New MFA Preparing Author-Artists of Graphic Novels and More

An MFA program worth learning more about if you are interested in studying this sort of thing.

The website says: "This is a two-year residential program, launching in fall 2019. Graduates of the program will be prepared to work as author-artists of graphic novels and picture books, professors of illustration, critical writers on popular culture, and curatorial staff in museums, libraries, and auction houses."

Just thought I'd pass it along in case anyone was interested, as it sounds REALLY cool.

Dutchie Nap

Both of my Dutch Shepherds are hard core nap-takers.

This is a quick scribble of Nik.

I started with the contour, then added the text, fully intending to add more detail and some more journaling.

But then I looked at it and thought, stop.

A nap needs some quiet space around it.

The Design class I am working in with Roz Stendahl is helping me see white space and margins much more clearly.

Working with a Plaster Venus Part Two

In my summer painting class, I did more work with the plaster Venus.  My goal was to work fast and scribbly, capturing shadow shapes.

I also played with different media, just for fun (and because my teacher said I could!).

So, first, I used some scrap kraft paper and a bright red pastel chalk.   The black line you see is something someone had started and abandoned.    I did this portrait and thought it was done.

However, my teacher suggested it would be stronger with white highlights on the face.  So I started using a piece of white chalk over the eyebrow and across the cheekbone.

He wanted me to try smudging titanium white acrylic paint on it, though, just to see what the effect would be.  So I did, because, hey, that's what scribbling is all about!  Give something a try!

You'll see below the difference in value in the white paint on mid-forehead, nose, lip and chin versus the white chalk above and below the eye.

I'm glad he pushed me to try both and learn the differences.

Next, I switched to a more fuschia chalk and tried a similar drawing on a different paper--a white Strathmore 400 drawing pad.

Super interesting to work on the mid-value kraft and then a pretty white paper.  Also interesting to see how the different textures of the paper made the chalk look so different.

I did another quick scribble on the drawing paper.  This time I used two chalks, one much darker, so that the fuschia became the middle value.

(These are 18 x 24, by the way, and completed in under five minutes each. I really was just experimenting with papers, media, contour and value.)  

After that, I decided to return to my favorite scribbling tools:  fountain pen, waterproof ink, and watercolor.  I think this is Daniel Smith sepia, which is a great paint for monochrome work because it mixes to so many different values.  This is on a piece of rough watercolor paper, about 4 x 6 in size.  

I worked more slowly on this piece--I think it took me as much time to think through and execute than all of the above combined.

Then, for fun, a final piece of work with the plaster cast.  This time, using only a brush and watercolor paint, I did the figure at a different scale.  I thought a bit about design (using columns and the rule of thirds, considering background color blocks and playing with freehand lettering).  For this, I really was just having fun.

What fun to tackle the same subject with so many different scribbling tools!  I had the luxury of a class and could do this work pretty much in one sitting.  That takes some stamina, but it also builds momentum and really allows me to compare and contrast my experience with the different art supplies. 

Still, doing a series like this over time would be interesting as well.

Working with a Skeleton

As part of my July watercolor class, I had the wonderful experience of working with a skeleton for the first time.  He or she (no one in the class knew or could tell) could be posed, so the instructor had him/her sitting in a chair up on a riser so that the ribs were about even with my head.

That led to the interesting angle of having to draw the skull from below.

Since the subject felt so complicated and strange, I added a bit of comfort to my experience by drawing contours first with a Pentel Pocket Brush pen.  The upper scribble here resulted from my first attempt.  The lower was my second.

You can see that in the first one I attempted to show some shading with the brush pen but it wasn't working for me that day.  I didn't have the patience.  So I mixed a lovely gray watercolor and went in with that.  Much better.

Also, I enjoyed seeing how much the second attempt improved!  A reminder that whenever learning a new skill, I shouldn't judge myself on a first attempt.  Or probably any single attempt, as a bad day, or a bad drawing, can happen at any time!

You would think at fifty-three years of age I'd have learned this by now.  I know that it is true.  But why do I need constant reminders?

Anyhow, I tackled it again with a dip pen and some purple ink, just to see how I could do with the shading, now that I felt a bit more comfortable with the subject.

I tried it again a few days later, with some new Daniel Smith sepia watercolor.  My goals here were to test out the new color as a monochrome paint, work with the skeleton some more, try out some new rough surface watercolor paper I had purchased, and attempt to draw shapes instead of contours.

I did three drawings on one piece of the paper.  You could probably guess that the upper left came first, then the upper right, then the lower sketch.  Each one gets better with the structure and the shadow shapes.

I really like this page, this set of sketches, because it shows the progress that can be made in just one hour (or so) of trying, then trying again, then trying again.  I think I might frame it just to use it as an example for my creative writing students.  

Next session, I decided to try the sepia paint (which I completely love for monochrome work!!) and do a "heroic" study--a painting of the skull bigger than life.  Again, I wanted to try to represent shadow shapes and volume instead of starting with contours (like I do when I sketch with pen).  This is on 18 x 24 Strathmore 400 watercolor paper.

I am super pleased with the results of this.

My last work with the skeleton is a piece that took me several days.  I took a photo of him/her sitting in the chair in the art studio.  The walls behind are gridded with artwork by former students.  I wanted to play with color and big shapes and aim for a sketchy, scribbly feel and just see what happened.   This is on 22 x 30 rough paper. 

Okay, that was a lot of fun!  And super hard.  The ribs and the grid on the wall came pretty easily, mirroring each other, I thought.  But holy cow I couldn't render the skull to my satisfaction.  Not nearly as well as I had in earlier sketches.  Like I said, no matter where you are in the process, there's always the bad day or the bad drawing.

So, while parts of this piece are overworked (because, frankly, I just wiped down and started again on that skull, knowing it would end up murky, but attempting to learn something from the practice), I like the colors and lines and general composition.  And I really like the idea.  I may try to do it again some time in the future.

I wonder if I can gain access to this or another skeleton if I'm not in a class?  I have to investigate that.  If you've never drawn from a skeleton, or even just a skull, I recommend it.  The subtleties amazed me!

And once again, scribbling has led me to a new appreciation of all the beauty that is around--and within--us!

Back to Going Big with Watercolor

As part of my July "Going Big" watercolor class, I decided to try a portrait of my Dutch Shepherd, Nikolaas.

I sketch him all the time, as you've seen if you read this blog, so I am familiar with the subject!  However, in this case, instead of working from life, I worked from a photo.

This is on 18 x 24 Strathmore 400 watercolor paper, with Daniel Smith paints.

First I sketched the main shapes in lightly with pencil.

Then I washed in the spots of quinacridone gold.  While that was still wet, I started the blue wash, because I wanted the colors to blend at the edges.

Still, I wound up with many harder edges than I had anticipated.  Probably I didn't soak the paper adequately before I started!  Live and learn!

Because of the strong cast of sunlight on the right and the strong shadow on the left, I planned from the start to only detail one of his eyes.  However, I couldn't get it placed right, not in the initial drawing or the initial washes.  I measured and measured, but it just didn't come out right.

I did this working in a tiny space, actually.  Just a portion of the table at my friends' house during our weekly Open Studio.  Best part of my week.

After I got home and things dried completely, I went back in with some glazing to darken the darks and warm up some of the gold.

I think I only used four colors in this work--quin gold, indanthrone blue, burnt sienna, and a second blue--maybe phthalo?--for his bright blue tag (and a bit of variation in the lake.

After spending so much time working with the flat photograph (which I think probably was what stymied me about the placement of that eye), I grabbed my trusty brush pen and journal and went outside to scribble Nik from life, while he played with his ball on a hot day.

I want to bring some of this scribbly liveliness into my bigger work!!

The Big Beet--The Going Big Project Part 1

First up in my July watercolor studio class:  fruits and vegetables.  Our choice.

Farmers' Market is going great guns here in Michigan right now, so I trolled all the available goodies and decided on some beets of various colors.  I liked the roots, the greens, the deep colors.

I go into this painting class knowing that I have trouble getting deep colors, with the level of contrast that I like.  So these seemed like a good subject.

I reminded myself of my three goals:

1. Go Big
2. Don't lose my sketchbook style
3. Let the watercolor do more of the work for me

First thing, to warm up, I sketched a golden beet in my sketchbook.  I'm working in a Strathmore mixed media 500 book right now.

I'm pleased with how this sketch turned out, with a sense of the roundness of the root and the layers of the various leaves coming off of it. 

I also discovered the Daniel Smith quinacridone gold is one of my new favorite colors!  You see it here throughout, but most clearly in the top of the beet.

Next, for fun, I tried the same beet again, on a super rough watercolor paper from India.

Exact same colors and brushes.  Very interesting how the color settles in the pockets of the paper and creates a more mottled effect.  Plus, scanning the paper throws all kinds of weird shadows (that's why it looks gray speckled in the scan above).  

Finally, I felt warmed up enough to tackled the beets!  ALL THE BEETS!!!  PLUS GREENS!!!!

ON BIG PAPER!!!!!!!

So here is my Go Big version of the beets, on 18 x 24 Strathmore 400 watercolor paper.

And for fun, here's a final shot of the beets and all three of my versions, done in about three hours.

I moved pretty fast, as you can imagine, to get these done (along with chatting and drinking coffee with my colleagues) in three hours.

I think, however, that's part of my sketchbook style.  I like to move quickly most of the time.  Sometimes, yeah, I like to sit and really draw something measured and detailed.  But most of the time, I'm more interested in fast lines, with some level of accuracy, that capture and convey what I'm noticing.

And hey!  Look, ma!  No pen!  No pencil either, actually.  I went right onto the paper in all three of these directly with paint on my brush.  I'm not sure if I'm letting the watercolor do more of the work for me, yet.  I think it's more like now I'm drawing with paint instead of pen.  But I did remember to allow the washes to bleed and blend, particularly on the beets themselves.

Super fun.  Looking forward to drawing more beets soon.  And maybe some other fruits and vegetables!

Going Big with Watercolor

Making the transition from small and private to so big it really can't be private can be a scary thing.

A friend suggested I sit in on a watercolor studio class, and having gone once and talked to the artist in charge, I'm going back during the month of July.  Three hours a day, Monday through Friday for four weeks.

He generously looked through several of my sketchbooks and said many lovely things.  Then told me he wanted me to work on three things in particular:

1.  Going big.  Bigger than any of my sketchbooks, for sure, but better, at least 18 x 24.

2.  Not losing my sketchbook style when I go big.  Whatever that means...

3.  "Letting the watercolor do more of the work for you."  Whatever that means....

But that's why I'm going to take the studio!  To learn!

So, I went home, dug out an 18 x 24 Strathmore 400 watercolor paper pad, and worked on a painting.  I wanted to keep my sketchbook style (or try) so I started off the bat with my trusty fountain pen.  Then I went in with the watercolors.  Many many many layers of watercolors, to get the values the way I wanted them.

This took me about five hours.  

I worked from a photo I took when I visited Ireland some years ago.

That was particularly fun because I've dedicated my scribbling to live subjects for the last two plus years, so I haven't worked from the many many wonderful photographs I have from travels and even from around my home.  I feel like there is a treasure trove there waiting to be used.

I'm pretty pleased with it, especially as a first shot at creating something that big.  I can see that the work I've done is really paying off.

So, for the next few weeks, prepare to journey with me in the "Going Big" painting project.  Not sure what's in store... but it will be big.

Understanding Shadows at Home

Today I drew at home again.  I wanted to try two very different things in one session, to experience the juxtaposition.  

Here they are:

So first (#1 and #2)--just scribbling with the fineliner.  Human on couch, followed by dog on other end of couch (because if a person is on the couch, a dog is also on the couch).

I feel that the pen drawing of the person is the first ACCURATE portrayal I have done.  Of anyone.  Ever.  So THAT is a huge huge leap forward for me.  Thanks to the many classes I have taken through Sketchbook Skool and with Roz Stendahl and Carla Sonheim.

The dog drawing failed around the head--it does not resemble Nik at all--but what I really like about it--and did capture--is the funny position of all four of his feet.  So, I consider the drawing a success.

The gouache painting below is my first attempt at color (beyond monochromatic) in a long time.  I confess, I was nervous to use it!  I started with the fineliner sketch of Tim.  He is the only non-black animal in the house.  I cartoon him a lot, but don't do super well ever actually getting a "from life" rendering of him.

So I am THRILLED with these sketch pages, because the central image looks like him!  And here is how that happened.  First, slow.  Checking angles and plumblines.  And every time he moved, I either worked on a gesture elsewhere on the page or just waited for him to return to the first pose.   I didn't declare that all was lost when he moved and just quit (which is exactly what I would have done six months ago).  I paid really close attention to the stripes on his face and body.  And I used only three colors of gouache and spent time mixing them for what I needed--remembering how to use indigo to neutralize.

Anyhow, one thing I want to continue to work on on (or with) is color.   In this painting, the ochre is a little too sharp, so I'd like to paint Tim again sometime and work on the coloring accuracy.  I do feel like I was able to catch volume and depict the parts of his body decently--maybe not as well as I would like but surely better than a few weeks ago!

And I need to learn more to understand shading.  Shadow.  The more I learn, the quicker and more loose my work can be.

I very much enjoyed another session of drawing the creatures I live with.  We all spend time with the beings we live with, but how often do we sit quietly and really look at them?  Pay attention to them?  Appreciate seeing them?

It is a delightful experience!

This post comes from work I did in a class with Roz Stendahl, Drawing Practice:  Drawing Live Subjects in Public.  I recommend it!

Monochrome Painting and Turtles

Recently, I treated myself to two specific colors of Daniel Smith paint to us to practice monochromatic painting.  The two, Indanthrone Blue and Burnt Sienna, stand out to Roz Stendahl as terrific complements for doing a wide variety of natural objects.  You can mix to warm or cool.  You can achieve a variety of neutrals.

I plopped a little bit of each into a tiny palette, grabbed my Strathmore 500 mixed media journal and a waterbrush, a Pitt Calligraphy pen, and a Prismacolor indigo colored pencil, and headed to my local public library's Turtle Tank.

I realized that though I have sketched people in public and taxidermy in public, and my own moving dogs, I hadn't actually sketched a moving animal out in public.  I did a frog a week or so ago, but he was reliably stationary.

Turtles seemed a good choice. Turtles.  Mobile but slow.  Right?

Not so much.  

I got there and plopped right down on the floor (the tank is at toddler eye-level).  The turtles were swimming, so I watched for a minute or so waiting for them to, you know, SLOW DOWN.

There was no slowing down these turtles. 

The voice in my head popped right up:  They are moving too fast; you will never be able to get anything down unless you resort to drawing what you imagine, not what you see.

It's okay, I thought.  I'm just scribbling.  If all else fails I will practice with the two colors and enjoy the turtles!

I watched and waited, because animals often return to the same positions and angles.  The proved true with the turtles and I was able to get some accurate and interesting observations, and I rendered them in a way that's meaningful to me too!

Here are the results:

I started with light colored pencil.  Then went to watercolor. When I used the black pen, it was over the watercolor to restate some lines I wanted to remember.

It was fun experimenting with the two colors.  I wanted to see what they were and what they did, so can see in the pages that I didn't just use a straight mixed monochrome, but let the blue and the burnt sienna shine through here and there.  Not true to the turtle's colors, but I'm okay with that.  I was looking for shape, angles, value, and proportion.  I need more work with the colors in the next few days.

Side note:  I have a personal belief in always introducing interested kids to my passions:  dogs, comics, and drawing.  Because I was in the little kids' area of the library, I had several small people come up to check out the drawings.  I was able to talk to them and keep drawing.  It added to my enjoyment of the whole thing.

What I particularly like is the middle sketch on the left side of the spread.  That's one where I looked down and thought, "GOT IT!"  Then I stopped touching it immediately!

I am also glad I kept going and really had an experience--my first!--drawing a fast moving animal, and not giving up!

I look forward to more experience with the watercolors and with direct brush sketching.

This post comes from work I did in a class with Roz Stendahl, Drawing Practice:  Drawing Live Subjects in Public.  I recommend it!

From Gesture to Contour and Back Again

More notes from the front lines of Roz Stendahl's "Drawing Practice: Drawing Live Subjects in Public" class...

After three days of intensive focus on fast gesture drawing, Rox had us switch to slow contour drawing.  I thought, no problem.  I've been practicing contour drawing for over two years now.

Yeah, well, not with the impact of gesture drawing behind it.

I loved the sense of volume and energy I got from my gestures!  I didn't want to give it up for contours, which suddenly feel stiff and a little cold to me.

How to think about gesture--energy, shape, volume--and still follow contour?

One of my classmates made the terrific observation that this is all a bit like learning a foreign language, and having to consciously translate into new syntax all the time.

Yeah, it is like that.

Roz encourages us to use detailed, made to scale, plastic toy animals, or taxidermied animals, to practice learning animal anatomy on something that doesn't move.  Then we should be better suited to draw live animals when the time comes.

Following her example, I "adopted" several such toys.  Below you'll see my work with Trike, my triceratops.  First, a gesture, then a blind contour, then some modified contours in different positions.  Finally, a study of negative space.  I used my Lamy fountain pen with an EF nib for these.

We are supposed to draw live subjects out in public as frequently as possible too.  And for contour drawing, which is slow and concentrated, coffee shops and waiting rooms are the best.  People are generally preoccupied and fairly stationary.

When you adopt scribbling as a habit, you never get bored in a waiting room!

Plus, when I do pages like the ones above, I find myself wondering about the people as I draw them.  Who are they?  What are they thinking about?  What passions and struggles to they carry as they sit here, waiting to see a doctor or waiting for an oil change or waiting to get their new driver's license photo taken?

I like how creating these sketches brings me more awareness of the strangers whose paths cross my own.

Also, perhaps obviously, I had pre-painted those pages, just to add a little random color for my sketching.  I don't always like practicing on just white.

As another shot at practicing contours on live subjects in public, I attended a local musical showcase.  Here a different artist or group sang every song.  So I got a relatively stationary subject for a few minutes, and then a new subject.  It was a challenge to move slowly, stick only to outlines, and capture a bit of each performer.  Just one of the pages I produced during the two-hour concert appears below.  Here I am using a .03 fineliner waterproof ink pen.

I combined contour with gesture in some places.  For instance, I used gesture to capture the choir in the middle, but contour for everything else on the above page.  I liked understanding the different qualities of each and being able to choose which to use in which situation.

The "aha" of finally getting what gesture is and why it matters finally clicked as I chose it, or chose not to use it.

I think I heard the music better because I was drawing.  I certainly felt completely lost in each performance.

Daily Gestures and Really Looking

Last week I started the "Drawing Practice: Drawing Live Subjects in Public" class with Roz Stendahl.   Wow!  I urge everyone to consider taking this class when she offers it again in 2017.  The quality and quantity of Roz's instruction, both prepared and personalized, is astonishing.  Worth every penny already, and I'm only six days into the month-long class.

Our first days we filled with gesture drawings.  I've done these before, of course, and never really saw the advantage of them.  But boy, I get it now.

The goal is not pretty pictures.  The goal is to use your hand on paper to explore the volume of the subject.

This makes my brain hurt.  To explore 3D volume from eyes, to brain, down arm, into hand, through a pen, onto paper in 2D.

But then I stopped thinking about it and just looked and let my pen move.

As the days went on and I practiced, I got messier, more exploratory, and produced gestures which, for me, helped me learn the subjects.  Below are a few pages in the order I did them.  All of them feature my Dutch Shephers, Nik and Nora.

These first ones I did with a brush pen that I bought on a whim.  Didn't like it--it was very smeary.  I know all brush pens are not like this--I love my Pentel Pocket Brush Pen, so soon I'll go back to that.

A sleeping dog felt like a safe start for practicing this new, exploratory technique.

You can see that in these first three I was still focusing largely on contours or outlines, which is what I've been practicing for the last two years!!  So this is a big shift for me.

Roz suggested to many of us that we really focus on shapes and volume, not outlines or edges.  And she charged me specifically to go out the next day and draw my dogs playing.

This freaked me out!

Only the second day of this class and I have to try to draw my dogs IN MOTION??  No way.

But I'm nothing if I am not an obedient and conscientious student, so I tried it.

Not pretty pages, right?  That's the goal, right?  Actually, I reminded myself, the goal is to explore the form--seeing to page.  And yes, these scribbles helped me start to "feel" the dogs.  You can see partials.  You can see postures.   You can also see the pen smearing.  

I switched to a dark colored pencil. Here I looked more at the internal forms and even though they were moving fast, I could catch them. 

Actually, I was quite surprised at my progress.  In two days!  I would never have attempted it if Roz hadn't pushed me.

So, after just a few days of drawing, I already feel newness opening up in me.

And I feel myself seeing new things, new aspects, of something I look at a LOT every single day:  my dogs.

Just because I am drawing them in a new way.

Okay, I knew this.  Beginner mind shows us new things all the time.

Meaning and Ritual, Drawing Every Day

I have begun a wonderful intensive course called "Drawing Practice:  Drawing Live Subjects in Public" with Roz Stendahl.

As Roz says, "In this class I will introduce you to drawing exercises and approaches that develop the skills necessary to work quickly and accurately while sketching live subjects in public."

We have daily homework.  Weekly sketchouts.  Special supplies.

I first "met" Roz and her terrific approach to drawing, learning, teaching and life through the "Beginnings" course on Sketchbook Skool, which you can still take if you're interested.  I recommend it!

I have spent many hours reading her amazing blog Roz Wound Up.  I am grateful for her knowledge on everything from chickens to toy dinosaurs to staying safe out in public to the difference in Pentel brush pens... and on... and on...

Anyhow, I look forward to sharing the work of this class here.  I will do it on a bit of a delay, so I can think about things before I share them.

 I already know that it will be so much more than "just" drawing.  Before the course even started Roz asked to think about goals and the blocks to our goals, especially the sneaky stealth Ninja moves our our internal critics.

What does it mean to want to see more clearly, and create art that captures what you see and shares it with others?  

What does it mean to be "good" at doing that?

Does it matter if you aren't good at the sharing with others part?  Why?  So what?

These are the questions I had begun thinking seriously about before the class even started on February 1.  Interesting questions which I deal with all the time as a creative writer and teacher of creative writing.  But I've never really thought of it much in terms of my drawing practice before.  What's the shift--in drawing--between wanting to capture things for myself and wanting to create an experience for my "readers"?  

Lots to think about there...

Anyhow, to get myself rolling before the class started, I headed to the local Barnes and Nbole Starbucks and drew some folks.   Fountain pen on tomoe river paper, color added with Koi watercolor pens.

Each of these took less than five minutes apiece.  My goal was to try to capture a bit about the personality of each person, how they interacted with the reading material they had in front of them as well as with the persons accompanying them.

How do I respond to competing input?  It sure happens a lot:  someone is talking to me, a phone is ringing, a text is beeping, the TV is blaring, a cat is knocking something off a shelf...  

When and how can I capture moments without so much input?  Do I spend those moments alone or with someone?

How you spend your moments is how you spend your life, right?  I read something like that recently.  Bumper sticker wisdom, in a way, but it does make some sense.

Well, for the next month, I'll be spending a lot of moments intensely engaged in and reflecting on my own drawing practice.  I look forward to sharing what I learn.

Characters Emerge from Blobs

In the last few weeks, when I've had a minute or so, I paint a blob shape on some paper, and then try to make a face out of it.

This is a little game I learned from Carla Sonheim, whose website and books and online courses I highly recommend, particularly for sparking the imagination!

What I particularly like about this at this point in my life is this:  as a novelist, I am working on developing a new writing project.  I'm at the very beginning.  The blank slate stage.  I have some vague ideas.

But what I need are characters.  People who want things, and want them badly, for very good reasons, but who can't get what they want (or need) for a variety of challenging reasons.

So, this little blob imaginary people exercise helps me think about that.  The people appear in the blobs.  Or, more accurately, the characters who are already floating around in my imagination manage to find a way to consciousness through the blobs.

I've already had fun inventing stories about a few of them.

These four seem to go together in some sort of romantic comedy... that involves politically correct food.  Don't ask me why...

They do all seem rather grim in these sketches, don't they?  But somehow, their super seriousness is what them seem like they needed to be in a rom com.   Who knows?  Maybe an ongoing comic strip?  THAT would be fun!

This next batch generally seem a bit more pleased with life.  Should they be in a separate story?  Do they belong with the first group?

I don't know much yet about who any of these characters are, but I'm glad to have captured them.  I've taken notes in my journal about the story ideas they've inspired.  Maybe, just maybe, they'll help me work on my next stories!

Check Out "A Christmas Karol" from Sketchbook Skool

It's no secret that I love the whole vibe and tribe over at Sketchbook Skool.  I've taken every klass from the start, and can't wait for the next one starting January 15, 2016.

Because it was so  clever, I thought I'd share with you their recent Christmas video.

"I come to bring you a warning about what will happen if you don't draw..."

Happy holidays!!  Maybe I'll see you in Skool!  You can find out more at www.sketchbookskool.comwww.sketchbookskool.com.

First Experience with a Nude Model

I had never drawn from a live nude model before so I didn't know what to expect from the experience. What would it feel like to be in a room with a totally naked person?  What would it be like to draw a totally naked person?

Honestly, it was no different than drawing anything else. I looked so hard and worked so hard and got so completely lost in he work that I forgot about the presence of any nakedness. 

We did some quick gestures and some longer drawings.   

Yes, our model practiced yoga. 

I very much enjoyed the fast gestures.  I feel like they have an energy that's true.  Real scribbling.  Real spirit.

When I work on longer poses, I feel like I get lost in the details.  I guess this is because of all my sketching in the last two years.  I'm used to emphasizing lines.  Tones just stymie me (at least so far).  

I really like that last one. The energy again--I don't really know how to describe it but I feel like I can see how I felt when I drew it. 

I can't wait to carry some of these new techniques on other subjects soon.