Osher Figure Drawing with Model Kathryn

I like to present different ways to approach figure drawing in my Osher class, so that we don't fall into the tedium of one known -- yet rutted -- way to draw the human form.  Friday, I suggested my students join me in using a brush and ink or paint to capture Kathryn's lively gestures.

How freeing to let the brush's sweep follow Kathryn's contours! She gave us a series of elegant, powerful, dancerly poses, ideal for the medium.

We moved on to tackling the challenges of drawing hands & feet. I presented two different ways to look at capturing  these intricate parts -- a gestural approach and a more blocky technique I call "Robot Hands."  Below are my brush paintings.

Gestural Hands:

Robot Hands!

I used a combination of both techniques in the feet. I think I got too excited about drawing toes, because they grew larger on my page than in reality!

I was enjoying the freshness of the brush and black paint, so I created two different versions of Kathryn's long pose.  The bold strokes of the brush produced high contrast images, with a few light washes for shadows. The brush seemed to have a mind of its own, creating stylized images I didn't expect like this:

I noticed that the new medium inspired my students, too.  These gray winter months, anything fresh feels like spring!

Osher Figure Drawing with Model David

In Friday's class, I focused on new ways to approach gesture drawing to help those new to the concept.  We looked at the structure of the body through mass gestures -- starting within the form and drawing with the side of a charcoal stick, pastel, or other soft media rather than just capture the bubble of surface contours.  

We moved on to wrapped-line gestures, sometimes called tornado drawings, which focus on capturing the cross-contours of the body.

We then combined techniques, and started with mass gestures as a foundation that we added a few contour lines and some shading to (4 minute poses).  I used colored chalk for my mass gesture and built up from there with a charcoal stick.

We finished our gesture marathon with a 5-minute study of foreshortening, drawing just the limb that was coming towards us, and incorporating cross-contours to help us see the foreshortening.

By the time we got to the final 25-minute drawing, we were loosened up and ready to tackle David's foreshortened pose.

Many thanks to David for his hard work and beautiful poses!

Self-Care: Create a Personal Mandala

A new favorite art book of mine, The Zen of Creative Painting, has inspired me to be more experimental in my artwork.  According to author Jeanne Carbonetti, "All art mirrors its creator."

Jeanne steps you through three exercises --creating a mandala, a still life or landscape, and a figurative artwork -- and helps you to understand how your art expresses what's within you.  I find the process meditative, expressive and encouraging.  

By looking over my artwork with that mindset, I feel celebrated, and can see core parts of myself that I overlook yet should feel proud of.  Why not embrace what makes you unique?

Jeanne describes a mandala as an abstract artwork that can take any form.  I created my own mandala, drawing what came intuitively with a Micron pen and colored pencils.  

What does my mandala unveil to me? A large heart full of symbols of life (spirals), light (star), and love (hearts) represents my love of life and people & my desire to live with loving kindness towards others.  

The vibrant colors represent my strong will & expressiveness (blue), passion (pink & red) & creativity (orange). The predominance of yellow represents "shine time" to me -- the energy I receive from being with other people.  Unfortunately, I haven't been able to be among people much due to voluntary quarantining, but seeing what a core part of me that is feels like a celebration of myself.

The light and dark moons represent my yin-yang love of spending time actively with people as a teacher followed by time in the quiet solitude of nature or my studio.  The whole composition is full of living creatures, the earth (multi-colored triangle), & water droplets (blue dots) representing my love of nature and earthiness.

I recommend Jeanne's book and the process of exploring & celebrating your unique self through her creative discovery activities!  Make your own mandala and discover your own inner beauty.

Osher Figure Drawing with Model Kathryn

Today was the start of a new semester of Figure Drawing classes for the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at CMU.  So good to be back at the easel drawing Kathryn and talking with my students!  

We started with 3-minute gestures, moved on to 1-minute abstract 5-line drawings and finished with a 15-minute pose and a 35-minute pose. Kathryn brought us lovely, elegant poses, each one suited for the project at hand.

Kathryn has mastered the art of holding a pose that translates well on the page as a 5-Line drawing.

Kathryn limited the foreshortening in her poses for our gesture warm-ups:

SpaceX Iteration & A Mossy Oak

Out hiking on a chilly, sunny day, I snapped photos of this terrific tree trunk with gnarly old roots clasping mossy rocks down by a stream.  I prefer to paint right outdoors while sitting on a rock, but the weather has been too cold for that. So, I painted this oak trunk from the photo I took.

After making a light pencil sketch, I applied masking fluid to the areas I wanted to keep white on the sunny side of the tree, and in the little lichen-covered spots.  Masking fluid protects areas of your painting from taking up paint, keeping the underlying paper white.  Masking fluid goes on a liquid, dries into a rubbery solid, and is easily removed by rubbing it off with a gum eraser or your finger. When your painting is done & dry, you remove the masking fluid so you can add any last touches.

After reading Cathy Johnson's book, Creating Textures in Watercolors, I was inspired to try mixing Burnt Sienna with Ultramarine Blue to create a gray trunk color.  I dropped in more Ultramarine Blue here and there to create shadows and a more varied wash. 

As I explore watercolor painting, I remind myself to take the approach of Elon Musk in creating new rockets. In his early stages of development, Elon loses a bunch of rockets in fiery disasters, but he & his team learn from each "rapid unscheduled disassembly."  In fact, Elon expects failures, stating, “If things are not failing, you are not innovating enough.”

As a result of his design iteration process, SpaceX successfully launches more rockets than any other company in the world, and, in 2020, became the first private company ever to carry U.S. astronauts to the space station. 

I don't plan to make history, just to improve my painting skills.  I don't fail as spectacularly as a rocket, but I have ruined some paper learning.  

I recommend taking the SpaceX approach of trial and error and learning.  And don't forget to find some inspiration from other artists ... or rocketeers!

A Simple Winter Watercolor Landscape

I'm currently reading Cathy Johnson's book First Steps: Watercolor Painting (North Light Books, 1995).  She shares her step-by-step approach for beginners to simplifying a landscape.  I tend to get lost in details, wanting to include every knobby tree trunk and bowing weed stalk in a scene.  I am happiest when I can fall into the tiniest features of some bit of nature -- an acorn or autumn leaf, for instance.  

But with an entire landscape, I am learning to see & paint the larger forms first.  What a relief not to expect myself to trace every bramble and bough in the landscape, but just to capture the spirit of the moment.

Saturday morning, I sat down with my paints at the kitchen counter and looked out the sliding glass door to the image above.  The morning mists made the distant trees look hazy, and I focused mainly on Grandmother Sugar Maple -- the bushy looking tree on the left.  

In years past, Grandmother Sugar Maple has provided us with gallons of sap to boil down into delicious, golden maple syrup. I have a special reverence for her, which deepened my painting experience.

Each painting is a learning opportunity. A chance to connect with nature.  A chance to slow down. A chance to express ourselves.  

I hope you will keep painting -- it leads to delightful discoveries!

Nature Hike & Sketch

 

On an afternoon hike today, I was about to cross a little stream, and looked up and saw this tangle of tree roots and moss-covered rocks.  I pulled out an ink brush pen and a fistful of colored pencils to make a quick sketch in my nature journal.  I started with the India ink brush pen, and sketched the scene, then tinted it with a few colored pencils. The day was cold, so I had to work quickly, and then get back to hiking to warm myself up.  But, I captured a few photos before leaving so I can continue painting in the warmth indoors.

Art for Self-Care: Celebrate Your Art

 

Yesterday morning, as the sun splashed color on the distant clouds, I painted a quick landscape in my daily planner.  Peachy and golden hues highlighted a lavender cloud bank and caught my eye.  The simple act of painting, observing, & finding those colors on my palette, lifted my spirits.  

This morning, before the sun rose, I had my morning tea with that watercolor sketch.

I have a habit of propping little sketches and paintings I've done where I can see them throughout the day.  I recommend this practice. You instantly connect with that moment of artistic meditation, when you were focused on something you found beautiful.  

We could all use more beauty in our lives.  

Celebrate yourself and your artwork by finding a space to display your latest artwork -- even sketches & doodles.  The more you take joy in your art, the more art you create, and pretty soon, you find yourself following your bliss to new discoveries.

Slow Walking in the State Park

I took a late afternoon slow walk with my nature journal in the state park yesterday, and wandered down a valley trail along a rolling creek.  Stopping at an inviting creek side spot, I sat and listened to the water burble, sketched the scene, and fell into that sense of meditation that comes from connecting with nature in the present moment.

When sun sank, and I was out of time to draw, I snapped a photo of a particularly inviting tree trunk.  This morning, I was able to instantly reconnect to the feelings of immersion in the enchanted woodlands as I sketched and painted that moss-covered, knobby tree trunk.  A lovely way to start the morning.

From the hike:

Art for Self-Care: Slow Walking in Nature

The weather had been rainy & cold all day, and as sunset neared, I took a half hour to walk the field around my house with my cat and my nature journal.  The simple act of walking without a destination or anything to accomplish felt freeing. I could stop and just notice the way the Black-Capped Chickadees calls sounded squeaky, or how every twig and raspberry cane was hung with rain drops.

Once again, nature cleared away stress, filled my soul with peace, and brought me into the present moment.  A slow walk in nature, just noticing the surrounding beauty, is one of my favorite forms of self-care.  

And, I find that making sketches of details I see helps me to connect with nature more deeply.  The act of drawing makes me slow down to observe closely.  And slowing down to look brings me into the present moment.  

I encourage you to add slow-walking & nature sketching to your repertoire of self-care techniques. If you try it, please leave me a comment to let me know how it worked for you.