Osher Figure Drawing with Model Alexx

Model Alexx inspired me and my students on Friday morning with a series of gorgeous gesture poses.  

We began with six, one-minute poses.  I invited my students to group three drawings to a page.  I love how Alexx created varied poses that worked together as a set, and her inventiveness in incorporating a fan.

We moved onto to two minute poses, followed by a five-minute pose (photo at top).

It felt so freeing to draw pose after pose, falling into a flow state, and knowing that with a Sharpie, I couldn't go back and erase. It pushed me to be bold and respond directly to the curves and contours I saw.

For our final long pose (below), I began with a gesture done in vine charcoal, then wiped off the charcoal with a rag, leaving a ghost image of what I had drawn as a guide.  I finished the hour-long pose (broken into 25-minute segments with stretch breaks for Alexx) with my Sharpie.

One of my students, Cathleen, commented that each different medium we use creates different marks, moods, and image styles.  I agree, and I notice that each different medium expresses a different facet of us as artists.

So why not pick up a different medium than what you've been using, and make some sketches? Play around, and see what wants to be expressed within you.

Figure Drawing with Model Amelia

We've been fortunate in my Osher Figure Drawing class to have a different model each week.  Last week, model Amelia brought us fresh new poses, like the one above that she held for 3 minutes.  

In our gesture series, we focused on capturing the interior structure of Amelia's body with a light-colored pastel (yellow here) for the first minute.  For the remaining 2 minutes, we added mass, contours and shadows (purple).

Using complementary colors makes the gestures pop graphically, and expresses the interior-exterior tension in the form.

We practiced drawing hands and feet in this session by doing a 2-minute blind contour in one color -- looking only at our model and not at our paper while following contours (yellow). We used the remaining 8 minutes to draw in our usual style (purple).  

Blind contour drawing, while feeling out of control and uncomfortable, allows us to tune in directly to the contours and forms we are drawing.  I've noticed that my subsequent drawings contain more life -- even if my blind contour drawing look like a pile of messy lines.

We finished with a long drawing for the final hour of class with Amelia in a meditative pose.

Many thanks to Amelia for her elegant and lively poses!
 

Art for Self Care: Watercolors for Breakfast

I had planned this morning to have an art adventure before work took me away from the beauty of spring dawning in nature.  I grabbed my backpack & my morning tea, sat outside, and quickly spotted a scene I wanted to sketch.  

Approaching the grand landscape with a 3" x 5" postcard is a wonderful way to simplify, reduce expectations, and allow yourself to play.  And playing with watercolors is one of my favorite self-care practices.

My kitty Boo joined me at my picnic table in the sunshine.

Wishing you a happy spring full of artful self-care and connection with nature!

Osher Figure Drawing with Model Emily

We had a wonderful Osher class today with model Emily!  We began the class with five two-minute gesture poses, and I encouraged my students to draw rapidly, capturing interior structures as well as exterior contours. Emily gave us active, elegant poses to study.

We moved on to drawing the face using shadows primarily.  David set the camera to transmit a black-and-white image, and we started the first two minutes of the fifteen-minute pose with the camera de-focused. After two minutes, we sharpened the image a little, and after two more minutes, we sharpened the image to tack-sharp.  

This approach allowed us to really see the shadow shapes without getting caught up in trying to draw features, and it forced a technique artists often use in the studio in real life, intentionally blurring their vision.  

 We finished up with an hour-long pose (with breaks for Emily!).  Some students focused just on the portrait, and others drew the entire foreshortened pose.

Many thanks to model Emily for her elegant poses and rock-solid stillness!

Drawing Model Alexx

Recently, I had the good fortune to get to draw model Alexx, who modeled for the Pittsburgh Figure Drawing Meetup's live sessions prior to the pandemic.  She held beautiful poses.  Many thanks to Alexx for the inspiration!

Chiaroscuro with Model Shannon

 

With the number of Covid-19 cases in our area decreasing, we have been able to invite a different model out to my studio for Osher class each week.  Last Friday, we were fortunate to have model Shannon, who held strong, active gestural poses for us to warm up with.

I invited my students to sketch with their non-dominant hand on some of their gesture drawings to loosen up their work and break out of old habits. Even though it felt strange, I was pleased with the results in my drawings.

After gestures, we moved on to a 15-minute, cropped pose that focused on Shannon's muscular back & torso.

We finished up class with an hour-long pose, broken into 25-minute segments.  

We used bold, chiaroscuro lighting and took the subtractive approach to drawing her, starting with  vine charcoal rubbed over the drawing paper to lay in a mid-tone, and then lifting out areas of highlight with a kneaded eraser.  I sketched in a gesture with vine charcoal, then used compressed charcoal to finish my drawing and make it permanent.

Many thanks to model Shannon!

Art for Self-Care: Painting Trees

 

I sat outside on a gorgeous spring evening -- the Eastern Bluebirds warbling from this grand old Cucumber Tree.  I had been feeling anxious about an upcoming doctor's visit, and reached for my paints and brushes to ground & calm myself. 

Sketching the scene, connecting with the stalwart old tree and her new friend springing up among the raspberries tuned me into the essence of the tree -- her vitality, her strength and her ability to weather every storm.  Healing.

Of course, there was a moment at the outset when I felt like the painting would never work, and I'd end up with wasted paper, but I pushed through that.  I've learned that even if I create a painting I don't want to frame, I always learn something from immersing myself in creativity, and there's always some part of the painting I feel really happy about.

At the end, I did like this painting. And I felt so much calmer.  

And the doctor's visit the next day turned out fine -- better than I had imagined.

I find it helpful to have a stack of smaller pieces of watercolor paper that I can experiment with tucked into the backpack I tote my watercolors outdoors in.  I painted this scene on a 6" x 7-3/4" paper sample from St. Cuthberts Mill.  I bought a variety of watercolor paper samples with an order of other supplies.  Paper samples don't cost much, and they're freeing to create with.  

I hope you can find peace and grounding by sketching, painting or even just sitting with a friendly tree.  

Happy Spring!