Anatomy homework

Two charcoal drawings for anatomy class

Herakles

Just a little somethin' somethin' I did at the Met today whilst chatting and drawing along with fellow artist Dana Kotler.  May return next week to iron out some of the anatomy.

Anatomy homework

Used Nitram brand charcoal on the bottom two pages.  It was recommended to me by Stephen Perkins and I must say it does not disappoint.  It's nice and soft, doesn't stain the paper as much, and it's easier to push around.

hurray for homework

Today's batch of figure studio drawings.  

MORE homework and my favorite charcoal piece

Above was this past week's homework.

This week's exercise for figure studio

Last week's Head Drawing homework.

Best 20 minute charcoal I've ever done from life (in my opinion).  

Some homework

It's been a while since i've updated the blog, and I apologize since I've been doing surprisingly well this year.  Tomorrow after open studio I'll post some of the drawings I've done in the last couple weeks.  For now, here's some homework.

The above 3 are for anatomy class with Stephen Perkins.  Reacquainting myself with charcoal and slowly learning to love it, despite all my bitching and griping.  I'm still working on some compositional sketches for a large multi-figure painting that's our semester long project.  I'm thinking about 5 feet, maybe 15-20 figures :)

Above drawing is for Head Drawing with William Maughan, along with a close up.  So far he's incredible and gives the most thorough feedback I've ever received.  Just three weeks in and I'm learning to enjoy this pastel stuff.

Gouache Pish Posh

This semester I was subjected to the fear and terror of learning a very foreign, unforgiving, and completely counter-intuitive new medium: gouache.  I had only ever used gouache once before, and it was before I even understood that paint can in fact enhance a drawing.  So for this color theory class our medium of choice was gouache... and man was it difficult.  My early assignments look like an undergrad freshman made em, but I'm rather proud of my recent string of paintings.  The majority of what we produced were color charts and studies to understand light and temperature, but when we actually painted things, results were not so bad.  Here are some of my favorite ones:

The color isn't good in some of these as we have to mail the pages in for mid-term and finals.  The landscape assignment allowed for a freer, more painterly application which worked better for me.  Having tremors doesn't really make painting in tiny geometric shapes and patterns, like for the portraits, very comfortable and I'd find myself with wicked wrist cramps after three hours.  But yes, here is some of my progress.  I'm working on my final now which is a mandala.  I'll post that next week or so.

Limes are fun to paint

Because my blog has basically been ignored and unloved like an unwanted bastard child of Winterfell, I'm making it up by posting another painting from class.  This was project 2 and also one of the most fun still life paintings I've ever worked on.  As my post title suggests, that lime was very fun to work on.  Initially it went bad and turned an acidy yellow brown on me whilst I slaved away at those damned ellipses, but once I bought and sliced a new one it was delightful to paint :)

On the easel and on the wall...

After fighting off the ravenous hordes of undead flesh eating vermin; journeying across various planes of existence to stop my unknown arch nemesis who only wishes to thwart my daily plans; looking in the face of a disheartened young woman who has experienced inexplicable horrors that she keeps to herself; and finally ending on a high note as I felt the cool wind in my hair as I flew up into the air as the first person to fly with non-ass burning rocket propulsion (think about the real-world consequences of wearing a jet-pack)... I woke up from a really wicked nap to start writing this blog entry before I had to teach my last class in Rahway.

First painting is Project 4 for my still-life class.  It's blocked in and ready to be tackled head-on with gusto and bravura.

Check out my sweet palette!

Second is a small drawing I did of a model I had the pleasure of working with about a month and change ago, Jessica.

Lastly is a painting I have on the wall of the same model.  It's being painted on Claessen's C13 linen, or as I like to think of it "the preferred painting surface of God, Buddha, Thor, Zoroaster, and Wizard Mickey Mouse."

This painting has a ways to go, but it's about halfway done now.  There's a couple other painting ideas I'll be working on after this semester is over.  Until then, I leave you with a blue chicken

homework paintings

Here are my first two paintings of pride for Still Life class.  Something is happening in my technique, and I'm liking it.

The vanitas one isn't the best quality photo, so I'll have to reshoot it eventually, but it has some areas of yumminess that need to be viewed in person.  I'll try shooting some close-ups that do it justice, especially on the skull itself.  The painting began on the pomegranate and worked its way counter clockwise almost.  I basically worked around so I could finish on the skull because, well come on now... its a freakin' skull!  In hindsight I regret using plastic fruits, and I guess in the grand scheme of learning I know now to just buy the real things and paint them.

The next one is more of an alla prima approach, which is what the weekly assignments pretty much demand.  My handling is getting better and I'm beginning to hit color notes quicker and with more economy.

This week's assignment is centered around painting glass.  When I finish that bad larry I'll post it on here as it is turning out quite nice.  Now time to finish my philosophy homework :)