Osher Figure Drawing Class with Models Keira & David

Last Friday, our Osher Figure Drawing class had the good fortune to draw traveling photography model Keira Grant, who had come to our farm for a series of outdoor photo shoots.  

We began with ink to paint Keira's three-minute gesture poses.  I used a light wash of watered-down India ink, adding darker contours and shadows after getting the mass gesture in.

Keira's poses were vibrant and elegant, and she held them rock steady.  We were swept away as we tried to express each pose swiftly, fluidly with our brushes.  

Keira turned the stage over to David and left to greet her photographer.  

We picked up our watercolor palettes, and set out to find David's flesh tones.  I mixed Burnt Sienna and Alizarin Crimson for David's skin tone, and added Ultramarine Blue for the shadows.

We familiarized ourselves with David's proportions with these five-minute poses.

We finished the session with one long pose. It felt freeing to splash loose washes in without an under drawing.

Many thanks to models Keira and David for an amazing session full of variety and professionalism!

More Pastel Paintings of Flowers

Another week in Painting Flowers with Pastels, another painting.  

The recent rains have created a bounty of blooms to clip and bring into class on Saturday mornings.  And, this week, I also brought in some potted Wave Petunia plants.

Focusing only on the bright fuchsia blossoms of the petunias became meditative & relaxing. A simple background of bold colors finished the study an made the flowers pop.

I hope your summer includes some time to meditate on beauty and paint to your heart's content! 

Osher Figure Drawing Class with Model Shannon

We had a fantastic class Friday, inspired by model Shannon.  We began with 3-minute gesture poses.

Shannon picked up a badminton racquet and put it to good use, creating poses full of motion.

In preparation for our last two poses, I had invited my students to prepare two pieces of drawing paper with several layers of vine charcoal to create a midtone. 

We began with a 15-minute back study.  

My students & I worked quickly to capture Shannon's musculature.  We sketched in a gesture, lifted out highlights with a kneaded eraser, and added in darker values with vine charcoal.

I've always felt that trying different methods of drawing the figure helps us to explore and stay fresh.  Each technique and medium has its own magic, and its own lessons to teach us.

We finished up with an hour-long pose (first photo in the post).

Many thanks to model Shannon for bringing us her strength and beautiful poses!

Portrait of a Young Nerd

Sometimes I'm the instructor of a Zoom drawing class, sometimes I'm the model, and occasionally, I'm the camera and computer operator. When David models and the class consists of shorter poses, I'm kept busy  running the equipment.  But on a recent evening class via Zoom, David sat for a portraiture class, and I sketched while keeping an eye on the timer, the camera and the computer.  

Each portrait I draw of David has its own personality.  I call this the portrait of David as a Young Nerd.  As a big fan of nerds, I'm happy with that aspect of the drawing, and can remember him as a young man well-versed in physics, computers and technology.   

I used a graphite pencil, and it felt good to be able to work with a fine-pointed instrument after many Zoom classes using charcoal.

Painting Pastel Flowers

 

What could encapsulate the season better than spending a lovely summer morning painting flowers? 

 Saturday marked the first class of my Painting Flowers with Pastels course at the Community College of Beaver County, and my students and I delighted in delving into a world of blooms with our pastels.

The CCBC Art Studio is spacious and full of light, a wonderful place to turn on some classical music, lay out our supplies, and unleash our creativity.  I asked my students to focus on being experimental, and just playing.  The vibe of joyful creativity filled the room, and my students created awesome artworks!

Many thanks to my students for their willingness to jump right in and experiment!

You can find out more about upcoming classes at CCBC here: https://www.ccbc.edu/arts

You can register for upcoming classes here: https://my.ccbc.edu/ICS/Continuing_Education/

Osher Figure Drawing Class with Model Hector

We had a wonderfully creative session Friday with model Hector, who transported us to a magical woodland through his poses and the props he brought -- a forest backdrop, a fantastic headdress, woodland ferns, and mossy green fabric.

We began with wrapped line gestures, imagining that we were creating topographical maps for ants as we followed the cross-contours of Hector's body.

It's amazing to me how-- by drawing only interior lines -- we could express the volume of Hector's body, and the curve of his spine.

We began adding a few shadows, which immediately created depth and form.

We moved on to study foreshortening, sketching Hector's outstretched arm in profile.  Hector then moved his arm towards the camera to increase the foreshortening. At each step, we sketched for 2 minutes. Just for fun, he dangled a silk flower from his fingers.  

Feeling warmed up and ready to take on some foreshortening, we set up a long pose to draw, and incorporated all the amazing props Hector had brought to evoke the Green Man in his enchanted woodland home.

 Many thanks to model Hector for bringing the inspiration for an amazing session!

A Watercolor Sketch Expedition on Independence Day Weekend

Saturday morning over the holiday weekend, I stuffed a knapsack full of watercolor supplies, and trekked down a favorite path.

I found a cluster of Bee Balm (Monarda didyma) blooming along the trail, and set up my folding chair & opened my watercolor notebook to start a watercolor sketch.  

Realizing that I had forgotten to bring a cup to wash my brushes out in, I picked up a fallen leaf from a Cucumber Tree (Magnolia acuminata), and used that instead. 

It worked!  I set to work simply sketching the gorgeous crimson blooms and plants, & playing with the variations of color I noticed on the sun-splashed leaves.

It felt so relaxing to sit & paint, immersed in the sounds of nature. Chipmunks chirped & skittered across the path nearby. Wood Thrushes and Black-Capped Chickadees sang from deep in the woods. And the breeze tousled the treetops.  

I was surprised when suddenly I heard a whirring sound and looked up to see a female Ruby-Throated Hummingbird dodging rapidly among the Bee Balm blossoms.  

I watched, knowing that the view would last only a moment & tried to absorb as many details about the little bird that I could.  I painted her quickly.

I hiked back to my truck and returned home for lunch.  

Later that day, I took my art backpack out to the fence along my neighbor's cow pasture to paint.

And I created the watercolor sketch below.  I used a white Prismacolor colored pencil to add highlights to the trees along the horizon, and used Inktense watercolor pencils to create the details of the fence and grasses.

And I finished up my Watercolor Sketch Expedition with the view below of a hilltop field below our home.

I hope this summer affords you the freedom to get outdoors with your art supplies and create in nature!

Osher Figure Drawing Class: Zoom Summer School with Model Kathryn

Kathryn kicked off our first session of Osher summer Figure Drawing Friday, July 2nd with fantastic poses full of energy and creativity. 

It felt good to be back to drawing Kathryn, and we focused on gestures to start.

I asked my students to use a soft medium like charcoal or pastels.  By turning the charcoal chunk on its side, we could capture large areas of mass rather than focusing directly on contour lines.

As we warmed up, we added a few select lines to our mass gestures.

Kathryn told a story from her childhood about collecting spring water in gallon jugs tied to each end of a pole and crossing a creek.  A flood had washed out the bridge so that all that was left were steel beams.  She said she and her siblings had to balance carefully as they crossed.

For her final mass & line gesture pose, Kathryn gave us this dramatic fall into the creek!

We moved on to 5-Line poses, simplifying each pose into 5 strokes.  It forced us to observe carefully before drawing.

Kathryn's skill as a model showed in the way she selected poses to create beautiful lines that suited the 5-Line format.

We finished up with longer poses.  The late morning sun shone in our east window, casting a lovely blue light behind Kathryn.  This only occurs around midsummer, so I made a point to draw it in with pastel.

We finished the class with a 30-minute pose reminiscent of Manet's Olympia.

Hiring a professional academic figure model to pose for your class provides depth and creative spark to inspire your students.