SOLD!

One of my favorite (and most popular images on my Etsy site) sold at the Grand Opening of Heartworks' and Roomscapes new location! I was excited about the sale...thrilled it was going to a friend of mine who was buying it as a gift ...but more excited about the new gallery and studio space! Congrats Debbie and Shawn...it's a beautiful space!

Figure Drawing Techniques...My Favorite Backgound

So I drew from the lovely Miss Stephanie at Shane's studio last night. I only lasted until 9:30 - I was so tired! But I got a nice drawing done. She had a classic pose with warm overhead lighting. I had another piece of this great neutral tan mat board, and I love this color. Depending on what colors you use, it can be either a warm or a cool tan - so blues and oranges look great on it.

I started the drawing by blocking in areas of color, trying to get the general layout - making sure the whole figure was going to fit on the page.

I then went over the Nupastel with charcoal pencils to define the figue. I worked both the light and shadow at the same time.

Great pose...great model...wish I was more awake!!!

Figure Drawing Techniques...Dividing the Page

Last Thursday night we drew from the lovely miss Stephanie...she has been a wonderful model for me - several of the paintings in my shop are of Stephanie. She has a fabulous, curvacious figure that creates beautiful forms.

I wanted to do something a little different, so before she took her pose I divided a large piece of watercolor paper into squares.

Then, when I was drawing, I moved around Stephanie and drew from several different angles. Sometimes I would use several squares for one view, other times just one small square.

I only shaded the first couple of drawings - after I filled in a few squares, I had the feeling that just the line was going to be necessary for my next step (painting over the drawing) so I stopped shading.


Well even though only Arianna slept today I got to start painting while Jack was playing in the back yard. I started with a little watercolor, just to get some color on the surface. I also used a clear glaze in a few areas where I wanted to save the line quality of the initial drawing. Then I started to paint, using blue painters' tape to work each square individually, even if the drawing was larger than one square.

Anyway, it's just the beginning, but I like it so far!

Where it all began...I think...

I knew it still existed!!! A couple of moths ago I did an interview on another blog and the question was asked "when did you know you wanted to be an artist?" and I could remember a book report from a long time ago that I made for on a book about a bunny - I loved it because my mom suggested coffee grounds for the dirt! How cool is that!

Well I told my mom about the interview and I said I KNOW that book report still exists - if you find it, please send it to me!

Well, she found it and sent it! And it is just as cute and fun as I remember it. It's dated October of 1984...oh my goodness that's 24 years ago!!! Well now I feel old...but cheery at the same time! It's so much fun to look at an old project...and to think about the excitement of putting it together, and the first instance of "thinking outside the box"...coffee grounds...that made a huge impact on me!!!

Here's that interview...

http://etsyspotlighton.blogspot.com/2008/08/krystyna-81.html

Cherokee Tribune Article

Here's Jack holding the paper with the article...it was a small but quality crowd for the lecture (Thank you to Woodstock's mayor for attending!) but it's hard to compete with College football in Georgia...the Dogs were playing at 12:30!

It was really great to put the lecture together - it gave me a reason to revisit some of my old papers on my art that I wrote in Graduate school, and sometimes looking back can be helpful. It refreshed my memory regarding some of my main goals as an artist. Of course, one goal in general is to improve my drawing and painting skills. But a goal that I set for myself back in Graduate school was to make sure that what I was creating was INTERESTING to the viewer - not just the subject matter, because that can only take you so far. But my desire to make the paint itself - color, texture, application - interesting enough so that beyond just looking nice, the viewer wants to look at it again and again.

Cherokee Tribune Article - me, my art and my kids!

http://www.cherokeetribune.com/content/index/showcontentitem/area/9/section/29/item/120727.html

Very exciting!!!! I'm giving a lecture in downtown Woodstock ths Saturday and here is the newspaper article about me and my work!

Figure Drawing Techniques...lighting and props

The last couple of drawing sessions have been male models, and I think I make "moodier" work when I'm drawing from the male model - the shadows and the poses always turn out to me dramatic than the female drawings.

What a treat last night! Our model was new to me - James - but he has modeled for many years - and he was probably one of the top 3 models I've worked with in the last 15 years. The poses! My goodness! When we were finished with gesture drawing I was actually sweating! He did some incredible poses - kinda like my other favorite Mike - who is also a human pretzel!

The standing pose was lit from above and below, which gave some great highlights on his head (love drawing a shaved head!) and on the thigh.

The more compact (human pretzel) pose was very challenging. I actually like the parts I worked on the least - the entire right side of the drawing. I think I got too tight on the left side. Maybe I'll play around with it a bit more and try to resolve the arm and his face.

Both of these were drawn on gessoed masonite board - an awesome surface because you can rework the charcoal again and again (I like to gesso it myself - the machine rolled gessoed boards are too slick)

The final drawing is from last Thursday night - Gord is contemplating a skull. I don't know what is about the male models...I get a little dramatic!