Repose #82

A nice little sketch that suffers from a lack of attention to the face, otherwise I'm pretty happy with this one.

More stuff from the vault

Back to Amber. Her lithe figure makes for some very fun and interesting drawings.

Into the backlog we go

We were without a model last night so we must dig into the archives to make quota. Let's start with one of the last drawings of Amber from a few weeks ago.

Ambiguous

Very organic drawing for me. Swooping lines and no real structure. Different for me yet I like the end product.

Another Head Study

Kinda fun head study using frenetic strokes and some focused detail.

A nearly full figure?

I paid more attention once I realized I was being lax with the proportions. A little boxy with the technique but I was happy that I got back on track.

Sanguine

A quick study in red.

What the...

was I thinking? I noodled away on the head study and then found that I had an extra 15 seconds and knocked in the rest of the body only to find I had, yes, screwed up the proportions. I post these lapses in judgment and skill only to embarrass myself into being more vigilant and serious about making marks on paper. I think there were better efforts as the night wore on, so please be patient.

C'est la vie

Not on my "A" game with these drawings. If you stick around and follow this week you'll see that my proportions were not always there and I just wasn't focused enough to make the adjustments as needed. With this sketch it was the thumb under the chin that caused problems. I tried to fix it once but I don't think it was successful.

Gesture drawings

Tyson was our model last night. A great job as usual.

From gesture to finish

Amber took a very intriguing gesture pose that I asked her to recreate for a ten minute drawing. I am very happy with how it turned out and will probably want to revisit this pose in the future. The shapes and masses relate so well in this example of foreshortening. Very fun sketch.

Abstract

A specific vignette using the arms as borders and utilizing the lost edges technique that I love so much. So much to draw in such a confined space, lots o' fun. These really interest me.

Nice pose

Another challenging pose. When I say challenging I don't mean a pose that is difficult or overly complex. I often mean one that is familiar enough, as is this one, that if it is done wrong it stands out as being incorrect. Add to the mix the model's thin and defined physique and the need for accuracy becomes paramount. Also, a bit of finesse is desirable, something I hope I accomplish more often than not. At times I could just put down the lines and be done with it but then the fun and reason would go out the window. I love seeing what a combination of lines and dragging a chunk of charcoal across some paper can produce.

Cheeky

Take the title any way you want. I liked the pose and was fairly happy with the sketch. With Amber's physique I have a difficult time not going all Klimt with my drawings. For those of you who actually read my blatherings it will come as no surprise that I like drawing the back of the human form. Great shapes and interesting relations between the masses.

Another variation

Of one of my favorite poses. Amber closed this one up a bit which drew my attention to the arms more than the legs this time. With only five minutes to draw I had to make the determination of where the area of interest lay and I felt the torso with the tension of the shoulders was where I should focus my time.

Five

A quick 5 minute pose. The tricky part of drawing Amber are her proportions. Being as thin and fit as she is presents problems that make you have to take a harder look at what one is drawing. Every plane and shape becomes very prominent, as evidenced by the drawing above. When Erin modeled for us we had the same challenges. Makes it a lot of fun for the artists, that's for sure.

Gestures with Amber

Another terrific job from Amber. Her figure lends itself perfectly to anatomical life drawing and we appreciate when she models for us. I seem to learn something new each time.

Best of the night

Oops, forgot to post this morning. Oh well, this was my favorite drawing of the evening. It just came together.

Minimal

Minimal effort, minimal result. Had higher hopes for this one but I had to wait for the next one to be happy.

Takin' it easy

I had fun with this one. At ten minutes it gave me time to work out a lot of the folded material and other elements, not just the figure. Speaking of the figure, the serpentine flow of Sara's body in this pose really gives this drawing good movement, starting with the turn of the head all the way through the mid section and out through the legs. Very nice pose.

Demure

Standard pose but still an interesting one. The right calf in this one creates a problem because of foreshortening. Couple that with the left leg crossing over to hide easily identifiable landmarks and when drawing I realized how hard it is to know what it is I'm trying to sketch. Makes it fun.

More delicate lines

I should have indicated the right hip. Otherwise this one seems to have me still focused on the light linework and careful delineation of the edges rather than the shapes.

Delicate line weight

When I started drawing this one I felt in a bit of a Fechin mood. The light lines and such just made me feel a little more focused.

Gestures of Sara

As always, we start with gestures. Sara does such a great job for us.

Hmmm?

Another nice pose. I had fun with this one. I keep wanting to do the hair like Jeff Jones would do in ink, all squiggly and frantic.

So so

Fell down on this one. I can't even use time constraints for this. I seemed to have had a problem with proportions on a couple of these sketches. C'est la vie, overall it was a pretty good night.

My favorite pose of the evening

This pose was one I would like to have turned into a painting. I think it's because it reminds me of a very large painting from "The Thomas Crowne Affair" with Pierce Brosnan. I believe it is "Certain Uncertainties" by Christian Vincent.

Happy Independence Day

Here's hoping everyone has a fun and safe Fourth of July.

Another five minute sketch

With her long and lean figure Amber presents some interesting challenges when it comes to drawing. You have to find the points where the shapes and masses meet and exaggerate them a bit to give the sketch more dimension. I started to push the highlights and the shadows on the leg to get to just that point.

Great Pose

This was my favorite pose of the evening. Being five minutes I chose to use a quicker, heavier handed approach to try and capture as much of the nuances as possible. Later we had a similar pose for a longer period of time that I am quite happy with.

The gestures

Let's get these out of the way first. By the way, welcome back, Amber.