Life Class

Last weekend I attended the life-drawing class held by the North Otago Art Society. Our tutor was Oamaru artist Tony Gallagher , and he took us through several drawing methods encouraging us to explore the use of various materials and marks. The workshop drew a very friendly and enthusiastic group of people together for the day and I think that we all gained a lot from it.

Here are my attempts at some of the various exercises:

'Blind' contour drawing through studying the model intently and drawing very slowly without looking at what you are doing! (Pencil)

Drawing using only lines to indicate shapes and contours. No shading allowed. (Pencil)





Trying to capture a pose in only 60 to 90 seconds!! (Charcoal)



Creating a tonal image (without line) by applying charcoal to the paper, then adding more or lifting off, to describe the form through shadows and highlights. (Charcoal)

DRAWING DAY

On Saturday our local art group held a 'Drop-in and Draw Day' at our village Bowling Club. From 10.00 until 15.30 enthusiastic scribblers came to try their hand at various drawing challenges. These included a couple of complex still-lifes and the chance to try their hands at portraits of their fellow artists, some of whom willingly sat for varying periods of time for us.

I went along for a short while after a fortifying and delicious lunch in our village cafe (Crema Cafe, Karitane), staying for about an hour. Members had supplied some terrific home-baked scones, cakes and muffins, so strength and spirits were well kept up! I managed three quick sketches but only two that I was pleased with.

Bev (charcoal on Ingres)

W.B. (Charcoal on Ingres)

I was pleased with the drawing of Bev ... and it is quite a good likeness, but my favourite is the one of W.B. This is because this was a very rapid sketch but I know that I have captured a certain something of this lovely lady's inner sweetness.

Drawing Workshop

I'm booked to attend a figure drawing workshop next month (July) with artist John Badcock. I had not seen anything about him until recently but a look around his website is both startling and intriguing!

From Wikipedia

John Badcock is a New Zealand artist, based in Geraldine, South Canterbury. Badcock comes from a very artistic family. His father Douglas Badcock and two brothers Brian and David are also painters. Where the other family members specialise in landscape painting, John has become more renowned for portraiture. His art is described as Expressionist, and has been compared to works by artists such as Otto Dix. His work has encompassed many media - oils, watercolours, charcoals and acrylics.

Born in Queenstown in 1952, Badcock has been a professional artist for three decades. His accolades include solo exhibitions throughout New Zealand since 1985, and more recently the exhibiting of The Last Supper at the Christchurch Cathedral. He has been a finalist in the New Zealand Portrait Awards in 2000, 2002, 2004 and 2006, and the subject of two New Zealand Art Films (John Badcock - a Film by Brian High, and A Changing Landscape – A Film by Simon Pattison). Badcock's recently published first book 'Passing People' provides an in-depth look at his latest series of 100 portraits. The following public galleries currently have collections of his work, Christchurch Art Gallery - Christchurch, Aigantighe Art Gallery – Timaru, and Anderson Park Gallery – Invercargill.

Here is an example of his work from his 100 portraits exhibition "Passing People".

His more recent paintings are more abstract and his work can be seen at NobleBoyd Gallery .

Sharpening my pencil!

Just haven't been able to concentrate long enough to do any artwork recently but I've decided that it is time to GET A GRIP! Maybe by fiddling about with small things I will eventually get back to more serious projects .....

Pencil sketching from photographs might be one way to work myself back into painting again ... and this first one was done in about half an hour at the dining room table. I'd been asked to do a portrait of this particular child but had not managed to get beyond a preliminary painting which looks absolutely nothing like her! This sketch is a slightly better likeness.

Billie

Two dear art friends meet up once in a while to work together and I joined them this week for one of their sessions ..... I managed this sketch from a photograph of one of my grand-daughters. A slight improvement I think, although it does not bear close scrutiny!

Yvie

Life Drawing Workship - Final Line Drawing

Leanne - line drawing in pencil
(30 minutes, Day 2)

So this is the final piece completed on the Workshop, and I am pleased with it! I have to say that the weekend went by in a flash and I learned an incredible amount over two short days. What I would really like to do is to continue with life-drawing classes on a regular basis but that is not possible at the moment. However, it is hoped that a second workshop can be arranged with Burns Pollock later this year .... I must get my name down early to be sure of a place!

My thanks goes to Burns (who, by the way, bolstered our artistic energies with a regular supply of chocolate fish!) and all the great people who attended the course - we really had fun together and learned so much from each other in the process.

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Life Drawing Workship - Pencil Study Day 2

Leanne - last pencil study
(35 minutes)

This was a real struggle as it was getting on for 3 p.m. on the second day and I was a little punch drunk! I started out with charcoal, scrapped it completely, then started again in graphite and completely lost my way! So, starting with her head, I went over it again with pencil accentuating the linear aspects and getting rid of some of the shading. Of course, in the process it lost any chance of freshness but I felt reasonably happy with the end result.

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Life Drawing Workshop - Figure Perspective

Day Two saw us battling with the following exercise - 5 sketches of our model from five different angles. Time allowed 6 minutes each sketch!

Leanne - Figure Perspective Day 2
(Pencil, 6 minutes each)

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Life Drawing Workshop - longer poses (Day One)

Annie - graphite sketch
(35 minutes)

Annie - Line drawing in pencil
(40 minutes)

Annie - Pencil Line Drawing No.2
(15 minutes)

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Life Drawing Workshop - 10 minute sketches

Annie with chiffon wrap
(Charcoal sketch, Day 1)

Annie seated
(Charcoal sketch, Day 1)

Leanne standing
(Charcoal sketch, Day 2)

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Life Drawing Workshop - 20 second sketches

After the frenzy of 5 second poses it seemed luxurious to have all of 20 seconds for these [on Day 2]!

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Life Drawing Workshop - Quick Sketches

Well the Workshop was FANTASTIC ..... ! It was taken by Burns Pollock, Otago artist, and we had 10 participants. Burns is the most delightful and informative tutor and we were very relaxed and comfortable in no time. But he kept us at it without a doubt! We worked in pencil, graphite and charcoal as the spirit moved us, and I will post just some of the pile of stuff (good and bad) that I produced over the two days. We had a different model for both days (in case you notice a difference!).

First off here are some quick sketches ... we did loads of these and the model only held her pose for 5 seconds or so before moving to the next. Our remit was to LOOK, SEE and draw a GESTURAL sketch that best described the pose. Tough to do!

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Drawing ... so near and yet so far!

Have been getting my stuff together for the Life Drawing Workshop this coming weekend, - paper, drawing board and assortment of drawing media. The latter include pencils, graphite sticks, Conte crayons, willow charcoal, together with eraser, putty rubber, pencil sharpener, plus small paintbrushes and a torchon for blending. It has been quite exciting!

But I have also been spending some time trying out these media on scrap paper and realise just how rusty I am in their use! I feel quite ashamed that I have let my drawing lapse for such a long time. I looked out the only two remaining drawings I have left from times past .... drawn about 35 years ago (Eeeeek!)

Little mother
Charcoal drawing on paper
11 x 14.5 ins

Veronica
Pencil drawing on paper
15.5 x 11 ins

Both drawings were done at the kitchen table from photographs. The African children were taken from a village group photograph in National Geographic, while the portrait was of our next-door neighbours baby-sitter.

After my feeble attempts this afternoon I am now wondering whether I will produce anything at the workshop worth posting here!

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