Drawing with Dad - Session I

charcoal on paper, 18 x 24 inches

charcoal on paper, 18 x 24 inches

My dad & I drew together today, guess who's drawing is who's?

In his retirement, my dad has begun studying for his Bachelors of Fine Arts at the Academy of Art University, San Francisco. He has just completed his first year as an undergrad. I've been telling him about the classical methods I've been learning and he asked if he could come over and draw with me to learn the method.

This statue we drew from is one of my most prized possessions, it's a 4 foot replica of the 9 foot original, the Victoire de Samothrace a.k.a. Winged Victory. The original stands at the top of a dramatic staircase in the Louvre, and I drew it on my very first trip to Paris in 1988.

I taught dad to draw a straight-lined, simplified "envelope" around the entire shape, and then refine the drawing with more and more sub-shapes, all using straight lines. After a while we put in some rough basic tones to help us see the form, but we will still spend more time on the block-in and refine the contour more before we begin detailed shading.

Dad says he's really happy with what he drew today, and I think he now shares my enthusiasm for the method. At first he kept saying "But don't you measure? How do we get the proportions? Is it all just angles?". But this method is so intuitive, the form just seem to emerge from the page as if by itself. Just keep checking the angles.

It's very exciting, and was very fun to teach what I have so recently been learning. We hope to continue the same drawing for the next few Thursdays.

My dad posing with our two drawings

Baby Leah

Pencil on paper, approx 8" x 6"

My sister's first baby, a girl named Leah, was born just last Friday. This is the first of what I am sure will be many studies of this newest member of our family.

Caroline's Profile - Session I

Pencil on Paper, 11 x 14

This is the same model and pose I drew last week in charcoal. I started this version in pencil, I'd like to work on it a few more sessions and do a completed drawing. The model has soft delicate folds of skin I would like to spend some time on, and the pencil will allow me more detail and softness than the charcoal.

Peach Rose on Gray SOLD

6 x 6 inches, oil on panel

Friday Cast Drawing - Session II

Vine charcoal on Canson paper, approx 18 x 24 inches

I spent this session refining the block-in (see Session I here). It has been an interesting challenge, to be sure her face is reasonably symmetrical even at such an angle. I find myself tilting my own head at a similar angle while I draw.

Yellow Daisy - SOLD

8 inches x 8 inches, oil on panel

I managed to save the daisy. It looks like a progression from the first session, but it was pretty much painted from scratch today since I wiped the whole thing down a few days ago. It looks so innocent, but I really stressed over this one.

Caroline's Profile -- Preliminary Drawing

Charcoal on paper, approx 18 x 24

Last Wednesday I started a portrait of this model (see the block-in session here), but when I arrived for the second session today I was not excited about the light and decided to change position.

It was fun to try a profile with the classical block-in method I have been practicing, and I found the drawing went very quickly and I jumped into the shading within the 4-hour session. This is supposed to be a 6-session pose, so going this far this fast wasn't really the plan, but I had fun.

Looking at it now, I may have gotten the forehead too short and therefore the top of her head too low. But I had fun capturing the drama of the light from the dark side of the model.

Painting News
Drawing to me is a joy, but painting makes me tear my hair out. I wiped away the yellow daisy painting completely a couple days ago out of frustration (apologies to my two young cousins, Kailey & Julia, I know you liked that one!). But I'll try again to save it.

Workshop News
I am thrilled to be attending two amazing workshops this summer and an intensive Master Residency Program this fall: Figure Painting with Dan Thompson, Still Life Painting with Juliette Aristides and Figure Drawing with Ted Seth Jacobs. I feel very fortunate to be training with such amazing artists.

Art Studio News
My little art shed is slowly taking shape! Here's a picture. you can see the three holes for the skylights.

Portrait of a Young Man

11 x 14, graphite pencil on paper

This drawing was completed in a single 4-hour session on Saturday, the "shortest" pose I have drawn in the last couple months. Where I was sitting made me look up at the model, and the block-in process really helped capture the likeness at an angle. At an earlier stage the block-in was just as abstract as the cast drawing from earlier this week.

Friday Cast Drawing, Session I

preliminary sketch on newsprint, 6 x 8 inches

block-in phase, 18 x 24 inches

I've been reading a lot about cast drawing recently, which are formal studies of plaster casts of sculptures, so I decided to try one. I'll be working from this cast for several Friday sessions.

The first drawing is a small 6-inch sketch done on newsprint in about an hour, done just to quickly analyze the form and begin to understand the proportions. I included my hand in the shot so you can see how small the drawing is.

The second is the block-in stage of the large drawing, about 18 x 24 inches. I used what I learned from the first sketch to start mapping out the main planes and proportions. I was impressed by how easy it was to draw it large, after learning from the small sketch.

Art Shed News: The floor has been laid and one wall is up! I can stand on the floor and imagine my little space more clearly than ever. The huge white north sky is overhead, shaded from the south by the main house. It will be a tiny studio, but it will have perfect light. Hopefully I'll be moving in on or before my 36th birthday, June 7th.

Yellow Daisy (unfinished)

Phase III

Phase II

Phase I

This little daisy in a glass cube vase was supposed to be a quick "daily" but I was having fun with the monochromatic underpainting and decided to slow down & enjoy the process. I've worked on this two afternoons now, just a couple hours a session. Hoping to finish it in one or two more sessions.

I'm really enjoying this one, it feels great to get back to painting after drawing so much recently. It's amazing how much of painting is actually drawing.

Portrait Session 1

I've begun my first of seven sessions on this new portrait. This is the rough (very rough) block-in. It's not much to look at now, but so far I am really happy with it. I can tell I am getting faster and more accurate, and it's getting a little easier to see what is wrong and how to fix it.

I've finished Juliette Aristides' drawing book and am now reading Anthony Ryder's figure drawing book and am really enjoying it. Like Juliette, he really emphasizes spending a lot of time and attention on the early block-in stage to get the gesture and proportions right.

Wednesday Portrait Session 6

"Bridgette", charcoal on paper, 18" x 18"

My six session drawing of Bridgette is done. I'm pretty happy with it, but mostly I am looking forward to starting the next portrait next week. I felt like I learned so much through each stage of this drawing, and I am hoping the next one will be more consistent in its development.

For any Bay Area artists who are interested, I did this drawing at the Bay Area Classical Artist Atelier in Belmont. BACAA runs ongoing open studio sessions with a model several days a week, including Saturdays. Its one of the few Bay Area life drawing classes to offer extended multi-week poses. They also host workshops with a highly notable roster of teachers from all over the country, such as Juliette Aristides, Ted Seth Jacobs, Dan Thompson, and Michael Grimaldi. Learn more at the BACAA web site.

Daily Painting: Pear & White Rose SOLD

6 inches by 6 inches, oil on panel SOLD

Today was a rare day in San Francisco: sunny, 85-degrees, no fog, clear blue sky, warm breeze. I just couldn't help but set up my easel in the back yard & paint this little sunny still life sketch. Afterwards I rode my bike through Golden Gate park and down to the beach. Just one of those days everyone you see seems happy to be alive. Happy May, everyone.

Wednesday Portrait Session 5

I am reading Juliette Aristides' book "Classical Drawing Atelier" right now, and two ideas jumped out at me that I kept in my mind while drawing this week:

Juliette points out that if you see a very blurry black & white photo of a family member, you will easily recognise the person. She makes the point that it's the big shapes that make a true likeness, not the "infinite minutiae" as she puts it.

The other idea was a quote she attributes to John Berger: "Strangely, you can tell whether a likeness is in a drawing or not when you've never set eyes on the model." I think it's true somehow: an inaccurate portrait may look human, but it is not convincing.

With these two ideas high in my mind, I was determined this week to do what it took to get a likeness of the model. Again, I wiped down a lot of a charcoal and re-analyzed all the features and their relationships.

I raised the chin and made the lips a bit fuller. I repositioned the ear significantly, which had a huge effect on the shape of the cheek on the light side. I think it is a better likeness.

One more 4-hour session to finish it up!

Wednesday Portrait Session 4

Wednesday Portrait Session 3

This is the third, four-hour session of a drawing I started two weeks ago on April 5.

I have finally, just in the last hour of the session, started applying values. I am struck by how much easier it is to make tonal decisions, once I have already made so many decisions about proportion and placement.

Still, despite my hours of attempting to be precise, I have still managed to set the right eye slightly higher than the left. I think it's a minor adjustment, but I am glad I am not any further along with the tonal rendering.

The more charcoal on the page, the more there is to erase.

As you can see, the model has a very striking face. When I asked she said she is half Peruvian, plus a lot of other nationalities including Greek. Something about the deep shape of her chin, and the sculptural quality of her top lip, gives her a classical look.

In other news, construction on the art shed has not begun yet, but I am assured that building will start very soon. In the mean time I'm having fun picking out my skylights. It will be tiny studio, barely 6 feet x 16 feet, but with THREE north-light skylights. I can't wait.

Wednesday Portrait Session 2

This is a continuation of the drawing I started last week. I will flesh it out to a fully toned drawing as the weeks go on, but for now I am still working on capturing the proportions and the shapes in line.

I am itching to start in with the values: The far side of her face is in complete shadow, and the reflection under her chin is especially interesting. But I am trying to be disciplined and not rush ahead.

I erased and re-drew every mark several times today. At one point I wiped out all the features completely and began again. It's a real luxury to have the time to focus on accuracy. Eventually, it would be nice to learn to be both accurate and fast. Someday.

Wednesday Portrait Session 1

I've started attending a drawing group that meets Wednesdays, and yesterday we started a 6-week pose. This is the first stage of the drawing I'll be developing over the next 6 weeks. I spent the first session with the techniques I learned at Juliette's workshop last week: concentrating on angles and proportions to make an accurate armature for the drawing. It's not there yet, but I'll be working on it for at least another session or two before I start the "fun part" - adding values. I'll be posting my progress weekly.

As for the rest of my art progress.... plans for the studio are moving along. I have found a contractor to build my art shed and building should start next week. I'm hoping to move in by the end of April.

In the meantime, I am setting up a temporary studio in our as-yet-unfurnished dining room. But the light is all wrong and it's not a very inspiring space, and I'm still surrounded by boxes. So I'm having a hard time breaking it in.

Juliette Aristides Drawing Workshop Day 5

Charcoal & graphite on cream Rives BFK paper
Approx 19 x 22 inches

I have completed my week-long drawing workshop at the Bay Area Classical Artist Atelier. You can see the progression of my drawing and my posts about the week starting last Tuesday.

I finished my week-long drawing with an hour to spare, time I spent fiddling around and making small adjustments, which is always the fun part. I am really happy with it, even though I am more aware now than ever of what I need to do to learn more.

I really enjoyed the workshop. I think because so few people study this way, there is a real camaraderie. People have been sharing drawing tools, offering advice and being generally supportive all week. By the end, we were all exchanging email addresses and planning when we might see each other again at future workshops.

Juliette was a great teacher, her approach for executing a drawing is a method I have never been taught before. My drawing has some proportional errors still, but it is by far the most proportionally accurate figure I have ever drawn in my life. And I feel like I have new tools to apply to every drawing I do, whether in this highly detailed manner or a looser style.

Juliette Aristides Drawing Workshop Day 4

I have a lot to do tomorrow to complete the drawing, I'm a bit nervous about getting it all done in one day. The hand is what worries me the most - the contour drawing I did of it yesterday is just wrong. The model has long fingers, and I measured and measured, but I still exaggerated the length of her hand. So I'll have to completely redraw it tomorrow. Between that, the feet, the unfinished knee, and an overall polishing, there's easily 5 hours of solid work left.

I have started working into the charcoal with graphite pencil. It evens out the tones and I can get more detail, especially in the face. Pencil goes on fine, but charcoal frays the fibers.

A couple classmates have commented that I'm using the charcoal like graphite, I guess because there's not many rough charcoal strokes. It's mostly because I am battling with the paper. It has short, absorbent fibers, which fluff off the page with any amount of rubbing, so anything but the lightest touch makes the model look "hairy". Slightly frustrating, but it's all part of the learning process - I've learned to never use this paper again for charcoal.

I am still thinking a lot about what kind of artist I would be now if I had had 10 years of classical instruction already. And about what kind of artist I'll be ten years from now.

Juliette Aristides Drawing Workshop Day 3

Today was the third day of my week long drawing workshop with Juliette Aristides, and the second session of the drawing I started yesterday.

The photo above was taken about halfway through the day. You can see I completed the contour drawing of the hand and lower arm, which I left blank yesterday. The rest of the day I spent filling in the values.

I'm much more comfortable with this part of the process, I tend to think on tone instead of line naturally. But this process is still far more detailed than I usually work.

Instead of developing all areas of the drawing at once, like I have always been trained, we're being told to work on sections at a time - there's really no other way to do it. I am using vine charcoal sharpened to a fine point, almost as thin as a pencil point. And the paper is big - lots of space to cover.

Juliette instructed us to start by focusing on the core shadows (the darkest, middle part of the shadow as it falls across a curved surface) before we start filling in midtones and transitions.

The shot below is from the end of the day, you can see I've started filling in the midtones.


The hardest part of this drawing is by far the knees. They face almost directly at me. I haven't captured them believably yet, but I have two more days to try. It's tough anatomy to work out, lots of small edges of bones and tendons making their shadowy mark on the surface of the skin.

The hand is going to be hard, too. It's further along than yesterday, after I erased and redrew it about 8 times. But the tonalities will prove whether I have drawn a hand, or merely a rubber glove full of sticks and marbles.

Sorry for the bad photos.

Juliette Aristides Drawing Workshop

Approx 19 x 22 inches, vine charcoal on paper

I'm back! After weeks of house buying, packing, moving and unpacking, this week long workshop has begun just at the right time to get me back in the groove of daily art-making. Good thing, because between our cat going up the chimney, the hired movers pulling a no-show the day of the move, and being constantly surrounded by the smell of corrugated cardboard (which I hate) I've had just about enough of moving house.

We are working on a week-long drawing of a model in a single pose at this workshop with Juliette Aristides, along with some smaller exercises. Today was Day 2, but I started over with better paper than what I'd started with yesterday. The drawing above is the result of about 5 hours work today.

The approach is inspired by a traditional classical 19th century atelier method of learning to draw. So we're starting with a very careful line drawing as a base, attempting to get all the proportions as accurate as possible.

This method feels completely foreign to me. I am used to attacking the page with fistfuls of charcoal and battling it into submission by scrubbing away with an erasure to find the form. By contrast, this method feels more like spearing a fly with a needle - tiny strands flung over and over, hoping to pin some accuracy to the page.

I am enjoying myself, though, and so far I am happy with the drawing. I am looking forward to starting on the shadow values tomorrow, I feel much more comfortable with value than with line.

Juliette is a calm and patient teacher, she she teaches regularly at an atelier up in Seattle and seems very comfortable with leading a class. I found out from her bio that she is exactly the same age as me, which is daunting to say the least. But I try not to dwell on how much time I have lost and focus on what I am capable of learning today. Well, I try not to dwell on lost time, at least.

Juliette was talking today about how it used to be the norm for an artist to spend ten to thirteen years in formal study before they attempted to make unique work. I wonder what my work would be like now if I had spent that much time in formal study?

Would I have more or less of an idea of what makes a work "unique"? I am not sure "unique" exists. The most slavish copy has some of the artists' hand in it. And most "unique" work looks only like a typical product of the times a mere decade later.

I have learned that what I make never follows any sort of intention, whether to be unique or not. I make what I make, I can only do what is interesting to me. I have no control over whether it is culturally valuable or not. The only thing I do have control over is whether I make something today or not. And even that is tenuous at best.

A Short Break

After years of dreaming of owning my own home, it's finally happening -- Nowell and I put an offer in Monday, and yesterday it was accepted! We close in just two weeks, so things are moving very fast - and we'll be moving very soon.

I'm hoping to get my new studio set up and functioning as soon as possible, but in the mean time things are going to be a bit insane so I'll probably not be posting many paintings for a few weeks. (I even tried to crank out a little Daily while we were waiting to hear about our offer, but my brain is just not capable right now of the focus that requires!)

Soon I'll be back in my routine and you can expect to see daily paintings and larger works posted more regularly. I'm also looking forward to my upcoming workshop with Juliette Aristides next month, which is sure to be inspirational.

Thanks again for all your support and encouragement since I started my Daily Painting endeavour.

Tissue in Lightbox II

6 x 8 inches, oil on panel

Pear SOLD

8 x 8 inches, oil on panel

Tissue in Lightbox I

6 x 8, oil on panel

As much as I appreciate my bank of north light windows, the constant white diffused light can get boring after a while. So with some tips from my RISD friend Scott I set up a light box for myself - basically a cardboard box with an incandescent light shining through a hole onto the still life below. You can see the results of my first attempt with the light box here. I'm looking forward to experimenting more with this new setup.

In line with my 2007 resolution to continue my formal art education, I signed up for a figure drawing workshop with Juliette Aristides, who has just published two books about classical drawing and painting. Five full days of drawing! The workshop is the last week of March, and when it's done I'll post my drawings here.

Pussywillow and Bottles

8 x 8 inches, oil on panel

Pussywillow Leaning

6 x 8 inches, oil on panel

Apple a Day

6 x 8 inches, oil on panel

I've recently been in contact with two old friends from RISD and discovered they have also started exprimenting with the small daily painting practice. Be sure and check out their amazing paintings: Scott Conary and Shawn Kenny.

Tarnished Cup SOLD

5 x 7 inches, oil on panel

Orange Slices in a Dish SOLD

6 x 8 inches, oil on panel

Champagne Cork

5 x 7, oil on panel

I worked a few hours on a new tissue paper painting today, but it was taking too long, I'll have to finish it tomorrow. I did this one as break from the tissue paper series and really enjoyed it.

This was the cork from the toast at our wedding in Italy last year. Nowell aimed it off the loggia and it sailed away into the dark. The next day he hunted the lawn for it and found it.

Aqua Bottle in Tissue SOLD

6 x 8 inches, oil on panel

This is a little square glass ink bottle wrapped in tissue. I love how the aqua glows through the tissue on the right side, so I cropped the composition to focus on this area.

Box Still Life - SESSION 2

8 x 8 inches, oil on panel, work in progress

I think I'll do one more session in black & white, and then start with the color.

Not sure I can manage keeping up with the "dailies" while working on a larger piece at the same time, although I know some artists do.

Two Wrapped Stones SOLD

5 x 7, oil on panel

Process shots:

Artistic crisis

Some days, I feel like I will never paint the way I want to.

Like today. And yesterday, too.

Hopefully, soon I will paint something I want to post.

Box Still Life SOLD

8 x 8 inches, oil on panel, work in progress

My goal for 2007 is to complete 10 larger, more detailed works, 11x14 and up, in addition to several dailys a week. To start off I am warming up with this painting, which is still small, but will be more detailed and will take several days to complete.

A major difference with this painting is that I am using artificial light, so I can paint after dark from life. I have one light source pointing at my still life, and another light source lighting my easel. I have never done this before, so it is an experiment for me. But it's a good way to get more painting hours into the day.

I am starting with a monochromatic underpainting, and will add color with glazing after another session or two. For this monochromatic phase I am using only raw umber, ultramarine blue, and titanium white.

In-progress shots:

Phase 1
Raw umber only, with a medium of 2 parts linseed oil, 1 part turp

Phase 2
Adding in the white and ultramarine. I threw in the highlights on the bottle too early, they are in the wrong place.

Phase 3
Adding more mid-tones. Neck of the bottle is still too long.

Phase 4
More details within the shadows of the tissue, starting to show some of the depth of the composition. Bottle is closer to correct proportions, but still maybe too narrow.

About the composition:
The bottle, the tissue paper, and the box are all elements I have started working with in my daily paintings these last couple months. Before the daily painting practice, I never would have set up this composition. I am really enjoying all of these elements: my little amber pharmacy bottle casts a really great glow you will see when I add the color.

The tissue paper I am really enjoying for the dramatic qualities, I spend quite a bit of time "sculpting" the paper before I start painting. And the box I think makes a better composition - instead of just an object floating in the black, the positive and negative spaces are more interesting. The box also gives a feel of an environment to enter, making a mysterious little space to explore.

This painting is slightly larger than life, and I think a really large painting of a similar composition would be especially interesting; the intimate made huge, a tiny space enlarged. It's the kind of thing I would have loved as a child, imagining myself small and exploring the dollhouse. I never played with dolls, but I loved to make houses for them.