Renee Draws

the photos for all these posts will go up in the next few days

2010-05-31T18:16:00.003-04:00

bear with me, people!

Pigeon: Thompson, May 10-28

2010-05-31T18:15:00.000-04:00

Ohhh, this picture. Just shoot me, somebody. But the model is amaaaaazing.

Blane: McK, May 17-May 28

2010-05-31T18:10:00.001-04:00

the 1st picture has electric light coming in from the left, the 2nd version only has daylight (from the right)

oil on panel
oil on canvas

Maria and Cesar: McK, May 3-14

2010-05-14T18:12:00.001-04:00

Dante: McK, April 19-30

2010-04-30T18:28:00.000-04:00

Daria: Thompson, April 19-30

2010-04-30T18:19:00.001-04:00

The model later asked me, why am I all yellow? Exactly. What in the world am I doing? She's my favorite model right now.

Krista & Raven: McK, April 5-16

2010-04-16T18:30:00.001-04:00

Czertan: McK, March?

2010-03-20T18:32:00.000-04:00

Maria D: McK, Feb (3wks)

2010-03-05T18:32:00.002-05:00

?: McK, Jan 22

2010-01-22T18:05:00.000-05:00

oil on panel

Marshall: McK, Jan 15

2010-01-15T17:56:00.000-05:00

12x12, oil on canvas

12x16, oil on panel

self portrait

2009-12-25T17:59:00.002-05:00

yikes

Dante: McK, Dec 25?

2009-12-24T18:42:00.000-05:00

Raven: ASL, Dec 18

2009-12-18T17:44:00.000-05:00

oil on canvas

odalisque: ASL, Dec ?

2009-12-11T17:30:00.012-05:00

color study for a bigger painting that never happened. oil on panel, 9x12

Sean: ASL, Dec 4

2009-12-04T17:26:00.000-05:00

oil on panel, 12x16

Sean: ASL, Dec 2

2009-12-02T17:19:00.000-05:00

oil on panel, 12x16

Sean: ASL, Nov 24 (in progress)

2009-11-24T17:01:00.002-05:00

Candace: ASL, Nov 20

2009-11-20T16:51:00.016-05:00

I liked the initial sketch okay except for the nose. It turned out alright until the last 40 minutes, when I redrew everything and screwed it all up. That's pretty much my preferred working method.

12x12, oil on canvas

Candace: ASL, Nov 13

2009-11-13T16:39:00.002-05:00

Candace! Her skin is incredible, luminescent, perfect.

12x16, oil on panel

Tre: ASL, Nov 6

2009-11-06T16:15:00.031-05:00

This is the biggest canvas I've ever painted on--24"x30". It made me a little nervous, but I was so glad that my instructor (MB McKenzie) finally said I could give up on the 1- and 2-day small starts. Finally, a change! That was 6 long months, folks. I wasn't sure if I was ready, but I was ready to be ready.

24x30, oil on canvas

Tre: ASL, Oct 30

2009-10-30T16:13:00.001-04:00

Hey, hey hey! Tom says this picture reminds him of Fat Albert, and I agree.

12x16, oil on panel

Tre: Art Students' League Oct 27

2009-10-27T15:16:00.002-04:00

oil on canvas pad, 9x12

It's not really finished, but I'm quitting on this right here, I think.

The photo's colors aren't very close to the painting's--nobody cares, right?

Tre: Art Students' League Oct 26

2009-10-26T15:00:00.013-04:00

Getting started:

oil on canvas pad, 9x12

Rustam K: Art Students League, Oct 12-23

2009-10-23T15:31:00.007-04:00

Can you believe this guy? Who looks like this? In real life, I mean? I have to do some sit-ups.

in chronological order, as well as order of increasing proficiency (horrible-->terrible):

oil on junk canvas board, 18x24

oil on canvas paper, 16x20

oil on panel, 16x12

oil on loose canvas, 9x12

oil on panel, 16x12
I ruined the nose and had to wipe it off and start over during the last 15 minute pose. WHY?!?

another Russ In Progress

2009-10-23T14:52:00.002-04:00

here's the last one from Friday morning. I like the beginnings better than the endings.

ASL--Russ, in progress

2009-10-20T18:07:00.008-04:00

Instead of updating this entire blog today, I'm posting a few photos of 3 different half-made pictures from the last 2 days.

These are all made the same quick-and-dirty way:
1) Mix white + black + yellow ochre --> a medium warm gray. Thin with Turpenoid and doodle in the drawing. Wipe it off with Turpenoid, redraw, wipe, measure, redraw, give up. I really enjoy this first drawing phase.

2) I jump straight to this step because I enjoy it so much: mix up a color to match the face in shadow. It's often a combination of yellow ochre + cadmium red + ultramarine blue. I try and get the value right, but usually I veer too dark. Scrub it in with a dry brush. If all goes well, there should be an interesting shadow pattern at this point.

3) Backgrounds! They're simple, and it's usually a simple matter to match these colors exactly right. Once they're laid down, I can finally see if I'm getting the other, more confusing colors right (relative to the background).
The other great thing about mixing up the background color here is that I can use it to fix the drawing--trim in the head and figure because I'll have made them too wide, concentrate on the negative shapes... I have a big brush for this and it goes so fast.

4) Paint in the blacks and darkest shadows with a dry brush, redrawing and remeasuring against the model as I go.

5) Start mixing up the medium-dark and medium-light colors. GO CRAZY.
I don't know why the midtones are so hard for me, but they really drive me nuts. I always want to jump ahead to the lighter colors, which are fun again.

I'll put up photos of the finished versions later when I bring home the dry paintings. You'll be able to see that they end up looking a lot different than they start out--I have to keep fixing the drawing up until the very end. Please enjoy the very, very unfixed versions below.

Meet Russ the Cirque du Soleil acrobat. He does the trampoline board. This is his first art modeling job.
this is on canvas paper, 16x20

this one is on panel, which is a smooth, non-absorbent surface. You can see how the paint goes on a lot more streaky here than on canvas.

This is a little start on 8x10 loose cotton canvas taped into a pad.

This last photo shows where I stopped in the studio today.

Cat, Jordan, Monica: Art Students League Oct 5-9

2009-10-09T15:20:00.004-04:00

Cat (Catriona, I think) and Monica are both actresses. Jordan did a nice one-day pose midweek.

Cat--canvas paper, 16x20

Jordan--canvas paper, 16x20

Monica--loose canvas, 9x12

Monica--canvas paper, 16x20

Cat & Monica -- Exercises - ASL Sep 29 - Oct 2

2009-10-02T15:15:00.004-04:00

The dreaded one-day exercises! Remember these?
9x12 loose canvas pad, all

Tues--simplified shapes (Cat)

Weds--use palette knives only, no brushes (Cat)

Thurs--model posed behind us (memory drawing/painting) (Monica)

friday--paint and mix colors with left hand only (Cat)

Leticia & Esteban - Art Students League Sep 7 - 25

2009-09-25T15:03:00.005-04:00

oil on panel, 12x16
Midtones on the arm--those @*&%$-ing MIDTONES!! How do you make colors that look dark and light at the same time? Not like this.
But this is the version that the models liked the best. Weird.

oil on panel, 16x20
I fiddled with her face and lost the likeness in the last 10 minutes I worked on this, and then I stopped working on it

oil on panel, 12x16
I think this was one of my better compositions. I like how he was standing--with his long arm relaxed and his shoulders torqued--so much. The panel was making me a little nuts that day and I switched to canvas

oil on cotton duck canvas, 16x20

central park--sheep's meadow

2009-09-06T14:57:00.005-04:00

oil on panel, 9x12
No class for a few weeks and I thought I would paint outside everyday. I didn't. Tim Dosé let me tag along one day & I started this little painting. We're looking north toward the Dakota. I need to put in the people. The little people.

I think this painting is cute.

Stephanie - Art Students League Aug 10-21

2009-08-21T17:45:00.008-04:00

I'd love to paint Stephanie again sometime. Her friend, Tom, posed on the other side of the room. During the last of these 2 weeks, they entered an online contest to design the funniest (most terrifying) golf outfit, and Tom won! The prize was a new PSP. I have a link to Tom's appalling kilt get-up somewhere.

oil on canvas paper, 16x20

oil on cheap canvas board, 16x16
I wish I had done this one on nicer material.
I often like how the square pictures turn out.oil on canvas paper, 16x20

oil on panel , 9x12

oil on panel, 12x16

oil on panel , 9x12

Mitch -- ASL Aug 3 - 7

2009-08-06T00:44:00.007-04:00

oil, 16x20 canvas paper

I got a little bored making so many pictures of Donna, so for the second week of the pose, I've traded for a place facing the other model. I haven't accomplished much so far.

Here's what the studio looks like without artists or models:

Donna -- ASL Figure Painting: July 27 - 31

2009-07-31T00:14:00.004-04:00

I like to paint Donna--she smiles a little while she's posing. It makes me wonder what she's thinking about.

16x20 canvas paper
18x24 canvas board

18x24 canvas board

16x12 oil on panel

So far, my 3 favorite pictures have been the 3 I've tried on panel.

ASL Figure Painting: July 21-24

2009-07-24T23:04:00.003-04:00

We lost a day when our model got sick and didn't turn up. Luckily, the replacement model was great and took the same pose for the rest of this second week of the pose.

I traded places with a friend and painted the model from the other side:

oil, 16x20 canvas board

And here I am back at the same easel where I did those other purple portraits from last week. Even with a different model, it really helps to have drawn the head a few times before in this same position.

There is a prettier painting underneath this one. Somebody in my class was a little bothered by how much I screwed it up a perfectly nice picture with all the patchiness on top of her skin. Well, people, I'm still learning here. It's going to happen more often than not.

oil, 9x12 canvas board

ASL Figure Painting: July 17

2009-07-17T23:52:00.001-04:00

I think this is one of my favorite pictures. For me, this is the best likeness. Also, I like the way the paint surface looks over panel (vs cotton duck canvas). I started it near the end of class so I didn't have a chance to screw it up too much.

I've had trouble taking pictures of these paintings. For example, the painting above should be colored more like the picture below--any advice out there on how to make it happen without flash spots? Photographing purples is terrible. Worse than trying to mix them, even.

8x10, oil on panel

ASL Figure Painting: July 13-17

2009-07-17T23:35:00.000-04:00

oil, 12x16 canvas board

oil, 14x18 canvas board
Trying out a lot of things here that didn't work at all!

oil on canvas board, 12x16
This is a terrible painting but I kind of like it. It's humble, or something. Or just bad. And needs friends.

Helena--ASL Figure Painting: July 6 - 10

2009-07-10T23:25:00.003-04:00

I think this one is a little better than the last. I need to remove that dark line under her chin.

Can't believe I've been doing this for more than a month already! I like painting in the mornings a lot. It's not time that I'd otherwise use wisely.

12x12, oil on panel

Helena--ASL Figure Painting: June 29 - Jul 3

2009-07-03T23:14:00.001-04:00

oil, 11x14 cotton duck canvas

Karina -- ASL Figure Painting: June 22 - 26

2009-06-26T22:54:00.003-04:00

Same model as below. This picture took me a week. A lot of that week was spent staring blankly. When I got tired of that, I liked to mix up the wrong paint colors, scrape them off my palette, and start over mixing more of the wrong colors.

I probably should have started a new painting at day 2. I'm going to try to be more disciplined about doing new paintings every day instead of continuing to fiddle with the old.

There aren't many beginners in our class. Mary Beth told me and the few others that the best thing we could do for ourselves would be to work on "starts" rather than finishing paintings. It's hard to make yourself quit and start something new.

oil, 16x20 cotton duck canvas

yuck -- ASL Figure Painting: June 15 - 26 [Karina, Karina, Maria, Maria]

2009-06-19T22:32:00.003-04:00

The model poses change every 2 wks, so in this, our 3rd wk of the session, we're into our second set of models/poses.

In the first week, we did a series of 4 one-day studies.
We're supposed to direct special attention to getting the colors right.

1. Abstraction to simpler geometric shapes.
2. Application of paint with palette knife only, no brushes. (Isn't it interesting how much shinier this makes the paint?)
3. Memory painting of model seated directly behind us, or out of line-of-sight.
4. Non-dominant hand--for me, left hand only to mix and apply paint. It drove me crazy.

I really, really didn't want to post these but, by this point, it seems unscientific not to! So, for the sake of science...

oil on 9x12 canvas pad.

Tyrone--ASL Figure Painting: June 1 - 12

2009-06-05T22:08:00.007-04:00

I've started attending a figure painting studio session at the Art Students League. My instructor, Mary Beth McKenzie, talks to us individually for a few minutes 2x per week. She is generous and insanely good at both painting and teaching, but the class format leaves me unsupervised longer than I'm used to and I've been screwing up my paintings a lot more now! These screw-ups are all good, necessary steps toward maturity, I think.

That's the pep talk I use to I cheer myself up and steel myself up for more of this!

Mary Beth persuaded me to give up on this one and start anew. Good advice.

So, same model, same pose:

I spent most of these 2 weeks mixing colors I never used. I learned how to make a lot of colors. GRAAAA!!!

This model's skin tone is made with viridian green + cadmium red, which yields a startlingly rich brown or purple, depending. I also learned to push around a rich color that starts with black + cadmium red + cadmium yellow. I think whatever that's called is going to be one of my new favorite colors.

oil on cotton duck canvas, both 16x20

Portraits II: Homework Assignments

2009-05-07T21:45:00.002-04:00

Miniature Self-Portrait. (from passport photo)
I realize it doesn't look like me.
Last semester's version was so much worse! I think I may have thrown it away in disgust.
This one almost killed me. I didn't have the right brushes and the one I bought was still too big. I ended up using flat toothpicks. Toothpicks make terrible brushes for oil paintings, by the way.
oil, 2x2 on wood

Life-Size Lips assignment--from a magazine photo
oil, 4x5 canvas board

Life-Size Nose assignment. Yes, it's my nose.
oil, 4x5 canvas board
This poor little painting--it's darkish greenish brownish because I tried to speed up the drying time by baking it in the oven. Bad idea! It darkened all the colors and made it smell like toasted linseed oil. I won't be doing that again.

last semester's Life-Size Nose assignment. Yes, it's my nose again.
oil, 4x5 canvas board

Life-Size Eye (from magazine image)
oil, 4x5 canvas board

Group Portrait assignment--from People Magazine photo
oil, 6x8 canvas board

Portraits II: #5

2009-04-30T21:33:00.002-04:00

She was the greatest model we've had yet! She kept herself so still yet somehow maintained the intensity of her expression. I wish this painting had turned out better because I really enjoyed painting her. This was one of those pictures I screwed up at the end and couldn't manage to fix in time. She was so pretty.

When I turn the picture sideways or upside down, I can see the features apart from the whole, and I can remember what I really liked about parts of this painting while I was making it. When I step back and look at the whole, I wonder what I was thinking.

She's holding a Union Jack umbrella. I got tired of fixing the stripes as the umbrella shifted, so that's why they're gestured in on top of the previous attempts.

oil on 16x20 cotton duck canvas

New York Academy of Art--Figure Painting

2009-04-22T20:45:00.004-04:00

Unfinished painting--

I've been having so much fun painting this semester that I signed up for a Wednesday night 6-wk Continuing Ed painting class at the New York Academy of Art. Yikes--those artists are For REAL. More than half the class had MFAs! Geez--here I've been congratulating myself when what I draw looks like a person. So I took down a lot of notes and tried to keep up.

My teacher was John Wellington. He teaches a style of painting more in the Academic tradition--think Prud'hon, Velasquez, Ingres.... Think underpainting! Think the opposite of everything I've done so far! Think careful and tidy! I thought the opposition to my natural tendencies would be a good challenge.

I'm both impatient and slow, so this approach was pretty much guaranteed to drive me nuts, but I liked learning it a lot.

Because I like to glop paint on so thickly that the underlying layers of paint never show through, I had to change everything I did. I learned a lot. This painting started with a warm brown-red wash, then a semi-transparent grisille--the monochromatic painting/drawing of the model in cool Viridian green. Then a semi-transparent pinkish glaze on top of that for the flesh tone, but, as you can see in the extended arm or the belly area of the portrait above, you have to let the green underneath show through!

It's all in blending the edges.

Which is to say, it's all in the materials. I learned how to use medium, what round badger brushes are good for, and the amazing difference that expensive paints can make in this kind of painting. Also, I learned the cheap cotton duck canvases I've been using are crap. This painting is on portrait linen, and it was very very nice and smooth to work on. I can't afford to make it a habit yet. I may try painting on gessoed paper--it's cheaper and I learned how to prepare it in this class.

Portraits II: #4

2009-04-09T20:15:00.002-04:00

She's wearing a vest made of purple fur--zowee!

Still trying hard to pay attention. I think it's helping. A lot. I felt like the underlying sketch drew itself, it seemed so clear where I should put the next lines. The model had a certain way of sitting and presenting herself and I felt like I got lucky with representing that inner part. The likeness is pretty good too--I mean, for me.

(I'm really excited when it looks like the person. I do understand that this is the bare minimum base-level expectation most people have for portraits, but it still seems like an unexpected miracle when it happens for me.)

I'm happier with the drawing component of this portrait than with the painterly aspects. There's not a lot of volume. But then I also like flatness of the paint in the arms.... There's just a lot more I wanted to do in the face. I got distracted by the background. The chroma was too high. I'd painted it pure cadmium red, which resembles red-orange nail polish. Love the color but it made the background jump in front of the central figure. I toned it down with an entire mini-tube of magenta on top. I was really happy at the time with how closely the red background ended up matching the real-life red backdrop, but now I wish I'd divided those 3 hours over the rest of the painting.

Portraits II: #3

2009-03-26T20:01:00.004-04:00

Another great model. I think he told me that he's recently retired and started a second career as an artist's model, and this was one of his first jobs.

You might not be able to tell from this painting, but I've started to feel like I've turned a corner with this painting and the last one. The drawing is coming a lot easier. I'm starting to be able to get a pretty good likeness without so many initial wrong turns, and the model liked this painting, which made me overly pleased with myself.

I think I'm doing better work because I'm concentrating harder. Up until this painting, I've done mostly joyriding with a paintbrush in hand and then tried to fix up the worst mistakes. I've switched my working method over to telling myself "Pay Attention! Pay attention. Pay Attention!" and have tried to be more deliberate.

Portraits II: #2

2009-02-26T19:45:00.005-05:00

Great model--I love the Manic Panic hair. She's a burlesque dancer under the stage name Dirty Martini, which surprised me only because she seems so petite. Really petite. I don't understand how her professional photographs make her look so zaftig.

I don't think I got a very good likeness--lost it in the eyes and couldn't fix it before we had to stop--but the longer it hangs drying on my wall, the more I like the look.

Portraits II: #1

2009-02-12T19:42:00.000-05:00

I don't like this one at all.

Surprise! I finally put in the pictures for painting class

2009-02-08T03:52:00.002-05:00

Soon I'll take some pictures of all the stuff I made in the collage class and fill in the gaps in this blog. I don't know exactly when I'll do this, but probably when I'm supposed to be doing something else.

Portraits - Eleven/Twelve: #6 Grand Inquisitor? Star Trek?

2008-12-11T23:31:00.007-05:00

This is the last one!
We're back to my least favorite thing, 'lighting from below,' but this time there's a spooky red filter over the lamp. Our teacher gave us a big hint--the red parts will look like they're reflecting red light only if all the rest of the painting is made darker. So we just adjusted all the other paint colors down a few steps darker from real life. This is the first time he made us paint something different from what we could actually see. Pretending it's a little bit darker isn't that hard, but it felt like an uphill jog. My brain is even more out-of-shape than the rest of me.

Portraits - Nine/Ten: #5

2008-11-20T23:17:00.000-05:00

We were required to include the hands this time, and the background got a little crazier (child's patterned bedsheet--those are toy cars). Also he never put his hand back in the same place twice. Too bad I can't blame the tiny weird ear problem on him. I didn't notice what was going on up there until we were leaving.

Portraits - Eight: #4 greenie queenie

2008-11-06T22:11:00.001-05:00

Portraits - Seven: #4 wk 1

2008-10-30T22:58:00.003-04:00

I'm not sure if I have a photo from day 1 of this painting. If I knew where one was, I wouldn't try to substitute yet another "word-picture." Enjoy! This is the best blog!
The model is a short, roundish middle-aged woman with long, thin hair and glasses. She is my favorite model so far because she holds herself very still and resumes the exact same position after her breaks. She had been asked to come up with a theatrical or dramatic pose, so she brought a cane along--she took her seat as if it were a throne, and rested her hands on the cane as though it were a scepter, and she did a Queen Victoria moue thing with her mouth.

Drawing - Six:

2008-10-28T22:53:00.000-04:00

Drawing NYC - Four:

2008-10-27T22:50:00.000-04:00

Portraits - Six: Third One

2008-10-23T21:56:00.004-04:00

This is Week 2 for the painting described below (last wk).

I forgot to write down her name. It doesn't really look like her anyway.

Drawing - Five:

2008-10-21T21:52:00.000-04:00

Drawing NYC - Three:

2008-10-20T22:49:00.000-04:00

Portraits - Five: "warm underpainting" homework + starting portrait 3

2008-10-16T21:54:00.002-04:00

I think I took a snapshot of this, maybe on my phone. So photo TK, maybe. I don't know where I put the homework. Some blog, huh?

Here's what you missed so far: the model is seated on a platform slightly above us. She is pretty. She is lit from below. It is already too hard and I want to stop and go home. She has a prominent nose and chin, so they cast shadows upward on her face. I should've pushed the Toulouse-Lautrec-ishness, but I'm more at the slavish copying-stage of my artistic development, and I let the competing fluorescent lighting on my side of the room cancel out most of those shadows and sap out the drama. That's also what the bright white reflections around her cheekbone are supposed to be about. No, those aren't whiskers, they're what remain of the dramatic footlights! Same thing with the uni-brow. See you next wk.

Drawing - Four:

2008-10-14T21:51:00.000-04:00

Drawing NYC: No Class

2008-10-13T21:48:00.001-04:00

Happy Columbus Day!

Portraits: No Class

2008-10-09T19:40:00.000-04:00

Yom Kippur!

Drawing - Three:

2008-10-07T23:47:00.000-04:00

Drawing NYC - Two: Cancelled!!

2008-10-06T21:39:00.002-04:00

I waited at Grand Central for a little while, then I went home.

Portraits - Four: Painting #2 "Rich"

2008-10-05T18:20:00.008-04:00

I learned the model's name this time.
His hair is actually black and his lips are very red, but I'm not slick enough to handle all that without making it look like eyebrow liner and lipstick. I wiped it off and made everything light brownish. Cop out.

I spent most of my painting time on the nose and eyes--I didn't get back to finishing a lot of what I'd hoped to do, but the nose really needed the work. Our nose painting homework from last week helped a lot, but I still had trouble figuring out what I was seeing from 20 ft away. At the end of the night, my teacher walked by and said, "there's a dark red line running here 1/4 inch along the inside line of the nose--can you see it?" He scumbled it in for me, and then said, "and there's a light blue line just to the left of the red, along the edge of the nose, and to the other side of the red line, there are about 6 shades of flesh that make the curve of the bridge down to the cheek. Can't you see them on the model?" I stared and stared and stared and I couldn't see anything like he was describing, but then between one blink and the next--I'm either the most suggestible person in the world, or I had been the most oblivious--the colors on his nose transformed into a light blue line edge, followed by a dark red line that hadn't been there a second ago, and then the various light oranges and pinks. Weird. So that's how you paint a nose.

Drawing: No Class

2008-09-30T18:38:00.001-04:00

Still Rosh Hashanah, so no drawing class. Shanah Tovah!

Drawing NYC: No Class

2008-09-29T18:37:00.001-04:00

happy Rosh Hashanah

Portraits - Three: new 2wk painting; my nose

2008-09-25T23:37:00.005-04:00

Our homework for the week was to paint our noses at 2x life size, looking slightly from the side and underneath. I learned more about the colors and shapes of my nose than I wanted to. The painting needs more darks--I don't know why it's still so hard for me to see those. I thought I was really exaggerating both the high chroma on the bridge and the darkness of the reds, but no. (4x5):

[photo tk]

Our new model is called Rich and he holds his head very still. That is very good news for me--drawing is hard enough already when just I'm trying to copy what I see.

The best thing I did tonight was the 10 minute under-painted sketch in dark brown oil+turpentine. It looked like him! I have no photographic evidence.

The work went a lot faster this week. I got some version of all his features on the canvas and then spent the last hour working on all the colors in his cheek.

It's getting easier to mix the colors I want so I'm able to spend more time painting, less time mixing and remixing. I finally figured out some uncomplicated 'recipes' for skin tones and I've been able to cut down my working palette to just 15 tubes of paint.
What I learned:
1. Get real cadmium red, not cad red hue, because that's the only way you'll get juicy red-orange for noses and cheeks.
2. I'm using some old cad yellow hue for now, but for mixing oranges, it works much better than my other yellows with prettier-sounding names.
3. Yellow ocher + white + whatever else is on the palette makes a good enough yellowy, ivory light skin tone.
4. Make warm and cool pinks and light flesh colors by adding white to couple of earth reds--I'm screwing around with Indian Red for cooler pinks and Terra Rosa for the warmer. I'm trying Venetian Red too. What a blessed relief to arrive in the general ballpark after 15 seconds of mixing instead of 15 minutes. Is this why my teacher didn't give us instructions on using specific pigments on our palettes? So that it would feel like a miracle when we finally figured things out for ourselves? It worked on me. I'm very very very grateful to these colors every time I mix paint now.

Drawing - Two: Collage

2008-09-23T22:35:00.005-04:00

The conceit of this exercise is that it's an aerial landscape viewed from 1000 feet above. We're supposed to ignore fussy details in favor of composition/patterning. Not that I really understand what's going on!

We took one of our own keys and drew it, rotated the paper one turn and drew the key again, rotated the paper another turn and redrew the key, and so on.

Then we glued on junk and colored it! It's art, yo.

My teacher gathers detritus from the streets every single day. Every day. He says he has about 500 baggies full right now. Like whoa. And wow. He uses the storage baggie size and stuffs in all the day's treasures. He told me that he has zero personal interaction with anybody on the streets because his eyes are constantly scanning the ground. Lucky me. The stuff that was in my bag was SO GOOD. I flipped for that card tag with the string attached and had a "my precious, precious" moment. When he saw what I'd grabbed up, my teacher said that when he first saw the tag on the ground, he nearly had a stroke. That is the appropriate response.

Here are some of the baggie's contents scattered around me while I'm deciding what to glue on.

Drawing NYC - One: Chelsea Market

2008-09-22T21:51:00.017-04:00

Some tourists from California told me what they thought I should draw, so I complied. Good thing, too, because they came back later to make sure I was drawing what they said I should.

I asked them why they were tourist-ing--'touring' doesn't feel right either--through Chelsea Market of all places and they said they saw it mentioned on the Food Channel. Maybe the Food Channel should be more responsible abt where they're steering hapless tourists? And they didn't realize that the Food Channel studios were located at the end of this hallway--score. Right? Rachel?

Everyone talked to me tonight. Eight people? Holding a blank sketchboard is like walking a dog--immediately all of New York is your talking buddy.

I HAVE A SERIOUS PROBLEM CONTROLLING THE VEERING 'STRAIGHT' LINE!

Look at anything I've drawn that has a floor, a straight wall, or any attempt at perspective. I always bend away.
It's not like I'm just realizing this just now, but I've never been more annoyed about it. I thought it would work itself out as I got more motor control, but, if anything, it's getting worse. What makes it even dumber is that in every drawing, I'm actually trying to be tidier and to draw straighter lines. This is me trying! And watching, and deliberating. And thinking, "this drawing is a mess, but at least I totally nailed that one straight line in that one segment of the wall!" That's the easy part of drawing that I think I can do. It's not until 20 mins after I'm finished that I realize, "oh no the floor is curling/the wall creeping/the post doesn't line up with itself."

I think that this is one of my problems: I have trouble seeing the drawing as an entity apart from whatever I'm drawing. I'm thinking, "is this what I'm seeing?" instead of "does this picture look cool and are the big lines all squared and straight?" I think I'm stopping to look at the whole picture-in-progress, but I'm not--I'm still seeing the separate segments and then glancing up to check them against life. Segments of it, actually, because I can't see the big picture out of the corner of my eyes, and I'm shifting to take it in. That's the main problem--I, like everybody, move my head when I look at the world. It's the same viewing pattern as for the page--I look at in pieces of the setting around me and focus on the parts until I can assemble some mental patchwork event for what I think I'm seeing. When I start to scan things further from or closer to me, I shift my head, maybe turn my shoulders, and--oops I just shifted the perspective lines again and don't realize it. But it's exactly what I see! Kind of. If you add 'time' to space. But the spatial relationships I'm paying attention to for measurements and proportions actually do match up! And for the dumbest reason! Because, unlike a camera, my version of the seeing involves stupidly torquing myself around to better see whatever's around. Good effort measuring and double-checking, but you forgot something. Surprise, I drew another torqued roof lifting off.

If I were doing this on purpose, I'd say that I'm drawing a montage of sequential moments. It's filmic! Too bad it's not on purpose. And, despite my multi-paragraph apologia for bent lines, I'd still rather be able to draw a straight line, and I'm noticing that nobody else seems to have this problem, so everybody else handles the situation fine.

Am I going to have to carry around a straight edge? [but that would be cumbersome, although, yes, I'm already hauling around the giant sketchboard and the bag of pencils and charcoal and a few extra books to read in case I get trapped somewhere...]
Or would it make more sense to get an iPhone for the camera and take a few seconds now and then to compare the progression of my drawing against my iPhotos and, when nec., deploy the side of the iPhone as a straight edge

Also: we are supposed to always draw a frame around the page before we start drawing, and I can't draw those straight either. It looks like I do them with my eyes closed, but I give my best effort to not wobble. How do sign painters do it?! Can this be learned?

Second drawing, 20 mins, looking the other direction.
The two security guards along the back wall are 10 feet tall because I started drawing from their heads down, and when I finished, they were floating. Unfortunately, I'd already drawn in the floor. I had to stretch them into giants so that their feet would touch ground. If it mattered more, I'd erase them completely. I don't like them. I prefer the guy on the far left drinking a juicebox.

My favorite part in both drawings is the unsullied white space.

Sighted! Non-celebrity NY1 anchor Lewis Dodley, leaving elevator! This is one of the finest sightings evurr, inclu Gossip Girl Jenny this summer. I love NY1. If it were Pat K, I might've made a pest of myself to thank him. For the news.

Love those shiny industrial floors. They make me want to move in. Is there anything more appealing than sealed concrete? I esp like the old lumber and the cracks showing through.

Portraits - Two: First Painting

2008-09-18T22:30:00.004-04:00

I spent most of my time in front of the model mixing paints, not painting. It's hard to get the knack! I was mixing, like, 12 colors each time trying to get a basic usable orange or pink. Obviously I'm doing it wrong.

Drawing - One: Continuous Line Portraits, Redux

2008-09-15T22:22:00.008-04:00

I did some like these before.

This model had astonishing hair. He's slouching toward me with his hands resting up on the bench. The wonky shapes behind him are easels piled up against the back wall. They look more like crazy apartment building silhouettes, don't they?

Two people from my class. The white tape is where I was too lazy to erase.

Portraits - One: 99 Problems

2008-09-11T22:10:00.007-04:00

All my teacher said abt it was, "her neck is too orange." It's too bad that orange is the only color I know how to make.
The part where she looks like a flesh-eating zombie also bothers me a little.
I had huge problems just mixing paint. As you can see. Anyway, I hope next week I'll be able to spend less time mixing and more time painting over this.
I wouldn't normally post a photo of a work-in-progress, but you must admit this is a sad piece of horrible-ness, and I can't stop staring.

I'm watching From G's to Gents as I type this, and thinking: me and the Gs--we're all wayyy out of our depths

Drawing Class - Bonus Track: St. Patrick's Cathedral

2008-01-02T20:53:00.021-05:00

Top, top quality camera phone again. I'm starting to like the greenish cast of the phone's pictures--good thing, too, because my the toy camera on my phone is turning into my primary photo supplier. Pathetic laziness.

It takes the very crummiest photos, but I'm using it almost non-stop. The ease outweighs the picture quality, until I look at the pictures. An iPhone would fix so much of my life. I'd settle for a better camera tucked inside my current phone [which I'm still fond of], or a small, light camera that always stayed charged in my bag.

I remember this night was freezing cold, so sharp and empty when you tried to breathe that the night seemed nearly airless. It was the best night for walking through the new year. Finally, a vacant hour and the expectation of a thousand like it! It seemed like the bare atmosphere barred regrets, like the accumulated weight of the past years couldn't chase me here through the dark thin nothing. Forward! Hope! That's the part I love about brutal January, esp at nighttime.

That came out florid and purple-y. I was shooting for technical-sounding. Oh who cares happy new year.

* * *

Two best memories from tonight:
1. There's a deli just north of St Pat's where I bought a grilled cheese sandwich during a break. The man who made it for me said, "It turned out PERFECT!"

2. My teacher said that what he liked about my drawing is it makes you wonder, "Am I in Heaven? or HELL?"
That's funny. Admit it. I thought it was so funny that I've pinned this drawing up on my bedroom wall for a reminder. I didn't even like this drawing before then.

No class this week--Happy Holidays!

2007-12-26T13:25:00.000-05:00

But meet me back here in a week when I'll show you how I tried to draw St Pat's Cathedral with charcoal.
Our teacher is real, real nice. He can't seem to stop himself from teaching. Our semester ended officially weeks ago.

I think I'm going to sign up for another of these drawing classes next semester but I'm not yet sure what to choose, or if I should do it. It seems wrong to spend part of the week drawing and being happy when I could instead spend those same hours writing and feeling nauseous and depressed.

Drawing Class - Week 12: Charcoal; "Jessie" in a dozen poses

2007-12-19T23:42:00.001-05:00

Jessie was by far the best model we've ever had.

I've been hating everything I've drawn for weeks and weeks, but I don't hate drawing. I'm not sure why that would be, but I picked a good hobby. I wouldn't have nearly so much fun were I faced with the excruciating results of trying to play the piano or cook or garden. The point of doing most other things is that you enjoy the pleasant results of your skills & I am not patient. Drawing seems more to me like dancing at parties, which I like a lot, even though I'm not good at it and I know that.

Drawing Class - Week 11: Charcoal Sketches, 10 mins or less

2007-12-12T23:40:00.000-05:00

that central figure (above) is pretty awesome because my teacher drew it, not me.

I don't feel like talking about the drawings.
The young man is Kevin.

bread and circus

2007-12-05T20:37:00.002-05:00

Sick day--no class for me--so no new drawings, but I think this will either pacify you or make your brain explode

[photo of D.H. removed per my mom's request]

Drawing Class - Week 9: Classmates Cartoon #3

2007-11-28T23:36:00.000-05:00

more of the same. I didn't finish in time to start adding color (except for that smear of white oil pastel dead center).

no class this week

2007-11-21T21:17:00.000-05:00

(Thanksgiving holiday)

His name is JerMajesty

Drawing Class - Week 8: Classmates Cartoon #2

2007-11-15T18:53:00.000-05:00

What you are looking at:
same set-up as last week, but facing 2 rows instead of 1.
(we were in 2 joined rows of V's like this, >>>>><<<<< , running east-west across the room, where each 'v' represents 2 students, each seated facing the pointy center.) I'm sitting toward the center of the row, my back to the window, facing NW. The white tape is what we use instead of trying to erase 9B pencil. Lots of white tape this week. The big head centered in the top panel is my immediate neighbor. I'm looking west.
The 4th fellow from the left is the same character who appears as the left-most figure in the second panel. (The purple door dead-center is one of 2 purple wonders in the same classroom. This isn't even NYU!) The yellow rectangles are light-wood supply cabinets and the white and gray vertical stripes in front of them are two sides of a rectangular column. I'm facing north.
For the third panel, I'm looking behind me, toward the eastern wall. The lady on the left is an architect. (The weird shape behind her is the outline of stacked plastic chairs.) The figure next to her is a young Japanese guy here for a year to learn English--he's enrolled full-time at Kaplan?! which apparently offers ESL--and to study art.* Behind him, another white column, with the other purple door to the immediate right. A guy with long hair--I don't know him yet. The girl with glasses from the first day of class. The guy in the stocking cap sitting directly behind me is the blond guy from the far right of last week's picture. He's a working illustrator and this is his second semester. (Several of my classmates are repeat customers.)
Fourth panel: almost the same as the second, obvs, but I'm looking more directly north. I was trying to see what would happen if I chose fewer figures, with more space between them. Turns out it's not good, esp the way i accidentally made space bend back from the giant cowboy hat. The right-most figure is my direct opposite, not the hat guy.

The unfinished painting: I think I like the 3rd panel drawing the best [mostly the hand], but the 2nd panel had a little more variety of shapes and sizes. There was only 1/2 hr left in class when I started adding color, so I started with the things I didn't want to spend too much time on: the cowboy hat, the background and floor, the drawing boards. I finished as much of them as I'd care to. I was just starting on the figures' hair and faces when it was time to clean up. I spent about 5-10 minutes on their skin colors, but not much else. I was hoping to draw their eyes this time! I don't know how to spend 5 minutes and make it look like 25 minutes worth of work. Real artists do it all the time, right? My hunch is that particular skill involves "No More Mistakes."** I was a little disappointed in my time management because I didn't finish the faces, which is the part I like most and that confuses me most. I got a little carried away with making the black blob in the center (stacked plastic chairs, y'all) out of colors other than black.

*He majored in architecture back in Japan. I asked him if he'd study with any architects here--nope. He's here for the English, which he hopes will be useful in his career. I hope English will prove more useful to him than it has for me. I think this might be his first drawing experience. Next year, he's off to Finland, studying "design" for another year. Guts! I like his style of study abroad. It turns out that no one cares if you're earning transferable college credits. He's starting from scratch with the English. (Finnish? Umm, what do you think?)

**which was, yes, my New Year's Resolution for the past 3 yrs running, for those of you keeping track, or who might recognize the phrase. So far, not so good: mistakes at every opportunity. "No More Mistakes" will be every year's NYR from now on or until I'm proficient at my current level of difficulty.

Drawing Class - Week 7: Classmates "comic strip" with eerie hollow socket eyes.

2007-11-09T13:25:00.000-05:00

The extremely horizontal format of this last Wednesday's drawing means that I don't have time to scan it in this afternoon and do the Photoshop merging. I'll probably scan it eventually because it's almost pointless to post oil pastel paintings you can't 'click' on to see the strokes close-up, and my digital camera can't capture that degree of detail. And it distorts the straight edges. Also, the scanner gives a more honest representation of the colors. For now, here's a photo for this week. (for all 4? 5? of you kind friends tracking my progress.)

These are a few of my classmates. We are seated in parallel rows, facing each other, drawing each other, and trying to be good models for each other by not moving too too much.

1. We were supposed to fold our paper into four horizontal sections and, in the first section, make an interesting composition with the figures' shapes, perhaps playing off their change in size as they get closer.

2. Second section: vary the composition, perhaps by radically changing the scale of the heads. The three figures here are the 3 left-most figures from the panel above.

3. Third section: make a third completely different composition, and, instead changing the scale again, perhaps by using the negative space in a different way, or perhaps some "other" way. (yeah, me neither.) I was mostly finished with this panel before I realized that all 3 of my panels were pretty much identical. Dang! I'd tried to start them out so differently on the left-hand side of the page, but by the time I got to the right side, I was back drawing the same thing.

4. Fourth section: I didn't know how to make a radically different or even mostly different composition, so I dropped my gaze a little and drew their torsos/drawing boards. Now I realize I should've looked lower and drawn their shoes, which would've been more interesting than a finished row of squarish boards.

5. Color: pick one section and add color to the entire section (not just a cropped section of it or partial color).

So--I think 'composition' was the object of the lesson, or composition-by-cropping. I'm still feeling really weak at composition, so way far lost that I don't really understand why I don't understand it.

One tiny comment my teacher made did help me a lot. I couldn't figure out which panel to choose for color and I was leaning toward the bottom one or the second one, but I didn't think the choice of any of these four made a difference one way or another. He said, "well, yes, it does. Your bottom panel would have too much brown wood, and the second panel would have too much of the same flesh color." So obvious, but in that moment, the coin finally dropped. It's like arranging colored shapes!

It was a long and frustrating night, but I had a Diet Coke to see me through the struggle and so by the end of the class, I was enjoying myself. I kind of like this one! The likenesses are pretty good and I'm feeling a lot more confident layering the oil pastels. Not confident enough to attempt drawing the lines for their eyes because I couldn't even make the pastels give me lines in the right places for their mouths, but just before I left class, I was starting to feel happy about the wall to the left of the purple door and about that center closet door because they turned out close to the colors I was trying to make. Progress! Also, it's easier/more fun to coax out their likenesses in the pastels than in pencil--I don't have to worry so much about mistakes or getting it wrong the first few times and making a mess with the eraser because I can keep layering and adjusting. Also, since you're working with color on the whole entire face instead of inventing arbitrary lines to represent the facial features, it's so much easier to tell if it looks like the person or not.

I like adding color more than drawing lines.

On separate occasions, I showed this drawing to Liesel and to my brother Rob, and they both said, with almost the same words and exactly the same happy intonation, "hey! you're drawing cartoons! a comic strip!" And both times, I was like, "no--cartoons? comics? what are you even talking about?" I see it, okay, I see it.

Drawing New York - Rockefeller Ctr, lower level (still impossible)

2007-11-07T18:02:00.001-05:00

First, some junky photos of the night from my crummy camera-phone. You're welcome!

* * *

Bonus Monday night class again. We met at the GE Bldg and went to the courtyard below where you can watch the ice skating from inside, behind glass doors. I'd never been there. It was pleasant and warm. The tree wasn't up yet and the crowds weren't overwhelming.

We were supposed to draw out our panels and add oil pastel to one of the four. I ran out of time, natch, so there's no color. Too busy going hog wild on all those little windows, I guess. I have a difficult time deciding which details to leave out. This surprises none of you who know me at all. It surprises me every time! It's hard for me to simplify a big picture without stripping the heart away. It's a lot easier for me, a beginner, to approximate a scene with masses of overlapping information and hope that some of it turns out right than to isolate and then precisely delineate the few perfect, elegant shapes capable of representing the same thing.

When my teacher came by, he cried, "Good Lord--the data in that thing!" I had been thinking the same thing, but about the world. I'm not used to paying so much attention with my eyes.

Enjoy the wonky 'straight' lines. Charming, aren't they? Every single one goes off track even more perfectly than if I'd planned it.
It's like having a student driver for a right hand.

Long, long ago I had some children's books with wobbly ink illustrations very similar to these--I think a few were set in New York!--and I remember thinking, "why do adults always think kids like messy drawings just because we [kids] can't draw very well yet?" I don't know why I imagined that adults were conspiring to deprive young readers. The pictures were probably great. I remember that the back pages and dust jackets proudly declared the inclusion of original work by artists who were "award winning" (imagine my total disgust).

I'm supposed to be concentrating here on representing the figures as shapes with stylized straight or round lines--no fluid, curvy stuff. I'm trying to do that here but it's a lot harder for me to stylize than to copy what my eyes are telling me and I forgot sometimes to STOP trying to make the pictures look like the real people and to just draw shapes without worrying if they're accurate. The top panel, my first of the night, is my favorite because the people were far enough away that it was easy to turn them into little shapes.

The top panel is looking up to street level, from the rink facing 5th Ave.
The second panel is the ice rink, looking east, below street level.
The third panel looks south toward the cafe tables around me.
The fourth panel looks southwest, same tables. The girl to the far right of the third panel is the same girl centered in the fourth.

I like to draw the other art students because I imagine they're less frightened by my drawing board and my unblinking, unwavering stare.

no class this week

2007-10-31T22:23:00.000-04:00

(Halloween parade--the school is on the route)

Drawing New York (is impossible) - Barnes & Noble, Union Sq

2007-10-29T22:19:00.000-04:00

I went to a Monday night drawing class with my same teacher. They meet at different sites around town and draw from life. The idea is to be clever and quick enough that you can make a good drawing even when the people move or leave. I did everything wrong! It made me crazy.

We're at the 3rd fl cafe, B&N Un Sq.
(gawker stalker: Aaron Eckhart walked by me as I was getting off the escalator.)

First, here are 2 pictures by my teacher. He did them for me on separate visits around the class when he could see that I was floundering. I include them here so you can see where I was aiming. Can you believe how gorgeous they are? Each panel took him about a minute. It seems so simple when someone else's brains & arm performs the work.

my notes--I made them abt half-way through class to remind myself what I was supposed to be doing. They're kind of funny directions to myself.

aaah! they kept walking away!
I gave up and started again.

it's not working.
and that poor lady in the bottom right corner--she should sue me for visual libel

trying . . .trying . . .really, I was! Drawing sucks.
Not sure why there's a gremlin in the top right quadrant.

I think I know where I'm going wrong, but it doesn't make it easier to do it right.
The guy in the Yankees hat (lower right) was asleep and therefore motionless.

I didn't plan to post these drawings because I wanted to pretend that this night's failures never happened. I've had some--okay, a lot of--candy & now the episode seems funny instead of frustrating.

Drawing Class - Week Six: Ben & Francesca, reading, against reflections in the window

2007-10-25T15:37:00.000-04:00

Same materials as always: 2B graphite pencil, oilstick, junky oil pastels, and 23x18 paper folded into quadrants. The drawing is still shape-based, but the color is supposed to be realistic.

This was the best drawing of the night; it had a nice rhythm. You'll just have to trust me on that because I obliterated the nice parts (her head, the pattern of her hair and ponytail, the reflections to her immediate left) with the pastels.
Now I wish I'd used other colors to build up the black instead of using the black stick.

The oil pastels are making me a little crazy. With the way I handle them & the results I'm getting, I might as well be drawing with Crayolas. I'm having trouble making the colors blend and mix into each other. I know it's possible for the finished surface to look luminous instead of caked-on, but I can't manage it myself. Am I not pressing hard enough? How do I make the colors slide into each other instead of stacking up or clogging up the works? If anybody out there knows what I'm missing, please advise.

I do not love drawing bottles. I don't have enough physical coordination to make the two sides of the bottles match each other. I was going to disguise my slip-ups with oil pastel. Well, I lay my efforts naked before you.
I liked drawing Ben. He has an interesting face--very thin, long features--and he holds his head very, very still.
This was Francesca's first night as an artist's model. At first, I wanted to fire her because she doesn't hold the same pose for more than 3 minutes. She just about made me crazy with moving her head around while I was making the first drawing, but I decided I was ready to try drawing her again for the final panel. Good practice, right? (For what, I don't know.)
The sketchy lines underneath the darker sketch are a kind of panicky, scribbled rough draft I marked just in case she never rotated back to the same position. The pose finally represented above isn't the one I started drawing (her head was pointed the other way). I had to modify even my light sketchy draft 4 or 5 times in the same number of minutes. Red. Rum. Well, it was the end of the night--I'm sure she was tired and restless. She's not fired.

Drawing Class - Week Five: Drawing is Hard

2007-10-18T16:24:00.000-04:00

scanning and photoshopping are harrrrd too. sorry about the gray rectangles and shadows.

More of that outline-shape drawing stuff.
We were supposed to draw the outlines of the figure's shape and then draw in all/lots of the background lines/shapes connected to the main figure. The idea is to make a coherent composition with interesting shapes, patterns, diagonal lines, whatever. The teacher's 5 minute sample was gorgeous. My versions, umm, errr--I had trouble getting to the background before the models changed.

Meet our models Rebecca and Luke. Rebecca is the same model from the first day of class, the one whose portrait looks like a topographical map.

I ended up drawing everyone's backside all night. I'm going to get to class earlier next week so I can get a better chair.

All the drawings are 9B graphite on paper 18x23, with bits and strips of white tape covering up mistakes I didn't want to bother erasing.

This was a longer drawing, probably 25 minutes. I got it into my head that I needed to draw the chair in silhouette and I fiddled with it for way too long. The teacher called "5 minutes" and I realized I hadn't drawn in any of the background, so I panicked and started scribbling in the windows.

I think it was a mistake. I liked it better when the lacy chair was floating on all that clean white background. I don't think the background works because it doesn't really match. It's too obvious that I didn't draw it with the same care (or fussiness).

For drawing #2, I was determined to get to the background. You'll also notice that this time for the chair, I just drew the thing with as many interior lines as I needed, no more fussy tricks. Well, I started drawing Luke's head a little too big and so his figure ended up huge (and took more time). Once again, I ended up with a 5 minute background. I wish I had drawn more of the floor.

But the radiator? (far right) I like it. At first, I thought "this is the worst object I have ever drawn--it's like I wasn't even trying" but I was too lazy to erase and start over. Now I like how the top and bottom of the radiator don't match, and how it screws up the perspective lines. It seems sort of puppy-like, with a furry bottom and a back leg dragging behind. Hey! Look at me!

The Ten-Minute Sketches

this one I kind of like except for his right paw. I think this is the fastest drawing I've ever done in my life. It felt kind of like cartooning.

Trying to go faster. My least favorite sketch. In life, she's twisted more than the outlines of the drawing suggest, her shoulders are thrown out and back, her right leg is cocked down toward the floor and I have the weirdest angle on her neck and the left side of her shirt. She's actually very thin and well-proportioned. From where I sat (below her), this is pretty much how it looked, but it looks so weird now. I gave her the biggest back in the world. Sorry Rebecca.
another sketch with problems. [This is a "warts-and-all" drawing confessional.] I was doing crazy things at the end of class--miscounting the chair legs, messing up angles because I was looking at one thing and drawing another. I needed a Coke.

Drawing Class - Week Four: figure + big setting of inanimate objects

2007-10-12T16:02:00.000-04:00

my teacher told me "inanimate objects help your drawings of live figures, and live figures will help your drawings of inanimate objects." I think he might be right. It looks a lot better after he had me add more easels, etc., in the top right corner and draw in the "Exit" sign.

First, you draw the hair shape

then the head-ear-neck shape
(I was supposed to draw them separate from the hair shapes, and
not supposed to fill in the jaw line)

torso shape, arm shapes, pant shapes

Graphite pencil + oilbar + oil pastels, again.
After talking with me about this picture, my teacher asked if I was a Cancer. (I'm Pisces) "Ah yes," he said. "Same thing." I kind of love him.

Drawing Class - Week Three

2007-10-12T15:44:00.000-04:00

the assignment was to draw severely cropped versions of the seated models and to pay attention to shapes, not anatomy. And to draw fast.
The pencil is an 8 or 9B. Next we smeared clear Windsor Newton OilBar all over to smear around the graphite and give some slippery action to the color on top (like turpentine under oil paints). The oil pastels are those cheap Loew Cornell $7 for 60.

The parts that look scraped away (the red legs, for ex.) are where I got carried away and had to scrape it off with a razor blade before trying again.

he had the most amazing, best-shaped hair

the hand and wrist turned out okay. You'll have to click & blow up the picture to see what I mean. The rest of the picture, esp the head? DISASTER!

Drawing Class - Week Two

2007-10-12T15:34:00.001-04:00

Kevin

charcoal drawings of models--they were lit by strong spotlights so we'd have nice sharp easy-to-draw shadows on their clothes. I included the third photo as my half-hearted gesture toward indicating scale. The paper is abt 17x23, if you're wondering. This was the first I'd used charcoal. They're kind of weird to hold. Some people in my class used their fingers to smear it around & I swear they achieved photo-realistic effects for the flesh. Incredible! Meanwhile, I'm scribbling in the corner like it's a twig-shaped Marks-A-Lot.
I made a mistake on the hair in the second drawing. The model had black hair and I colored it black on the left side, where the light hits. It looks weird because black indicates shadow everywhere else. I should've outlined it and left the inside of the shape blank.

Drawing Class - Week One, more of the same

2007-10-12T15:16:00.001-04:00

the photos might look better uncropped. I like the colors peeking through at the top.

Drawing Class - Week One, cont.

2007-10-12T15:01:00.000-04:00

from my digital camera. I'm having big trouble taking pictures without a tripod. the edges are a little wonky in every shot I take.

Sept 2007 - Drawing Class

2007-10-12T02:25:00.001-04:00

my teacher laughed, "what happened here?" I said, "I don't know. I just kept going!"

This was the first day of John Ruggeri's drawing class. We were supposed to draw portraits without lifting our pencils from the paper. It took me a while to get the hang of it.

Beginning Painting - a red hot mess

2007-10-12T02:06:00.000-04:00

This is the story of an abstract painting. It's drying on my wall (an oil painting takes almost a year to dry completely). I don't like looking at it, but making it was interesting.

collage (canvas, glue-stick, magazine paper):

you're looking at a blue umbrella, lots of drapery, tan bulletin boards, a tea towel with a blue center, and a table corner at the very bottom.

The painting (way below) began as a magazine collage from life. The tableau was at least 15 feet wide. The model was a weird clown. He irritated me. That's a giant red wig on his head, and . . . I don't feel like cataloging the rest of his outfit. You get the general idea. We quickly sketched him on newsprint, drew the best one on a large canvas board, and then colored it by filling in the shapes with cut-up magazines to match the real textures and colors. We had several days with the model, but my collage is unfinished because it took me forever to find the exact colors. Our teacher wouldn't let me slide by on the colored swatches I first thought might be close enough. I thought I would go nuts and I did, a little, trying to match the tinted shadows of the main white drapery, and matching the reds? I hate matching up reds! A very, very tiny part of me enjoys matching up reds.

I wouldn't have been so careful had I realized: 1) it didn't really matter 2) I wouldn't finish before the tableau was disassembled and the model went home 3) just because the colors and shapes are accurate doesn't mean the collage will look good 4) sometime very soon I will strip the canvas board clean, recycle the paper and re-use the canvas.

When that was finished, we cropped out a section of the collage to use as the object or beginning sketch for a painting.
I really liked the tea towel section on the far right and was trying to work out a crop there, but my teacher didn't think my sample crops over there were really working. I can now admit it's possible I was drawn more to "blue!" than by other considerations. She saved me from ending up with a big oil painting of beige and blue triangles--geez.

Here's the little crop, followed by the painted version:

They were supposed to turn out non-representational/abstract, but mine leans toward a more literal representation. daaaang it.

On the final crit day where I had it hanging 'landscape orientation' (sideways?), as I had painted it, Ms Meyer said it still looked like a portrait, or a sideways or upside-down portrait. I'd rather not own a portrait of a red-wigged, orange-egg-headed clown without facial features, much less advertise myself as its creator, but here I am.
One painting free to a good home.
Once it dries, I'll probably paint it white and recycle the canvas. The canvas had been whitewashed once already--I reused an somebody else's orphan painting from the back of the art closet.

Beginning Painting - Bonnard naked lady postcard

2007-10-12T01:54:00.000-04:00

The entire canvas, courtesy of my trusty Canon PS400 SureShot.
(The dumb thing refuses to wear out or break. )Below: from my crappy scanner. Most accurate color with best detail [click on it to see what I mean], but I couldn't fit it all & I didn't know yet how to "merge" on Photoshop.

This is copied from a tiny postcard version of Bonnard's La Toilette 1914 (a.k.a. Toilette Rose). (the postcard I worked from had slightly different colors than the original--click thumbnail at link to zoom) My attempt is unfinished, as you can see--I had to return the postcard to my teacher. She picked it out for me when she saw I was headed toward copying a nice, simple painting of a bowl of fruit.

July/Aug 2007 - Beginning Painting - Warm and Cool Grays Still Life

2007-10-12T01:44:00.000-04:00

camera:scanner:
I took a second SVA art class, Beginning Painting, as soon as the drawing class finished. The teacher, Melissa Meyer, pushed me a lot. I liked it.

this is our first painting. The can in front is a can of tomatoes.

Drawing at the Met - Central Park

2007-10-12T01:27:00.000-04:00

These are from the last day of class.
The tree is near the east end of the little Turtle Pond. I like this tree drawing. I never could draw a tree before. The building is Belvedere Castle from across the Pond. It was a hot day and I sat in the shade of a willow tree for both sketches.

Drawing at the Met - the yearning cow

2007-10-12T01:21:00.000-04:00

This is a drawing from a painting is called Young Herdsman With Cows by Aelbert Cuyp. Obvs, I didn't quite get to the young herdsman. No time, no time.

Drawing at the Met - big black vases from the Greek galleries

2007-10-12T01:18:00.000-04:00

I was trying to practice that composition stuff. I remember that I wasted most of my drawing time trying to decide what to draw.

This one was more difficult than I thought it would be. My sad small motor skills don't yet let me draw the lines where I want them to go, and I can't hide that problem when I'm trying to represent smooth, curved, perfectly symmetrical objects. It makes it too easy to see where I went wrong. There's a lesson in that somewhere for me. Also, what's up with that single super-dark handle?

The part of the drawing I like is the top of the vase in the extreme foreground, top right corner of the page. It was also the easiest, quickest, and most fun part to draw. Sometimes painstaking effort doesn't pay off after all--another life lesson for me.