Portrait Studies

I have spent my time this year further developing my drawing skills and portrait drawing is a great way to challenge your skills of observation and accuracy of execution. My hope is that this attention to detail will help with all of my drawing.
I have been trying various methods and procedures and will write about that another time.

I have been working from life but so far, these drawings are not ready for public review! By the way, I am in need of models who would like to sit for an hour or so for me and as long as you do not expect a great work of art or even a very good likeness to result, I could really use the practice.

The portraits below have been drawn from photographs. Some of my first attempts  represent only a passing likeness of the subject. I am feeling more confident with the process of portrait drawing and continue to work on accuracy.

 Claire,  8.5 x 11 inches, sanguine

This is one of my latest and actually looks like the model

 model in charcoal 1, 8.5 x 11, charcoal and pastel

 Continuous Ink Line drawing. 8.5 x 11 inches
This is a good likeness of the model. The initial marks were placed a continuous line drawing with the shading added at the end.

 Sanguine and white pastel. 8.5 x 11 inches
I love this sensitive medium and the resulting drawing is lovely although it is not a good likeness of the model.

After the last class

Our last drawing class for this session is over and I hope people enjoyed it as much as I did. The last 4 classes featured drawing demonstrations and lessons by guest artists, Bonny Baker, Peter Smith, Ray Sanford and Cluny Maher. Each of these accomplished artists has a style and approach to drawing that is unique to them. I hope that students are encouraged to seek there own style and develop an approach to drawing that suits their own personality and artistic goals.

I have been inspired by examining the work of other artists (including my students!) and here are some  recent examples from my sketch book.

 These first 2 are little compositional sketches. They are 4 x 4 inches. These are a little larger than my normal thumbnails so they give me more room to experiment within the format.
this is a great way to improve your painting and drawing. It is not about accurate shapes so much as it is about design on a 2 dimensional surface,
Thanks Andi for inadvertently leaving your book behind - I love new art books.

These next 2  are the same drawing at different stages. After watching Cluny's demonstration, I decided to work on this drawing a bit more

 Evans farm 1 ( 5 x 10 inches)

 Evans farm 2 (5 x 10 inches)
 I added a lot more value and detail and used a blending pen to do some of the shading. I had never seen these pens before and they give some interesting results. I think the pen has a mixture of glycerin and rubbing alcohol in it. It makes the graphite act like water soluble pencil. It also "fixes" the graphite so you can't erase but you can add more on top. Thanks for the pens Sheila.

Here are 4 more just for fun - Happy drawing everyone

 Pine (7 x 10 inches)

 Aylesford Farm (7 x 10 inches)

 Stone barn (6 x 10 inches)

2hr parking (7 x 8 inches)

The Eyes Have It

 As part of my own drawing practice I have been working on facial features - the eyes.

 I have drawn pages of eyes

 and more pages of eyes

Here's looking at you

Calendar painting - step by step

"Snow and Blowing Snow" Watercolour, 13.3 x 21.5 inches.

 Painted for the 2014 Sharing the View Calendar. This is a project organized by CBC, Information Morning, Halifax and Sydney Nova Scotia.
All proceeds from calendar sales and the online auction of the 12 original paintings by 12 Nova Scotian artists are donated to Feed Nova Scotia. Calendars go on sale November 15 and the online auction begins. Check out the CBC info morning web site for details.

I am thrilled to be part of this project and thought that i would share some of the process that went into making this painting.

 Drawing number 1 - I am working out the composition

 

Drawing number 2 - this is better

 

Getting ready

 

getting the drawing on the watercolour paper

 

The final outline - ready for paint

 

The first wash

 

starting on the buildings

 

ready for the foreground

 

adjusting the value on the barn 

 

adding the final details and it is done

More Drawing Class

The people in my drawing class are doing a great job and I see so much development!
A big Yahoo for all of you.

This week we examined some of the challenges of working from photographs. These pictures of some of the demonstrations I did during the class, some of the prep work that I did before the class and my home work - the piece that I started during class and took home to finish. I know every one is working on their finished landscape drawing.

The charcoal drawing of Reggie (above) was a demonstration of taking measurements, proportion and sight lines on a photo just the same way I do it when drawing from life. The difference is that the dog sits still in the photo.

This charcoal landscape was done before the class. I did another similar one as a demonstration.

 There are a lot of interesting elements in this photo. I chose to focus on the shadow pattern on the oil tank. The windows and doors are another subject for another drawing.

This is a very charming subject but the values need to be adjusted to make the elements make sense.

Last is my "homework". I got as far as laying in the main value pattern in the class and made some changes and added the details and textures the next day.

Our first drawing class

Sunday was our first drawing class and one of the exercises I asked the class to do is that old chestnut "drawing from an up side down image" to fool yourself into letting go of drawing what you think it is and just drawing what you see. One of the sources I used was a drawing by Hans Holbein the Younger. I made an ink tracing of his drawing for us to work from. I thought you might like to see what the original looked like. It is a lovely, sensitive work in chalk.
Your home work this week is to practice contour drawings and try to do at least 20 minutes practice each day.
Here is my 20 minute sketch made while I waited for an appointment.

2 studio views and a new painting

It is hard to find time to paint this time of year but I am getting back into my studio a couple of times a week - yahoo!

Buoys in red and white ( 10 x 14 inches)

Studio 1

Studio 2