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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Figure Drawing

First I want to say that figure drawing to the rock-n-roll band Queen is awesome! I attended Wednesday night figure drawing session in downtown Toledo, it was a great session. We had a good model, a good crowd of artists and Paul Geiger, the coordinator, played some good tunes starting with classical music and ending the evening drawing session with Queen. Looking forward to next Wednesday night's drawing session!

Interesting figure drawing evening for me, I had a lot on my mind and the music was fast paced so my technique felt different. My lines went dark fast and I felt I had less patience for the smaller details, so some personal emotions went into my drawings. It’s amazing how sometimes when I’m drawing I may be perfectly happy and free, or with a weight on my shoulders, or tired, or not motivated, or with some kind of distraction In my mind. And these emotions I know come out or are expressed in my drawings, So in my art/drawing there’s always a whole lot more going on then just good technique and skills.

CLICK IMAGE TO ENLARGE, GRAPHITE ON PAPER 14" x 17"

Excellent Drawing Session

Wow I was in the zone at Wednesday evening's figure drawing session. As always, the group started with sketching several quick 5-minute poses to warm up and to get the mind in drawing mode.

After the 5-minute poses ended, one long pose was chosen for the rest of the drawing session. Here’s were I started feeling in the zone. I had a lot on my mind but was able to maintain focus, I sketched and sketched and felt confident and relaxed with every piece.

I would sketch until I felt the piece was completed, I averaged about 30-minutes per piece. At some point I would look at my drawing and it would just feel completed, I have to listen to this feeling because sometimes I keep drawing and then it has an overworked look. So I would stop, enjoy the drawing for a bit and move my drawing pad to another spot in the studio. Each angle I chose was challenging and well worth the drawing adventure.

It was a successful evening, I learned a lot and I’m looking forward to next Wednesday’s figure drawing session.

CLICK IMAGE TO ENLARGE, GRAPHITE ON PAPER 14" x 17"

Quick Studies of Nude Model

These are short quick studies from the Wednesday night figure drawing sessions. These poses are 5,10 or 15 minutes long and are great for improving drawing skills. They can be difficult and overwhelming because you have to think fast and draw.

For a 5-minute pose, I look for the general shape of the pose. If model is standing I run a line on my page from top to bottom and quickly put in circles for the general shapes I see: so a circle for the head, chest, hips, thighs, calves, and feet. Then circles for hands, arms, and hair, then I begin to connect circles to create shapes of arms, legs, body, and head, then add tone to understand how light is adding depth to the shapes, then keep drawing simple darker lines to help define the model's pose. And before I know it, my 5 minutes are up and I’m sitting there wishing I had more time. So I turn the page and start on the next 5-minute pose with the same process.

Quick studies have helped me become a better draftsman. The technique I use to quickly draw the model is also applied to my other drawings. Whenever I’m out drawing landscapes, still lifes, portraits, or anything else, as soon as I sit down with my drawing pad and pick my composition, I begin looking for the general shapes and draw them in by using circles. Once I have the general composition and proportions down, I set a pace of adding detail, and tone.

CLICK IMAGE TO ENLARGE, GRAPHITE ON PAPER 14" x 17"

Drawing Foreshortening is Fun

This was the long pose for Wednesday night's open figure drawing session at Geiger Studios. We had a male model and this was my view of the model when the pose was chosen, a lot of foreshortening!

Foreshortening is fun and frustrating at the same time. The fun part is in the accomplishment and in the problem solving of drawing the body going away from you while communicating that to the viewer.

The frustrating part is the challenge: drawing the objects closer to me bigger and the drawing the objects farther from me smaller. I know the feet aren’t that big on the model and I know the head arms and hands aren’t that small but I have to let go of reason, make my proportion measurements, and focus on drawing what I see, not what I know about the human body. So I draw the feet bigger because they are closer to me and I draw the head arms and hands smaller because they are farther away from me and trust it will work out at the end, and it does. Visually, this drawing works, you understand a human figure is lying down. It’s so cool.

CLICK IMAGE TO ENLARGE, GRAPHITE ON PAPER 14" x 17"

Music and Figure Drawing

At the last Wednesday night figure drawing session, I was thinking about how we listen to music while we figure draw. Paul Geiger organizes the drawing sessions, directs the models and selects the music. He starts the drawing session with classical music then after the mid break he plays something contemporary with vocals, sometimes edgy, rough, and expressive. Last week was Bob Dylan, and week before that was old blues. Paul has played the Beatles, Simon & Garfunkel, Tom Petty, a lot of amazing albums.

Paul never asks us what we want to hear, he picks the music and we listen, it’s good he picks because I’ve discovered there’s a lot of nice music I never would have thought to listen to while I draw. In the figure drawing sessions I often find myself tapping my feet, humming, and quietly singing along. And if you look around you’ll see other artist doing the same. At the last figure drawing session we listened to Elton John, it was great!

I’ve sketched at figure drawing sessions were there is no music. I think that’s good too, I still produced good drawings. But there’s something about listening to the right music while I draw that I feel inspires and motivates me, it seems to add to the drawing experience. I get a joyous feeling that I can draw forever, and a feeling that at that moment, I am living my life to it’s fullest.

What's your favorite music to listen to while you draw/paint/create art?

CLICK IMAGE TO ENLARGE, GRAPHITE ON PAPER 14" x 17"

Gathering Art Work for a Portfolio

Lately, I've been working on putting a portfolio of my recent work together. I'm doing this because I'm visiting fine art schools in the east coast. I want to apply to graduate schools to earn an MFA (Masters of Fine Arts).

It's not easy picking twenty of my best pieces for a portfolio. I like my work, I am proud of it, so looking through my drawings and paintings from the last couple years to pick the best work has been tough.

Here are two older pieces that caught my eye: I like the fresh sketch feeling these two drawings have, and I thought they were nice pieces. I think I draw so much that perhaps I get immune to my drawings and get caught up in the production and technical part of it that I don't see the beauty in my work. It's not until I have set it aside, forgotten about it, then later revisit my work that I say "Wow! what a beautiful piece, did I really do that?" I think that's when I truly enjoy my work.

So what schools am I interested in? There are a lot of schools with impressive programs. Two I want to really visit are NYAA (New York Academy of Art) and PAFA (Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Art). Impressive programs, I'm looking forward to touring the schools and talking to the faculty and students soon.

CLICK IMAGE TO ENLARGE, GRAPHITE ON PAPER 14" x 17"

Figure Drawing of Seated Elderly Man

I had a great time figure drawing last night at Geiger Studios. I think it has to do with the good music Mr. Geiger played while we were drawing, The drawing sessions are three hours, so the first half of the session was classical music and then the last half was Simon and Garfunkel, which provided a good beat and drawing mood. I still have the Bridge Over Troubled Waters tune in the head.

Our model did a great job modeling. We went straight into a long pose, no short 5 minute gesture poses, just one pose for the whole three hours. Giving artists plenty of time to work on a piece and complete it. I stuck to 20-30 minutes per drawing. I don't like to work on a drawing more than that, so I moved around the model and made several drawings. Above are a few of the drawings I created.

One thing that made this drawing session interesting was that the model was placed on a really high platform, about 5 feet off the ground, so all the artists seated around the platform are looking up at the model. Notice I was able to draw the bottom of the chair. Putting the model up high gives the drawings a grand feeling, as if you're looking up at a building or a giant.

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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.

3/4 Portrait Sketch of Young Women

Happy New Years! here's my first portrait drawing for 2011! I created it at the Saturday morning Al Hyter Portrait Drawing Group in Toledo Ohio. It was a good session, I had fun drawing the model, I liked the way her short hair style had a nice simple shape for sketching, I also really liked sketching her scarf, it added nice shapes to the drawing. I was also impressed with how still the model sat because it was so cold in the room, even my hands were stiff from the coldness. The model is scheduled for three more Saturdays so I'll be posting more portrait drawings of this model from different angels.

2011 is going to to be an awesome year! I'm planning on drawing and painting a lot!

Two full Figure Female Portrait Drawings

The Saturday morning portrait drawing sessions that I attend has two new models for the next four weeks. One is a young ballerina seated and the other is a casually dressed young woman curled up on a chair. Both poses are nice and since the session is only two hours, I made sure to spend an hour drawing each model. I first created the drawing on the right, the model chose this pose and I like it because it fit my drawing page well. I was able to draw her bigger so it has a bold look to it. Plus the arms to the chair add depth. I like the way the arm chair wraps around her.

On the 2nd hour I sketched the ballerina, it's a nice pose. I ran into a challenge with drawing her, I couldn't get her ballerina shoes right, it drove me nuts. I don't know why, finally after several attempts I sketched a nice looking ballerina shoe, and I'm bummed I wasn't able to fit the tip of her right shoe.

As always there was a good crowed and the DJ played soundtrack to Wicked! Cool musical!

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I was a little sad at this portrait session because I knew I wouldn't be back to continue drawing these two models. Soon I'll be returning to my studio in Quebradillas, Puerto Rico. I am excited for my trip but also sad because I will miss my family, my friends, and the drawing groups. I will continue posting drawings I create in Puerto Rico. I will also be creating paintings and will post them as well. I believe I'll return to Toledo end of summer. Thank you Toledo, Ohio. I had a great winter here! :)

Portait Drawing of 1980's Teenage woman

This is the other model from Saturday morning's portrait drawing session. The portrait session hires two models for 4 weeks and I spent the 1st three drawing portraits of my friend AJ. On this last session I finally sat in front of this model and made several portrait drawings, she was dressed 1980's style. It was fun sketching her, I wish I had done a painting of her because her outfit was very colorful.

I created the full figured portrait on the right side first in about 40 minutes. I really enjoyed drawing that one, I thought the leg warmers were a good touch. The portrait on the left was 25 minutes, and I created it towards the end of class. It was rushed and you can tell, the eyes on this one aren't right and I lost my highlights on the pupils, so they now look dark and hollow. Lessons learned, I need to make sure I leave a little high light on the eyes.

I still had a great portrait drawing session, the crowd was nice, one of the artists brought Monavie juice drinks that were delicious, and the boom box played a James Taylor live concert recording.

Figure Drawing of Large Woman

Last night's evening figure drawing session was challenging. I like it when this person models because I can feel my drawing concentration intensifying. When ever I draw her I realize how easy it is for me to sketch the petite female models we've had in the past.

Lately I've been drawing the full figure with all my figure drawings. I remember when I used to focus my drawing on certain part of the pose, but now I draw the figure within the edges of the page. i like this because It forces me to make proportion measurements, its more challenging, and I believe drawing the full figure every time makes my drawing skills and technique progress evenly.

I created several drawings at this session and they all came out nice. I chose these two to post, the drawing on the top left is a 5 minute pose and the drawing on the right is a 40 minute pose. I started with a gesture drawing to help me quickly block in the shapes of the model, I made proportion measurements, and sketched in the negative shapes. I also sketched in the chair to help me with proportions and to add depth and perspective to my drawing.

I had a great session, the evening weather was pleasant, a good company of artists attended, and the boom box played classical music for the 1st half and Nils Lofgren for the 2nd half.

Foreshortening Female Figure Drawing

Hi, here are two sample drawings from a figure drawing session I attended last night. It started with several 5 minute poses as warm-ups, then one long pose for the rest of the evening. Out of several drawings I created, I chose to post these two. The sample on the right was 5 minutes and the sample on the left was the long pose.

The long pose had a lot of foreshortening from where I was viewing it, so I found myself taking longer to complete this piece than usual. I've done plenty of drawings with foreshortening, I enjoy them and they are challenging. I learned a lot from this drawing, I made a lot of proportions and alignment measurements with my pencil and this was the result.

On the 5 min pose, as always it's not enough time! At the end of 5 minutes the timer chimes and I always curse it, saying to myself "just 5 more minutes". The drawing is always unfinished and well I admit that's good because it FORCES me away from the drawing giving it that fresh, quick, unfinished, in progress sketch look. It's love-hate for me when it comes to 5 minute poses.

Hope you like these two drawings, feel free to let me know what you think of them.

Figure Drawings/Sketches Slideshow