Buttnekkiddoodles

 I enjoy watching people at work. Over the last dozen years or so of going to life drawing sessions, I’ve turned my attention to the artists as they ply their craft. While not completely still, their movements are generally gradual enough to catch the gist of their posture with the added challenge of frequent adjustments. An artist standing at an easel may back off with some frequency but even those seated upon the bench know as a horse might need to shift to relieve pressure or numbness. I draw with ink so should the artist move significantly I either begin a second drawing or incorporate the new position right on top of the drawing in progress in the manner of pentimento. I’ve dropped into life drawing sessions across the country, but the primary place I work on my nude figure drawing chops is the venerated Palette & Chisel.  Some of these artists I’ve worked alongside for years such as my friend Misha, who hails from Minsk, Bielorussia where he studied art as a young man. A wonderful subject in his own right he is very dogged in his approach taking glimpse at the figure before working with a long practiced surety. Others rapidly look back and forth between page and subject. One in particular, Bodo, very actively tilts his head left to right while quickly looking up and down and working alternately on different sections of anatomy making him one of the more challenging to capture a likeness of. Mary Qian, seen in baseball cap and in the final drawing, frequently looks thru a pair of binoculars to help her with detail.

 U7    

Medium used: Faber-Castell Pitt Artist Pens, various Fountain Pens, Platinum Carbon Ink, deAtrementis Ink, Pentel Brush Pen, Tomoe River Paper, Hahnemühle sketchbooks, repurposed ledgerbooks, Stillman & Birn sketchbooks,

What can I say? Sometimes I get carried away. The left side was just a sketch of one of the artist at a life drawing session at the Palette & Chisel. The right side was a demo page. In time the eyes spilled over onto the left page.

 

Drawn with Pitt Artist Pens, F-C Albrecht Dürer Water color pencils and some fountain pen. From life, photo references, and some just made up. » Continue Reading…

 Seeing a little more of the Palette & Chisel since I’ve been staying in the Chicago area this Winter. Advance notice: The Meat Market will once again  be open to sell sketches, prbably ilater in mid March. 

Going to life drawing means that unlike a great deal of sketching I do out in public, on trains, in cafes, and among people just going about their day; my subject may actually hold still for a known amount of time. That said, I still dig drawing the constantly moving artist, even if their movements are slight and return to a similar position.


  

 

In the cold grey of winter it’s appealing to work from nudes modeling the warm glow of the flesh.

  

Drawn with fountain pen, Platinum Carbon Ink, F-C Pitt Artist Pens on Tomoe River Paper. The last 2 were drawn with graphite. » Continue Reading…