Rita

I went over to a fellow artist's home this week and we had a friend from her church come sit for us. I had seen pictures of Rita, admired her beautiful hair, and insisted that it be captured in a portrait. Over lunch, I learned that the last time she had her hair done, she was there for 5 hours! So, I tried my best to do it justice. I"m enjoying drawing very much, but continue to work on a few paintings . Hopefully, they will be ready to post soon.

Rediscovering charcoal

Tonight at open life, I abandoned the pencils and picked up the sticks of charcoal. Working on large newsprint, I tried to loosen up a little.

Life drawing sessions

As I've written before, I run a long pose model session for local artists here in Athens on Tuesday nights. We pitch in for the model fee, get inspired by one another and most importantly work from life. Posted are two drawings that I don't think I will take any further, but thought I would record before they were lost in a pile of sketches. I continue to work on the toned background. The first drawing was on paper primed with graphite powder and water. The second, is on a toned Strathmore charcoal paper.

Elena

I did a three color chalk study of my niece and goddaughter, Elena. She lives all the way up in Philadelphia, so we don't get to see her often enough, but I couldn't think of a cuter face (besides her big sister, Laura!) to draw. I looked at some Rubens and Watteau drawings for inspiration for this.

Mimi

I had the pleasure of spending time with my sweet grandmother this weekend. We had a wonderful afternoon together as I had sketched her and she told me stories. She will be 92 in May and you would never know it. She is a mess! Mimi, maybe measuring five feet, insisted on standing on a stool for our picture.

A long overdue post

I have a hard time parting ways with a painting and declaring I am actually finished with it. With that said, I think I am finished with this portrait. . . maybe.  I learned a lot in the process, but the end result was not exactly what I envisioned in the beginning. Nevertheless, I promised many months ago that I would post what I came up with!

Josh continued

Here are a couple of the drawings I've been working on with Josh. The second sketch done in sanguine is a Cretacolor. It is a new material for me. It comes in a stick, is waxy and erases to a certain degree.

Oil figure study

Here is the final version!

This is my study after about 2 hours. I look forward to spending some more time with it. The pose was beautiful and I hope I can do it justice. Look for the finished picture next week.

Children's book

So unfortunately, I've been under the weather for the past few days and it's easier to draw than paint in bed, so I got started on some illustration work for a children's book written by a sorority sister of mine. It's about what happens to socks when they get lost in the dryer, so my subjects are a daddy knee high sock and a purple polka dot baby bootie. Quite a change of pace from my normal work, but it is fun!

Josh

Last night I did some studies of our new model, Josh, who will return next week. I'll use these to help start a larger more finished drawing of him the following session. I also plan to review my Goldfinger anatomy book because the musculature is so visible on Josh, I want to be able to identify it accurately.