Shawn and Sasha

Oil on canvas, 24"x36". This one took a lot longer than I expected. So what else is new :). But it has a fair bit of glazing, which has to dry between coats. Thank goodness for patient models.

Another week goes by....

At least this time I have a good reason for not posting much, it's been a busy one for drawing! Probably the best way to catch up is just to put them up in the order they were done, all in one post. I try to schedule two to three sessions a week, but this week two new-to-me models became available (Jennifer R. and Aura King); both brought an interest in the arts as well as the history of modeling, so I got to learn a lot.

Monday was with Shawn. Unfortunately the session got cut short somewhat, since I wanted to go over to his place and meet Sasha (his dog). I would like to get to work on a painting including the two of them.



Tuesday was Lisa. If she's looking a little pained, well she was, with a bad crick in her neck. But she was kind enough to sit anyway, and I sort of regret not getting the icepack in. Or a bag of frozen peas....



Wednesday was the first of the new models, Jennifer R. Jennifer is an experienced photographer & model, but I had my usual trouble sorting out drawings with new people. As an added bonus, she lent me the book Alias Olympia, by Eunice Lipton. It's based around Lipton's search for who Victorine Meurent really was. She also provided a link to quite an amusing website for playing with digital photos, BigHugeLabs.



Aura E. King is a writer, dancer, and a well known model in Halifax (especially at NSCAD), who is currently working on a book on classical modeling. I got to pick her brain quite a bit on the history of classical modeling (I had no idea, for example, that for much of history since the Renaissance, modeling was generally the domain of families, much as any other craft..)



And finally on Friday, Jennifer. Maybe it's the fact that I had been drawing all week, or maybe it's the fact that Jenn's a country and western fan (like me), but somehow we managed to get two drawings done, both of which I like.

Shawn, Unforgiven

The title doesn't have anything to do with Shawn directly, he's a great model to work with. Very relaxed and composed. But we did put that movie on during one session.....

It's been awhile since I posted anything (maybe I should be unforgiven for buggering off in nice weather, but I still can't get over an addiction to sunshine); Shawn and I have had two sessions in the interim.


Either of the first two I think could be a good basis for something more formal, probably an oil painting. I'd like to gt back to work in that direction, now that I can work with the windows open. But the prep is always a little daunting. And I do apologize to Shawn for that post-Thanksgiving tummy in the second...




I think on this one, however, the problems just came from getting distracted by the movie. But I do like the area around the left hand.

Shawn, Changing Gears

Shawn is quite a gear change for me. Quite tall and with that bicyclist build. I think that comes from being - a bicyclist! But he's all sorts of other things as well, including an experienced model who has worked at NSCAD and the life drawing group down in Mahone Bay.

Those that know me know I change gears very slowly, so apologies to Shawn for not getting all sorts of things right. It usually takes two or three sessions to get work I'm happy with. But he did create some interesting poses, and there are some good things about the drawings that came out, so I'll put them up.

The first longer pose, he just relaxed a bit. We had finished an hour or so of gestures, on top of which he had already worked a full day elsewhere. I've cropped the drawing because I absolutely blew the lower portion - which isn't unusual because of the steep perspective involved. But I quite liked the sense of quiet pensiveness.

The next pose was also interesting, peering surreptitiously through the blinds. Portland St. in Dartmouth usually provides a fair bit of entertainment, what with police traffic and odd goings on. It reminded him of nosey neighbors, and me of a scene from some William Burroughs' novel, especially as it was done at night. Anyway, it was a cool pose that took advantage of the setting, I would have liked to play with it for a couple of hours.