With Gratitude to Our Osher Figure Drawing Models

In the late fall, I teach a figure drawing class for Osher at CMU.  Class recently concluded, and I have been reflecting on the inspiration my models bring to us. 

Every model brought a unique collection of gesture & long poses, each pose telling a story. 

One model shared with me that she was inspired by the full moon that had risen the night before, and as she held a standing, stretching pose, she pictured holding the moon in her arms. 

Her imagination crafted an elegant pose, and the artists could feel her creative energy uplifting us as we drew.

Our Osher models are performance artists, like dancers, yet their dance is stilled motion. 

I admire how our models are co-creators in our drawings.  Their imagination and hard work inspires our sketches and long drawings. 

Many thanks to all our models.  Their work is the foundation of our work.

My figure drawing class met weekly for 5 weeks.  I began class with a slide show for inspiration, and we moved on to gesture drawings to warm up.  Our model held a long pose of about an hour, and we drew with charcoal or pastels.  We finished each class with an art show, admiring the artists' works.

If you're interested in learning more about Osher at CMU, and how you can register for classes, you can learn more here: https://www.cmu.edu/osher/about/index.html

Happy Creating!

Figure Drawing with Model Selena

 We finished our Osher semester with model Selena and a focus on Dance and Movement.  We began with 6 x 2-minute gesture poses, grouping them together on our paper in 3's to represent 3 dancers in motion.

Selena gave us graceful, dancerly poses.

Next, we challenged ourselves with a 2-minute, continuous gesture. Selena moved slowly but constantly from one pose to another, and used a long, flowy piece of tulle to help express her movement.  

It was hard to try to complete one full gesture drawing of Selena in any pose, but we watched mindfully as we drew, and relied on our memory to complete each gesture.

Though the end drawing looks scribbly and imperfect, the process of drawing this continuous gesture sharpened our skills and exercised our visual memory.

We wrapped up our gestures with a 5-minute upside-down pose.

After a break, we moved on to the long drawing, beginning with a 4-minute sketch to determine how we wanted to lay out our final drawing.

I was glad I took the time to lay out my drawing, as I realized exactly where I wanted Selena's body to land on the page to give her space to look up, creating the composition I wanted.

Many thanks to model Selena for her beautiful poses and inspiration!

Storytelling with Model Elizabeth

Our Osher Figure Drawing class was fortunate to have model Elizabeth as our collaborator in artful storytelling in our most recent class.

We looked at the art of John William Waterhouse (1849-1917), a British Pre-Raphaelite painter whose artwork took myths, the poetry of Keats and stories of contemporary authors as their subjects.  His work was rich with detail and color.  We set out in class to tell our own stories with studies of Elizabeth's elegant poses.

We began with 2 minute gestures.

In each pose, I could imagine a story being told of picking fruit from an apple tree,

or of listening dreamily to a story being told.

Perhaps now she was reaching into a pond for a magical crystal.

Here, she seemed to be admiring a lover or watching the stars.

And now, she was being coy with her fan at a party.

We moved on to a long pose, and took the first 4 minutes to create a quick gesture of that pose to help us in composing our drawings.

Elizabeth held a silk rose to her breast and several more draped at her feet.

For my final drawing, I imagined Elizabeth dreaming of her true love in a rose garden, escaping the summer heat in a shady patch on tasselled brocade pillows.

Isn't it amazing how we can infer a story from another person's posture?  

Elizabeth's imagination and elegance swept the class away into a land of stories and creativity.

Many thanks to our inspiring model, Elizabeth!

Figure Drawing with Model Tiffany

We kicked off a new semester of figure drawing at the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at CMU with model Tiffany.

Her beautiful poses got us back into the flow of drawing with a series of gestures.

We began by turning our charcoals on their sides and drawing with big, swoopy marks and lines.

We changed to a more abstract approach, and created 5-line drawings, allowing ourselves only 5 lines to tell the story of Tiffany's pose.

Like a Haiku poem, the limitation of lines forced each artist to find the most expressive marks possible.

At first, my 5-line drawings felt inept and childish, but soon a flow took over, and I really liked this final one.

All of these gestures prepared us for a beautiful long pose.

Having an inspiring model makes all the difference in the world, and Tiffany's poses swept us away into the joy of drawing an expressive figure.  Many thanks to model Tiffany!

Osher Figure Drawing Class with Model Amelia

We kicked off another Osher at CMU Figure Drawing course with many gesture drawings of model Amelia.

We began with 5-Line drawings: allowing ourselves only 5 lines to describe each pose.  I find this creates abstract drawings, but gets our hands moving.

We turned our vine charcoals on their sides and created mass gesture drawings next, followed by mass gestures with lines added.

After a break, we finished up with a 1.5 hour long pose, taking breaks every 20 minutes.

It felt amazing to be back to figure drawing, especially with Amelia's creative poses and bright energy to inspire us.

Many thanks to model Amelia!

Osher Figure Drawing with Model Jamie

We had a new model last Friday in Osher Figure Drawing class named Jamie.  She's quite skilled and creative, and she helped us to sharpen our ability to draw foreshortening.

We started with two-minute continuous line drawings of Jamie's expressive gestures.  Her poses were alive and sensitive, and we could see her background as a dancer shining through in her movements.

We moved on to two-minute foreshortening gestures.  Our goals were to

1) Find a foreshortened limb to focus on.

2) Draw the bone structure underneath the foreshortened limb and supporting area, 

noticing the shortened appearance of the foreshortened bit.

3) Draw the outer body around the bones.

We built Jamie's foreshortened body from her skeleton up.

We were warmed up and ready to deal with more complexity.  Jamie took an hour-long pose, with breaks of course, and we delved into expressing her pose, foreshortening and all.

Many thanks to model Jamie. I could see the way her creativity inspired my students to draw lively, fresh compositions.

Osher Figure Drawing with Model Denise

 
My Osher Figure Drawing class had the good fortune to draw model Denise, a body builder and photographic art model who calls herself Artistic Physique.  

Denise held incredibly beautiful poses, and we were swept away trying to capture them with our charcoal. Above is my final drawing of her long pose. 

Many thanks to the amazing Denise for the inspiration of her amazing poses and strength.

Figure Drawing with Model Melissa

Recently, I had the opportunity to draw model Melissa, who created lovely poses, like this semi-reclining scene.  The diagonal lines, the artful use of a folding fan, and the beautiful shapes created within the pose, like her foreshortened thigh made this pose a delight to draw.  

Many thanks to model Melissa!