The ever changing studio walls...

As I was emptying out my camera today, I found some photos of earlier studio set-ups from the start of my McColl Center residency, and I realized I had not yet posted images of other studio installations on the blog. So here are the previous two iterations of painted walls and display Studio 219 has gone through so far since April. 

Below are some pics of the May-June installation in my studio space, which focused on life drawing and a couple of larger figurative works. I filled the long wall with life drawings from the past five years or so; all are either simple graphite or charcoal on paper sketches, and the average size is a standard 18" X 24"sheet. Most of these are from longer pose drawings, taking on average between 45 minutes to an hour to complete.

On the shorter, greener wall are two pieces from the "Corsage" series I was working on in 2009 -2010. Each of these started as a large, long session life drawing (about three hours with one model in one pose...) and were then embellished and manipulated with acrylic washes, adhesive vinyl, ink, and last but not least, lots and lots of artificial flowers, sewn directly on to the drawing surface. Also of note, the "Corsage" series drawings are not on paper, they are on Yupo, a synthetic plastic-like watercolor paper that has since become a studio staple.

Trapped motion

Some more drawings showing models in active poses on the "box". In these the support has been erased and I'm playing with the studying bodies in positions of trapped motion.

More drawings from the archive

Some more drawings I'm documenting from the archive... Most of these show models leaning or stretching on the "box", a 4ft. X 4ft. PVC cube, that works like a jungle gym in the life drawing studio. Great for observing the body in active positions without furniture obstructing the view.

Working with color and the live model

Here are few drawings from the fall of 2010 where I was specifically trying to talk to students about using non-local color when drawing from the model. I think the results are a mixed bag...
its certainly something to work on, along with life painting. Lucian Freud, I am not.

... and some life drawing portraits

More life drawings from the archive

Working on documenting more life drawings from the 2010 / 2011 archive.... Of special interest here is the drawing of the pregnant model. We were very fortunate in my weekly life drawing sessions to get to work with a model who was 8 months pregnant, several sessions in a row before she delivered. A wonderful experience; I highly suggest that any artist with a true interest in the body and all its magnificence grab the chance if it comes.

Life Drawings from the Archives

Looking back at some older life drawings yesterday, and realizing how much of a backlog I have to archive. I draw with my students on average two sessions a week, and the paper really accumulates as the months drift by. These are all from late 2009, new posts showing the best of 2010 and 2011 are on the way...

Heads and Faces I

The human head, in all its complexities, is often the main visual subject of my more lengthy drawing projects (check out my website, link on the right…) Drawing portraits directly from the live model is always a bit of a game of chess. The basic components of the task seem simple and rather straight forward (a nose is a nose is a nose), but their combinations and nuances are endless. I will often draw a model four or five times before I get even close to capturing a likeness.

Capturing continual motion

These are a few drawings from motion exercises I set up with my Advanced Drawing class this past semester. We were playing with trapping continual motion, something you often come across when drawing regular people on the street or at a coffee shop, but rarely encounter in the life drawing studio. (After all, we do pay the models to sit still…) For each exercise I had the model slowly perform a repeated action: stacking books on a table, pouring water from a jug, hurling a pillow across the room. The drawings that resulted show how visual memory, repetition, and economy of form start to give the idea of staccato motion (perhaps something like from a silent movie…)

Bodies that hold space...

Most of my drawings show the full body, head to toe, volumetrically rendered. I once had a great professor who said something along the lines of “You want your drawings to look plastic, like you could reach into the picture frame and grab an arm or a leg and manipulate it…” That may be taking it a bit far, but I do draw with the goal of making bodies that look solid, as if they hold real space. No one trick achieves this illusion; it is a combination of pushing value, using hints of perspective, and editing out “flattening” details that may confuse the eye.