Wednesday, December 3, 2008

Tuesday, December 2, 2008

FDW - Session 15









I recently picked up "J.C. Leyendecker", a newly published book on his work. There are so many beautiful illustrations in here. I can't get over his "chiseled" understanding of form, structure, and value. Every painting is like a Greek statute that you could reach out and feel. He does this with such precise brush control, fallowing form to reinforce the structure and illusion of space. Joe was also very adamant about not using photo reference; always used models (and was in love with one for his whole career.)

This has me pondering some directions I'd like to take when I move into painting at the Figure Drawing Workshop. I'll start out as simple as I can by using only black and white oil paints or possibly guache. Focusing on matching value and using brush strokes with form. Doing this for the longer 10-25 minute poses will pose a challenge.

Thursday, October 23, 2008

FDW - Session 14




















Few sessions worth. Some good, some bad. One of the recent models complimented me on my likeness and sense of form. Nice to hear that from someone who sees lots of artist in the city constantly. Trying to give my drawings more sense of weight and spacial depth. Also trying to keep my mind on not going to dark on skin tone shadows. It's easy to press down too hard when trying to refine an area. Practice, practice, practice.

Thursday, September 25, 2008

FDW - Session 13










Enjoyed this weeks run. Couple train wrecks. Still trying to find a good system for blocking in hand/finger shapes quickly. With this new charcoal chunk that I'm using it makes it really easy to lay in some really nice shadow forms. Given some more practice and I think I'll make some really stunningly realistic pieces; all under 25 minutes too. Good times.

Thursday, September 4, 2008

FDW - Session 12









Session 12 went really good. I started using a new type of compressed charcoal. Using that along with the silky smooth paper pads from Dick Blick makes for some really nice gestural surfaces. Still had a few small head syndromes and maybe a couple long legs. She was a tall girl though. I'll get the specific charcoal and paper names and post them in the near future.

I feel my structural marks are becoming a lot more confident. Certain poses I lose some of that confidence with fore-shortening. I'm learning new ways to block out those shapes when they overlapping and complex in subtle transitions.

Practice, practice practice....