…mostly

I think this one is about done. Finished the brush blending and overall tone balancing, and I’m feeling pretty good about it. There remains the issue of the large open spaces of the quadriceps area and the peroneus/extensors area of the lower leg, and if I have a wave of bravery, maybe I’ll lay down [...]

Kind of sad how the last picture you take with your old camera is a picture of your new camera.

So today I got my new Nikon D5000, and retired the Canon PowerShot IS3, which served me faithfully for about 4 years. I think. Seems like every new camera costs about $1000 by the time you [...]

(…for now)

This one was supposed to be a quick study, but it took on a bit of a life of its own. It’s not what I’m planning for the larger piece, but I do like it. Black and white charcoal on blue paper, 13″ x 10″.

I’m planning a few more of these studies, working out [...]

I remembered my white pencil tonight. Still burning through the Strathmore velvet gray paper left over from Head Drawing at AAU.

All on one sheet: a few gestures, a 10, a 30, and a 45. Should be pretty obvious which is which. I got a little too ambitious with the 45 and couldn’t finish it – [...]

I used to think that people who said you had to see paintings in person to really get them were just snobs who wanted to flaunt their glamorous travel stories.

Maybe some are, but after seeing the Waterhouse exhibit in Montreal, I get it. Twelve hours of frequently harrowing driving for six hours of viewing time, [...]

Work in progress, a drawing of my favorite model. This is actually a procedural study for a larger piece; I like this blue paper and the black and white charcoal, and I’m trying out the concept of using a bristle brush to smooth the initial charcoal layers for tone, and then going back over with [...]

Firmly into study of the whole leg now, from the pelvis down. Tonight’s model happened to be a young lady with an athletic build, which is always a nice bonus when looking for specific anatomical features. You can’t see the ilio-tibial band on just anybody.

I think the legs might have been the most successful drawing [...]

13″x10″, black and white charcoal on blue Canson mi-tintes paper.

Trying something new on this plate: rather than blending with a stump or a chamois, I’m using a hogshair brush to blend the strokes of charcoal. It’s a gentler process and it’s a bit easier to control than a chamois and less destructive than a stump, but it does take immense patience. It takes a [...]

Today was a rough day. But we had a decent life drawing session, at least.

Just did legs during the gestures, posting some notes I need to get back to (like how far above the knee do the vastus lateralus and the iliotibial band separate?). Then a 10-minute pose which I felt was one of my [...]