Drawing Class, Spring 2016

A couple of drawings from Life Drawing this term:

Thing I like - I caught a little of the feeling of the light. Thing I don't like - at first she looked like a certain orange presidential candidate, but I managed to lose that.

 

 

Thing I like - the lights and darks, and the feeling of movement.  Thing I don't like - the hand.  I don't seem to be very good at hands.

Nina Johansson drawing year

http://bogglemymind.tumblr.com/

If anyone has not had a chance to look at Nina's tumblr where she drew every day in a 2015 calendar book, check it out at the link above.

 

Also, I don't know how to link to this particular question/answer page in her tumblr, so I'll post the screen shot:

Great advice, right?

 

Here's my attempt to capture some flowers I bought for the new year.  I like the top part - the looseness and variety of color in the Freesia.  The composition could be better, for sure.

 

Stonehenge notebook

Location drawing

I created these two sketches just before I took a month-long on-line drawing class.  My sketching took a downturn after the class!  Guess that happens sometimes.

 

We spent a couple of days in Seattle. While my husband was at a concert, I had dinner at Pizza restaurant and sketched the scene outside. The monorail came by every 10 or 15 minutes.

 

The second drawing is at a company softball game with a brush pen (permanent ink) and water color pencils.  My husband had so much fun for the first couple of games, then he pulled his calf muscle and was out the rest of the season.

My mom

This is the first and last drawing of my mom.

 

The one on the left was the warm up.  The one on the right actually caught her, I think. I drew this while she was talking to my sister at the nursing home.  I didn't want to draw her when I was alone with her. I felt like I needed to give her my full attention.

 

She broke her hip on May 13, 2015 and they discovered cancer throughout her body. She passed away on June 17.

Happy final day of 2011!

This has been a long year for a lot of people for a lot of different reasons. Personally, we lost two of our pet friends, gained another, and my husband had a lot of health challenges this year. I've been scrambling to catch up with bills and taxes, which seems like a big hill. But we're looking forward to 2012.

I don't have any art to post, but here is a link to a drawing and painting video by Nina from Sweden. I love her work and I love this video:

Nina's drawing video

Goodbye 2011, Hello 2012!

Merry Christmas!

Wishing everyone a very merry Christmas day!

My favorite gift was a visit from my sister and niece this past week. This is the only sketch I've done recently. I've been focusing more on "crafts" and less on "art" the past month, but I have lots of ideas I want to try soon.

Urban Sketchers

The Urban Sketchers are in town. They are holding a Symposium at PNCA.

Lots of good sketches of Portland here: http://www.flickr.com/groups/urbansketchers-pdx2010/pool/with/4841397525/

I would like to have attended, but I didn't think I would have the energy and the skill. I don't practice nearly enough (except of Sadie, of course), but I love looking at their sketches.

Drawing Class finished for the term

I just finished a term of drawing at The Drawing Studio. We work from photos and models. The first one is of my sister and her daughter. I used the same photo I used when I accidentally made them into zombies. Sorry for the flash. They say you need to get the eyes right. I think the mouth is really important as well since I did not get it quite right here.



The second one is from a photo of a statue. We don't usually end up with a presentation picture since we are practicing and working towards our 1000 drawings, but I wanted to post something! I enjoy working in a large format (these are 23 inches by 34 inches), but the charcoal dust and black hands are really a pain. Two showers, two days of dishes are the minimum needed to get my hands sort of clean.



It is pretty fun and I'm getting quicker and more comfortable at putting marks on the paper. I'll probably not take the class again until fall. I'd like to work on some color projects next.

January 2010 - the Quiet Returns

Sadie drawn from above with a purple Sai pen, December 2009

Our holidays are almost over - we had another Christmas party with Bob's parents on Saturday, they leave Wednesday and we can put everything away for this year. The festivities really are enjoyable, but are all-consuming. Today I slept a long time, then kept quiet for the afternoon. I haven't spent much time making art - although wrapping presents and baking cookies are still creative endeavors. I'm looking forward to easing back into painting and encaustic.

I did start attending an Intermediate Drawing Class last week with my friend Jan at the Drawing Studio. It's nice to have a scheduled evening of art to look forward to! As I keep hearing, consistent creativity keeps you in the flow! The fun thing about the intermediate class is that we can use paints in addition to charcoal and graphite. The class is longer at three hours so there are 2 breaks, more sessions with live models and freedom not to do all of the assigned exercises. The instructor points out that interesting work may be produced in the last hour when everyone is tired out.

Keep trying?

I started this to keep motivated, but I haven't been maintaining my enthusiasm. It's just so hard to do what I want to do! I spend a lot of time experimenting and playing, but that means I end up with a pile of messy, ugly work.

I'm posting a few drawings I've done over the past few months. Today is Speedy the Cat day (aka Speed Racer.)