Tag Archives: art instruction

Experimental Painting

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I attended a class at Miller School of Art in Georgetown today (which is just south of Seattle). Title of the class was Experimental Painting. Marc (the owner) provides all the material and you have four hours of time to just paint, no restrictions, no limits really – he gave some guidelines what media to use in what order, basically teaching certain techniques – but otherwise you could just let loose – which I enjoyed sooo much. Just letting loose compared to the very concentrated efforts of the drawing instructions in the other classes was a nice change. Here are the two paintings I produced.

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Mixed Media on Watercolor Paper | Charcoal, Oil Pastel, Watercolor and Acrylic | 06/2012

The above painting was just pure fun. First you apply any shape you like with charcoal (it leaves the dark shadow-like shapes), then you draw in oil pastel (which pops out in the end), go over it with a layer of watercolor (that’s what you would see as back ground color in this case), paint with acrylic paint on top of it, blow dry the whole thing until the acrylic is half-way “firm” – and finally wash/scrub the whole painting down under running water. The acrylic remnants show up as fine lines here. The abuse the painting took was amazing and the outcome just pure fun.

Mixed Media – Watercolor, Charcoal, Acrylic on Untreated Cotton Cloth | 06/2012

This is the second painting I’ve created. It’s done on drop cloth stapled to a 1/4 inch board (cheap material ! ). First you apply layers of watercolor, then charcoal (hardly visible in this painting) and finally acrylic paint. I really liked the technique (very promising, I will use it in the future for sure) and if I may say so,  I am fascinated with the outcome.

Also, did I mention it ? Fun, Fun, Fun !

Portrait – Drawing and Sculpting (Ear)

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As a follow-up to yesterday’s post – a few construction drawings of the ear and a photo of the sculpted ear:

BTW – the lines around the ear are not supposed to be earrings, they are construction lines demonstrating the shape of the object – and the plane changes,  they show how the form turns in space.

Portrait – Drawing and Sculpting (Nose)

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Last quarter (Spring 2012) I took “Beginning Portrait – Drawing and Sculpting” at Gage (instructor: Suzanne Brooker). One week we drew (from the life model) and the next week we sculpted (from the same model) one particular feature of the head.

The point is to understand the plane breaks, dimensions and relations (of the features) of the face/head. To achieve this we drew so-called construction drawings that show the breaks and then sculpted this part. Sculpting (since it is 3-D) really enhances one’s understanding of the plane breaks and relations of the features to each other and as a result improves one’s drawing skills.

To illustrate here an example of a simple construction drawing from an artistic anatomy book:

And here are a few of my construction drawings of the model’s nose:

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And the sculpture – the focus is on the nose, the other features are not really developed, only as much as needed for reference.

I’ll post other features of the head in the next few days.

Thanks for stopping by.

Drawing from a Life Model

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Last winter quarter I took Beginning Figure Drawing at Gage. One of the great things about classes at Gage is that you have the opportunity to draw from life models. It’s quite different from copying another artist’s painting or drawing from a photo – challenging in many ways and rewarding at the same time. To really study the figure and learn to draw and paint it correctly you have to draw from a life model as often as possible. Here my first long-pose-drawing that I did during a class session in January 2012.

Charcoal on Paper | January 2012

Art & Fear

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“…the seed for your next work lies embedded in the imperfections of your current piece.”

That’s a quote from this book:

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Geoff Flack, one of the instructors at Gage, recommended it. If you (like pretty much any other artist) ever wondered about yourself as an artist and/or your work – be it writing, music or painting, you name it – you have to read this book. I did, it’s fantastic. In fact I just started reading it for a second time. It’s a quick read (122 pages) and every word is worth reading and thinking about.

Block In

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During winter quarter I attended a Figure Drawing class at Gage Academy. One of the methods to create a quick figure sketch we’ve talked about was “block in”. It’s good to have a good light source to create strong shadows – and then you quickly block in the dark areas and thereby create a first sketch of the figure. Following are two sketches I did in class.

The first one (woman standing) literally took only a couple of minutes. The second one (man sitting) took a little longer, may be 10 to 15 minutes. I find it fascinating what one can create with only a few strokes and capture/express so much.

 

 

Simple (?) Line

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Starting in January (winter quarter) I’ve been taking art classes at Gage Academy in Seattle. One of them was Beginning Drawing. Although I had some crash course in drawing basics by another instructor earlier last year, I signed up for this class in the hope that I could fill in any blanks. Overall I did not learn a lot that I didn’t know already, still it was a good experience and I got more practice. One exercise that we did very early on was a great eye opener regarding space and composition.

The instructor asked us to draw an exciting line and then draw a boring line. The point was to be emotional and spontaneous. Here is what I drew.

Charcoal on paper – guess the exciting line is obvious, the boring line is the little one in the upper right corner. Note not only the wave (or lack thereof) but also the thickness of the line.

He then asked us to draw a line that stays inside the edges of the paper. In doing so we were asked to make it more dramatic, may be using the length of the charcoal (not the tip) or whatever else we could think of to achieve the look of movement and drama.

DSC_0002Charcoal on paper

Next he instructed us to draw another line just like the first one (exciting and lively) but this time going off the edges of the paper at least once.

Charcoal on paper

Now observe how the dynamic of the drawing changes. The drawing where the line goes off the paper seems to be more interactive. It seems to suggest something happening outside the “frame”. Is that fascinating or what? I certainly thought so. I also was very impressed with the fact that one can express so much with a “simple” line. It seems so emotional, deliberate and artful (especially the first one that stays in the “frame”, my personal favorite) and yet it’s just random, coming out of a more or less emotional movement of the arm/body. I was super fascinated with this exercise.

Gage Academy – Seattle

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The Gage Academy in Seattle is a school of fine arts. They focus “on classical training for contemporary artists”. All classes are taught by working artists. In many classes students work from a live model. Gage is a non-profit, classes are quite affordable or sometimes even free, e.g. the Art Talk Series. They focus on their mission to make high quality art education accessible to everyone (young or old) who is willing to learn, in many ways similar to the Art Students League in New York. Besides classes, workshops and lectures for adults and youth they offer Atelier for “the serious artist in training”. Atelier students study every day for many months (or even years) with a specific professional artist in a studio setting. Working side by side with an established artist in the atelier is how aspiring artists used to learn needed skills (and develop as artists) for many centuries. Another outstanding program they offer is Teen Art Studio, completely free art instruction (including material) for teens between 13 and 18 years of age. Gage Academy is located in Capitol Hill (on 10th Avenue) right next to St. Marks Cathedral. If you live in the Seattle area and you are interested in fine art drop by one of these days. It is a wonderful old brick building with just the right vibes. Sign in with the front office, walk up to the third floor and view the periodically changing exhibitions in the Entry, Rosen and Steel Gallery. May be you even get a peek in one of the studio classrooms. Get inspired – enjoy!