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!

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).

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.

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.

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.

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.

  

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. 

From Chalk to Oil

In Painter, I cloned a chalk drawing image from the previous post, then repainted the chalk drawing with Painter oil brushes. This is a quick experiment, so I have more work to do on it before it's finished. I think this technique, when it's output to canvas, will be suitable for painting on top of the image with real, traditional paint (which mentor Jeremy Sutton, is encouraging me to do).

Dancer with Black Scarf.

Dancer with Black Scarf, detail. Still in progress and more work planned for this painting.

Painting the Passion of Flamenco

All last week I attended a workshop, Painting the Passion of Flamenco, at the Santa Fe Photographic Workshops, located at the Carmelite Monastery in Santa Fe. The workshop was about using the software program Corel Painter to paint images of flamenco dancers.

The class was taught by charismatic/inspirational instructor Jeremy Sutton, a Corel Painter master, teacher, evangelist, dancer, artist, and friend from San Francisco.

The class started with an intro Monday morning and an all-afternoon photography session with flamenco dancers and musicians at the historic Masonic Temple in Santa Fe. Many of the workshop attendees were great photographers and everyone came away with hundreds of images that were exceptional. We were able to shoot anywhere in the building, including the musty, dusty attic that provided incredible atmosphere and light.

The rest of the week we learned a lot about Corel Painter 12 as we created many different flamenco images based on the Monday photo session.

Flamenco dancers in the attic of the Masonic Temple.

A rough sketch exploring various Painter brushes.

Exploring color.

Experimenting with different techniques and styles.

Oil sketch.

Dancer with Black Scarf. Color study.

Sketching with Workshop Classmates

Last week I attended a week-long workshop called Painting the Passion of Flamenco, taught by Corel Painter master Jeremy Sutton. More about the class in the next posting.

Jeremy and two workshop classmates Beth from New York, and Rosi from Mexico City) joined me for the regular Tuesday evening drawing group.

We stayed for just two poses, since the out-of-town artists were fairly exhausted, still adjusting to the 7000 foot elevation and the workshop's busy schedule.

Painting the Passion of the Flamenco

Preparing and warming up for a week-long class with charismatic, San Francisco-based, Corel Painter expert/evangelist Jeremy Sutton. Class starts this coming Monday at the famous Santa Fe Photographic Workshops (located on the campus of the  monastery in Santa Fe).

Class starts with a Monday photo session at the beautiful Santa Fe Masonic Lodge, featuring a half-dozen flamenco dancers. The rest of the week we'll be in a classroom getting inspirational instructions about transforming our photos into energetic and passionate digital paintings.

Sounds like a fabulous week ahead.

Painting with Corel Painter and Adobe Photoshop on top of a previous image I developed from
a live flamenco dance performance.

Detail of the image above, with a few more revisions. Canvas size, 30 x 40.

Drawing During Debate

 I like to use alliteration in blog headlines ("Drawing During Debate") because I care deeply about the 47% of people who read but don't draw; freeloaders who refuse to take responsibility for their drawing skills.

Two-minute warmup sketches. I can usually tell how I'll feel about the night's drawings depending on how easy the warmup drawings are. 

I was tempted to stay home and watch the Presidential Debate instead of attending the Tuesday evening drawing group. Fortunately I decided on drawing, which made a total of four artists at the drawing group, just enough to cover the cost of the model.

Bikini tan model.

For the last pose of the evening I switched from charcoal sticks to a 6B pencil. 

A quick digital painting based on the bikini tan drawing above, 24 x 28.

Canvas: Rio Chama (again)

When I opened one of my digital paintings, Rio Chama, to see if I should make any changes before sending it to the printer, I decided “yes it needs changes. In fact, it needs to be completely repainted.”

River bank, detail from Rio Chama, below.

Rio Chama, 36 x18

Canvas: Robin's Pear

I've always liked the dramatic starkness of simple still lifes. And besides, like Georgia O’Keeffe said about flowers, fruit doesn't move and it cost less than models. Actually, in this case that doesn't really matter since I based this painting on a photo taken by sweetheart Robin.

Robin’s Pear, canvas print, 28 x 34

Affordable Art

Most of my drawings from this week's Tuesday night drawing group were so bad that I couldn't stand the thought of posting them. Halfway through pose after pose I'd give up, flip over a new sheet of my sketchpad and start over.

Bob, the artist nearest me, said "It's never a good sign when you hear paper being crumpled up during a pose." 

I said "Yeah, that was a defective sheet of paper. It didn't draw good at all."

At the end of the evening's poses Bob ripped several sheets out of his sketch pad, folded them in half, and said "Anybody want to buy these before I throw them away?"

I asked "How much?" and he said "Three dollars."

"No thanks."

Then Bob ripped the sheets in half, handed one of the halves to me and said "How about $1.50?"

Oh how I wish now I had bought the ripped-in-half version for a memento. Maybe I'll have another chance.

The only drawing I salvaged from the night's sketches. After photographing the sketch I used the Dodge and Burn tools in Photoshop to add more shading, mainly to emphasize the model's mustache and goatee. 

Almost-Final Version

The almost-final version. Or maybe it's the final version. Could even be the nowhere-near-final version. I wouldn't know, I'm just following instructions from voices in my head. 32 x 44 inches, for now. 

Variation

Detail of one of the many variations of the previous digital painting (October 6 post). Click to see the image at an approximate actual size.