Sat Morn Life Drawing again

More Recent Figures

Some more recent drawings form the Saturday morn open life drawing sessions at UofO.  Trying to simplify and see the big shapes as I have a tendency to try and render every bump and wrinkle.

Charcoal on newsprint.

More studies from Leyendecker studies

Still learning from doing these, and enjoying it too.

Photoshop CS5.  I used mostly just two brushes to do these, but I put a little texture and a simple emboss effect on the highlights to give them more of the look of real oil paint.  Real oil on canvas has some body or thickness to it so it casts a little shadow on the canvas.

Me Wovely Life

   These are just a few of the images I've done over the years to immortalize my lovely wife.  When she was 8 months pregnant with our son, I asked her to model for a sculpture I wanted to do.  She was the cutest pregnant woman I have ever seen.  But, I think I made her stand too long, because I've had quite a hard time getting her to model for me ever since.

charcoal on paper, chavant oil-based clay (approx 2.5 in tall) , ballpoint pen, and graphite on vellum.

Digital Painting Exercises

   These are a bit old, but I still like them.  The first is a painting loosely based off of a great photo I came across of Vladimir Putin.  I wasn't so interested in trying to do a painting of Putin as much as I was in the  dramatic lighting and color.  Plus I wanted to try out some new brushes I created and to try and get closer to a natural, traditional media look with Photoshop CS3.
   The second is a study of one of Scott Burdick's paintings.  This time using ArtRage 2.0 on a Cintiq, I tried to see how close I could get to the look and feel of real oil on canvas.  If you're not familiar with the work of Scott Burdick and his wife, Susan Lyon, it is well worth checking out.

Recent Life Drawing Sessions

Charcoal on Newsprint.  Nothing quite inspires like the human figure.  Figure drawing is still one of my favorite things to do, although I don't get a chance to go nearly as often as I'd like.  It can be quite a struggle at times, but when it's going well, the whole world around me just melts away.

JC Leyendecker Hands

  My wife bought me a great book on the life and work of JC Leyendecker (1874 - 1951) for Christmas last year.  I've been a huge fan of his work since the first time I saw it back in college.  His paintings are so clean and well designed, and he made it look so effortless.  Unlike Norman Rockwell and many of the illustrators that followed him, he did not use photo reference at all, but did careful studies of props and models from life for each of the illustrations he created. I decided to do regular studies of his work in hopes to unlock some of secrets hidden in his flawless technique and better understand his thought process.

  Leyendecker was a master at painting hands full of character and personality.  In doing this study from one of his preparatory paintings, I could see just how much he utilized the ground as a mid tone to work back and forth with darks and lights.  The ground is a light gray and since he keeps the shadows thin, the overall effect is very luminous - a hallmark of his paintings.

  Anyway, the top image above is the study I did, and a process sequence.  The painting was done with Photoshop CS3.  The bottom image is the Leyendecker study I was working from.