Goodnight, '09

you were a pretty good year.

Vague

There are a lot of elements I like about this piece, not the least of which is the vague indications of the upper torso and head.  The rendering of the hand was probably the most important aspect of this pose as I was doing it but I find the whole is quite pleasing.  

Drape

Another headless figure. Another back shot. Another typical effort from yours truly. Good enough but not what I hope for whenever I pick up a chunk of charcoal or a stick of conté.

I tend to blame my mood, my paper, lack of time or any number of other reasons for my unsatisfactory images. Truth is, I need to put myself into each drawing, painting, illustration and leave nothing out. If I have five minutes for a pose, I need to make each mark count. I realize that with the coming of the new year this sounds like a resolution but I think about this nearly every day. I tend to throw out the mantra "Every day is the first day of the rest of my life" and I believe it. It just gets hard, for whatever reason, to maintain the intensity required.

But hey, you don't check in on this blog to hear a lot of whining and midlife soul searching. I'll post another drawing tomorrow. Thanks for following, whoever you are.

Just waiting

She seems to be waiting for the end of 2009.  That is how I feel.  Just a few more to go.  Ready for the new decade.  Happy Monday.

Older art to fill out the year...

and beyond.  Not sure when this was drawn but I like the natural look.  The expression and the ease of the body language.  

Only 364 more shopping days

This was the last drawing of the evening last week.  Very uninspired, as all but one of the group that night packed up early.  We were just not in the mood to drag out the session to it's inevitable end.  How disappointing that this would be the last life drawing of the decade for me.  Alas, I hope it serves as a warning that every drawing could be the last drawing I ever do, so make every one work.

Merry Christmas

HO HO HO

I wonder what's under the tree?

With visions of sugarplums dancing in his head.

Study

I had high hopes for this as I worked on it.  It's alright but not quite what I had in mind.  Better upon looking at it after nearly a week, though.  I really wanted to work the right hand out but just ran out of time.  The shadow cast by said hand is a little too much like illustration but that is something that I wasn't too concerned about.

Back...

back in the New York Groove!  

  My favorite drawing of the night.  I think I felt this might lead to better drawings the rest of the evening but, sadly, this was as good as it got.

  The human back offers so many interesting shapes.  There are a multitude of planes to work with that catch the light, layer on top of one another and meld so wonderfully with the skeleton that it's hard not to get a decent rendering.  Just a fun subject to explore.

Why oh why...

do I post images I don't like.  There was a time I wouldn't share any of my work let alone a drawing like this.  The anonymity of the net may make it easier, I suppose.  This one just never came together.  I spent most of my time working on the right arm and the hand holding the wrist.  I would love to say this was a 5 minute sketch but it wasn't.  I had more than enough time to do a better job.  Sometimes it just doesn't pay to get up in the morning.

Pensive

A little conté head shot.  Speaking of which I have a screaming headache so I'll just end this here.

A bit outside the box

I gave myself a small dimension to work with and still couldn't keep the drawing completely inside the box.  Actually, my intention was to only do a portion of the figure and I got a little cute by adding the head.  Eh, like I said yesterday, I was in a poor frame of mind.  I didn't really keep to any real concepts the entire night except for keeping them smaller.  And that i didn't entirely keep to, as you will see later.  As for the drawing itself, s'alright.

Gestures, half hearted

Just didn't feel into the gesture portion of last night. Probably because my first model had to back out due to work obligations. Thankfully she gave plenty of notice which I appreciate. I was able to line up another only to have her back out 20 minutes prior to me leaving for the group. That left us with no model an hour before class. Thankfully we have Jeff as our safety net and he bailed us out again. By then I was in a sour mood and I think that I never pulled out. It certainly shows with the gestures. Sorry for the rant folks, but this gets under my skin.

I draw heads every once in awhile

But only every once in awhile.  This finishes last Thursday's drawings.  I was pretty happy, for the most part with the efforts.  Tonight we'll see if it continues.

Eh...

I wasn't happy as I worked on this one.  Not crazy about the right arm and the ham-handed manner in which I handled the foreshortening of it.  I think I over worked it trying (and failing) to fix it.  There are several things that I do like about the piece, however I tend to see what went  wrong and it ruins it for me after that.  

Do the twist

Another headless torso.  And yet, I am pleased with it.  Perhaps I have a problem, a compulsion.  I guess we'll find out as the week plays out.

Partial

Another good start, in my opinion.  I wonder if I intentionally leave my work unfinished because it appeals to me more than seeing something fully rendered.  I know this isn't commercially acceptable, but I think I enjoy finishing pieces (mine or others) in my head.  Sort of like Winged Victory of Nike or Venus de Milo.  Hey, I'm not comparing my little effort to those masterpieces, just that with the missing parts of the figure force one to fill in the blanks.

It's Thursday...

so what's with the doggone stick, Henry?  Every week, it's the stick.  'Sup with that?  Actually, I was really getting into this drawing, just ran out of time.

The pose

really helps with the decision making process.  Sometimes you're just not sure if you feel up to really drawing as well as you want and then the model takes the pose and for some reason, at least with me, things start to flow.  If you're lucky it keeps up for the whole session.  Sometimes it's pose to pose.  We'll see how the night went on as the week's postings progress, but I was sure encouraged by the first drawing of the night.  Simple and elegant, nice pose.

Back at last...

even if only for a couple of sessions. Here is the gesture page. We got a late start so cut the gestures to five.

Farm wife

A fairly tight conté drawing from a sitting long ago.  I turned out several decent pieces from this session.  If you're reading this Gerry, thank you.

Another portrait from the past

This really wasn't that long ago.  Another little head shot from a model who has since moved on.  

Cep in Buckskin

Loren Entz lent me the buckskin dress for photo reference and Cep was kind enough to model it for me.  Went for a subtle look on this one.

Seated

This was fairly early on in our tenure at the Yellowstone Art Museum.  It's on craft paper hence the color.  I really like the way the charcoal reacts to this paper but most don't really like it (art buyers, not artists) so I try to stick to white.  Too bad, there are some beautiful drawings waiting to spring from some of these interesting materials.

Erin redux

Another drawing of our intrepid Miss E.  This seems to have been when I was purposely thinking along the lines of N. Fechin.  The methodical manner of the line drawing.  I really must find better paper to truly explore the look St. Nicolai was able to achieve.

Profile

Erin is another of our regular models although she has been MIA for a few months.  But that is something that we have learned to accept and realize how fortunate we are to have people willing to spend their time helping our group become better artists.  We want to thank all of our models, past and present for the great service they provide us.  If not for them this site would have a lot of drawings of empty chairs.

Shande again

She did love her sleep. Seriously, Shande was a terrific model for us. Lots of interesting drawings came out of our sessions by a lot of different artists.

A little portrait

From a couple of years ago. Shande was one of our steady models and you may recognize her from a few posts. Alas, she left for school and now we only have our drawings of her. If you are reading this, thank you Shande. We hope you are doing well.

Portrait of a friend

Always liked drawing Concepcion, especially when it was fairly informal. Kinda partial to this one.

Another dog of a drawing