Finally, Perfect!

Looking Through the Trees

Watercolor on Masa Paper. 7.75x5"

www.davida-art.com

lifeartist-davidablog.blogspot.com

The weather has finally become warm enough to go outside to make watercolors.  Mother's day was cold and rainy. The day after was only slightly better. Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday I had to prepare work for a couple of shows. Friday I worked on an oil portrait. Yesterday I went out to paint. This is the first of two efforts.

There is a small park near my home with a tot lot, basket ball court, and tennis court. There is a circular path around grassy lightly wooded area. The kids were out with all the energy bottled up from being indoors anticipating better weather. Both courts were busy with activity. The tot lot was in heavy use and kids on bikes whipped around the circular path with the exhilarated freedom bikes bring to kids. People were pushing strollers and walking dogs. 

It's the revelry of spring. Green has returned. The heat is held in abeyance, the humidity too. It's perfect! I have always said that I am very easy to please. Just spoil me with perfect. Yesterday was it!

Man in Plaid

Tom, in the Comfy Chair

Watercolor on Rag Paper, 10x7.5"

www.davida-art.com

lifeartist-davidablog.blogspot.com

This is Tom from our final pose of the semester. He is sitting in the comfy chair. It's a rather large chair and Tom is not a big man so he he looks like he is really in the chair. 

I was attracted to the plaid fabric. It is a lesson in cross contour. If you can observe the stripes in both directions and see how they appear narrower or wider with perspective; how they stop as they move under rolls or folds; and how they emerge from the rolls or folds; then, you can capture the undulations of the surface. If you can do those things, all you need do is sweep the shadows in and the fabric is done.

Cross contour can be applied to any 3-D object to help express volume. I have exercises in cross contour for my life drawing class. It helps when beginning to work with shadows. The cross contours helps one understand the change in the direction of the surface and how that effects light striking the surface.

Structural, prototype drawings for computer graphics are cross contour drawings. It's nothing new. Cross contour studies have been done since the Renaissance. It's part of a suite of techniques for developing spatial illusion on flat surfaces. All computer 3-D graphics take advantage of that suite of techniques. Old techniques are new again with the digital age.

Another Series: 2 of 2

 

Helena, Reclining

Watercolor on Rag Paper, 7.5x10"

www.davida-art.com

lifeartist-davidablog.blogspot.com

This is the same pose as the last post. I changed my position so that the bench with Helena on it are diagonal to the picture plane. The picture plane is equivalent to the surface of the painting. It's as if the surface of this watercolor is a glass window panel through which you see Helena and you have traced the image onto the surface of the glass. The glass becomes the piece of paper on which you have made the painting. 

You also carry a picture plane with you. Imagine you are wearing glasses. Glasses sit on your nose parallel to the plane of your eyes. If something is not parallel to your glasses then it is diagonal to the picture plane. The previous painting had Helena sitting parallel to my picture plane. 

This is an abstract concept that is essential to understanding perspective and is apparently easy for third graders but very difficult for adults. I would come home after teaching the perspective portion of my basic drawing class absolutely wiped out from doing my Vanna White routine demonstrating how parallel surfaces apply to 1-point or 2-point perspective. In all the years teaching this class, devising all kinds of ploys to illustrate the concepts, it has never become any easier. Go figure!

Another Series: 1 of 2

 Helena, Reclining

Watercolor on Rag Paper, 7.5x10"

www.davida-art.com
lifeartist-davidablog.blogspot.com

Helena is one of my favorite models. She always comes on time, never misses a class without good notice, and she can remain still as a statue for long periods. Many times she remains in pose even though she has done so for half an hour and due for a rest period. She is also not a young woman. She often talks about her teenaged grandchildren. She models all over the city and she travels by bus. That's no mean feat considering Chicago's traffic and tough winters.

My students and I smuggled the bench back in from the hall and set up a kind of chaise lounge for her.  This was our pose for three sessions. I got two watercolors done. This is the first of them. The patterns took most of my time in this instance but I think they make the piece. This is no likeness to Helena, facially. She is much better looking than my feeble effort. I was in thrall to the patterns.

What I like about this watercolor is its density. The colors are rich and there is a solidity of form. Who said watercolor was all sweet and pastelly? After nearly thirty years making watercolors I have learned to make watercolors that can be as saturated, and the results as strong, as any other medium. My large watercolors are finished paintings in every way. Anyone asserting that they are "sketches" are looking for a shot in the eye! Go tell Winslow Homer, John Singer Sargent, or Edward Hopper that their watercolors are sketches and any one of them will deliver a similar shot the eye as well.

A Series: Part 3 of 3

Dan, Reading #3

Watercolor on Rag Paper, 10x7"

www.davida-art.com

lifeartist-davidablog.blogspot.com

This is the final watercolor painting of this series. This pose has yielded some excellent drawings from my class. I will be sharing them on this blog after our final class critique next week. It has been a very rewarding life drawing semester. I have the best students and the nicest people in my class.

I have often said to my class "Repetition is the key to learning." Any skill well learned has been practiced again and again to the point that it becomes as natural as breathing. Any accomplished skills-based artist has worked for years to achieve and maintain those skills. It takes as long to educate such an artist as it does to educate a physician. 

So I keep my sketch book handy. I do three views of the same pose. I paint different version of the same still life. I paint outside on my deck. I do all this to maintain skills and to stimulate ideas. I get my best ideas while I am working. I have to keep my sketch book handy to write them down before they fly out of my head to be lost forever and be replaced by another idea. 

I do have times when I have the nothing-to-draw notion in my head. I find it's best to acknowledge the insignificance of those thoughts and just draw or paint. There are certain subject matters that I find are always satisfying to me. Chairs are a subject matter that falls into that category. Another subject matter is, of course, the human figure. Art making is my best therapy.

A Series: Part 2 of 3

Dan, Reading #2

Watercolor on Rag Paper, 9x6"

www.davida-art.com

lifeartist-davidablog.blogspot.com

This is watercolor #2 of the Dan, Reading series. This pose was held for three consecutive sessions. Since watercolors are fast, especially at this small size, I could make one watercolor per session. I moved from one side of the room to the other. I was able to do this right at my desk. I had my timer at hand so I could be very conscientious about setting the time for breaks. 

The model has half hour chunks of time for holding a pose with a 5 or 10 minutes to loosen up for the next chunk. While on break, I make rounds to see how everyone is doing. I offer suggestions and ask questions as to what they each want from the work. Beginners usually don't know what they want from a piece. It seems like a perfectly natural thing to know but, most beginners are struggling with building skills and have no idea at all as to what they want from a work. They have considered what the look or mood should be.

I know I like pattern and color so I inflict that on them because I am a benign dictator. I have told them, if they are sick of my fabrics, to bring in some fabrics of their own. I have had no takers as yet. We have only one more pose after our current model so they had better come up with something quick if they want more variety.

We are now talking about after the semester ends. I am retiring but I'd still like to do a little teaching. I just am sick of whining children. This class is certainly not that. We are talking about a pleine aire workshop at my house in Wisconsin. I could see it becoming a regular event. That would be delightful!

A Series: Part 1 of 3

Reading
Watercolor on Rag Paper, 9x4.5"

www.davida-art.com
lifeartist-davidablog.blogspot.com

My life drawing class is concentrating on making complete works of art in class. To facilitate their goals, I have arranged for models take a single pose over three sessions lasting 2 hours and 40 minutes each. The models hold their poses in 30 minute increments. I set the timer to make sure the model has breaks at this interval. While my students work, so do I.  If you are a regular reader, you know its to keep me from hovering. Then, when the model is taking a break, I make rounds to see how each student's work is progressing. I can then ask questions or offer suggestions towards the completion of each work.

My life drawing class is a joy! The work is gangbusters good! I am so proud of them! They are very serious about their art and work hard towards mastery.  I plan on posting some of their work as the semester ends. I try to establish a relaxed atmosphere. It's more conducive to risk-taking and experimentation. I don't need to be as insistent on achieving particular goals with the life drawing students as with the beginning drawing students. The life drawers have enough experience to know what they want from a drawing and can set their own goals. The beginners are just not 'there' yet. Many of the beginning drawing students are also not intending an arts related occupation. They are jumping through a required credit hoop.

So, this is Dan. He has wonderful bone structure which makes doing his portrait so interesting. He's in our comfy chair. I have also added a patterned cloth behind him to keep it interesting. He is clothed at the request of my students. They wanted to practice dealing with the clothed figure because we don't usually encounter people who happen to be walking around in the nude. 

This is my watercolor made during the first session. More to follow.

A Wider Context

Janet, Reclining

Watercolor on Rag Paper, 5x10"

www.davida-art.com

lifeartist-davidablog.blogspot.com

I received many requests to have models booked for multiple sessions holding the same pose for the purpose of making a complete work of art. Besides, complete works are very helpful to those students who wish to transfer to a four year, degree granting college or university. It is to their advantage to have such pieces for their portfolios. So I have arranged for models to come for three consecutive sessions. 

An isolated figure on a blank ground is merely a study. Figure study has a long history so how does one make a work of art from a study session? Context. What is the context? It can be an observed environment or a composite environment or an invented environment. Background stories provide the context in fiction and background context provides the story for a visual work of art.

The story is pretty apparent here. It's a drawing studio with a model, a fabric dressed wall and, lighting. An anatomy chart has been included just to add a greater hint as to what is really going on. It's a wide focus of the same set-up as for a previous post. The job of a model seems a lonely one according to this image. I have often included the artists in the room in other pieces for a more complete depiction of the situation. Here she is at her most vulnerable with ten artists all creating their own visions of Janet. 

We try to make our models as comfortable as possible both emotionally and physically. They are our co-workers and collaborators in art making and therefore VIPs It makes for the best work to have them feel secure.

Sunday Group

Sitting

Watercolor on Masa Paper, 7.75x5.25"

www.davida-art.com

lifeartist-davidablog.blogspot.com

This a small watercolor from a Sunday group I have joined to fill the void left after the dissolution of my Saturday group. I have been attending sporadically because of family events or because of opera dates conflicting with my going. I have reverted to watercolors because the poses are no longer than 40 minutes. I can't bring this kind of finish to less than a 40 minute pose lately. I have in the past. I have gotten used to being more deliberate and methodical. I am going to have to break that habit and allow for more happy accidents. 

I have some masa paper pieces that are much faster and bleedy than this. I have to re-teach myself how to do them. It amazes me how easily a certain approach gets left to the wayside as conditions change. Going from a short pose group, to a long pose group and, back to a short pose group, can really place one in a zone of discomfort. 

I have had to go through a lot of these to get something presentable enough to post. I have also been working during my life class so I have become little more practiced than I might otherwise be. This is my last semester teaching. After I am a free woman, my search for a other venues intensifies. This will be a large life change. I have to adapt quickly to keep me from idleness. My skills will erode very quickly if I don't.

Three Sarongs

 

Reclining

Watercolor on Masa Paper, 5.25x7.75"

www.davida-art.com

lifeartist-davidablog.blogspot.com

This little watercolor was done yesterday during class. It's was done as part of my no-hovering policy. I work along side my students to keep me out of their hair. One of my students, in a stroke of genius, suggested we take one of the upholstered benches from the hall into the classroom for our model to recline on. It became our chaise lounge a la Olympia!

As a junior college, the studio art classes are restricted to nothing beyond the 200 level. So not much is made of a concentration on the figure. We share the classroom with drawing and painting with no dedicated classroom for each activity. With no figure drawing/painting studio, we are ill equipped for providing an ideal setting. 

I'd love to have a room with props and drapes to literally dress a set and then allow it to stay in place during the period of activity for which it was created. I do have fabrics and four sarongs stored in a desk drawer. I pin the two yard lengths to the wall or drape them over the edge of the model stand. The model stand is a home made, all-purpose rolling table that is way too high for the models or the artists in the room. We all end up looking up the models' noses or under their chins. It's an awkward set-up.

The bench turned out to be the perfect height and it is padded enough to make our model reasonably comfortable. You see one sarong under the model and two on the wall behind her. A fourth sarong was her cover-up for the evening. They are very useful for they have the right size and have just enough pattern and color to make it interesting for drawings and paintings. Sarongs are so right!

Mid-Term Recess

Still Life
Oil on Linen Panel, 9x12"

www.davida-art.com
lifeartist-davidablog.blogspot.com

My college just had its midterm recess. I don't like hanging around Chicago during my spring breaks. It's been very dreary here and temperatures are unusually low for the time of year. That's a complete turn of events from last year when it was unusually warm. I just wanted a preview of spring. So my hubby and I flew off to Florida to visit some dear friends for ten days. They graciously put us up in their house. 

We are pretty compatible couples. She and I are artists. Her hubby and my hubby are avid bicycle riders. So I packed more art supplies than clothing and my hubby brought his folding bike which just fit in its case. It was larger that the bag for his clothing.

While the guys were on their bikes we women painted together and with the artists of the local art center. What fun! This was painted in her studio using some items from around the house. My friend is an animal activist who volunteers at the local animal shelter. She paints pet portraits. Half of her fee is donated to the shelter. 

I always have items that are meaningful to me in my still life paintings. The dog bookend is for my friend's passion for animal welfare and the little bike is for her hubby's passion for cycling. The coffee cup was included for the red color (representing my need for a morning caffeine fix, too) while the lemon came from a friend's lemon tree.

This was the only panel dry enough for the trip home. I wrapped it in some plastic coated freezer paper and it emerged from my suitcase in pristine condition.

Demonstrator

Fast Portrait

Oil on Linen Panel, 16x12"

www.davida-art.com

lifeartist-davidablog.blogspot.com

This is a demonstration piece done in class last semester to show some of the techniques I learned from Doug Braithwaite at a workshop in Utah. He begins with a dark under painting using a very thinly applied layer of paint. He then wipes away the areas to be lighter in value until the image appears as a study with a complete value range. Then he begins painting in layers of increasing stages of viscosity. I used a dark violet, as did he, but I imagine any dark color that won't contaminate the layers of color on top will do.

I think this is a much better approach than making a linear sketch. It provides so much more information. A linear sketch soon gets lost in the painting process and gives no direction in terms of value. Having a complete value study with a full value range has all the information for a finished product. 

This was done over two class periods of about two hours each. Class is two hours and forty minutes. Setting up and cleaning up take up the rest of the time. It usually takes me twice as long for these. Hence the roughness of it.

New Model

First Pose
Watercolor on Masa Paper, 10.5x7.5"

www.davida-art.com
lifeartist-davidablog.blogspot.com

This is the very first pose, as a model, for this beautiful young woman. And a very good model she is. I have always believed that the model is a collaborator in the creation of a work. As such, models deserve some credit and the greatest respect for what they do. I always try to take the best care of my models possible. Some models inspire a ho-hum and some models make one cheer as they walk in the door. Posing in the nude exposes more than skin. One is at their most vulnerable without clothing. Some models reveal something of themselves beyond the superficial. Some models do not. 

I have had models who were not emotionally present and even though she or he might have been beautiful, that je ne c'est quoi was not there. It's the I-don't-know-what, that makes that person a person for whom it is making a work of art is possible. This woman has the I-don't-know-what. I knew it the moment she took this pose and 15 minutes later I created this watercolor. Each time I encounter her she will have me glad she came in the door and I will make my most satisfying work.

Same Pose. Different Painting

Turquoise and Green

Watercolor on Rag Paper, 10x7"

www.davida-art.com

lifeartist-davidablog.blogspot.com/

This is the same woman from the previous post. I had completed that watercolor painting with a little time to spare so I did another watercolor on rag paper of this woman as she sat in the studio. The studio is an old mill with very high ceilings. It's a difficult space to heat. Since this was a head and shoulders portrait pose, it didn't matter that, for warmth, she covered her lap and knees with a green, polar fleece blanket. The object to the lower left is a fan for distributing the heat. Just above that is a her snack—a granny smith apple. It picks up the green of the blanket very well. The contrast of the warm brown and the cooler turquoise and green works very well. 

We, of course were too busy to worry about the slight chill in the room. That and the fact that we were wearing sweaters and sweatshirts made us less susceptible. Models have to take care of themselves because we'll just let them suffer. We are just so intensely involved, we don't notice much other than what we are doing. 

With less time to be finicky, this has a much more generalized look than the pervious work. No specifics of a portrait here. Just what she is doing and a few notations of her surroundings. As a quick study, it still says what needs to say.

Color Theory Lesson of the Day

 

Portrait of a Student

Watercolor on Masa Paper, 10.5x7" 

www.davida-art.com

lifeartist-davidablog.blogspot.com 

I spent an evening a week before Christmas with a group I anticipate will be my new art community once I move to my northern home. The model is a student of the local art school. She was wearing my favorite color, turquoise. She completed, literally, the color combination by wearing a rusty-orange colored scarf. The complementary colors of this makes the piece.

Complementary colors are colors which have the most extreme contrast in temperature and value. Each color in the complementary pair make the other appear to be more intense. The word complementary (spelled with two Es) indicates a completion, not praise as in the word compliment. To have a complementary color pair one must have all three primaries present in the form of one secondary color (i.e green, orange, or, violet) and one primary color. Whatever two primary colors are present in the secondary color, it must be completed by a third primary color which completes the primary triad.

Complementary pairs are as follows:

Green (yellow and blue) + Red

Orange(yellow and red) + Blue

Violet (red and blue) + Yellow

On a color wheel the complementary pairs are directly opposite each other. It’s much easier to figure out what combinations are complements by thinking of the composition of the secondary colors and their completing primary colors, than by visualizing a color wheel in your mind’s eye. This watercolor actually has a split complementary color scheme. A split complement is comprised of colors, close to, but on either side of the colors directly opposite each other on the color wheel.

A No Hovering Drawing

Clothed Model in the Classroom

Graphite on Paper, 5x8.5"

www.davida-art.com

lifeartist-davidaart.blogspot.com

This drawing was done in the class room while my students were working. I decided to keep the model clothed because students need to be able to draw people with clothes as well as without clothes. One usually does not encounter people who just happen to be naked during the course of one's day. It also gives a rationale for practicing drawing fabric.

That, along with hands and feet, can be challenging to draw. Beginners often avoid drawing them because they are terrified of them. I address these fears head on and very early in the semester. They must draw hands and feet and the context in which the model resides including fabric. It's like throwing someone into the deep end of the swimming pool to teach swimming. But, no one is in danger of drowning. And no one goes without instruction.

Actually, I can't teach anyone how to draw. I can only offer advice on an approach that might be helpful or offer advice on an approach that is not. I do that based I upon my own experience. I offer my own discoveries and let each student determine what works best for her or him.

Observational drawing is a skill set. It is a practice in seeing and a practice in applying shapes, areas of tone, and marks in such an arrangement as to create the illusion of space on a flat surface. And in the end, each drawing is only a bit of charcoal on a piece of paper. Each of us have an infinite number of drawings in us. There is no such thing as a failed drawing or failed painting. There is only a learning experience. The learning factor is tied to how well we pay attention and how well we apply the newly acquired knowledge. That's wisdom.

The Issue of Hovering

 

Comfy Chair in the Classroom

Watercolor on Rag Paper, 10x7"

www.davida-art.com

lifeartist-davidablog.blogspot.com

This watercolor was done last week to avoid hovering. As the teacher of drawing classes the issue of hovering over students is one of the things on my mind. How much do I need to scrutinize what students are doing? There is a fine line between being helpful and just being a pain in the ass. It can be very unnerving to have the person who will be judging your work standing over your shoulder watching what you are doing. I had that as an undergrad and was chided for admitting I felt uncomfortable with it. 

Years later a group of my classmates went down to see our instructors from that period and let those guys know in no uncertain terms that they were jerks. And they were. They guilt tripped us for all kinds of things that, in retrospect, were totally manipulative mind games.

I have all my experiences as a student to draw from in my teaching. I think of the things that I felt taught me a lot and apply them. The things that were damaging to my efforts I avoid. There is also self-teaching to draw upon. Certain discoveries while in practice can also be applied to the classroom environment. Hovering, however, is one those things to avoid.

I am very antsy when trying to avoid hovering so sometimes I draw or watercolor paint while in class to keep me out of their hair. Sometime those things are not possible so I go and check my mailbox in the faculty office or surf the internet for some good examples of work that will illustrate concepts for class. I’m always looking for examples.

I do get comments on student evaluations that I am either too stingy or too forthcoming with advice. It’s a delicate balancing act and I am always off balance.

Problems with Homogeneity

 

Miss Willowy

Watercolor on Rag Paper, 10.5x7"

www.davida-art.com
lifeartist-davidablog.blogspot.com

This woman presents problems in the very fact that she is very slender and very young. (As a geeza myself, someone very young, from my perspective is a 20 something.) She also feels the need to apply pounds of make up to her eyes. She came in with false, one inch eyelashes with dark eyeliner and eye shadow. Hence the black eyes. 

This very beautiful young woman is buying in to all the crazy fashion propaganda that you are not good enough as you are. It's a great strategy for selling stuff as an undermined sense of self worth makes people go out and purchase things they don't need.

The new painting and drawing group organizer books the models. All the women so far have been of this type. The pretty, slender, young things become very boring after a few sessions. There are few curves or features that lend  specificity to the form. They are stereotypical of what the media constantly presents us as feminine beauty. 

The character of life's experience is not there on their faces or their bodies.  So far no one has been booked who is older or heavier. No extravagant bodies have I seen. I enjoy the beauty of human variety. One thing I have learned is that everyone has their own beauty. Both artist and model bring it into the studio. The models collaborate in the record of the artists' perceptive expression of that beauty. I am not unappreciative of youthful models. Just not all the time. I need a few wrinkles, bulges, and bumps as a record of a life lived.

It's That Time of Year

 Muscular Man

Watercolor on Rag Paper, 9.5x4.5"

www.davida-art.com

lifeartist-davidablog.blogspot.com

This is the same man from the previous post. Done on the same day. I have been having difficulty hitting my stride lately but I think I hit it with this one.  The value is right. The color is right. I'm pleased. I have an opera this Sunday so no session with the model. The opera is something my hubby and I enjoy together so I don't want to disturb that. 

He is a man of the physical world. My art interests him not. He has no idea how to respond thinking he has to please me rather than make some critique. He will not engage in conversation about it. But at the same time he knows how important the weekly sessions are to me. And he doesn't want to disturb that weekly practice for me. 

I have scanned several small watercolors. Some are on masa paper and some are on rag paper like this. Thanksgiving is coming and I am hosting. My elderly mother is getting rather frail and cannot travel for very long. All her pressure points pain her if she sits in the car for too long. I live closest to her so its my house this year. At age 97 she is entitled to some consideration. Nothing pleases her more that holding court with her family.

I have been preparing as many dishes as I can ahead of time and freezing them away. It will make the actual day a little easier. Until tht grand pig out is over posting will be sporadic.

Back to Work

 

 Reclining Man

Watercolor on Rag Paper, 9.25x4.25"

www.davida-art.com

lifeartist-davidablog.blogspot.com

The weddings have been attended. The artwork has been delivered to their venues.  The faculty show has opened. An opera has been attended too. Laundry has been sorted and the first load is in the washer. Now I have some time to post a few small pieces of work. 

I have found another group to paint the figure with but it’s not a long pose group. I want to resume painting with oils and long poses are prerequisite for that. I will have to organize one of those on my own. I have to find a space. The issue for those who would join is a location close enough to the city and still accessible from the suburbs to minimize travel distances. That's especially important if we have a severe winter. Without regular sessions I get very rusty and I have to spend a lot of time bringing my skills back up to snuff.

This is a little watercolor from my current group which meets on Sunday afternoons. It’s on rag paper instead of the masa paper. It was challenging in its back lighting. I find such lighting situations difficult to pull off. I think the edge relationships are the issue. Should they be crisp hard edges at the boundaries between light and dark or should they be soft or somewhere in between. Each situation needs it’s own resolution.

I managed to come away satisfied with this little piece. Now I need more satisfaction with subsequent pieces.

Three Male Figures

Male Figures (Triptych)

Watercolor on Masa Paper,
7.25x5.5" (Left & Right),  5.5x7.25" (Center)

www.davida-art.com

lifeartist-davidablog.blogspot.com

I painted these mid-summer with a group that is, unfortunately, far from home. It takes and hour to get there. I am told by a dear friend that they have a new location that is a little closer. However, they don't do long poses like my previous group did. It was the only group I know of that focused on long poses for a completed work. That's what I really miss.

It was very hot in there location which was above a bar in a far western suburb of Chicago. I was dripping sweat into my watercolors. The rather noisy patrons on the lower level had no idea what was going on upstairs. Thankfully! 

I am seriously considering retirement from my teaching job. My hubby has already retired and he wants to be able to pick up and go without any constraints. I am thinking along the same lines. I'll do a workshop here and there and will send out proposals for that. I'll travel if invited as well. 

Now I have to make the final decision and decide if it will be this semester or next semester. I think next semester.

Wedding Picture

My son, Kenneth, with his beautiful new bride, Beth. I'm kvelling!

Old Favorites

Leather Chairs

Ball Point Pen on Paper, 5.5x8.5"

www.davida-art.com

lifeartist-davidablog.blogspot.com

This is another drawing of chairs. I turn to them whenever I am at a loss for subject matter. I have said it many times that chairs are very evocative. They are stand-ins for people. They remind us of the absence of family or friends. They convey a sense of expectancy in that someone could come along at any time and sit down. They can have complex structures. And when they are left at random they can create even more shapes in their overlapping legs and arms and in their negative spaces. They can be fascinating on a formal level alone. And I have treated them in all these ways.

Now with an air of expectancy I am cutting this post short. Tomorrow my first born will wed his lovely sweetheart. My hubby and I have been doing high fives for the last 10 months in anticipation.  Tonight is the rehearsal and dinner. Tomorrow is the event with much music, dancing, simcha, and kvelling. Pictures to come.

Benefits of Shorthand

Ladies at Breakfast

Ballpoint Pen on Paper, 5.5x8.5"

www.davida-art.com

lifeartist-davidaart.blogspot.com

It's in a situation like this one that best illustrates the benefit of minimal mark shorthand.  I went to breakfast when my kitchen had been invaded by bunch of guys. (Don't Ask!) To get out of the house I went to a local restaurant. While I was there I spotted these ladies sharing their friendship over breakfast and began to draw. My minimal mark drawing exercises really pay off in circumstance like these. I have to draw fast and make every mark count. These women were unaware of my drawing them and I had to catch them while they moved about. I have to find the right synthesis for all the slight changes in position to make a coherent whole. 

I was thinking about how to bring this to the painted surface and made some color notations in the upper left corner. The colors I have indicated are not what was in the restaurant. This place was painted in monochrome beige. Boring! I was thinking of something with a little more punch.

Restaurants are interesting places to observe human interaction and relationships. Whether it's friends, families, or business associates one can easily determine the pecking order in the group. Who has the power? Which are based on equality. Which groups are animated or not. All these reveal a group dynamic. I love to people-watch and restaurants are ideal places to see what the human parade will reveal.

Short Hand

Figure Trio

Graphite on Paper, each approximately 6x3.5"

www.davida-art.com

lifeartist-davidablog.blogspot.com

Since I am teaching life drawing again, I have been devising new exercises for my repeat students. I was a student at the very college where I am now teaching. I took Art 243/253 four or five times. It was my way to have a model twice a week for 16 weeks. The cost was very low; something like $5 for a three hour session. The cost now is not that much more. That's with instruction! What a deal!

I have a very dedicated group (all women). It is a joy to have such a group. They never miss a class and they work very hard. One of the concepts I wish to get across is the idea that each mark should count with no extraneous marks added. As near beginners, the tendency is to make one stroke after another and never add new information. This leads to an overworked piece. There is a simple elegance to a work that is distilled down to its essence. (Think Matisse.) A lot of information can be left out. People are such pattern seeking beings that our brains can fill in the information quickly and unquestioningly.

So the point of the little studies is to make the fewest marks possible and still communicate a figure. In order to illustrate the concept, I had to make some minimal mark drawings as examples. These are what I came up with. All this drawing 'minimalism' allows one to develop a kind of personal shorthand that makes for a quick and concise communication. It's very handy for watercolors and the more viscous painting media like oil or acrylic. A tiny mark in the right place can set up a foreshortened spatial illusion or the identifying features of a likeness. No amount of additional mark making may be required if one has placed that tiny, little mark correctly. It also forces one to think carefully about each stroke. So I allow a little more time for thinking. These are ten minute studies.

The marks are always at key land marks: joints, creases, negative spaces (the space under her arms in these three sketches). The contours of some limbs can be entirely left out as long as the right cue is there. I am sure I could have left a lot more out of these. I haven't done this kind of drawing since grad school. At the time, I was on a quest for the most economical drawings possible. This is a return to basics that will be as good for me as for my students.

More Green

Meadow with Trees
Watercolor on Masa Paper, 7.5x5"

www.davida-art.com

lifeartist-davidablog.blogspot.com

This another little watercolor made in the park just down the road from where I live. As with all paintings, I have taken some liberties by editing and adding information to the final image. This little park offered me three separates paintings from a single location. All I had to do was look from left to right to settle on a view that would lend itself to a potential image. 

One does look at the world differently when carrying art making materials. Everything within my field of vision is fodder for a painting or drawing. I am not as attentive, artistically, to my surroundings when I am on my way to class or running errands. My goal is to get what needs to be done, done. When I can get have an uninterrupted time to make art it's golden.

Green

Pathway

Watercolor on Masa Paper, 7.5x5"

-->

www.davida-art.com

lifeartist-davidablog.blogspot.com

The summer has been so hot around here it has been torturous to go outside to paint. Now that the weather has moderated, I am venturing outdoors. I have a tiny window of opportunity now that school has started and it is the end of summer.  The advantage of going out now is that I can experience our best weather of the year. September and the first half of October are divine! The temperatures allow for shirt sleeves or a light sweater and the humidity levels are low so, it is perfect. I have always said that I am very easy to please, just give me perfect! Now that I have it I am going to take advantage of it.

This small watercolor is the first of three so far. There is a lovely little park just down the road from my home with benches made to order for painting. I can see at least three paintings from each bench. I will be going back soon as long as I have no teaching to do or planning for my son’s wedding and the weather cooperates.

Painting  summer landscape is very challenging. The problem is green. It’s everywhere! The only way to pull it off is to mix  a lot of different greens. Cool greens. Warm greens. Brilliant greens. Grayed greens. I had an instructor who required his class to mix 100 different greens before going outdoors to paint anything. I didn’t appreciate it at the time but I certainly do now! It’s a lesson I put into practice everytime I go out to paint.

He/She

Lawrence and Mary

Watercolor on Masa Paper, 10.5x7.5" each

www.davida-art.com

lifeartist-davidablog.blogspot.com

I am back in school teaching my usual assignment of classes. I am also preparing for my son's wedding which is just a month away. My hubby and I are so thrilled that, finally, one of our boys is getting married! I also have to start preparing for the college's art faculty show. I have been going through my stack of watercolors trying to decide what to include. I intend to have eight watercolors which have never before been exhibited.

I came across these two pieces while wading through all the work. I haven't seen these in a long time and I know why I saved them. They go together so beautifully even though they were done on separate occasions. They also have the spontaneity I find so attractive with their accidental bleeds and drying anomalies. Each is a consequence of the speed of execution. Quick studies require an economy of strokes and also allowing the materials to do the work. This is on wet masa paper. If you are a follower of this blog, you know I favor this paper.

I do no penciling with watercolors. I go right to paint. If one is confident in one's drawing skills, no penciling is needed. In allowing the materials to work, I have to give up some control over them. Of course, I am very much aware of my color choices, how wet the paper actually is, and what I need to do to keep one area of wet pigment from bleeding into another. I have been painting watercolor so long all that is done unconsciously. It's a kind of auto-pilot.

You can see some of the control that in the narrow bead of white paper surrounding the head on the painting on the left. That little bead of white is where the paper is nearly dry. That, and the surface tension of the water keeps the colors apart. The paper for that painting was pretty wet. You can tell by how soft and bleedy the edges and features are. The paper for image on the right was dryer so the bleeds are more minimal.

I could have exerted complete control throughout the whole process of painting these but, I chose not to. I like the element of surprise from the aspects of the process that happen on their own. It's this kind of play that keeps me in love with art making.

Process, Part 2

Fields

Watercolor on Masa Paper, 10.5x14.5"

www.davida-art.com

lifeartist-davidablog.blogspot.com

This is my second attempt at this scene. The previous one was cropped to eliminate the unsatisfactory resolution of the right half. Now it is complete as originally intended. It was the arc of fencing and grasses that attracted me to it in the first place. Having the whole scene in watercolor and having it work well makes me very happy with this. 

I am not usually one who likes to re-do a painting several times. I don't even like to do preliminary sketches. I find that the more I make studies the less I like the result.  It seems my quick sketch or study is imbued with the spontaneity of the moment. Having dissipated that spontaneous impulse, the second or third study falls flat for me. Then the finished work is less satisfying than the energy contained by the sketch. The fact that I am happy with this actually surprises me.

I remember seeing an exhibition of the 19th century French symbolist, Gustave Moreau, at the Art Institute of Chicago. He tended to study things to death. I got the impression that he was wracked with self-doubt. After seeing his 'finished' works in one gallery there was an alcove filled with his watercolors in the next gallery. They were fabulous! There was nothing tentative or self-conscious at all about them. The 19th century aesthetic  considered watercolor to be strictly a study medium. Study works had little value as works of art. Drawing also had a similar status. I guess he considered those watercolors to be throw away pieces so he didn't hold back when making them. 

Here is a study of Salome. There are a few of his finished works accompanying this little watercolor. I think you can see what I am talking about.

Moreau was a colorist whose influence can be seen in Mattise's work. Matisse studied with Moreau. Well, you just had an art history lesson along with a partial explantation of my watercolor process. Go to the library to see if it has a catalog of that Moreau exhibition. Look at the watercolors and the studies. Let me know if you agree with me or not.