting course to learn how to paint figures. Since then I have hardly painted because it is not a medium that took kindly to interruptions... With a young family interruptions are constant and results in either dried paints on palette or tantrums by various members of family (including husband)! I wanted to convert the charcoal drawing I did of Joanne to painting but without a reference photo or life model, I was forced to adopt a semi abstract style that would hide the lack of detail. I had always admired the style of painting where bold strokes are used, with the result that finer details are unnecessary. Of course a few highlights or reflections are added to give the impression that some care has been taken. Here is my attempt with this style.





I was pretty pleased with the results. Which is now leading me to experiment with a few other styles that I found in a figure painting workbook.