Figure Unit

It's that time of year again, when I spend a week or so with the AP students drawing and painting the figure.  I love this unit!  I forget how much I enjoy drawing/painting people until I sit down with the kids and draw.

So here's a sampling of my figure studies:

Lesson two.

Double portrait.  Emphasis on contour line using waterbased marker, then value/form emphasis by adding water to the marker lines plus watercolor washes.

Lesson four.

Acrylic washes to lay in values, then worked into with oil pastels.

Lesson two.

Water based marker, contour line drawing, watercolor washes for values/form.

                                                                               

           Lesson three.

Broad washes with watercolors on yupo paper (nice hard polypropylene paper, very smooth finish; leading to real cool effects with the watercolors) laying in lights and darks, then working in the details as needed.  The students came up with some beautiful results on this one.

For lesson one we spent the classtime (about an hour and 15 min) exploring gesture drawings using charcoal and conte crayon; we moved from quick gestural studies to longer poses. 

Finally, just for fun...this picture of Larry, who says hello!

It's like the first time you meet Someone

When I draw or paint in a new place; especially one that is so different from what my eyes are familiar with, it feels like that first conversation you have with a person you've just met. 
And if you like the place, its like knowing that you like the person you're talking to.
Newness, Curiosity. A need to know more.

Catalina Park, Tortolita Mountains

Pencil-Moleskin Sketchbook

 Madeira Canyon Watercolor w/oil pastel in Moleskin Sketchbook

Madeira Canyon, Oil pastel, Moleskin Sketchbook

Watercolor on watercolor paper sketchbook

We spent an afternoon sketching/painting in Madeira Canyon where the Cottonwoods were the most luscious spring green. Except for birdsong, the breeze, and the sounds of my brush moving on paper all was quiet.  I sat up on a hill, Muggsi down below.  A few hours passed. 

I've only begun to know the colors, shapes and the light of the Arizona desert.  A mere aquaintance for now.

 

Twenty Minute Challenge and a Bonus Bald Eagle

Not such a clear picture of a Bald Eagle, but, I had to share it!  My neighbor and I have decided to walk every trail in every park in our local park district; no set time limit for the walks or for when we complete the venture.  It is serendepitous in plan, we go when we can, weather permitting.   The mild November weather lingered for our walk today.  As we emerged from the woods into a large open meadow, one bird flew by (Bald Eagle #1), a second followed.  The second Bald Eagle rode the thermals for a long time.  We lingered.

It seems I can't stop with the Twenty Minute Drawings.  I'm loving it!  Its great practice. The two shown here were done during AP Studio Art Class.  It was a quiet day, the students were working with such intensity that I was able to sit (for the most part uninterrupted) and finish in twenty minutes. The top piece is oil on watercolor paper and the bottom was done in my sketchbook using mixed media; prismacolor markers, watercolors and pencil.

I guess I'd better enter  The Twenty Minute Challenge soon.