The Sustained Study

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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.

20151110_evening-1 20151110_evening-2The 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.

Fun and Games at Life Class

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7 pm, Life class:

Teacher: OK, let’s do something fun. You’re only allowed 20 lines, you have 5 minutes.
Stuart: That’s long. 5 minutes … I may have cheated, stopped counting my lines.
Teacher: … and for the last 5 minutes, switch the tool from thin to thick.
Stuart: OK, I’ll switch to wax crayons.

20151103_evening-3Teacher: More fun. Now you’re only allowed 20 horizontal lines.
Stuart: … but I can’t see any
Teacher: Yes, and you may also fill in shadow shapes, if you like.
Stuart: … like this?
Teacher: … now five minutes again, and then an additional 5 to “complete” the drawing as you wish.
Stuart: … ok, those wax crayons are coming in handy.
Teacher: Now you have 15 minutes for a pose. Try out the stuff you’ve just taught yourself

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Teacher: One normal pose.
Stuart: Hey, foreshortening is my middle name!
Teacher: Continuously changing pose. Stick to the same drawing, the model changes the pose set-up every few minutes.
Stuart: … like this?

20151103_evening-1Teacher: Good night! Don’t forget to sign the attendance list.

Safari Nudes

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Back from evening figure drawing class. And I have also been up in the mornings, before going to work and drawing 30 minutes worth of gestures. (To see them, CLICK HERE).

The nude pics below are done with my Lamy Safari, F-Nib, Royal Blue, on A3 190g paper, and then a little bit of Pentel waterbrush.

Topic today was “feet and hands in relation to the face/head”.

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Keep It Small and Simple (KISS)

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Just back from figure drawing class. Using A6 sketchbooks and the A5 Moleskine concertina sketchbook.

Also accompanied by:

  • Winsor&Newton Colman watercolour travelers’ set
  • My waterbrushes (Pentel and Koi)
  • The Da Vinci RedSable/BlueSable/Squirrel/Synthetic brush size no. 6
  • Lamy fountain pen with Lamy Royal Ink cartridge
  • Copic Multiliner (black, 0.3)
  • F-C. Albrecht Dürer watercolour pencils

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Moleskin concertina (approx. A5) (everyone loves this, get one for yourself) with Lamy and waterbrush. 2 x 15 minutes.

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A6 sketch book, Copic + DaVinci and Colman paints. 15 minutes.

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A6 + Lamy and waterbrush. 10 minutes.

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Moleskin A6 journal (cahier). Copic + Albecht Dürer pencils and waterbrush. 3 x 5 minutes.

“Charging in” in Class

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Giving my Lamy Safari and the watercolours another chance tonight at my weekly, evening class.

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The “charging in” is a watercolour technique which means you continue an “activated”, washed area with a new colour.
E.g. you mix 3 washes on your palette (me, I mixed a green, a yellow/orange/ocker, and a greyish blue). You start washing an area and then switch the colours and let the new load of wash touch and mingle with the still active area.