Frustration!

This week was not a good week for art for me.  I started out doing this terrible figure drawing at QAA:

The figure is OK, but the head!!!  Ugh.

Then George Cochrane and I went on an adventure at World's End in Hingham.  It was my first plein air landscape.  I spent a few hours on it, but I think I will call it Mud at World's End.  It was fun, though, and I will attempt it again-perhaps I need some instruction first, though!

Spring and Summer Work

Finally the 2012-13 school year ended, and I am able to focus more on my artwork.  I had such a stressful year with more students than I could handle (12 over contract), and didn't have much time to do much of anything else besides grade papers.  The only artwork I worked on was my Dante Bargue, which remains incomplete, and a figure with Emmy at ARA.  I did not attend any QAA drop-ins, but I have been able to go to two during the month of July.  

The first drawing is from a 10 week pose at ARA under the fabulous instruction of Emmy De Musis.  I was only able to attend 7 of the 10 classes, because I had taken 15 adolescent deities to Italy during April vacation.  I was able to achieve a pretty decent cartoon in this amount of time:

(graphite on Arches)

QAA is currently doing a long pose for the month of July.  I am stuck with the same view of the model, so my two drawings look similar, but in the first I focused on the head, and the second, the torso.  Perhaps next week I will work on her legs!

Drawing 1:                                                                

Drawing 2:

 (vine charcoal on charcoal paper)

Yesterday, I spent the day putting clay on my friend Victor's skull.  Well, not Victor's own personal skull, but on a great replica he so kindly lent me.  This was a great exercise, and I may continue to work on it some more.  Obviously it is not perfect, but I used only a plastic fork and my hands as tools.  I wasn't looking for perfection.  I merely wanted to learn more about muscles on the head.

(Prima Plastilina)

Ally: 60 Hour Pose at ARA

I had the extreme pleasure of working on a figure for 60 hours, the longest time I have ever had in front of a model.  Though this falls far short of the 100 hours full time students at ARA are afforded, I feel that, with the assistance of my fabulous instructor, Emmy DeMusis, I was able to accomplish much.  I was extremely excited about the likeness I achieved, but I wish I had more time to render the figure. I focused on form, value, and the transitions of Ally's head.  I actually spent more time on the drawing than the 60 hours with the model, because I filled in holes, and smoothed out values during downtime.  I used a 2B, HB (last 40 minutes of the pose) on Fabriano Artistic, Hot Pressed, 140.  I tried a brush for pushing in a light value, but wasn't comfortable with it.  Furthermore, Ally was an amazing model!!  She has a great head, and pleasant demeanor which made for an all around amazing experience.

Basic Steps:

1.  Construct (39 hours)

2.  Transfer and establish a base tone for darks

3.  Key the drawing by establishing the darkest dark

4.  Work on form shapes and values

5.  Transitions

QAA: 1 Hour Study

QAA: 11/2 Hour Study

I liked the relaxed pose:

QAA: 1 Hour and a Half

Kylie's head is off center:

QAA One Hour Study