Erica

Our model this week was a pleasant surprise: Erica is plump and uninhibited. It's nice to see someone so comfortable with her body even if it's not model material. David had us try drawing contours and overlapping them with some great results.


I suggested that it would look great as brush and ink or even abstracted further and coloured in. Which excited me so much that I made an attempt at home.


I used canvas which was not friendly to pencil and cannot be rubbed off much to my annoyance! An improvement is to offset the colour slightly from the ink to lend it more interest or to vary the line thickness which I'll try next time.


Erica's curves made me feel quite good about my own body. How to feel good- draw someone fatter than you!





This last one is a portrait of Erica done to practise facial proportions. Erica has a very pleasant face : she appears very approachable. I decided not to include her pendulous boobs here so as not to distract from her face.

Life drawing class 1

Having decided that my art could do with the discipline of regular practice, I enrolled in David Wilsher's life drawing classes again. Tutors tend to make certain that lighting is good and they always have tips to share. Our model was Olivia and once again I struggle with shading. Also met Leanne who was in the NAS course with me. She is very good and I think I can learn a lot from her as well.

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.

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.

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.

Joanne

Joanne was the model at our monthly sketch club. I had not attended the last one due to the school holidays. She was a treat! Gently voluptuous, she assumed some very beautiful poses. I loved the way her tummy was rounded like a real woman. Some models are too thin.


The other thing I noticed about models and humans in general, is that we all have a favoured position. Some like to hold their own hands, many pose modestly, minimizing the exposure of their private parts, and others are totally uninhibited. Joanne's poses were naturally artistic.


Since I hadn't done art for a while I was slow with the shorter poses. But with the longer poses I even found time to incorporate colour.

Get off your arts

The school holidays has put a significant jar on my artistic endeavours as we went overseas to visit my family. Just before I hopped on the plane I had to work so that clients would not miss me too much, and when we got home, I had to catch up! One of the school mums Jodie was organising an art competition GOYA or Get off your arts. I was invited and attended the opening night, which was held at a church hall. The entries were in visual arts, picture book, performing art, and even films! Very diverse which meant that the opening night was a treat for the senses. However it also meant that the entries in some categories were scarce and the quality of the winners not up to scratch. Jodie tells me that it has only been run for 3 years and she received a government grant as a subsidy. Fees are charged for entries and a commission retained from proceed of sales. It was a great night and you can catch GOYA at Cafechurch on St Johns Rd in Glebe. Also look at their website http://www.getoffyourarts.com/