Violinist Portrait Drawing & Brooklyn, New York

Here’s my last drawing in Toledo, Ohio. This is Virgil who plays for the Toledo Symphony. Virgil modeled one day for the Toledo Portrait Artists. He did an excellent job holding the pose.

I was feeling good at this session. I created two nice drawings within two hours, I was hoping to draw more but including his hand and violin in my drawing slowed me down.  Usually I just sketch the portrait but I wanted to sketch that hand and violin. Here’s when I had a great time working on this piece. I like when models wear glasses or hats or when they are holding something, so drawing the hands and top part of the violin was awesome! It adds more to the drawing, and makes it a bigger challenge. For me this is three drawings in one, the portrait, the hand and the violin, all three needed special attention.

I wish I had bigger paper for this drawing. I really wanted to keep drawing the bottom part of the violin and the other hand holding the bow. I could have sketched smaller but when I do that it loses detail and I like drawing bold and sitting up close.

I stayed focused on these drawings because we only had one 2-hr session with model. When I felt finished with the drawing, I quickly tried to sketch a profile drawing in 30 minutes. Virgil played for us at the end of class: Meditation by Thais. It was beautiful, a real treat for the artist.  Thank you, Virgil.

So I’m now living in Brooklyn, New York. I’ve got a nice place to stay, and I'm now attending classes at the New York Academy of Art! I’ll be posting my school work.

Goodbye Toledo, I will miss you, and hello New York, I’m ready for a new adventure.

Saturday morning portrait artist: The Al Hyter Group

Last Saturday morning, we had a new model at the Al Hyter portrait group.  Her name is Meti and she's from Ethiopia, Africa. Nice person, I enjoyed drawing her portrait.  Meti has beautiful bold eyes, nose, lips, great for portrait drawing.  We especially liked the way Meti draped a yellow shawl over her head, it adds more depth, visual texture.

I created this slide show so you can see the artists that attend the portrait sessions. They are a great bunch! Notice the intense concentration.  I think this is one of the reasons why we attend, it helps us produce good work.

Figure Drawing at Paul Geigers Studio, Toledo, Ohio

This past Wednesday, I attended Paul Geiger's figure drawing session at his downtown studio. It was awesome! I had a great time drawing. I did feel rusty and a little "sloppy". It had been a year since I last went. The sessions started with short 5 minute poses which helped warm me up. Paul played nice classical music, and by the time we took our mid session break with 20 minute poses I was in the zone.

I forgot that Paul gives a good mid break to everyone. The artists walk away from their drawings to enjoy crackers with slice cheese, soft drinks, popcorn, and wine all provided by Paul.  It's a good moment for everyone: stretch, relax, socialize, talk art and have a couple good laughs together. I realized I take this break for granted, because it's also a great time to walk away from your drawing to refocus and then come back after a while relaxed. I believe lots of practice is key to becoming a skilled draftsman but I would also include camaraderie, happiness, good laughs, and perhaps a cup of wine to becoming a better artist. Thanks again Paul for providing a nice environment for all the artists.

For the 2nd half, Paul played music by Muddy Waters! Good combo for drawing. Here are two of many figure drawings I created Wednesday evening. Both 20 minute poses. The rustiness I felt was with my strokes, I felt heavy handed and a little sloppy which I think gave the drawing a nice rough, sketchy feel.  Also both drawings have a lot of structural lines to help me with the proportions and alignment of all the shape. These lines are part of my drawing tools, I'm constantly looking and aligning shapes.

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Foreshortening Female Figure Drawing

Hi. Last night I attended Paul Geigers Studios open figure drawing session in Toledo, Ohio. I had a great time! A great crowd showed up, I met cool new artists, and I produced some nice figure drawings.

Here are two pieces from last night. The small drawing on the left was from a series of 5-minute poses that started the session. The large drawing on the right was a 25 minute pose. It's a classic reclining figure drawing pose from models. I've sketched this pose many times and it never gets old. It feels like it never gets any easier to draw either.

A lot of foreshortening here. It's tricky from the start because the image is wider then it is tall--believe it or not. It's such an optical illusion. If you measure from the outer edge of her right hand to the outer edge of her left knee, that length is longer than from the top of her head to the bottom of her toe. it's so important to get these dimensions right for this figure drawing to work. Foreshortening is always a good challenge.

Last night's model was new at Geiger Studios but experienced from other drawing studios. Every pose she created was nice and did a great job holding still. Thanks, Paul, for finding good models, keeping the drawing space warm, and for the cheese, crackers, popcorn and wine at break time. I also enjoyed the classical music during the first half and Beach Boys music during the second half. That was an interesting music combo.