Another Figure Drawing Session

I'm trying to refine my process a little bit, meaning that I'm focusing more on the drawing than the values, shading, etc. Feel free to tell me what you think.

Onions and Peppers

I thought I'd go away from the vertical compositions I usually work with and work with a horizontal arrangement. The view is from a lower perspective and everything is arranged side by side.

I like drawing red onions. They have a small, rounded shape and they're easy to draw. It's a lot more challenging to render and paint them because of the subtle value and color changes along the shape. And it's tempting to draw the lines in the onion skin too dark.

I'll be doing more oil painting from now on, mostly to get more familiar with it. I've been checking out a few daily painting sites and I'm really inspired to give a try. I just hope I have the discipline to stick with it.

Feel free to comment.

Still Life with Chinese Tile

I had a really hard time setting this one up. I wanted to direct light from the top left of the composition to the bottom right and really emphasize the vertical orientation. Since a lot of the composition is in the dark, I wanted to soften the edges in the dark parts and sharpen them in the lighted areas. Finally I wanted to emphasize the highlights on the fruit to show the path of the light.

Despite the fact that it took so long to set up and paint, it was fun painting this one. The Chinese text was really challenging to draw and render because the light caused a subtle change in value, so it wasn't entirely black in some areas.

Please feel free to comment.

Figure Drawing Session

I've taken a little break from life drawing sessions, mostly because of other things. Here's one that was finished almost a month ago. It comes from a long pose (3 hours).

Feel free to comment...

Still Life with Puppet

I had a lot of problems with this still life, mostly with the composition. I intended to use dark colors in the background, using light/dark contrast to bring more attention to the focal point. I kept repositioning everything except the rabbit but nothing seemed right. After about a week, I finally settled on this arrangement. From start to finish I added a few things and took some things out. All in all, it was frustrating to work with textures and the perspective but I had fun with this painting. It was definitely a learning experience, and hopefully I'll do much better next time.

Since the last time I posted my still life "Plums" was selected as a finalist in The Artist's Magazine 27th annual competition.

As always, feel free to comment or criticize.

A Change of Pace

For a change of pace, I'm posting a portrait (more like a profile). This one took about two hours with breaks. Feel free to comment or criticize.

Still Life with Plums and Lemons

Here's another still life. As always, feel free to comment or criticize.

Red Onion and Eucalyptus

Here's another still life. Feel free to comment or criticize.

Plums

I haven't posted in a while so here's a still life. More to come, and as always feel free to comment or criticize.

Figure Drawing Workshop

I will be having a figure drawing workshop at Suite 106 art gallery at the Jacksonville Landing. The workshop will be held for four sessions every Tuesday starting May 4. The cost is $80 plus a $10 model fee. Space is limited to eight students.

Materials:

Vine charcoal
graphite pencils
kneaded eraser
newsprint pad (18 x 24 or larger)
Drawing paper (I use Strathmore 400, 18 x 24)

Sign up at rj6971@bellsouth.net

Blue

This was my attempt to really push the light/dark contrast, so I arranged the darker bowl in the shadow and the white cup in the cool light. I used the blue scarf to put some color in the composition. This was also my first time drawing and painting pansies. Hopefully I'll do better next time. The colors and the white really "pop" when you see it in real life, so I don't think that the photo does the painting justice. I'll probably take a few more pictures and see where it goes from there. Feel free to comment or criticize.

Still Life in Red

I did this still life to play around with complimentary colors, in this case red and green. I tried to set up the biggest contrast at the focal point, which is the Oriental cup and the apple. The darker cup stands out more when placed against the lighter green apple. Feel free to comment or criticize.

"Jars"

I haven't updated my blog in a while so here's a still life. I've been busy working on new things for a show and some upcoming competitions. I'm planning on entering at least 5 this year, most of which are national. Anyway, feel free to comment or criticize.

Still Life with Radishes

This painting is another try at finishing in one session. It took about three. The clay pots were really hard to render faithfully because of the texture (it's a mix of grey and red with lots of rough and smooth surfaces.) Feel free to comment

Geisha

Lately I've been trying to do still life paintings in one sitting. This one was done in two sessions, so at least I'm getting a little faster. I think I had a problem with getting the values right, even when I left out most of the details. The vase in front looked a lot brighter than the doll from what I saw, but I didn't push the contrast as much as I wanted to. Anyway, feel free to comment or criticize.

Guajira

This one was done in conte. I spread the conte shavings with a paintbrush, and then erased the lights out with a kneaded eraser. I apply the dark values with a darker conte stick. I tried to really push the darks to create more contrast, and focus the details on the face to establish a focal point. I wanted to show the figure in the context of a background without taking away from the focal point, so I avoided using lines as much as possible.

Feel free to comment or criticize.

"Matt"

Here's a portrait of a fellow artist who volunteered for a portrait. He has strong facial features, especially the nose and the eyebrows, and I thought a profile would be the best way to show these features. Feel free to comment or criticize.

Still Life with Daisies

Happy New Year to everyone. I just realized that I hadn't posted anything in a while, so I'll start off by posting a still life. I've been working on a lot of these lately and I'll upload some more work in upcoming posts. As always, your comments and criticisms are welcome.