David & Jennifer, and Lisa

I have been spending too much time on the latest encaustic (with nothing to show for it yet), but here's a couple from this week....
David and Jennifer


Lisa

This one has some odd artifacts in it because I didn't plan the drawing too well, and had to extend the paper to the left and below.

Jennifer and David, Tangled

Not much to say, other than I love working with the visual rhythms David and Jennifer set up. And I could have spent a week on the hands alone....

A Couple of Couples

A couple of couples from the last little while.

Jenny and Eric


Jennifer and David:


I quite like both, but I think the second is quite special. I like the feeling of sheltering and sheltered created by David and Jennifer, and it would be be worth pushing forward into something more permanent. If, of course, David's back can take it (it's actually a difficult pose to hold). In return, I promise to put in his missing fingers.

Jenny and Shorty

At an ungodly hour of the morning - we got started at 8:30. The sacrifices on must make for art. And Shorty, as usual, was up and down off the couch, curling up at Jenny's feet and grumbling; getting up and moving to her lap, sulking on the floor, he finally gave up trying to be king of the couch and curled up in the other room under the piano. I think in his next life (which may come sooner than he expects) he'll be a diva in Hollywood....

Jenny's a whole lot more fun (and professional) to work with. But for the moment when he was actually settled in, it was rather cute. I think with a few tweaks it might be a usable composition.

Jenny and Eric

Jenny's friend Eric had some time to kill, so he came for our session on last Monday. (For someone who had never modeled before he did well.) I've just started to get back into drawing couples - the day before I had done Jennifer and David, but I'm still working on it (it's a delightful tangle of arms and legs and heavy perspective). Working with couples is very different than drawing a single model, partly because one has to draw a lot faster, and partly because two people set up a visual rhythm between them. And of course it gives me twice as many people to converse with.



That one took awhile, but we still had a bit of time left at the end for a "quick and dirty" sketch. Lots of drawing errors, but I still quite like it.

Lisa Still Wicked

Well not Lisa herself, just the book she is reading. As for me, I'm trying to push the perspective a bit, though it is hard in a small studio. We got two done - I prefer the second to the first.
Here's the first:



The second was rather fun to draw. Lisa took up a pose on the floor with her feet up against the couch, and I stood up on the couch. I wish I had planned the drawing better (or that I had larger paper), I would have liked to get more of her feet in!



As for wicked reading, I'm still engaged in Henry Miller, & am now on my third book in 10 days. Great stuff, though I really should have read it 40 years ago!. Thanks JR.

A Nude Model's Story of Humility and Joy

Anya Wassenberg, writing on HuffPo:

I was going to be an important and well-paid writer, see. The modelling thing, that was just to tide me over till the whole writing gig took off, because I knew that you could basically walk in off the street and get work taking your clothes off for artists. But in the end, I found I liked it so much that I never gave it up. I found that there are many advantages to modelling for artists, though none of them is what you'd expect.

You can read the whole thing here.