I’ve developed the goofy habit of storing my leftover cucumber in the bell pepper half when I prepare a salad. It always makes me laugh so I decided to paint it. My sister called it veggie porn. I hope it makes you chuckle too.
I’m trying out a new format for my blog posts, a simple list with images of what I’ve been working on, successes, challenges and what else is going on in the studio and my life. Theoretically it will mean less writing and more frequent posting. So here goes…let me know what you think.
CHALLENGES: I’ve been struggling with composition, discovering half way through a painting that the composition sucks and the painting will never be an enjoyable thing to look at.
Veggie Porn Thumbnail sketches
Photo of the set-up
SUCCESSES: I finally got the willingness to begin all paintings with some thumbnail sketches. I realized that COMPOSITION is simply the structure that directs the eye around the painting, creates a feeling of action or stillness and (if done well) delights the eye. Two of my favorite painters, Susan Jane Walp and Giorgio Morandi use composition in unexpected ways, and both delight the eye (or at least my eyes) whether they are following or breaking the “rules” of composition or making their own.
LETTING GO OF A BAD PAINTING: This one started off really happily but ended up in the trash, after scraping and redoing it over and over until I killed it so dead it couldn’t be revived. I just felt there was too much red, that it was too “hot” somehow. A friend suggested adding black. That was the final nail in the coffin. I’m not sure why I’m even sharing it at all.
FAIL: Bad Begonias, oil on panel, 10×8″
SKETCHES: I try to do a sketch from the SKTCHY App at least weekly. Here is a recent one.
Ms. I. T, from Sktchy photo reference, graphite, 12×9″
WHAT I’M READING: “Irresistible: The Rise of Addictive Technology and the Business of Keeping Us Hooked.” Great book about how our devices and apps are designed to keep us using them. I waste way too much time web-surfing on my phone. This book gave me some tools for changing my habits along with a good talking to! I think it’s a must-read for parents especially.
WHAT I’M LISTENING TO: Ed Sheeran and Alicia Keys on Amazon music, which I like much better than Apple music. (If you’re interested, here’s a link to Amazon Music Unlimited 30-Day Free Trial)
Figs on a Grey Plate, oil on Arches Oil Paper, 9×11″
My fig tree is supplying me with figs that are delicious to look at and to eat. I’m working on simplifying my paintings, aiming from strong values and composition, and trying to stop at “good enough for jazz.” This is so much more fun than trying for perfection and ending up with overworked instead. This painting is available on DailyPaintworks here.
Below are the steps in the progress of this painting and below that some bonus fig
We had the lovely and vivacious model Beebe R. today in figure drawing. She did a fantastic job holding the long pose. I worked for about an hour and a half on this one, trying to stop at the “less is more” stage instead of the “Ugh! Way overworked!” Stage.
I can see many things I’d like to adjust (and experimented doing so after class in ProCreate with a photo of the sketch on my iPad (below).
I was honored when the East Bay SPCA asked to license my sketch of Jack London Square (in the poster below) for their annual Adopt-A-Thon fund-raiser publicity materials. They kindly offered to pay for the use of the image but I was very happy to donate it for their use. As an animal lover I am grateful for the wonderful work the SPCA does to care for and find homes for animals.
You can click the image to get more information about the event. It will be a lot of fun and if you’re looking for a new family member of the furry variety, be sure to visit the Adopt-A-Thon! My original sketch is and info about it is at the bottom of this post.
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I sketched the scene below at Jack London Square of London’s old cabin and the wolf statue out front on a gorgeous sunny day and the shadows were in just the right place. It was one of those sketches where everything just worked. In the background are the high-rise office buildings of Downtown Oakland.
Jack London Cabin and Wolf Statue, ink and watercolor, 10×7 in
Daily Sketch, bottle-drawing practice, graphite, 8×10 inch
After struggling with a crooked bottle in a still life painting with lopsided shoulders, this morning I figured out how to draw bottles and keep the curves and angles on both sides symmetrical.
The solution:
Make a mark for top and bottom and widest point of width on each side and draw a rectangle enclosing the shape. Draw a vertical line down the center of the rectangle.
Next I lightly drew a rectangle (or enclosing envelope) around each “section” of the bottle, with the bottom of each rectangle at the spot where the exterior of the bottle changes direction from a curve in or out. I left some of those marks in the sketch above.
Then draw straight diagonal lines from section to section and soften them into matching curves. It’s much easier to draw straight lines accurately than curved ones.
Draw the ellipses for each section using the guidance here from Sadie Valerie.
Sketching from Sktchy App photos (I explained it here) is a great warmup exercise and opportunity to practice drawing a wide variety of faces and expressions. Each week they offer a Weekend Art Exploration (#WAX) challenge and 3 of the drawings marked in the collage below were for WAX. All are in a 12×9″ sketchbook.
Collage of sketches and inspiration photos from Sktchy. (Click on image two times to enlarge.)
The challenge marked in the top row was to draw on text; mine is on a page of “Secrets of the Flesh: The Life of Collette.” The challenge in row two was to show your tools used to create the art so I put my colored pencils in front of “Crazy Eyes,” as she titled her photo. The bottom row challenge was to use the magic of art to transform a photo into something else (I combined Tweety Bird with the girl making a bird face). The last sketch above is from a photo I uploaded for others to draw. I did a better job on Millie than me.
Below are larger versions of a few from this batch (click to see larger):
Audrey Henry, Colored Pencil
Artist known as “Foggy 365” in the hospital, graphite and conte pencil
Henry Luis Alonso on Secrets of the Flesh
4 views of “Moon Child Luna 2” in graphite
This weekend the challenge is to draw from the same photo twice, once with each hand. Wish me luck! I don’t think my left hand knows how to do anything except type.
Sketching people drawing the model during a “boring” pose
I love my Friday figure drawing studio and our wonderful models. In the morning I draw the figure during the shorter poses and then switch to a portrait for the final hour-long pose after lunch. In the sketch above I decided to draw the crowded room and other artists instead of the model since I had an obstructed view of what struck me as a boring pose.
Fallon, charcoal on toned paper, life-size.
Fallon is one of my favorite models. She is so beautiful and strong, with unique features and she always brings interesting costumes and music to play for us.
Brian, charcoal on toned paper, life size
Brian is very unusual looking, tall, muscular and lean, with prominent facial bone structure and a small, pouty (not potty!) mouth. I think I went too far with the dark charcoal as there’s too much contrast with the lighter areas but I think I did get a likeness, despite the clumsy shading and unfinished hair.
Brigitte, charcoal and conté on tan paper, life-size.
I thought the drawing above was going great until I saw it on my camera’s screen as a mirror image and it looked all wrong. I tried to fix it, but couldn’t figure out what the problem was. She looks so sour and grumpy and really was just a little sleepy from the long pose.
I’ve had so much fun since I discovered the SKTCHY app. It’s so simple: people upload photos and artists use them as inspiration to draw from and then upload snapshots of their artwork. (click on collection below twice to enlarge.)
Collage of recent sketches and their Sktchy.com inspiration photos
Above are my sketches and their Sktchy reference photos from the past week in a collage (made using free PicMonkey online). The Sktchy app is super easy to use, with an incredibly wide variety of people to draw and really interesting artists’ work to be inspired by. Join me there! It’s big fun!!! (FYI, it’s currently only available for iPhone/iPad; Android version is in the works).
Click on any of my sketches below to see larger or in a slide show. They are all in a 12×9″ sketchbook.
Walter Justice, colored pencil
France Belville Van-Stone, graphite
Kalie Jones, colored pencil
Khyla Duran, colored pencil
Shwan Kamal, photo ref, watercolor
Fernando Quijano, Jr. Graphite, attempt #2
Fernando Quijano, Jr., Colored pencil & Graphite, attempt #1
JR Handyman #3 Final, oil on DuraLar, 12×9 inches, 2016
When Jeff the Handyman (who does excellent carpentry and electrical work) came over to look at a job, he was kind enough to let me take his photo for the series I’m painting of people at work in my neighborhood. I tried three times, before and after I started studying head structure and anatomy. With the third study (above) I felt like I’d said what I had to say, with the skills I have at this point, and was ready to move on.
Above is the final study and immediately below are all three attempts in chronological order.
JR #1 Final, oil on panel, 12×9 inches, 2015
JR #2 Final, Oil on DuraLar, 12×9 inches, 2015
JR Handyman #3 Final, oil on DuraLar, 12×9 inches, 2016
My favorite part of all three above is the sky reflecting on the top of his head. With each attempt my drawing improved a bit. The more I learn, the more I see, and the more I see, the more I know I need to learn!!!. Below are all three studies with work in progress (WIP) steps. I’m not offering the WIP to show how it “should” be done; just the approach I was experimenting with. I am always trying on techniques of other artists I admire but haven’t yet found the approach that “just works” for me.
JR #1-C, oil on panel, 12×9 inches
JR #1-B, oil on panel, 12×9 inches
JR #1 Final, oil on panel, 12×9 inches, 2015
JR #2-A, Oil on DuraLar, 12×9 inches. I always like this sketchy stage the best.
JR #2-B, Reference photo and painting start
JR #2 Final, Oil on DuraLar, 12×9 inches, 2015
JR #3-A, Portrait start with reference photo
JR #3-A Portrait Start, Oil on DuraLar, 12×9 inches
JR #3-B WIP, Oil on DuraLar, 12×9 inches
JR #4-C WIP. Realized nose was too long.
JR #3-D WIP, Shortened nose, started glasses
JR #3-E WIP. Beard got too wide.
JR #3-F WIP. Narrowed beard & hair, redid shirt
JR #3-F WIP with my Parallel Palette, which I like a lot.
JR Handyman #3 Final, oil on DuraLar, 12×9 inches, 2016
Skull drawing practice #1, Conte pencil on paper, 24×18 inches
I wanted to improve my people-drawing skills, learn about anatomy and be able to quickly sketch a head with some degree of accuracy and fluency. I was looking for information, instruction, and explanation of how the skull, features, and muscles all work together to make each of us look like individuals.
I began exploring resources for learning online and I found one that met all of my requirements: New Masters Academy. It is affordable ($19 to $29/month), has excellent teachers, an abundance of classes in portrait and figure drawing and painting and more, plus great resources for artists including thousands of high-resolution artist model reference photos and timed portrait and figure drawing sessions.
Drawing Practice, First Assignments from New Masters Academy course
What initially convinced me to become a member on New Masters was the free, 3-hour YouTube video below by one of their many excellent teachers, Steve Huston. This is just a small part of his Structure of the Head course in which he explains in great detail about the planes of the face, the shapes and functions of the muscles, and each of the features (eyes, nose, etc.) in a very user-friendly way.
The YouTube video by Brandwynn Jones (below) introduced me to the Reilly Method Abstraction, an interesting way of conceptualizing and constructing the head. Mr. Jones is a student at the Watts Atelier, another online artist training program.
Reilly Abstraction template
Reilly Abstraction drawn on photo of Marcy
Planes of the head drawing practice
Before I found New Masters, I regrettably signed up for an expensive month ($99/month) at Watts Atelier Online, based on what I saw and heard in Mr. Jones’ videos and on fellow artist Chris Beaven’s blog, who was trying out the Watts program too. But after watching the head drawing course “taught” by Mr. Watts, I requested and received a refund for the remaining half month. The course consists of videos of him drawing, while he talks on and on–what he calls “bantering”–with very little actual instruction or explanation and it just didn’t meet my needs. Chris later wrote this review of Watts Atelier Online.
Skull drawing practice #2, Conte pencil on paper, 18×24″
Another great source of figure drawing instruction videos (for free) can be found at Stan Prokopenko’s website, Proko.com and on his on YouTube channel. His sense of humor and high production values makes them fun to watch but I find they fly by too quickly for me to retain the information. He offers expanded versions at reasonable cost. In the video below he clarifies and summarizes the Andrew Loomis approach to drawing the head.
Over the past year I’ve watched several good instructional videos on Craftsy.com but I prefer the comprehensive courses on New Masters. One plus for Craftsy is that the videos you “buy” are always yours to stream on demand; on New Masters they’re available to stream as long as you’re a paying member.
Sadie Valerie offers both in person classes, video and online classes at Sadie Valerie Atelier in San Francisco. Sadie is an amazing teacher, very kind, positive, generous and detailed in her approach. I’ve studied with her and her associate Elizabeth Zanzinger in person and via Sadie’s videos and highly recommend them as teachers.
For quick and detailed anatomical information where you can switch from skin, muscles, skeletal or even organ views, I go to Innerbody.com, where I found the resource for the drawing below. I wanted to know more about the muscles that we see through the skin.
Innerbody.com on the screen, and my skull Mortie Skullman
My drawing of the muscles of the head
A free 2.5 hour figure drawing course based on the Reilly Method is available from Udemy.com.
Croquis Cafe on YouTube offers free figure drawing sessions with artist models (mostly nude) posing in real time, just like you are in a figure drawing session with timed poses and music. They also have reference photos to work from and some paid classes, which I haven’t explored.
Pixelovely.com is another source for figure drawing practice that provides timed photo references of nude and costumed models in interesting and unusual poses as well as instruction and tips on figure drawing.
PoseManiacs.com also offers thousands of digital images of figures in motion or still, without skin so all the muscles are visible.
Reilly Method class notes by one of his students are lovingly offered on The Reilly Papers blog.
Glen Orbik was another master figure and portrait drawing teacher. Free clips from videos of his lectures are available on YouTube here. The full course is available at Zarolla Academy but is expensive.
Fred Fixler was another of the great drawing and painting teachers who has passed on but on this site you can download his Reilly method handouts and some great drawing and gouache painting tips.
To find figure drawing classes, workshops and open studios in your area, visit ArtModelBook.com.
Jana Bouc, Artist 