Fall Colors

Despite the busiest Fall quarter that I have experienced at RIT since I started teaching here in 1990, a few faculty have still managed to gather on several Friday evenings to draw from the model. These are two of our best models and their stamina for holding poses is impressive. Each of these pastel drawings were completed in under two hours on a warm grey, 22" x 32" printmaking paper. The more that I draw from life, be it plein air landscape painting or figure drawing, the more I prefer it rather than working from photos. Direct observational drawing is the ultimate"blank canvas"! You translate the 3D real world to the 2D drawing/painting world and this observation must filter through your individual brain. No two artists will see it exactly the same way.

Pastel Figure Drawing

Fall Quarter at RIT is about to begin which means that faculty figure drawing is also upon us. Faculty figure drawing consists of a handful of faculty (4-6) who enjoy working from the model and the social aspect and camaraderie that is also connected to this activity. We meet weekly for a three hour session and no one critiques or comments about any one's individual direction. This is purely for us...the individual artist! We play good music and lose ourselves for a while. It is so cathartic and fun! This is a drawing from our last session where I started to use pastels. Prior to this I was working conservatively with only B&W media. That's part of the joy in this process...we get bored or confident and decide to push forward in a new direction. This piece is on a gray toned paper (22"x 32") and took about two hours to complete.

Fall Figure Drawing

After taking a few months off from figure drawing I'm getting ready to start up again in a few weeks. It's usually a good thing to stay sharp and to practice drawing and painting with regularity.

I also have discovered that some interesting things can happen to your work when you take a short break from it. As artists we are always thinking about our work...our future work. We can't help it. We look and observe and think about patterns and color and compositions. Taking a short break from actually making art allows for some sub-conscious changes to occur in our approach to work...once we do return to the easel. These changes can be fresh and unexpected and exciting.

Above are a few drawings from the recent past figure drawing sessions. The top piece is 18"x24"

B &W and gray pastels on toned paper (which is wrinkling a bit too much) and the second drawing is of the same model with graphite in a 11" x 14" sketchbook.

Two Drawings

Most of my drawings while working from the figure are from poses that will last about an hour.

I usually work initially with graphite in an 11 x 14 sketchbook and then if I like the pose I will have the model repeat it for another forty minutes to an hour. While working the second session, I will change my medium just to keep things fresh and to prevent boredom. The example above shows my first drawing with graphite and the second larger drawing (18 x 24) which was done, in this case, with charcoal and gray value pastels on toned paper. It amazes me sometimes at how quickly the second drawing comes together. This, I believe, is due to the intense observation as well as the aesthetic decisions and thoughts that come about while working on the first sketch.