Finally Getting Started

So I've been away for months...well away from this blog anyway. Yeah, not good. I have been working on things on and off, mainly life drawing when I get the chance (and the money). On the left is a drawing I did back in I guess February or March. It was a 6 hour pose and it didn't get finished unfortunately so next time I'm going to take a different approach. I really wish I had more control over the lighting so I could really get those strong shadows, which would speed things up. But...whatever, I need to get back to it. 

Next month, I will be back doing drop-in life drawing/painting sessions. Actually I'm getting really excited about it as I type! Wow. And then I'll be doing landscapes as well, hopefully in 2 weeks. I'd do it now except I'm not going to have enough dough for an easel and the new brushes and all the other things I need until I get paid. You won't hear complaining out of me right now though, I'm lucky I have a job. In the meantime, I'm thinking I'll just go sketch some trees or something just to get familiar with outdoor scenery. I'm really not an outdoorsy person, plus I'll need allergy meds. It is exciting though, I can't wait! This will get me on track and I will definitely be posting progress here. Looks like June 2009 is going to be a good month...

Investing In Landscape Materials

I realized there's a park in my area worth painting at and maybe it's a good idea to buy an outdoor easel. 

There's only so many choices though and I'm trying to narrow them down. At first my number one choice was a French Easel (full-box, preferably by Jullian). For those who don't know, FEs are wooden easels that can fold up into a box so you can carry it around. They come in a few variations, two of them being a full-box and a half-box. The half-box is slimmer but has much of the same functionality. There's also completely different options available and one them is a Stanrite aluminum easel. It's lightweight (3lbs compared to the FE, which is 14lbs) and much cheaper. The price is also tempting at $80CAN compared to the FE which is about $100CAN more. I don't know why these things are so expensive here in Canada. I guess I'll have to shop online.

Anyway, I really want to get out there and paint because I'm tired of still-lifes and reproductions every summer. I don't have access to a model right now so landscapes seem to be a great alternative. 

OAA 40th Annual Juried Show

I'm pleased to say that my efforts to get myself "out there" this year are paying off. Two of my drawings got into a juried show. One of them won 2nd Best in Show (Best in Show is a painting no doubt), which is great news since it's my first major juried show. I'll get 'em next time though! I'll post pictures of the show this week. And if all goes as planned I'll have another show in July...

Egg Study

I just did this in about an hour. It's my first painting on mylar. It wasn't bad--I definitely need more practice. I thought I'd start really simply by painting an egg in black and white just to feel things out. It's nice to be able to take a brush, dip it in mineral spirits and use it to clean up edges. I don't see myself doing full paintings on mylar, but I'll explore it some more. 

Rembrandt Reproduction on Mylar (Nearly Done)

Almost done! It won't look much different than this. I want to keep it pretty dark because that's how I like it. Just a few minor things to do, and it'll be done. 

Rembrandt Reproduction on Mylar (Update)

Here's another progress shot. I've gotten more done since then but the battery in my camera just died, so I'll post more tomorrow. 

Photos vs. Life

I just checked the comment on my Rembrandt copy and thought I need to talk about this. I think there will always be this debate about using photo references vs. working from life. I'm not going to try to tell people what's right or wrong about all of this, I going to tell you my view on it. 

Let me start by how I learned how to draw. Of course like most kids, I was always drawing something on my spare time either from life or my imagination, but in high school I learned how to create more realistic images by using photos and the grid method. But that's not all there was, we also did still-lifes and portraits from life because I was lucky enough to have a teacher that believed in that. I became very good at doing photo-based stuff, and it was easier than drawing from life, but only because at the time, I had done that more than stuff from life. That was until 2004 when I started (and I'm sorry if this is repetitive) going to an atelier and learning a strong method of drawing from life, like the masters. At that point I immediately became more interested in drawing from life simply because it became easier for me, and it was always more inspiring. So the majority of my work since then is from life and to be honest it's hard to go back to photos. Mind you, photos are sometimes necessary when you need to capture something not possible from life. But other than that, I often get bored from using photo references these days--I'm too restless for that now. 

Back to the atelier, we do start by doing Bargue drawing copies, which are from a book. So you can learn from 2D sources but those were designed to teach you how to see when drawing from life. Once you've learned how to draw from life in the classical way, you can draw from photos without a grid and make it look like it's from life if you want. But you also learn that most photos are not a great representation of life in terms of light and shadow and you can take that into account. The bottom line for me is I love drawing/painting from life and that's what I'd rather do, but for the odd time I really need a photo, I know how to use one properly. Thanks for the comment Panos!