80 Minute Portrait Drawing

Here's a recent portrait drawing from the Al Hyter Portrait group. Usually I change drawing positions on every 20-minute pose, but lately I've been wanting to slow down and spend more time per drawing. Last week I sketched 40 minutes per drawing, but on this portrait I spent 80 minutes, the entire drawing session. It gave me more time to focus on all over details and building of darks and lights.

Portrait Study, Man with Russian Hat

I haven't posted in a while. Again I get busy and time just goes by. I haven't been drawing much on my own either. Hopefully that will change soon. I start art school at New York Academy of Art September 3rd! I'm getting ready and that should include more drawing and painting before I go.

I've been attending the Saturday morning Al Hyter portrait sessions. Here's a portrait I enjoyed creating. The model wore a Russian hat. It had a nice shape so I exaggerated the features and size of the hat, it was just fun to draw.

I'm going to miss my Saturday morning portrait drawing group. I'll keep in touch to share my new art adventure in New York!

Drawing a Portrait With Eye Glasses

Here are two portrait studies from a recent Al Hyter Portrait drawing session. They had an excellent model, she did an excellent job holding her pose and she wore her eye glasses. I love it when portrait models wear a hat, ball caps, jewelry, a pencil on the ear, or eye glasses.  It adds so much more depth to the piece and it often makes it a bigger drawing challenge, that's what i enjoy the most. The best part for me is not the finished piece, it's the drawing process. I finish a drawing in about 20 minutes, then I'm looking forward to starting a new one from a different angle.

Portrait Sketch, Elderly Man & White Beard

This past Saturday, I attended the Al Hyter Portrait art session in Toledo, Ohio. They have a new model for the next four Saturdays. This model has a white beard, which is great for portrait drawing. The beard adds more shapes and depth to the face. I have to be careful not to get caught up in drawing the hair from the beard, instead focus on the shape of the beard, as if the model had smashed potatoes on the chin.

When I draw portraits I'm constantly looking and drawing the shapes on the face: The shapes of the eyes, the nose, lips, head, ears, collar, forehead, hair. Believe it or not, I just draw shapes and when I'm done the viewer sees a portrait.

I had fun drawing this model, looking forward to sketching him again on next Saturday's portrait session.

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"

Playful Still life

Hmmmm… how did that Buzz Light Year toy appear in my still life? Haha, I like to think Buzz Light walked onto my still life while I wasn’t looking---how cool would that be? I’ve been watching a lot of Toy Story animation movies by Pixar with my nephew. They are so much fun to watch, very creative and funny. Good inspirational material for an artist and a 4-yr-old.

Lately I’ve been incorporating my nephew’s toys into my still lifes to add just a little more interest to each piece. My nephew knows I do this so the other day when he was going out the door for pre-school, he hands me his Buzz Light Year toy and says, “here uncle, draw my Buzz Light Year!” How can I pass up that request and what a great idea. I placed Buzz on the window counter, liked the compositions, and began sketching.

I’m looking forward to seeing Buzz magically appear in my other drawings.

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

Portrait of Restaurant Owner: The Budapest

I attended the Al Hyter Portrait Group on Saturday morning and created these two portraits. The model's name is Robert and he is the owner of the restaurant, The Budapest, on Monroe Street in Toledo, Ohio.

Seems like creating art or in this case drawing portraits always has an adventure and a journey. Every month the Al Hyter group has two new models and we, the artists, get to meet and learn about interesting and unique people that we probably never would come across or have met on our own.

Meeting Robert was interesting to me because I pass the Budapest restaurant when I go to my Wednesday night figure drawing sessions. The restaurant is in an old brick building. It’s a diner style restaurant, and always has a warm and cozy glow when I pass in the evenings. So whenever I pass by I’m intrigued and often think about someday visiting. Well I made a portrait of Robert, got to know him and felt it was fate, I had to visit his restaurant. I had lunch at the Budapest and really enjoyed the food, the environment and the company; the place has a lot of character. I highly recommend visiting the Budapest.

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

Sweeney Todd and Still Life Drawing

Not too long ago, I was hooked on listening to Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince while I created my still life drawings. Now while I draw, I’m hooked on listening to the Sweeney Todd movie sound track, The Demon Barber Of Fleet Street. This movie is directed by Tim Burton, with actors Johnny Depp, and Helena Bonham Carter. I’ve seen this movie, it’s intense! But the soundtrack I find pleasant to listen to and has a good tempo for me to create art.

So I listened to Sweeney Todd sound track while I created this piece. The scene is from my mom’s kitchen. Most of the objects were already there, I added a few items and took some things out to simplify it. What caught my attention in this scene was the tile, I like the effect tile gives my drawings, and I also like how these objects are together but don’t relate.

But the main reason I sat down to draw this scene is that it tells a story, there is a lot going on. The toys, tomatoes, cleanser, windowsill, faucet and tile gives us clues and a feeling of what day to day living is like in this environment.

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

How I Cheat In My Drawings

I had a great drawing session at last Wednesday night's Paul Geiger Studio figure drawing session. We had a new model. Paul started the session with a few short 5-minute poses for the crowd to warm up. Then a long pose was set up on the high platform. I like the visual effect of when the model is positioned high for drawing. The drawing usually has a grand feeling, as if you’re looking up at a building or mountain.

The model's pose was on a chair. I like the model seated for several reasons: first, the pose fits my drawing page; I can draw the scene bigger. If she was standing, then the pose would take up more of my page and I would have to draw her smaller to fit. Another reason is I liked the chair the model was seated on because I can use it as a tool for getting the proportions to the model correct.

This is when I feel like I’m cheating because the chair makes drawing the model so much easier. I use the negative shapes of the chair (the space between the legs of the model and legs of the chair). These shapes help me determine the proportions of the model easily. Sometimes people will say “Wow, that looks difficult; you're a good artist” and I usually respond “It's easy. I’m not drawing the model, I’m drawing the negative space”. If I draw all the negative shapes correct, then the figure starts to appear and I continue by drawing in positive shapes (the model).

These two drawings are of the same pose but from different angles, 30 minutes each. They were fun and rewarding to create. Plus Paul played good tunes starting with classical music, then some Dave Brubeck, and ending with Elvis Costello.

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

Drawing Still Life with View Finder

Here’s a recent drawing I enjoy looking at. I’m still trying to find interesting ways to draw my nephew’s shoes, and this is a drawing that I think works. It is a busy scene. I like that, and I like how all the simple shapes of the fruit compliment the child’s playful shoe.

Drawing a scene like this can be overwhelming because there is so much I want to fit on the drawing page in a certain way. I wanted to make sure I got the left side of the shoe in, the banana and only part of the fruit bowl. I decided to crop the fruit bowl because if I sketched in the entire bowl, it would have made the shoes and other fruit proportionally small on my page.

So how do I decide how to crop the scene? There are several ways I do this. Lately I’ve been using a viewfinder that is proportional to my drawing page. (See sample picture below). I like this little artist tool; it’s quick and easy. If the scene is overwhelmingly busy and I want to only focus on a certain part of the scene then looking through this tool to determine sections I want to focus on really works. It helps me see the compositions within the page size in mind and helps me see the positive and negative shapes that come to the edge of the pages.

Here’s a picture of how I use it. It’s an easy tool to use. You move it forward and back to see how the composition will look on your page. There are many other ways to do this: sometimes I just visualize the edges then just start drawing and wait for final result. Or I can stretch out my arm, close one eye and visually align my pencil along the top, bottom sides of still life I want to draw, or I’ll us my hands to make a square with my fingers, this sometimes works. Whatever it takes, I just want to pick that composition so I can start drawing.

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

Table Top Random Still Life Drawing

Here's a new still life drawing I really enjoyed creating. For me its' a random composition---I didn't put this still life together, it just happened. I purchased some fruit at local market for drawing in a still life. I placed the fruit on the dining room table with the intention to create a still life to draw. Well my mom made lunch and she moved everything on the table to the side and when I came to eat lunch this is what I saw on the table. I liked it, I couldn't have come up with it on my own.

Objects and items I wouldn't normally put together on a still life all of a sudden created a nice composition. After lunch, I sat down to draw this scene. I did take out a few items to simplify it, and I purposely included the large white space on bottom to compliment the busy top section and for the viewer to possibly understand that all these items had been pushed aside.

I like it when I find these random compositions. I learn a lot from them. One lesson is my drawings don't necessarily have to stick to a theme to be successful. Drawing these types of scenes with random objects also creates interesting responses and feelings from people viewing my art.

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

Still Life Drawing With a Slow Tempo

Here's a recent still life drawing I really like! One thing that helps me create these nice still life drawings is setting a pace. For still life drawings, I like to have a slow tempo music, something that can keep me calm. I stay away from Latin salsa and rock music, or even classical music. Lately what I have been listening to is the movie Harry Potter and The Half Blood Prince. I have it recorded on the cable box and as soon as I start to draw a still life, I kick on Harry Potter and The Half Blood Prince.

This movie has a nice pace, all the dialog and the music is very mellow, perfect for drawing. I also like the visual mood of the movie; it's dark, Gothic and has that classic castle look. So I'll turn this movie on and listen to it while I draw, and sometimes I'll take a break and watch a little Harry Potter.

Well, it's still cold outside and I feel like drawing so I think I'll go look for a still life to draw in the kitchen and listen to Harry Potter and The Half Blood Prince.

CLICK IMAGE TO ENLARGE

Drawing Still Lifes in the Winter Season

I've been drawing a lot of still lifes. I could easily post 2 drawings a day, 7 days a week for this whole month with just still life drawings of fruit and kitchen scenes. One main reason I'm motivated to draw a lot is the weather. I'm in Toledo Ohio and the weather out is bitter cold with snow so not much to do outdoors for me but work inside on drawings during the day when I'm not working on illustrations. I am grateful for the weather, it's making me produce a lot of work and I notice my drawings skills are improving.

Well, just got done shoveling snow, and more snow is expected for this evening so I'm going to sit down and draw a still life.

CLICK IMAGE TO ENLARGE

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!

Bananas & Tomatoes in Puerto Rico

Here's my first drawing I created since I arrived last week in Quebradillas, Puerto Rico. I've been wanting to draw but I've been so busy settling in, cleaning my studio and working on projects.

In the evenings, I visit family and I always bring my pad to draw but by then I'm tired and motivation is low. Last night was different, though. I arrived at my aunt's house and I thought, no excuses, sit down and draw and I did. It's always tough to get started, especially after a long day, high humidity and mosquitoes! It's so much easier simply lounging on the front-porch hammock. But once I started a quick gesture sketch to block in the shapes, I got hooked and was determined to finish.

It felt good to finish a piece, it always reminds me how much I enjoy drawing. Plus my family members would walk by and watch me, they thought it was cool. One cousin was cleaning table and moved two tomatoes while I was drawing, I looked up and they were gone! I was shocked and I expressed myself, he apologized and put them back.

I actually worked up a sweat on this sketch, it's different drawing in high humidity, my paper felt different, it doesn't feel crisp like in dry climate and my graphite pencils really felt soft so i would lose my sharp tip fast, and if I pressed too hard my paper would burnish. I approached this drawing like a figure and portrait drawing: with a quick gesture sketch to block-in shapes and to fill the page, then slowly began building tone, added depth with overlapping thick and thin lines, and always kept in mind negative shapes, composition, and design.

Portrait Drawing Young African American Man

This portrait drawing is of my friend AJ. He's modeling at the Saturday portrait drawing session for a couple weeks. Drawing AJ's portrait has been difficult.

These two drawings I'm posting do look good but compared to the model there are subtleties that I missed. Drawing portraits are difficult and it's the main reason I attend these sessions--for the challenge, and for practice.

I have attended many portrait drawing sessions and I believe they have made me a more skilled artist. AJ will be back next Saturday, hopefully I can draw one that captures his true likeness.

Female Figure Drawing

Hello everyone, I haven't posted a drawing in a long time. I was on a dry spell but now I'm back and motivated.

I'm right now in Toledo, Ohio with family and I've been attending figure drawing sessions. Here's a figure drawing from last night session that I'm proud of. I had a great time. I was definitely in the zone. The crowd was small, the drawing studio had a good vibe, and the model was focused. O ya, and they played Beatles music :).

This is a really low view, the model was on a tall pedestal, so it has the cool effect of viewing her from the ground up.

I created this figure drawing in graphite on Strathmore Premium drawing paper. It took me about 30 min. I did a lot of proportions measurements and sighting with my pencil for alignment. More to come.