Stuartdraws

A Brace of Models

Jan 26, 2016Jan 26, 2016StuartLeave a comment

Stuart: Oh, look we have two models tonight!
Torsten: No, she made a mistake, it’s ok, she’s going now.
Female Model: Hi!
Stuart: Hi, Female Model! Great, two models tonight!
Female Model: Yeah, I don’t mind. But it’s too expensive.
Stuart: Well, if it’s only about the money … we have enough.
[Stuart approaches Torsten again]
Stuart: She’s willing to stay. We can afford it, can’t we?!
Torsten: Hmm, but some of our artists already have enough on their plate with one model.
[3 minutes later, Female Model is undressed on the little stage]
Stuart: Hey, Female Model, you can thank me for this!
Female Model: Yeah, you can call the poses!

Oh, I love my Life Drawing Classes, but tonight was my last one for months. I haven’t registered for the next course, because SBS and “daily” gesture sketching is taking up enough of my precious time.

But here are the results of tonight’s “brace of models” and also a sneak peek into my second week at SBS.

So, what’s this with the paper … looks like a calendar. Yes, it is a half price Moleskine weekly calendar. I wanted something that feels and looks great, but is not too “precious” and can still, just about take watercolours (it was still expensive, for half price: 10€) .

One last pic tonight in a small, absolutely lovely Moleskine watercolour booklet (10 minutes):

20160126-1

OK, this is the stuff I took to Life Drawing Class tonight:

20160126-9

Oh, look, there’s even a picture of me in there.

Now to SBS. Well, I am absolutely blown away. I can’t believe how much of my hidden creative seam has been mined in these 12 days.

I’ll just give you something of mine to look at from this last Klass with Jill Weber … it’s all about telling stories and making books.

20160123

20160124-3

20160125

The Tools of Kreativity

Jan 19, 2016Stuart4 Comments

Well, the first week of SketchBookSkool (SBS) is well underway.

I’m very impressed with the channels of creativity it has already allowed me to explore. The videos are short, but wow!, they are incredible. I’ve had a sneek peak of Felix Scheinberger painting a little comical bird in 3 minutes with a water brush (and lighter!/Feuerzeug). I’ve been hand-lettering (thanks to Koosje’s lessons) at work during meetings.

I just sat down and did this (hey, why am I doing all that gesture drawing practice anyway?):

20160119

Tools in use:

pencil (B)
handcrafted (turned) nib holder (from the Siegburg Weihnachtsmarkt)
Heintze&Blanckertz “G” nib
“Dirk Weber, Bonn” Indian Ink wasserfest
Koi water brush
rag (old vest of mine, sorry, I was sure you wanted to know that)
Winsor&Newton Colman traveler’s watercolour set
1917 Leuchtturm sketchpad

Since the course started on Friday, I sketched all of this:

16/01/2016

15/01/2016

17/01/2016

I wonder what Ed (mostlydrawing.com) will say about my interpretation of Hokusai … ?

Waiting for the Kurs to start

Jan 13, 2016Jan 14, 2016Stuart2 Comments

I’m waiting for my first ever Kurs to start over at sketchbookskool.com and I’m starting to get itchy and want to be kreative for a change. So why not draw a komic strip of myself waiting for my first ever Kurs to start over at sketchbookskool.com. 20160113-1

I took some quick photos and decided pretty quickly on the panel setup I wanted for the comic strip. I needed a few minutes to calculate and draw the panels’ frames, loaded the photos onto the PS3 (at least one thing it’s good for) and displayed them on the TV. 3 hours later, non-stop working, quick pencil pre-sketching (B lead) and making final marks with marker (Derwent 0.1) we have this result (DINA3, 190 gr/sqm).

(I believe, I have never done anything like this before.)

Practice makes Perfect!

Dec 16, 2015StuartLeave a comment

We had our last Life Class evening for 2015 yesterday.

And I’m taking the opportunity here to look back a few months at some comparable Life Class results.

Most of these are fountain pen drawings. I have really fallen in love with drawing with a fountain pen and I notice my progress, coming from scratchy lines and moving on to more convincing, clean and especially more decisive lines.

Here is last nights result and then the order is from oldest to latest drawings.

20151215_evening-1 — 2015/12/15, last night

The following drawings start in August 2015 and represent my Life Drawings progress of the last 4 months.

20150804_figure_class_4 — 2015/08/04, trying out pencils again

20150818-1 — 2015/08/18, same model as last night, but 4 months earlier

20151208_life_class-2 — 2015/12/08, last week

Master Of Life

Dec 8, 2015Stuart5 Comments

Carla: Stuart, Torsten isn’t coming today. Go get the stuff. Here’s the key.

[Stuart goes and gets the stuff]

Model:Ok, then. What would you like?
Stuart: (being as he got the stuff and also has a big mouth) OK, we’ll start with 3 times 5 minutes to warm up …

[and so the evening begins, with a new “Master Of Life” … me, me, me]

20151208_life_class-2

[Two of my fountain pens ran dry while drawing tonight. A3, 190g paper.]

Carla: Stuart, take the key back to the restaurant and put the chain across the parking area.

[Ok, I must admit, Carla had her hand bandaged and I still have a big mouth.]

Don’t forget to check out my gestures.

blauw blau blue bleu

Dec 1, 2015Stuart2 Comments

20151201_evening-1

I’m not sure, what to think of these pics from tonight’s Life Class.
Lamy fountain pen on 190gsm, A3, and Faber-Castell Albrecht Dürer pencil.
I’m sure my pen has moved more fluidly on past evenings, but building up tone with the Albrecht Dürer pencil was very therapeutic, even if not always too easy, what with the lighting conditions we have in our Life Class room.
It’s interesting to see that I only have 1 1/2 hours of drawings but the evening is 2 1/4 hours long. So we spend 45 minutes chatting and relaxing somewhere along the line.

Sick Left Hands

Nov 28, 2015Nov 28, 2015Stuart2 Comments

[Sorry, Ed (author of Six Left Hands)]

Back in the times before Paris … <interlude> … you know, I follow a few great sketching sites on wordpress … and one of those are Suhita Shirodkar’s sketchaway … </interlude> well, a few days before Paris, Suhita published a blog entry with a tonal study of her left hand.
And I thought, hey, I’ve got one of those (i.e. left hand and even a blog, too). Here’s Suhita’s left hand: hand_shadows.jpg.

So I continued running a few days with 30(!) second gesture drawings of other peoples’ hands… Then Paris happened.

Yeah, well, anyway, and then Ed published his six lefties and I thought, Stuart, the time is ripe again, are your hand skills up to scratch? … do a few more quick gesture drawings and give it a try.

Today, in every free 20 minute slot, I jumped to the challenge. Lamy fountain pen in hand. Sometimes standing in front of the mirror. So some lefties look like righties. Enjoy.

20151128_morning-1 20151128_afternoon-1 20151128_afternoon-2 20151128_evening-1

And here are some of the quick gesture sketches. You can see more of these gesture sketches in the gesture sub-menu.

Snow, Rain and Life

Nov 24, 2015StuartLeave a comment

[Stuart arrives at Life Class]
[Outside it’s raining, snowing, and sleeting]
Richard: Hi Stuart, the tutor called, he’ll be late, but the model’s already here.
Stuart: No heaters? No Life equipment?
Model (teeth chattering): I need those heaters, I’m soaking, need to get out of these clothes.
Stuart: Well, bad luck, get on that stage now … 10 minutes ok for you?

20151124_evening-1

[Tutor arrives]
Tutor: Ok, hi folks, let’s do a pose and then I’ve got an idea for you.
[Heaters are set up]

20151124_evening-2

Tutor: Hey, the next half an hour, we’re drawing blind.

Stuart: Yeeees, this is what I’m talking about. What a great experience! The result isn’t important, but the act of looking at the model becomes so intense.
Tutor: Now see if you can use anything you learnt in the past half an hour.

20151124_evening-5 20151124_evening-6

Stuart: Well, I’m not complaining, that was really fun. Used my Lamy Safari “F” nib, Blue/Black ink, in a rough surface, 110gsm, A4 sketch book. The paper really soaks up that ink.

Life Class Impressions

Nov 18, 2015Stuart2 Comments

Another evening and an attempt with a slightly different tool set:

Faber-Castell PITT artist pen “big brush” COLD GREY
Faber-Castell PITT artist pen “B” COLD GREY
Faber-Castell PITT artist pen “S” BLACK

Faber-Castell Albrecht Dürer watercolour pencils

2015/11

The “big brush” was a bit unhandy and hard to control for me. Later in the evening I moved back to the Albrecht Dürer pencils, which I enjoyed working with. It’s time for me to return to the daily gestures.

The Sustained Study

Nov 10, 2015StuartLeave a comment

Before I left for Life Class I picked up my copy of Kimon Nicoleides’ “The Natural Way To Draw”. I read through the section “The Sustained Study” (section 13, pretty far into the book). OK, I’m not going to see any sustained poses in the Life Class, but this section mentions:

“Make a decision as to what you will consider the main source of light [..] and attempt to use only the one set of shadows which indicates the one source of light.” – Kimon Nicoleides

So today I thought, I’d go with my wax crayons and Albrecht Dürer colour pencils and give this shadow and light source choosing method a go.

In Class, the teacher gave us some additional ideas to make things more interseting. We were to add lines, boxes or whatever to create the sense of environment, perspective and play with it a little.

The wax crayons are not easy to control once the tip has rubbed down, which is pretty much straight away. But it was fun, if a little challenging to try a new tool out.