Charcoal to Color

Two drawings that started as charcoal on newsprint. 

Two-Minute Drawings

The usual two-minute warmup drawings don't give me enough time to even come close to finishing a drawing. I usually just barely get a suggestion of the figure, without any shading. The other day, as I flipped through my newsprint pad to a clean sheet, I decided to add some shading, detail, and bolder lines to the warmup drawings from the previous week’s drawing session.

Juliet

A glooming peace this morning with it brings; 
The sun, for sorrow, will not show his head: 
Go hence, to have more talk of these sad things; 
Some shall be pardon’d, and some punished: 
For never was a tale of more woe 
than this of Juliet and her Romeo. 

Below, an homage to perhaps the most brilliant last lines of a play ever written. As you can see, my vision of the costuming probably wouldn’t have worked that well on the Elizabethan stage. However, I think the author would have surely and almost certainly, beyond a reasonable doubt, and almost without question, loved it.

Because she was amazing.

But that's just me.

Juliet
40 x30

Model with Pillows

I like the monotone look of charcoal drawings. Sometimes I add a sepia tone to the final print. Lately I’ve been experimenting with adding more color to drawings. The technique shown in the drawing below keeps the character of the original drawing and charcoal strokes.

Model with Pillows
28 x 36

Color Chalks

Robin found a small case of unused color chalks in her art supply cabinet so I decided to experiment with them. I'd just bought a new newsprint pad so I thought this would be a good way to break it in. I scanned the chalk drawing, opened it in Photoshop, and applied several filters to duplicate layers, experimented with different blend modes and opacities for the various layers, then added an ancient parchment texture to the background.

Experimental chalk drawing print.
30 x 40

Detail, before adding lots of layers, filters, and stuff.

Detail close up of final image.

CafePress Curtain

As mentioned in a previous post, I ordered a curtain from CafePress.com, printed with a drawing from the Tuesday night drawing group. When it arrived, it was the wrong size. It was supposed to be a chenile privacy curtain, but instead it was a smaller, polyester shower curtain. I emailed CafePress and they had the perfect response: Sorry, our fault, we'll ship the correct product to you, no need to return the shower curtain.

I was already a big fan of CafePress. Now I'm even more impressed.

You can't tell from the poor lighting, but the image quality is really good,
considering the image resolution is 72 pixels per inch.

Rosetta is more into red rubber balls than art, but I don't take it personally.
You can tell it's high-class art because it includes a Shakespeare quote from King Lear.

Ancient Processes

Ancient processes: Calligraphy (10th century manuscript), fertility, drawing, and Photoshop.

Ancient Processes
26 x 36

Drawing From Memory

After posting some drawings from last Tuesday's drawing group (the February 13 post), I decided to redraw the model from memory, using a more stylized, less stressful drawing approach. With Photoshop I added a parchment texture (from an ancient manuscript in the British Library) and then added a few highlights.

Month Eight
Giclée print on watercolor paper
26 x 36

Baby and Puppy

One of our favorite models (8 months pregnant now) posed for our drawing group last night. We may get one more session with her in early March before her baby arrives.

We also had three drawing group newcomers join us for the first time, and we all got to meet the new Argos Gallery puppy (bottom of page).

Detail from a 45-minute pose.

Yep, she's definitely preggers.

Above and below: two-minute warmup poses. 

Beebee (not sure I'm spelling it right), the new Argos Gallery puppy, gets some attention.

Rose In Repose

Last night, as we were locking up the studio and turning out the lights, I asked Greta if I could grab a photo of her holding one of her drawings. 

I don't remember the pose shown here in Greta’s drawing. Maybe I blacked out during this pose. Or, more likely, maybe she’s creative and doesn't feel compelled to draw an exact copy of the pose. I'm jealous dammit. 

    

Greta with a drawing of Rose.

Rose in repose
28 x 36

A nice variety of poses makes the three-hour session go by fast.
For me, maybe not for the model.

Darn, I hate when the model collapses from exhaustion.

Jesus Glicée

Giclée print version of a sketch from last Tuesday night's Argos drawing group.

Jesus
Giclée print on watercolor paper
30 x 22

Art Curtains

My own personal muse and sweetheart, Robin, is a doctoral candidate in Shakespeare Studies at Brunel University in London and leads several Shakespeare reading groups in Santa Fe. She writes, designs, and publishes the award-winning bi-monthly The Shakespeare Papers, 16-page booklets of intriguing tidbits about the Shakespearean plays and sonnets. One of her Shakespeare-related initiatives is an “I Read Shakespeare” campaign. She created the shower curtain shown below which includes the play The Comedy of Errors in its entirety. 

I Read Shakespeare Shower Curtain
62 x 86.

This gave Robin the idea that we could also use my drawings to create curtains to replace the ugly, noisy, folding wooden closet doors in the dressing area. The curtain art, shown below, should be here within about a week. Photos coming soon.

Art Curtain with King Lear quote
62 x 86

Art Curtain with Henry V quote
62 x 86

Me, Greta, and Jesus

Other than Jesus, the model, Greta and I were the only ones to make it to the Argos drawing group last Tuesday night. It was cold, icy, and slippery outside, so some of the regulars were probably reluctant to go out. Or maybe it was just too cold to want to stare at a naked person for three hours.

Brrrrrrrrr, now that I think about it.

Jesus: Conté crayon on colored paper.

A 10-minute pose. The timer always goes off just as I'm making progress.

Being aware that the timer sound (the iPhone marimba tone) is imminent 
makes me draw faster, and that can be a good thing. 

A 15-minute pose to wrap up the night.  

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