Friday, November 30, 2012

Modified

One of the drawings from Tuesday night, corrected (to some degree) and modified in Photoshop.

Argos model, 30x38.







Thursday, November 29, 2012

Nice Poses

One of the two-minute warmup drawings.

Nice poses from this model.



Tuesday, November 27, 2012

Sketch to Oil

Digital oil, to be exact. 
Charcoal on newsprint, Corel Painter, and Photoshop.

Monday, November 26, 2012

Vigas and Shadows

While visiting the semi-famous church in Ranchos de Taos (just a few prayers south of Taos), locals told us that this church is the most photographed church in the world.

I have some doubts about how accurate that statement is, having seen the daily crowds of thousands at St. Peter's in Rome and St. Paul's in London. There were 3 or 4 tourists present at Ranchos de Taos.

Maybe I was there on a slow day.

Vigas and Shadows at Ranchos de Taos.
30x40.




Friday, November 23, 2012

Old Movie Sketch

I recorded an old, classic movie, paused the recording, and sketched from the TV screen. Charcoal and white chalk on a gray paper pad. The sketch was shot with an iPhone, holding the sketch pad up to a floor lamp for light. Bad lighting or brilliant art direction? I choose the latter.

Suspicion

Giclee Print

An experimental color print based on a charcoal drawing from last Tuesday's drawing group.
Tuesday Evenings at Argos
Giclee print on watercolor paper, 24 x22.

Feet

One more sketch from last Tuesday's drawing session. Feet get ignored a lot in drawings (at least in most of my drawings), mainly because the pose usually ends before I get to them. This time I managed to include all two of them. Progress!


Wednesday, November 21, 2012

Drawing Without Golda

A sad night at the Tuesday evening drawing group. Gallery dog Golda, a regular at the gallery and devoted companion of gallery owner Eric, passed away during the past week after a brief illness. We all missed her sweet presence and friendly greetings. 

Warmup drawing. 


Another warmup drawing.

Several drawings of longer poses on this Tuesday night were really bad. Embarrassingly so. I was lucky to end with a couple of drawings (above and below) that were decent enough to post. 

Life drawing tip: Before posting a drawing to a blog, crop out the part that you messed up (the legs and feet in this example).



Saturday, November 17, 2012

Colorful Pose

Phil strikes a colorful pose. This portrait study started as a charcoal drawing of the model, the drawing was photographed and opened in Photoshop, then multiple roundtrips between Photoshop and Corel Painter to add color, brush strokes, texture, and multiple color adjustments. Now I'm wondering if this stage would make a good underpainting for another stage. Hmmm.

Wednesday, November 14, 2012

Painting Phil

Beginning stage of a painting of Phil, last Tuesday's model,  using Corel Painter. Working digitally enables me to use the original life drawing as an underpainting. When this stage is finished, it could turn into another underpainting. We'll see.  

Phil Fills In


A new model who was scheduled for last night's Tuesday drawing group didn't show up, so Eric (the gallery owner) put a call in to Phil, one of our frequent models.

A couple of warmup sketches. 
Instead of 45-minute poses, our group of four decided to limit poses to 20-30 minutes.

A portrait. Not that good a portrait, but a nice break from full-figure drawing.

This drawing of the model doesn't make him look as muscular as it should.
The last drawing of the night does a better job of showing Phil's hulky body. And pony tail.

Friday, November 9, 2012

Rosetta Sketch

A great model, for a Golden Doodle.

Rosetta. Black and white charcoal on gray paper.
Some highlights and shadows added with Photoshop's Dodge and Burn tools.

Flamenco Blue

Another version of the El Farol flamenco dancer, in progress.


Wednesday, November 7, 2012

Passion of Flamenco at El Farol


This painting started as a digital drawing, based on an iPhone photo of a flamenco performance at El Farol, a popular Santa Fe bar & restaurant on Canyon Road. 

I used Photoshop to sketch the dancer, and added color to the figure and part of the background, using some of Photoshop's painterly brushes. I then imported the file into Painter and used Painter brushes to finish the image, add color and texture.

Flamenco Passion at El Farol, 30 x 44. 
Detail, left side of flamenco dress.

More detail.

iPhone photo and original sketch.

Revised sketch, stretched and distorted to add weight, movement, and visual impact.

Unplanned Private Drawing Session

Last night was Election Night. And drawing group night. Although tempted to skip the drawing group just this once, I figured the election results would take all night to be resolved, and I didn't want the model to have to model for too small a group, so I decided to go drawing, perhaps leave early.

My hunch that some of the regulars might be staying home to watch the election results was correct. I was the only one there, plus the model. Since she'd driven all the way across town, she said she'd stay. Since I'd driven half-way across town (OK, it's a small town, so no big deal) I suggested just a couple of 20-minute poses, then go home early.


Election night model with multiple ear piercings.


That worked out great. 45-minute poses are often twice as long as I should have, giving me extra time to overwork the drawing or get obsessive with details. I returned home in plenty of time to see some of the election uncertainty drama and to see Obama eventually declared the winner.

I wondered: How many Romney supporters were out drawing nudes during the election coverage? Not many I'll bet. But then, on the other hand, there weren't very many Obama supporters out drawing nudes either, from what I could tell. I guess I'm just a renaissance kind of guy.

  

Monday, November 5, 2012

Portrait Study

During last Tuesday night's drawing group I couldn't seem to get my charcoal in sync with the model, or with the sketch pad, or with the Drawing Gods, so I pretty much gave up on the full-body approach and concentrated on the model's face.

After scanning a charcoal sketch, I used Photoshop to add a few color touches.

Just one full-body sketch turned out good enough to make the blog. 6B pencil.