Report from the marathon

This past weekend, I did a drawing marathon and here is one of the results. The first day was 30-minute poses ( really 25 minutes with breaks for the model) and I worked in black and white on grey paper. The next day was hour poses (50 minutes) and I worked with coloured pastel on smaller paper.  This is one of the poses. The last day was 3-hour poses - about 2 and a 1/2 hours with model breaks and I worked on larger sheets with more pastels.  I thought this pose was quite lovely with the dark hair of the model spread out on the pouf. It was an intense and a bit tiring weekend - but the intensity helps make it worthwhile and I got in some good drawing. I've only just photographed them but I will post more on the blog later and also put them in my Pinterest album on Life Drawing

Wanda, Finn Slough and more-

These are three minute ink sketches - colour added with pencil crayon afterwards- of Wanda being a 30's singer- lots of action and personality here. These were from the recent Drawing Marathon. Tonight I was over at the reception for Art About Finn Slough. If you haven't seen it yet, it runs Saturday all day and then Sunday until 3. It is a good show with lots of variety- maybe a little more  sophisticated  than some years. There is a nice tribute to Mary Gazetas there, owls by Shirley Inouye, some excellent models, photography and painting. It was also a relief to see that tracks have been installed on the walls so that paintings can be hung with chains- so we will be able to use them for the June show of Pots 'n Paints.

More Charlie!

These are the three-minute sketches from Guy posing as Charlie Chaplin at the Drawing Marathon. I did the pen and ink in the three-minute posing time- then added the colour with some pencil crayons later. I often do this in my sketch book - the ink drawings get a bit more solidity that way. Even though fast sketches may not be perfectly accurate, somehow they seem to have a lot of life and can have a bit of something that might be missing from a longer pose and longer time to draw. Of course, it is easier for the model to hold a more difficult pose for a short time. It could be something that might give them cramps if they tried it longer!
     -Next time I'll  probably post some three-minutes of Wanda being a 1930's singer and it can be compared to the longer pose. Anyway, it is all fun ad good practice.

Unusual Wednesday

This is a 45-minute drawing of Wanda being a 1930's singer - from the recent Marathon-  love that hat and the feather boa!

The February issue of Chatelaine has an interesting piece in its Health section. "Boost your spirits by channelling your inner Picasso. A new study out of the University  of Illinois at Chicago reveals that people who create  (or enjoy ) art or music on a regular basis are kinder, more active members of society than their less arty counterparts.  Researchers say the mere act of going to a  gallery or museum improves tolerance, increases compassion and may even spur us to perform more random acts of goodwill."  I'm not sure about all that- except that we sure seem to have a lot of nice, thoughtful people in our group!  As for active- well we always seem to have some upcoming project or event. I've just done a painting for the Royal City Gogos. They are going to have an art tour to raise funds and also make people aware of the African grannies who are raising their grandchildren since the children lost their parents to Aids. I've photographed my painting once but I think I"ll try another shot since it is fairly dark. Then I'll post which ever photo looks the best.

The reason this is an unusual Wednesday? It would be our meeting but the Children's Festival occupies the Painting Room this week and we are cancelled. No drawing or meeting on a Wednesday night is unusual indeed.

Latest photographs

Here's Charlie! This is a a 45-minute conte' drawing done at the Marathon put on by Phoenix Art Workshop. This was the first day, first set of poses and Guy posed as Charlie Chaplin. I might put in a couple of 3-minute sketches if I can get them to photograph because he had some good poses. This one was with a stuffed animal. I had a decent day getting photos of some of my recent conte' work...the light has to be right. I'm wondering if I can get some other hard pastels as I haven't been able to find any more coloured conte'. I've got lots of the black, white and siennas used for sketching but the other range of colours seems to have disappeared from the market. I prefer them to soft pastels for the kind of work that I do. They are certainly easier to carry around as there is not the same need for a huge assortment of colours. Also, I don't need the really expensive paper such as used for soft pastels. I just use Canson Mi-Tientes and then give them a light spray with a fixative.
One virtue to drawings of all kinds is that paper is easy to stack and they don't take up the space that canvases do. The disadvantage would be if I wanted to show them in a gallery, they would all have to framed under glass. So far, I'm just enjoying do these and I'm not thinking of showing the conte' work..... and now I really am at the end of the month!

Drawing Marathon

Behind in blogs again- one marathon was getting cards out. Then, this past weekend, I took part in a drawing marathon. I didn't do the whole 18 hours, but I did do 6. It was fun - and I certainly would take part again. Since I am not a really fast painter, I worked with coloured conte' crayons -a chalk pastel of medium softness. One session was a nude in 30-minute poses, after some warm-up poses. Another was a ballerina in a two-hour pose - again- after some warm-up poses. We had a showing with a reception at the end of the weekend and I thought I'd take my two-hour drawing. Upon reflection, I decided it was too pastel and too static and a thirty-minute pose was much more dynamic - so- here is my almost-reclining nude.