Trillium in Bloom!

David & I have been taking daily hikes at the local state park, and I am cheered by every sign of spring.  Lately, the Trillium along the trails have greeted us with their bright faces.  I felt compelled to paint a blossom to celebrate.

Large-Flowered Trillium (Trillium grandiflorum)

Figure Drawing Update: Last Class

I taught my last Osher figure drawing class of the spring semester last Friday.  We focused on using blind contours to loosen up our lines & to connect our eyes and hands with our creative model, Kathryn. 

In a blind contour drawing, you look only at who or what you're drawing, and never at your paper, so you have to let go of creating "pretty pictures" and allow the process to take you to a new place.  We began our drawings with blind contour, and after 3 minutes, we modified our approach and allowed ourselves to look briefly at our paper to register our lines in the right places. 

We used two different colored chalks or pastels for each drawing -- one color for the blind contour, and another for our modified blind contour drawing.  The process was meditative and calming once we let go of needing to create an outcome.  And, we found that it helped us to liven up our lines in subsequent drawings. This approach produced abstract and powerful drawings.

I look forward to teaching Figure Drawing in Osher's summer semester starting mid-May.  Until then, I will offer some online Friday morning live art sessions via Zoom.  You can find out more by going to the Osher at CMU Figure Drawing page of my blog.

I received a box this week stuffed with brown packing paper that I used for my drawing paper during the online class.  The camera likes mid-toned paper best.  White paper overexposes on the webcam.

I used yellow chalk for the blind contour and blue for the modified blind contour.

A longer pose drawn with compressed charcoal.

For homework, I asked students to do 3 drawings of hands & feet. These are my hand drawings, done with a focus on contour lines.

Self-Care Painting

I have talked with friends, struggling through this period of isolation, who say it has caused their inner critic to kick into overdrive.  I understand, and fight the same battle.  I find that drawing and painting takes me away to a positive place.  Here's a recent painting of a poppy flower

Figure Drawing Class

Here are a few drawings from my Osher Figure Drawing class today.  I have included the homework projects I assigned the class last week. I had fun creating a value study with different media.  That practice set me up to really appreciate the various values in the vase and hand drawings.

Model David gave us some beautiful poses today as we studied hands and feet. My charcoal sketches are below.

Homework: 

Class today:

David's foot in detailed study.  I had to use the "paper stretcher" because I ran out of space on the page!

Nature Journal Update

I have taken to tucking my little nature journal under one arm when David and I go out on hikes.  When we stop for water, I let my eyes find something interesting to draw.  Here are a couple of recent pages from that journal.

Figure Drawing Update: Osher Class with Model Kathryn

I had the privilege of drawing well-known Pittsburgh model Kathryn Zapalo today. When sheltering in place, what a pleasure to get to draw a good model, and let the drawing process sweep you away!

I used a chicken feed bag for my gesture drawings.

Learning to Play with my Nature Journal

I've been watching John Muir Laws' YouTube channel lately and feeling inspired by his videos.  I have to admit, I resisted some of his advice, like Don't try to make pretty pictures.  Use your journal to explore, make discoveries and ask questions.  I thought, "But I want to make pretty pictures!"

This morning, I tried a value study of the view out of my window.  My goal was merely to try a new technique -- using a black Aquarelle pencil to draw a simplified landscape.   I can now see John's wisdom.  When you focus on "This must be beautiful!" you hamper your own creativity, trying to force an outcome.  When you approach the journal with the attitude of curiosity and exploration, you free yourself up to make discoveries and to reach a flow state. No expectations = maximum freedom and creativity.  Try it!

I sketched this with a Stabilo Aquarelle pencil, then used a waterbrush.

Figure Drawing Update: Osher Figure Drawing Class

In Friday's Osher class, I focused on foreshortening, using tornado drawings to help us get a sense of the terrain we were drawing (see the last drawing on brown paper).  A tornado drawing consists of cross contours, so in essence, you are drawing loops around the body, the arms, the legs, and you can see where the lines stack up one upon the other in the foreshortened segments.

Tornado Drawing of David's foreshortened arm.