New Drawings for Sale

Every few months I look around my studio and realize I have been spending WAY too much time drawing and painting and not nearly enough time selling my work.  The selling part is a necessary part of the art process...how else can I afford to buy guacamole at the taqueria across the street from my studio if I don't sell my work?!?  (The accompanying margarita that makes it's way into the rotation once a week ain't going to pay for itself, either!)

So I am finally finding myself catching up!  I have recently listed a bunch of charcoal drawings in my Etsy shop.  Browse...enjoy...shop...feed my avocado addiction...

View all of my original drawings on sale on Etsy!

Drawings and Paintings from the Live Model

I will say this again, because I believe it to be true, and vital to your success as an artist:  draw and paint from the live model as much as possible.  Yes, you can learn a lot from copying master works and photos as well. But from the live model, you can chose so much more - what to leave in, what to leave out, what to emphasize, what to soften.  As you perfect those skills from the live model, you can take that knowledge to a photograph - because an Artist should not just strive to copy from a photo, but should always be trying to lead the viewer to a new point of understanding.

Male nude, oil painting on oil primed linen, about 90 minutes

Crouching male nude, oil on oil primed canvas, about 90 minutes.  I was trying to avoid creating any hard edges.  This pose was particularly difficult for the model, the balance that was needed, and so I could not lock any element into place - he was always making minor shifts (and I say that with great respect for this model - who can hold almost any pose!   See the next drawing...) But as you draw and paint from the live model, you learn to be flexible, because it WILL change over time - the model breathes, takes breaks, shifts weight - even the lighting may change.  You have to always be open to change.

So...this is our interpretation of the "Flashdance" pose...all we needed to do was splash a bucket of water onto our model as he struggled to breathe for 25 minutes....

I'll post this one just as a teaser - I do have some progress shots and I fixed the dark spot by her chin.  But this was how far I got in about 115 minutes.  Oil painting on oil primed linen

I think this was about 90 minutes.  I loved her earrings, and tried to leave the earring on our right behind - drawing the negative space around it - instead of outlining the shape.  Charcoal.

Charcoal sketch, about 25 minutes.  

Bald is beautiful - new drawings of the male model

I can't say it enough - I get to work with so many amazing models in my figure drawing groups!  Last Wednesday our model was kind enough to pose for a few reference photos.  My desire is to create a large series of the black and white charcoal drawings on the textured surfaces.

With his shaved head and broad shoulders, I had a feeling this pose would be perfect for him, and so far it's looking great!    His head and hand are coming forward, the right shoulder is dropped and twisted towards his knee, there is a lot of tension where his hand is gripping the stand.  This particular surface is pretty gouged and not as smooth as some of the previous pieces, and I decided not to sand it any further because I liked that grittiness and imperfection.

He also had some great poses during our group, one of which he used a rope to pull and create tension along his back.

The second, longer pose, had a dramatic overhead light that, again, really benefited from his shaved head and well defined shoulders.

Both of these were drawn with charcoal and watercolor pencils on watercolor paper primed with gesso.

Shadow and Light - Dynamic Drawings of the Male Nude

I've said it before, I'll say it again...Wednesday our group had one of the best male model's I've ever worked with.  He studies poses, knows how his body "works", he's even said "when I get into a pose, I can just 'tell' when it looks right".  Truly - our model is gifted!  It's hard to believe he didn't start doing this until he was 50 years old. 

Well I have no gesture drawings to show you, because I was too busy taking a thousand photos of his awesome poses.  (With his permission, of course, and no, you can't see them! Get your own male model LOL!)

But here is a twenty minute pose.  I love these compact poses, where he becomes one mass of muscles and light and shadow.  I like how just a little bit of his foot caught the light.

That is actually the shape of the paper - a tall rectangle.  It adds to the emotive quality of the drawing, the quiet, all of that negative space above.  I think I will push the values a little further.

The second drawing was about 40 minutes, and I was working on a dark brown piece of colourfix paper. 

I was kind of standing in the dark, so I really didn't notice that I was making it SO colorful! The model actually looked at it afterwards and said "I look like a struttin' peacock!"  I thought that was funny!

On this dark paper, especially with the light forming very few intense highlights, I forced myself to stick to my darker Nupastels for the first 38 minutes - only bringing out the very light few for the last few moments, accenting the brightest moments - and only a few of those.

I had actually just organized by Nupastels into three boxes - the lightest, the reds, and the blues.  (I was going to say "warm and cool". but even within the reds and blues, the temperatures vary.

The last drawing, which is far from complete, is on a dark brown piece of mat board.  Again I started with the medium to dark pastels, blocking in large shapes and reflective light.  I was avoiding detail until everything was working together overall.

Luckily I got a photo, so I am looking forward to finishing this drawing.

And here is a drawing I started in the studio today, from a session with this male model and a female model we had a few weeks ago...watercolor pencil on Clayboard.

Pastel Drawing from the live male nude model. The progression of a pastel drawing.

Our life drawing group had a terrific male model last night.  And, as if that wasn't good enough, there were also Margaritas AND a profesional giving us free massages!  Man we were spoiled artists!

I took photos as I drew...I started with a blue watercolor pencil on a 12" x 18" piece of Wallis paper. 

Next, I softened the lines with a little bit of water and moved the paint around, starting to create shadow shapes and atmosphere.

Next I used a deep reddish brown Nupastel to block in some of the largest areas of shadow.

I started to layer colors, thinking not just about what the top layer should be, but what colors I wanted to underneath - such as various blues, purples, mint and olive greens.

I continued to add warmer colors and lighter colors to warm up his flesh tones.

I don't normally block in the whole atmosphere with pastel, but this time I went for it, bringing in some of the skin's under-tones into the background.

You can see more of my life drawings from the male nude model in my Fine Art on Etsy shop.

Charcoal Drawings of the Male Nude. Light and shadow, muscles and mood.

Whenever I have a figure drawing session to look forward to, my brain is plotting and planning all day...what material do I want to use? What paper am I going to bring? Is there going to be wine? (That last question of course being the most important one!)

Last night our lucky, lucky group had a terrific male model. It was my first opportunity to work with him, and I had anticipated that I would want to work with charcoal pencil - a little tighter and more specific than I tend to work from a female model (such as the watercolor drawings from the previous post).

The first few 3-5 minute gestures were a mix of vine charcoal and charcoal pencil.

The gesture drawings were very dramatic - the spotlights were creating bright areas of light and shadow, and the model had some great twists and changes in his weight.  He had great mass in his legs - he was muscular without being sinewy.  (By love, and by law, I will say that my husbands' legs are better :)

Our long pose had the model leaning into a tower of black blocks.

This was about an hour of drawing, starting with a little vine charcoal and slowly getting darker with a hard and then soft charcoal pencil.  I was sitting closer than I normally do, working on an 11" x 14" drawing pad. So I cropped off the legs.  I wish I had brought a larger pad or surface because the whole pose was great.

Keeping the proportion correct and considering how all of the light and shadow was working together was of course very challenging.  I actually like this cropped area the best.  I think whole drawing, above, feels a little off - I don't think I ever got the shape of his face correct.

In the last half hour I switched to the other side of the room.

The lighting was also great from this side of the room - almost hitting the palm of his hand directly, creating a very cool set of shadows thru his fingers.  I worked quickly, blocking in large areas of shadow with the side of a piece of vine charcoal, then using a kneaded eraser to define the light. 

You can see more of my drawings of the male nude in my Etsy shop.

New drawings of the male nude model. Trying Wallis pastel paper for the first time!

Wednesday evening spent with pastels, paper, fellow artists, and a model...ah...bliss! Last night our (very full!!!) figure drawing group had the privilege of working with a terrific male model, and I thought it would be a great time to try Wallis pastel paper for the first time. This paper is primed on both sides, with one side having a very fine sand-paper texture to hold (as it claims) up to 25 layers of pastel. It is also (so it says) suitable for oils and other media. It's not for the faint of heart, or wallet...the pad I bought had 8 sheets and was almost $50! Thank goodness for Dick Blick coupons :)

Anyway...pushing fear that I'd f-up (pardon my pseudo bad language aside) I started with a wash of sepia watercolor to block in the figure, allowing in to flow and drip on the paper. I then used my (very pretty brand new piece of periwinkle chalk - sooooo yummy!) to block in some of the shadows.

I continued to build layers using brown pastel pencils - some deep and cool, other warm and reddish browns, to build up the shapes and depths in the shadows. I tried to leave the high lights fresh and "open".

I tried to not spend too much time on the face, but I did want to give enough information that you got a sense of where he was looking, and I loved all of the variety on his chin and lips and nose - the cool blues, warm browns, deep shadows.

I was also trying to make sure that he was "grounded" - sitting on the ledge of the model stand, leaning against the wall - so I did spend some time building up the shadow shapes around his torso and under his leg.

I loved that I could layer and re-work the Wallis paper. What I have to practice is HOW to effectively layer colors - sometimes if I put brown on top of blue I got a yucky mud, other times it created a great effect. Also, I tried to blot my watercolor with a paper towel, but that left bits of paper towel stuck to the surface. Hopefully I can gently remove those little pieces with a dry brush.

I can't wait to try it again!

New Figure Drawings from the Male Nude.

Another wonderful night of figure drawing yesterday evening! (In case you're wondering, any time I get to draw from the live model and take a break from being a SAHM is a wonderful night of figure drawing!) We started our session with some shorter poses, 5-10 minutes long. My main goal was to capture the sense of scale of the figure and the dramatic shadows being created by the light - I had to skip the details in most places, although I did define the fingers and torso a bit more. This was vine charcoal on pastel paper, with a little bit of charcoal pencil. (I accidentally folded the paper when putting it away - I hate when that happens!)

This was about 30 minutes of drawing, starting with blocking in the large shapes with vine charcoal then slowly defining the shapes with an eraser and then defining further with charcoal pencil. The face was mostly in shadow, so I did not add a lot of detail to his features. I am pretty happy with the masculine "feel" to this piece. My fellow artists and I talked a lot about the line quality in a drawing of a nude male vs. a nude female - we all tend to be a little more geometric, especially with this model whose muscles are very defined, versus soft and organic when drawing a female model.

We set the final pose up against the white wall of the studio, creating a dramatic effect with the overhead lighting. (This is a view off to the side, I was drawing more towards the middle of the room) We asked the model to keep his jeans on for this pose - it seemed to work well, and we could focus on the area of most interest - the back.

I was working on a soft blue pastel paper, and I was trying to find the right combination of grey pastel, blue pastel and black to define the shadows. At the very end I tried to add some additional highlights with white, but I didn't like the white on the blue paper - however I'd still like to push the value range a little further. I might just have to go darker in the shadows instead of lighter in the highlights.

All in all a great night of drawing!

You can see more of my drawings of the male nude in my Etsy shop.

New figure drawings from the male nude model...sharpies, and not so sharpies

I had what I would refer to as a challenging night of figure drawing yesterday! Mike the Model started out with some incredible gesture poses. He recently checked out a book that had a variety of "extreme foreshortening poses" and tried a few out for us last night.



The drawing above was a fifteen minute drawing and I used a thin Sharpie marker on white mat board. I liked the idea that I wouldn't be able to correct my lines by erasing - I'd have to keep going over the lines until I got it right. I like the immediacy of the media and I could get a variety of thickness in the line if I changed the pressure. I'd still like to go back and add more layers and value range.

The second drawing was for an hour and a half (with breaks!) I've done several figure drawings of the same model in the past, and I seem to favor either black and white or grey palettes when drawing. So I forced myself to be more colorful.

I'm particularly fond of this section - I think all of the colors came together very well, and I like the layers of color in the shadows. The background colors may still change...we will see! I shall live with it for a little bit and see what happens!

See more of my figure drawings in my Fine Art on Etsy shop!

Male Nude as a Warrior - Figure Drawing in Graphite

Our figure drawing group in Woodstock was very lucky to have Mike posing for us in military garb on Thursday. He is a very professional model, and you can tell that he treats the job as more than just "standing there" - he actually made a spear to use based on a drawing he saw in a book. He had several props, including a sword and a shield, and a cranberry piece of cloth that he used to tie over his shoulder, giving him the look the he just stepped out of the screen of the movie "300".

And let me tell you - holding this pose was not an easy task. Any one who has ever done Yoga knows that holding a pose is incredible exercise!

I did two graphite sketches from different vantage points. The lighting was great, and he has incredible definition in his torso. This is a plus and a challenge - every breath changes the landscape of his torso, so you have to either catch a moment or combine each lighting change as he breathes.

The pose and costume reminded me of the sketch I did of the soldier on the horse, much like the one my great-grandfather did.

You can tell that Mike is one of my favorite models - more samples of male nude drawings.

The Legend of Floyd, a Nude Figure Model from WNY

Every once in a while I'll think back on certain classes, teachers, models, and fellow artists that I have worked with in the past. One model that has reached "legendary status" is Floyd. He modeled for figure drawing classes at UB and Buffalo state. In fact, if you talked to any art student in Western New York, chances are you could say "have you ever drawn Floyd?" and they would answer "yes!" and an enthusiastic conversation would ensue - his crazy poses, the elaborate stories of his background and how he came to be a figure model, etc.

Floyd was easily in his mid-to-late 60's, and sadly, the first man I ever saw naked in real life. Yes, the scars run deep.

But he was incredible. He had a pose we called "tripod" (get your mind out of the gutter). He would lean back on two hands, and support himself on one leg, while the other leg was up in the air. His butt was lifted off the ground. He could support himself in this suspended position for like 5 minutes. It was crazy.

I'd love to hear from artists in Buffalo and around that area if Floyd is still working the modeling circuit...inspiring future generations of artists...

These drawings all date from 1995-1997 I believe...proof i never throw anything away (much to my hubby's dismay)