bubbling creative juices

Jamesha, 20 x 8, watercolor and charcoal on BFK

Why not try something new? 

It seems like with all things creative, sure death is accomplished with predictability and doing things the same way. 

At Hipbone Studios this week, during the 30 minute poses, I pulled out a tiny travel set of watercolors and did this little painting. Charcoal drawing made the paint muddy, and next time I may use graphite instead of charcoal, but overall I like how this one turned out.

And I feel my creative juices bubbling again. How do you keep your creative juices going?

practice, etudes and figure drawing

Jennifer, 90 second gesture drawings

Practice makes a lot of sense to me. When I was just seven years old, I started a lifelong love affair with piano and practice was required. It's funny, I always enjoyed practicing. I liked the discipline of it. I liked the alone time. I liked figuring things out, spotting the hard parts, making notes along the way to guide me and to make it flow.

As I advanced in my piano skills, my practice pieces changed. At my peak, I was practicing with pieces like this Chopin Etude (Op 10 No. 4). It was a sure way to limber up creaky fingers and get blood moving!

With art, practice looks different from scales, arpeggios, and etudes. Practice in art for me looks like lots of figure drawing and figure painting. Each session seems to limber up my creaky observation skills and to get the blood moving toward interesting, dynamic, and more accurate drawings.

Jennifer, 90 second gesture drawings

Looking at these drawings today, I can see that I need to sort out the proportions of the model's behind. With music, I could slow things down, make notes of better fingering solutions, and isolate the trouble area for more practice. With drawing, I will not be able to slow things down, but I can use more sight-size measuring to increase my accuracy.

Jennifer, 90 second gesture drawings

Figure drawings are the etudes of art practice.

attitude

gesture drawing, 90 seconds

The energy and action of this drawing tells me something: don't work so hard! In 90 seconds, my charcoal and I described the model's pose and attitude (and very long neck!) but nothing is finished. Poor girl, she's missing her face, feet, arms and more. But, somehow, she's there. With attitude. 

I LOVE figure drawing!

"Walk On By" by Diana Krall.

return to the figure

He moved like a dancer and held each pose like a still life. It felt great to be back at figure drawing yesterday, at Hipbone Studio in Portland. Jeff Burke, owner of the studio and facilitator of the sessions, greeted me by name and commented on how long it had been since my last time there. Ah. Good to be back! Back among friends, models, and the feel of charcoal dust on the old wooden floor.

When the model took this pose, I instantly fell in love with the angles and the lean of his torso and weight supported by the back of the chair. How elegant!

I did a few stick figure sketches to locate the lines of the shoulders, back, hips, and limbs. It's all too easy to straighten up a leaning figure and the stick figure drawings are a help to me.

It doesn't happen every time, but most times when I am at figure drawing, I am overcome by the sense of honor I feel at being able to draw from the live human figure. What a great tradition in art practice! And I am participating in it, too! The more I think about it, I am struck by how it's not just about the bones and skin of the model, but I am in awe of the beauty of the human being in front of me. It gets to me!

30 minute drawing

The rhythm of a figure drawing group sets the tone for the entire session. At Hipbone Studio, Jeff Burke (owner, teacher, facilitator, and sometimes model) selects the music and keeps the time. He also makes sure that the pose offers something for everyone in the 180 degree drawing space.

First the gestures. 90 seconds a piece. Fast paced. Quick and loose. Then a few 5 minute poses. Wow. Five minutes feels like an hour after the 90 second poses. Then a couple of 15 minute poses. And last, the 30 minute poses. Three of them. 

In 30 minutes, it's possible to really develop a drawing. I had a nice spot for this pose and I took my time with it. Just vine charcoal on newsprint, but I can feel the person in the drawing. And I like that!

liars can figure and figures can lie!

"Liars can figure and figures can lie" -- the opening statement from my Statistics professor. I think of that comment every time I walk into a figure drawing session. Not that they are lies, per se, but little exaggerations, inaccuracies, and interpretations of reality are in every figure drawing. I love it. Maybe these little lies make my drawings distinctive from others' work.

Newsprint and charcoal and a great model made for a great afternoon at Hipbone Studio. Exciting things are happening at my monotype class, too. Figure work there, too, and more to think about. Design, figure, story. I love it all!

Speaking of lying, did you happen to catch this TED talk, "How to Spot a Liar" by Pamela Meyer? Watch it and you, too, can become a better LIE-SPOTTER!

Self Portrait Contour Drawing

Contoured Katherine
24 x 18, ink on Stonehenge paper

I'm off to drawing class tonight with Kitty Wallis. This class is a one year commitment and I have missed more than I have attended since it restarted in January. Tonight will be my time to get back into the drawing groove. There is so much to learn!

Today I practiced with a contour self-portrait. Contour drawings appeal to me, probably because of the coloring book look. Or, maybe it because of the simplicity.

Once, at Hipbone Studios, I watched an artist do an elegant contour drawing of the figure model. A single line in ink, done with a graceful sweep of the artist's shoulder and wrist and finally hand. It was magic!

Aaron at Hipbone 2

Aaron Standing, 24 x 18, pastel on Belgian Mist Wallis sanded paper.

Figure Drawing at Hipbone -- Part Three: 30 Minute Poses

The last poses of the session are 30 minutes each. It gives the artist a chance to develop the drawing (or painting) more completely than the shorter poses.

Here I started with a piece of Wallis paper that I had previously experimented on with washes of watercolor, pastel with Turpenoid, and just water. I decided to just focus on the model's head and hand in this drawing.

I have been away from Hipbone for a long time and it felt great to be back. The human form is endlessly fascinating to me.

Moses, 14 x 14, pastel on Wallis paper

Mischief

Capturing expression is a real challenge in figure work. In my classes at Hipbone Studio, Jeff Burke holds emotional expressions for three to five minutes to give artists a chance to try to capture them. A lot happens to the proportions of a face with a smile, a scream, a pout, a laugh, a sneer. Look at your own face in a mirror and make a few faces. You will see exactly what I mean.

Katie is a young woman who can dish it out as well as she can take it. And she has a wonderful streak of mischief that I love to pieces. I tried to capture her sense of playfulness in this piece.

Mischief, 11 X 15, pastel