Trying Tonal Drawings

Last week in my Figure Drawing class, we studied how value creates depth in a drawing.  We saw how using just 4 values in your drawing, you can create a sense of dimension. 

Start with a quick line drawing, marking in areas of shadow.  

Choose 4 values: 

darkest darks, 

lighter shadows, 

mid-tones and 

highlights.  

Lay in the tones, using a light hand on the highlights -- they're easy to overdo.  Step back often to see the larger effect of your shadows. Finish by blending the tones and adding finishing touches.

You can see the 4 tones I used in the top left corner of the drawing below.  I used vine charcoal and white NuPastel on toned paper.

As much as I love line, I love the depth that values create.  

I hope you give this process a try! 

Happy Creating! 

Osher Figure Drawing: Cowgirl Rising

Recently, my Osher Lifelong Learning Institute class at CMU was fortunate to get to draw model Robin.  We took inspiration from artist Donna Howell-Sickles, who creates mixed media paintings of cowgirls.

Robin took on the role of Howell-Sickles' cowgirl in her poses, expressing pluck and strength.

My class experimented with using bold colors in our artworks, as Donna Howell-Sickles does in her paintings. And we practiced drawing a 4-minute gesture of Robin's long pose on newsprint before creating our final drawings on good paper.

Here are David's drawings, first the 4-minute gesture:

...and his final drawing:

I love how he used his red pastel to dramatic effect.  Using a color in more than one spot in your composition helps to connect the elements of the artwork, creating unity.

Many thanks to model Robin for an inspiring drawing session!

If you'd like to see more of Donna Howell-Sickles' art, check out her website here:

https://www.donnahowellsickles.com/

Happy Creating!

Figure Drawing with Model David

My Osher figure drawing class explored the realm of blind contour drawing with model David. 

We began each pose looking only at David as we drew, not at our papers.  We followed the contours of his expressive gestures with a colorful pastel on newsprint.

After 1 minute, we changed pastel colors, and continued to follow contours inside and outside of David's form, stealing quick glances for the last 2 minutes.

Within each blind contour drawing, we found real, alive lines, no matter how wonky the drawing looked overall.

We moved on to practicing drawing the feet, working from general to specific in a 15 minute study.

With Michelangelo's Statue of David in the news, it seemed fitting for David to inspire us with this 10-minute pose.

We finished with a reclining pose for the final hour.  Below is my quick sketch.

Many thanks to model David for a his creative, thought-provoking poses!

Figure Drawing with Model Denise

My Osher students & I were fortunate to have former natural bodybuilder and creative model, Denise pose for our class recently.  

She held physically strenuous and artful poses, like the one below, balanced in the center with arms and legs raised up in a V-shape.

After warming up with gestures, we moved on to practicing drawing Denise's face, using the subtractive method with vine charcoal.

Many thanks to the incomparable Denise for a wonderful class!

 

Figure Drawing with Model Amelia

 

We returned to the studio for Osher Figure Drawing with model Amelia who brought us creative, curving poses twisted in unusual ways.

We started the day with 5-line drawings, selecting 5 lines to tell the story of Amelia's 1-minute poses.

We moved on to mass gestures, adding weighted lines and shadows. 

We finished the morning with one long pose. 

Many thanks to Amelia for her fantastic poses!

Figure Drawing Update

The spring modeling and teaching season swept me away.  Here are a few recent figure drawings from Spring events. 

Model Emily inspired me and my Osher class with this long pose.  I laid in a ground of vine charcoal, then lifted out highlights and added vine charcoal shadows.

Cozy created inventive poses with her willowy form during an open studio session for the Pittsburgh Figure Drawing Meetup

I enjoyed Cozy's storytelling gestures.

Many thanks to models Emily & Cozy for their inspiration and creativity!

Osher Figure Drawing with Model Sophia

Friday, November 19th, we had a wonderful session with model Sophia.  An incredibly inventive and flexible model, Sophia created gesture poses that stretched our abilities and strengthened our drawing and observational skills.

During the gestures, I asked my students to spend the first minute of each three minute pose looking for the underlying structure of Sophia's body. We used one color for the structure, capturing Sophia's spine, her rib cage, her skull and other bones.  With two minutes remaining in the sketch, I called for a color change and we chose a contrasting color for the outer contours and shadows, building upon the armature we had laid down in the first minute.

Sophia's last pose was so abstract that it pushed our observation and drawing skills, and was a valuable workout.

All warmed up, we moved on to practicing drawing faces.  I demonstrated the process of finding the shape of a person's head, laying in the eye line about halfway down the face, drawing the eyes, and then measuring where the nose and lips fit in.  

We finished up with a long pose that incorporated our study of Sophia's face.  I used pastels on blue Canson Mi Teintes paper, and followed my intuition on color choices within Sophia's figure and in the negative space.

Many thanks to model Sohia for an amazing session full of inspiration and discovery!

Osher Figure Drawing with Models Kathryn & David

 

Our semester of Osher classes finished Friday with a fantastic duo modeling session.  Kathryn and David brought us beautifully interactive poses. We started with 2-minute gesture drawings focused on blind-drawing the negative space between and around Kathryn & David.

When you draw two models at once, the complexity can be overwhelming.  Looking at negative spaces provides an entry point to simplify the process and get you warmed up.

We moved on to 5-minute gesture drawings focused on capturing the two figures in action.  Each pose told a story, expressed emotion, and caught us artists up in the excitement of capturing all we could on paper.

We finished with a lovely tableau for about an hour and a half (with model breaks).  

As an artist, you never know which days you will feel "on" and which days your drawings will fall flat. Friday's class was one of those magical days when the models brought an inspiring performance, and my art came alive.  I still have the drawings propped in my studio for admiration.

Many thanks to Kathryn & David for this amazing session!