Portraits

These were painted as half-figures in the studio, but the constraints of my scanner forced me to crop them as portraits. Probably better that way anyway.

Leaning Female Figure

Still practicing the figure in watercolor. I recently took several paintings to show a friend whom I respect as both an artist and critic. Among other things, he suggested I try to unite my backgrounds with the figures by sharing the lighter, fleshy hues a bit more. This was painted soon after, and yes, I think it's an improvement. I'm particularly happy with the pillow and stool.

Seated Figure

I'm back at Manifest after a month-long hiatus. Been feeling very rusty for the past few weeks, but I kind of liked this one from Tuesday's session.

The details in the face are comprised of about ten brush strokes and a couple of scratches with a knife. Less is more.

Seated Female Figure

I painted this one on Tuesday at Manifest. I wish had been more attentive to the proportions, but I think my handling of the watercolor has improved, and I'm reaching for a greater diversity of marks. This time, I added shadows with very watery layers of red and purple, which I think creates that luminosity that one expects from watercolor. It's a lighter piece overall —I generally prefer more darks —but appropriately soft for a nude female figure at rest.

Backside

Another attempt at controlling watercolor.

I'm obviously not in full command of where the water will take the pigment, but I can control roughly, the shape of the individual marks as well as their value. When you can orchestrate shapes and values, you can begin to create the illusion of a 3-dimensional forms on your paper, so it's a start. Another thing I can control is the composition in pencil before I go to the wet media. Admittedly, this composition is not particularly exciting —I chose the back view to give myself a better exercise in modeling the human form in watercolor.

I'm happy with the marks in the folds of the blue cloth, and I kinda like that little bit of her right arm where the shadow picks up a bit of reflected red light.

Another Oldie

Uh, the art that is. This one is from the old Court Street sessions about 4 years ago.

The marks are a bit coarse and the chair's straights and curves aren't perfectly formed, but I got a figure, some environment and a pretty interesting expression in just under an hour. I'm pretty happy with that.

Flashbacks

These are a couple of quick pastel drawings I did at Manifest months ago.

I particularly like the simplicity and abstract quality of this first one (above). The black lines are sensitive enough and didn't get obliterated by the chalk, which happens too often in my figures.

Backlit Figure

This is a drawing I finished at the end of the fall session. Having the figure backlit is a double-edged sword. It can be interesting to have the figure accentuated with a dramatic halo. On the negative side, you find yourself fumbling for certain colors in the dark, and you really don't know what you've got on the paper until the session ends. This time I was pleased.



This was also done in the late fall. I think it's a nice start, but the details in the face kept me from fully developing the image. There are some unresolved hints of color and value in the environment that need to be strengthened before I'd call this a successful sketch. Great pose though.

Pensive

Here's a drawing I did several years ago during a Court Street session. It was a 15-20 min. pose, which is a nice length of time —short enough for an interesting pose, but still allowing enough time to check proportions and develop the mid-tones a bit.



Up till now, I've been digitizing these drawings on my tiny flatbed scanner. Each one had to be carefully scannedin 6 pieces and tiled together using Photoshop. It takes well over an hour to complete the scanning and assembling of each image, which may go a long way to explain the long time intervals between posts. This weekend, I decided to set up a tripod and shoot some drawings on the living room floor (which makes my wife wince.) My technique is far from perfect, and it still requires a lot of color-adjustment to approximate what's on the paper. Still, I hope it allows me to post more frequently.

Seated Figure

The Fall session ended this week at Manifest. I liked the way this figure was going, although it could stand more contrast. I may go back to it and pump up the darks.



Eyewear really changes a drawing like this. It takes the figure out of the realm of a classical depiction and makes it look extra nude, if that makes any sense. Remember Donatello's David -the one with the hat? Same thing.