Portrait 11.18.08

Basic Drawing 11.13.08

Portrait 10.29.08

Life Drawing October 20, 2008

Cast Drawing Fall 2007

Life Drawing Spring 2008

Purple Flower

Jenny

Basic 10.16.08

Portrait 10.14.08

Portrait 10.07.08

My Cameo...

I shared this video before but here's an updated version. I made it on-screen 29 seconds in!
Friends of Fenway Open Studios

Cast Drawing 10.09.08

Gumballs and palette knife

I was searching for some earlier photos of the below cast drawing and came across this old painting. Fun photo...

Lessons learned... twice!

Last night, in basic drawing, I learned a little lesson. Now, first, forgive the low-quality image, this was taken with my cell phone. Does the drawing look a little large to you? Well, it is... and this image shows the beginnings of my corrections. In sight-size drawing, the artist draws the object on a one-to-one scale. The result is highly accurate and realistic drawing. The lighting, object, drawing and position of the artist are the same every time. You'll notice a dark vertical line down the center of the cast. This is the plumb line (dark, weight string) aids in creating accurate measuring. Looking at my drawing, the positioning of the eye, chin, mouth are pretty accurate. Take a look at the width measurements, and you'll see they're off. Left eye to right eye--good, width of left eye-good, width of nose shadow to right side of cast--good, and then take a look at the left ear to the nose shadow--bad, left edge of the hair to right eyebrow--bad. When I say bad, I mean a good half an inch bad. So, I spent the entire class correcting my drawings. My instructor, Kim Sternitzke, explained that in addition to measuring vertically and taking width measurements from the plumb line out, I also needed to be taking measurements from different points of the cast and looking at the relationships of everything, not just the width of the eye or the angle of the chin.

Here is the drawing after about two hours of corrections:
I still have a lot of correcting to do and a ways to go on this cast but I feel good about the foundation. If you'd like to learn a little more about sight-size, American Artist has a step-by-step demonstration on their site. I'll keep posting my progress and I've learned my lesson... remember relationships, measure and measure again, and if something seems a little strange in the drawing, take the time to find out why, don't hastily try to finish an inaccurate drawing.

Portrait September 30

Jill, our model.

Portrait September 23

The Practice and Science of Drawing

Today, I'm reading The Practice and Science of Drawing, by Harold Speed. The book discusses various drawing techniques, types of drawings--drawing with mass, value, line. Right now, I'm reading about line unity. The author provides many examples throughout the book and although the topics are labeled as specific types of drawing, the principles of unity, harmony, composition, etc are always discussed. I'll be honest and say there are portions of the book easier to digest than the others but I'm enjoying the book. My goal is to read as many books as I can that will enhance my atelier education. Tonight, I have basic drawing and like the idea of having Speed's principles floating through my head. I am excited to report I have my new camera (!!) and so, I'll begin posting the progress I'm making on my drawings.

This book was given to me by Melody Phaneuf, who happens to have an excellent blog post today. She discusses her painting, Harbor Sunset, which is one of my favorites. Looking at the warm sunset, I can imagine myself in the harbor, I smell the salty water, I feel the breeze. This was the perfect painting for her analogy of a painting to a great feast.

Richard Lack: An American Master

Check out what I picked up from the atelier this week. The book, Richard Lack: An American Master, is usually $65 and it's not terribly common but can be purchased through the school store. The school had a box of books that had some water damage and I was able to get a copy for $15! That's right, $15! The water damage is negligible. I picked a book from the center of the stack and it has very minor warping. I can't wait to sit down with it and a cup of coffee this weekend.

Fenway Studios

I'll be visiting Fenway Studios for my annual open studios trip in October. I look forward to the visit all year so I'll be writing more as it gets closer. Here's a 30 second video with a little about the building. I'm in the slide of the wine tasting at the end.

Generative Art

Remember Erik Natzke? I was exploring his work again and downloaded some source files. I played around with colors and different variables in the code he wrote. Here's what I came up with.

Sparrow Quartet

I saw/heard the Sparrow Quartet at the Guthrie last night. They were wonderful. I was sitting on the end of a row and at one point, looked down the stairs and every foot was tapping. Here's their interview on MPR with quite a few songs they played last night.

A great new blog

Melody Phaneuf, a painting mentor of mine, has created a new blog. The writing is wonderful and the paintings move me. Please check it out: http://melodytheartist.wordpress.com

Camera Disclamera

I didn't realize how challenging it'd be to post when I don't have a digital camera. How is it possible to not have a digital camera you ask? Well, I'm in the middle of shopping for a new one, my old one went kaputz. I'm going to scale back my daily commitment post until I have it. I'm also going to be out of town for four days for a wedding which could be considered by some as one four day performance piece. In fact, that's exactly what I'm going to consider it.

Rose Necklace

Amelie

Free Thursdays

I went to the Walker tonight for the free Thursdays. The work featured was by Richard Prince. I actually wasn't familiar with his work until tonight. I loved the type pieces or the "joke" paintings. As a typography fan, I was instantly attracted to the pieces. This was the only red joke painting and it was my favorite. I loved the joke and the feelings of standing under a giant wall of red. The detail was was yellow and a collage of old checks.

The joke reads:
"TWO PSYCHIATRISTS, ONE SAYS TO THE OTHER: I WAS HAVING LUNCH WITH MY MOTHER THE OTHER DAY AND I MADE A FREUDIAN SLIP. I MEANT TO SAY, "PLEASE PASS THE BUTTER" AND IT CAME OUT "YOU FUCKING BITCH, YOU RUINED MY LIFE."

Flashbelt cupcakes

Todays art was in honor of sugar and flashbelt. I saw a lot of fantastic designers and artists. I'm looking forward to some more robust posting on the weekend, especially after going through my notes from the conference. I'm also looking forward to having my new camera. My photos so far have been camera phone photos... not too shabby though but I promise better.

Erik Natzke

I'm attending the Flashbelt 08 conference this week. The final speaker was Erik Natzke, an interactive designer/artist who created the above piece. The work is created using flash and is absolutely beautiful. Seeing the work animated was ridiculously amazing. Check out his site.

Plein air

I've been having a painter friend of mine, Melody Phaneuf, critique my paintings. Here is what she said about this one:

"Get some Rembrant Sevres blue for your skies. It will brighten and give you more warm/cool variation. Do you have any Monets at your local Art museum? Look at how he interweaves the paint and plays on the complementaries to emulate the essence of sunlight."