Drawing with Dad - Final

This is the 4th and final session drawing my Victoire de Samothrace statue with Dad (see the third session). The detail in her draperies could take weeks longer to finish, but we decided to move on to something new.

­Friday Cast Drawing - Session V

Vine charcoal on Canson paper, approx 18 x 24 inches

This is the fifth session on this drawing - you can see the 4th session here.

I worked a lot on the face - if you toggle back and forth between the two you can see the difference. I was unhappy with how "old" the drawing was looking, and I realized I had made an error which was elongating the face.

So I ended up redrawing the mouth significantly higher, as well as raising the bottom of the nose a bit. I also slimmed down the sides of her face and arched the eyebrows a bit more, and so now she is starting to look as youthful as the sculpture.

How much longer - so far this is a 20-hour drawing. I think I need to spend at least 3 more sessions, or 12 more hours.

Painting News
I have officially forgotten how to pant. At least, I've forgotten how to paint alla prima - single-session wet-on-wet paintings. I just keep making mud. I even switched to watercolor, hoping a change in medium would shake things up a bit, but no luck; nothing worth showing here is coming out of my brush these days. Maybe it's all these 20-hour drawings? My brain is just so slowed down and paying attention to details that I can't seem to capture anything quickly. I keep trying though. All these drawings I've been doing are just exercises to become a better painter, so hopefully the painting skills kick in again soon.

Art Shed News
The final day of construction on Le Shed was TODAY. In fact, the last worker stayed late and just left at 9pm tonight. I have the painter coming tomorrow (I negotiated and got a major break on the price I was complaining about last week). So the art studio should be done NEXT WEEK. Only several weeks behind schedule...

­Drawing with Dad - Session III

This is the third session, see the second session here.

Announcement #1
So as I've mentioned, my Dad has been going to art school at Academy of Art University after retiring from a very successful career as a software engineer. But he has been really excited about the classical method I have been teaching him recently, and last week he decided to take a year off of art school and join me in classes and workshops at Bay Area Classical Artist Atelier. I am thrilled!

Announcement #2
The BACAA website has been redesigned.... by me! The goal was to make it easier to see the classes and workshops offered, and make it easier to sign up for them, but also create a beautiful "Renaissance" feel - check out the new look at www.bacaa.org

Caroline's Profile - Session IV

Pencil on paper, 11 x 14 inches

This is the finished drawing of Caroline. To see the previous session click here.

I built up layers and layers of cross-hatching to build up the tones - if you click the image you can see a larger version that shows more details (the photo is slightly blurry, but you get the idea). I have never cross-hatched so much in my life!

I am happy with the drawing, it is a real advancement for me, probably the best drawing I have ever done.

Art Envy
Sometimes I find an artist who makes me green with envy. Nathan Fowkes is one of those artists. He combines rock-solid drawing skills with highly expressive marks, both in his drawings and his painting sketches. I found his blog four days ago and I have gone back every day since to drool over the work. He has another blog just for his landscape sketches, which he says he does in 20-40 minutes. Daunting.... and yet inspiring.

Art Shed News
My little art shed is allllmost done. Of course the final details are taking forever to wrap up. As a final step I got a quote to paint it. Maybe it's San Francisco, but I never imagined it could cost so much just to slap one color (white) on the inside of a 100 square foot room, and another color (to match the house) on the exterior. Holy cow. Now I have to decide if I want to do it myself, or go looking for other bids. My housepainting experience is nil, but maybe it's not very hard?

Daily Painting - Apricot

6 x 6 inches, oil on panel

The Daily Painters have a goal - 2000 painting in 30 days! I'm taking the opportunity to get back into my daily painting routine with 4 -5 new paintings a week from June 15 - July 15.

Read the press release here: 2000 Paintings in 30 Days.

Also, check out DailyPainters.com.

Caroline's Profile - Session III

Pencil on paper, 11 x 14

I didn't get much done this third session (see Session II), partly because during the pose our class took some time away from drawing to participate in an online chat with Dan Thompson through American Artist Magazine.

My favorite Dan Thompson quote from the chat is "I have to go through a period of awkwardness before a period of revelation". You can see the full transcript of the chat here. And you can see Dan's website here.

The classical realism school I attend, BACAA, is hosting a workshop with Dan Thompson July 30 - August 10. You can register for the class at the BACAA website.

Friday Cast drawing - Session IV

Vine charcoal on Canson paper, approx 18 x 24 inches

This is my 4th session developing my cast drawing. See the third session. I'm finally starting in on the shading. I heard recently that some teachers of the classical method require their students to spend an entire year practicing the block-in, no shading at all!

I'm in the newspaper!

San Francisco Examiner, Peninsula Edition, Page 4, June 9th, 2007

That's me working on my cast drawing! A "community beat" photographer dropped by our class and asked to take some pictures for the paper. Too bad he spelled my name wrong! Also, he mentioned the school where I take classes, BACAA, but not the web address, so here it is: www.bacaa.org

Drawing with Dad - Session II

This is the second session, see the first session.

Today is my birthday! What better way to spend the day - Dad took me out for sushi, and then we came back to the house to work on our drawings. We worked on developing the block-in for quite a while, then moved into the shading, which is more exciting. But it does reveal mistakes.

As I tell Dad, we have to be disciplined and go back and check the proportions over and over. It's easy to correct them now, but much harder the further we develop the drawing. For example, I found that I'd incorrectly placed the the ankle of the forward leg, and therefore the dramatic twist of the statue's torso was being "unwound". I moved the whole leg to the right by almost half an inch, and the twisting gesture of the pose came back to life.

I'm learning to always be ready to do major surgery to make a drawing as strong as possible. Why be happy with a "sort of right" drawing? Drawing is an investigation, we may as well do what it takes to record the form accurately.

Dad and I are very similar - we focus very intensely and we forget to take breaks. After hours of drawing we look up with a start and realize how late the day has become. We've decided next time we'll set a timer to remind ourselves to take breaks - this particular model does not need any rest, but we do.

Caroline's Profile - Session II

Pencil on paper, 11 x 14

This the second session, see the first session.

I have three more sessions to go on this pose, 12 more hours of drawing. I'm looking forward to doing a completely finished drawing, it's so fun to finally get to the details. My whole art education I've been told to "loosen up". I'm so sick of it - I spent 18 years "loosening up" and now it's immensely gratifying to finally start to learn to draw the way I have always wanted to draw.

Friday Cast drawing - Session III

Vine charcoal on Canson paper, approx 18 x 24 inches

The third session I spent refining the block-in and starting with the shading. (See the second session.)

It's amazing how subtle portraiture is. The original sculpture looks like a 17-yr old girl, and somehow my drawing looks like she's about age 22. I have no idea what it takes to shave just 5 years off a face. I'm hoping I can resolve it in the later stages of the drawing, I've done everything I know how to do at this point!