Nude in Progress

Detail of a nude that will be part of a series of prints based on drawings done at the weekly life drawing sessions at Argos Gallery.

Deidre, detail.

One Night at the Tate

While visiting London a couple of years ago, Robin signed me up for an after-hours life drawing group at the Tate Modern. The event, organized by London Drawing, provided the models and the drawing materials. At first I was kind of freaked out by the slightly crappy selection of banged-up construction papers, half-dried out felt tip pens, and broken chalks. But now I’m pretty happy with the character that the not-top-of-the-line materials added to the drawings. 

At the end of the evening we taped our best drawings to the wall. I cropped one of my drawings by ripping it from its sheet of brown paper, then taped it to another drawing using the crappy remnants of masking tape I’d grabbed from the art supplies table earlier that evening. 

Later, as I contemplated how to refine some of the drawings, I realized that the memorable Tate drawing experience was best captured by ripped paper, masking tape, and dried-up marker scrawling.

One Night at the Tate
Giclée print on watercolor paper
32 x 40

Draped Cloth

Our models don't use props very often, other than a chair or stool, but props can add interest to a drawing. It definitely needs to be something easy to draw. I think a book would work. Even a cardboard box. An iPhone? A bouquet of flowers? 

Aha, got it! A wine bottle or wine glass would be very cool.  

Model with draped cloth prop.

Is it just me or does this drawing desperately need a wine glass?

Art Exhibit

Last night the New Mexico Museum of Art held an opening for Art on the Edge, its biennial juried exhibition featuring 8 artists from New Mexico and the surrounding states. One of the 8 chosen artists for the exhibit was Greta Young, a regular in our Tuesday evening Argos Gallery drawing group.

Love Greta's work. Even if it does freak me out.

Greta with an admirer and two of her paintings. 

A chance rendezvous with Lori (musician, music therapist, dancer, singer) and Tony (artist, designer, illustrator) escalated into an aprés-exhibit chat & drink session at the nearby Milagro Ore House.  

Freaking Out

Our drawing group's model last night was Scott. It's interesting to see the various different styles of drawing that each artist in the group creates.

For example, compare my drawing of Scott with Greta's drawing of the same model. Usually, to avoid being intrusive, I don't photograph other people’s drawings in the drawing session. But when Greta accidentally spilled red wine on her drawing, I used it as an excuse to grab a shot.  

She's freaking me out. 

I mean that in a good way.

Scott, drawn by me.

Scott (with red wine), drawn by Greta.

Month 7

Our fav preggers model (actually, our only preggers model... that we know of) is now in her seventh month. 

The studio chairs are really inadequate and uncomfortable for even ordinary models,
not to mention one who's seven months pregnant.    

Pondering motherhood, no doubt.

Just two more months . . .

Hamlet Undecided

Hamlet: madness, overwhelming sorrow, seething rage, treachery, revenge, incest, moral corruption, cold-blooded murder, thwarted desire.

During the painting of this portrait I was able to relate to all of these... except definitely not incest and murder... and sorta cross off moral corruption too... maybe not madness either... treachery, not so much... okay, perhaps just a little desire, but not really thwarted.   

Hamlet Undecided
Giclée
32 x 40

Purple and Safffron

Print variations derived from a charcoal sketch of an Argos drawing group model.
Version 3, Amber Above Her, is the version I’ve chosen to output as a Giclée print.

Version 1
Purple and Saffron
44 x 24

Version 2
Purple, Saffron, and Turquoise
44 x 24

Version 3
Hanna with Amber
Giclée
44 x 24

The Necklace

Being able to accessorize effectively is very important, especially in professional modeling. The necklace adds the perfect touch for the overall look here, I think. 

The Necklace

The Necklace, giclee

Ergo...

The drawing group warmup poses are officially two-minutes, but by the time I flip the page of the newsprint pad and decide which charcoal stick or pencil to use, I'm usually down to one and a half minutes or less. Ergo, a lack of detail in the drawings. Ergo, more interesting drawings, usually. 

Another Tim

An ink wash portrait study of Tim at Dunkin’ Donuts (previous post). It's a better likeness than the sketch in the previous post, but that's not necessarily saying a whole lot.  

Ink wash

Photoshop filter effect

The Tim Different

Santa Fe is known as the City Different, partly because of people like Tim. 

For his 54th birthday celebration, Tim, an avid reader and brilliant writer (and friend), sat in Dunkin’ Donuts from 9 a.m. until 9 p.m. yesterday, reading books. Anyone was welcome to stop by with a book of their own and spend up to 15 minutes reading a favorite passage to him.

You'll have to agree that you can't pass up a Santa Fe event like that, so I drove in a snow storm to Dunkin’ Donuts with a children's book of poems by Dave Crawley named Reading, Rhyming, and ’Rithmetic. I chose the poem One Hundred Words to read to him. Tim's used to some really weighty reading, writing, and stuff, so I figured a children's poem would be memorable and that he would appreciate the brilliance of Dave Crawley. And I was right. He enjoyed it, we chuckled all the way through it, and he made a note of the author and book title.

Since the poem is just 12 lines long, I used the other 14 minutes chatting and taking a photo so I could go back do a quick birthday ink wash sketch.

Happy 54th Tim.

Newspaper Sketching

Another quick ink wash from an image in today's local newspaper. No sketching, just brushing away. Using poor-quality brushes to keep things loose. Crappy brushes also enable me to look at other artists’ work and say “Hey, I could be that good too if I used good brushes.” That's a trick I learned from a really good artist.

23 takes a shot

A variation of 23 takes a shot.

New Print Series

Starting a new series of small prints. 

Another Tuesday night at Argos
20 x 24

Longer Poses

Poses of five, ten, twenty, and forty minutes. 

Two-minute Poses

The usual two-minute warmup drawings. 

Freakin Freaky Cool

When Greta, one of the regulars of the Argos Gallery Tuesday night drawing group, started to pay the weekly drawing group fee of $15, she realized the bill in her pocket was a $1 bill, not a $20 bill.

I loaned her $15 and she said she'd pay me back next Tuesday night. Several poses later, I saw Arlene, another regular, with this drawing of Greta's. 

Brilliant.

I owe John $15
Greta
Charcoal on paper

Robin and Stars

Vector file, created in Adobe Illustrator. 

Robin and Stars

Counting Stars

I also love the graphic impact of simplicity and complexity.

Giclee, 40 x 24

Graphic Influence

I love the graphic impact of boldness and simplicity. Combine that with a nude study from the weekly Tuesday evening drawing group and you get something like this.

Neon Pregger
40x24.