ahhhh... back to the live drawings

I lament the fact that at one point I was drawing from the figure twice a week and now am down to twice a month.  Not good enough!  Not by a long shot.  Anyhoo, here are the gestures of Sara from last night.  They may be the best thing I did...

Lost edges and large shadows

Love so much about this.  Wish I had gotten to the face or just left her headless.

Next phase of the painting

Just one more base pass with the washes and I'll be able to start in on the fun stuff and drop the flag back and push the face.  This went from an oil portrait to an illustration pretty quickly.  I was thinking I wanted to do a Nicolai Fechin type painting but started feeling the pull of a James Bama look.  Now don't get me wrong, I'm only talking about the feel not the actual finish or technique 'cause that ain't 'bout to happen!  I also had to think about the audience that this piece is intended for and I think it'll have appeal.  That being said I'm kinda excited about where this and the other two pieces are headed.

Long pose from the last session

Looks like our model got pretty relaxed for this pose.

Progression of painting

  I took the previous sketch to a tight drawing

 then to a first pass of oil washes

and then to this, a second pass of oil wash.0

Comp study for upcoming painting

I need to get three pieces done and this is (for the moment) the first of them.  Old reference but I'm gonna try a different (for me) approach.  Hope to have fun with this.

Longer poses

With a small group we went for longer drawings.  Not sure it shows in this one but I had fun looking a bit closer at the work and taking a bit more time.

Finally, back to drawing...

And these are the gestures that were sketched.  Only three of us for last night's session so we decided to do some longer poses.  Tune in for those drawings.

This is really goin' into the vault

Probably 12 - 15 years ago for this one.

A missed opportunity

I just didn't handle this one with any grace.  Very rough and blocky and not what I was hoping for with this model.

From the last session

Seems so long ago.  Ah, it seems we will be meeting this week so I should be able to put up some new stuff again.
As to the drawing, I like the play of light and shadow on this figure although I'd like to have finished up the legs and face.

Some head studies

I really enjoy capturing a likeness but even more, an emotion.  Usually it is a pensive one (after all, the model can't really hold a joyous smile for too long).

Some old stuff to fill in the gaps left by no life drawing these last couple of weeks

I think the post's title says it all.

Had high hopes for this one

But try as I might it just wasn't working to my satisfaction.  Such great shapes and I just couldn't make it work.  Oh, well.

Back to our regularly scheduled figure drawing

I had fun with the movement in this one.  Shoulda worked the face in but I was too intrigued by other aspects of this pose.

A couple of Star Wars cards

Back when I was doing the trading card thing.  Really wish there had been a TOS Star Trek card series I could have worked on.  Or Blade Runner.  Or James Bond.  Star Wars is just so over done.  Still, I liked a lot of what I knocked out even though I kept it as a "sketch" rather than so many of the really finished ones that many of the artists were (and still are) putting out.

Two different takes on the Native American maiden

A couple of older paintings exploring the same theme.  I have always been partial to "Maiden Yewessay", the lower of the two pieces.  The reference was less precise and let me play more with the image, especially the very abstract/impressionistic background.

I don't know if I've ever posted this but here it is

Tayona modeled for me a couple of times.  This is what came out of one of those times.