Figure drawings

The model we had last week was, once again, beautiful, almost too beautiful. She was so slender and slim and her head seemed too round and big for her slender frame, that I struggled to get her proportions down. And she must be some kind of a contortionist - she pulled out some poses that was just undoable for a normal human being. See image 4, where she literally lifted her pelvis from the ground with her legs in the air and kept the pose for about 4 minutes! I was so captivated by this ability, it completely distracted my attention from drawing her! These poses are mostly 2, to 4 minutes for some and 15 minute pose(see last 2 images, I think). I used monolith, 9B throughout. Some of the poses are cut off...too big for the scanner, sorry for that. See also Casey's drawings from the same class at http://caseytoussaint.wordpress.com/

People in Amboise, and one window

Tuesday Casey and I had our weekly art afternoon, this time at her place and since it was such a beautiful day, we decided to go out into Amboise and sketch some people. It was sunny and bright, we enjoyed a coffee, moved to new spots every so often, searched for a new pen she wants to try out, got sunkissed and lastly, looked for a birthday gift for a mutual friend, which we couldn't find...some people are just hard to buy a gift for. I hope I'm not one, I adore gifts! Once again a great day, although the sketching truggled a bit. Here are my results. See Casey's as well at http://fr.blog.360.yahoo.com/blog-Agz0ThsyaL8P0qvejInpNJXD9QY-?cq=1

How many differences do you spy?

Play along and spot the differences between the two pictures. Click on the images to enlarge.
Stand on your head to read the answer at the bottom.

Fresh from the sea

A drawing in ink and wash. I started out, planning this to be a painting, but somehow it ended up as a sketch with a wash. I chose the wrong day to do a painting...a bit low on energy that day. I used one of my photographs I took on my recent trip and it can clearly be seen in this sketch - it is lifeless and without feeling, without energy. I find that I cannot do a sketch from a photograph, somehow I don't have the ability to give it ...oomph..
Click on the image for a larger view ( hope it works this time, since I have been having problems with this clicking-thing.))
This sketch is pen and wash on Fabriano hotpressed paper.

In the limelight

I finally finished this oilpainting. It took my some time though. I can't say how long...too embarressing. I have been sidetracked by unimportant things for a while there, hopefully I'm back on track now. (Click on the image to enlarge)
I love working in oil and I enjoy using it "dramatically". It is not a medium where I wish to be delicate and thoughtful and now I don't mean being disrespectful to it either by being sloppy and messy. Since oil is such a wonderful medium to push around with your brush, or knife as in this case, I enjoy going for extremes, where the endresults aren't always "pretty" or even pleasing to the eye, but where a lot of telling and emotion is conveyed to the viewer.
This was done from a series of photographs I took at a dance one evening.

oil with painting knives on canvas.
65 cm x 81 cm

A doorknob is a thing of art

I love the doorknobs in my home. There are many. All the rooms have french doors that open onto a balcony. I counted all the doors - 12 of them. So I decided to draw them. I also enjoy hanging stuff on to the doors, as you'll see and that changes with every whim.

In the guestroom, always a flower glass with something from the garden, in this case a daffodil.

In the bathroom, an old star made from recycled tin, which I bought from an old retired farmer, when we lived in South Carolina...I can still hear him say with a long, southern drawl: "Oh, lordiee, lordiee.." What a fun old man he was!

Then the market basket is always on the ready at the living room door.

And here comes a little cheating as well...a door yes, but not really a doorknob, only a huge, beautiful old key. I used an old door I found at the back in one of our caves and made a bulletin board out of it, on which I hung this key and a wooden "Bonheur" heart, which really does give "Happiness" above my desk.

OK, so maybe they aren't all doorknobs, but purely for my enjoyment here, I depict them as such...a pretty porcelain handle to the bathroom and last but not least, the heavy brass handle from the large green painted wooden gates. It is always tarnished but looks glorious once it is cleaned. Which happens only when I need to get rid of bad energy. Then I'm stuck with a tennis elbow for the next 6 weeks.
There are still more doorknobs and handles and levers and keys, but I'm done now with doorknobs being a thing of art.

Casey, bunnies and lots of chocolate.

Casey and I had our weekly drawing session this afternoon. It was at my house and it was another cold, windy, grim day here in France. So I went out to the store, bought one of all the Easter egg chocolates available and set that up for us to draw. I wanted everything that is good and colorful and comforting around us for this session....that was what I needed and Casey as well, since she had a rude woman at her throat yesterday....Along with all these chocolates, I got all sorts of flowers, all the cloches I had around, colorful fruit and vegetables and tea and cookies(the latter for our drinking and eating). So on the table we had all that was good and beautiful in life! Even Tokala and Ayiani found life was exciting in this drawing area.

Casey did, true to her wonderful artistic abilities, great justice to the objects she chose to do.

Look at her blog: http://fr.blog.360.yahoo.com/blog-Agz0ThsyaL8P0qvejInpNJXD9QY-?cq=1

to see what I mean.

I, on the other hand, did everything but!

Instead of enjoying the color I so craved, I went for a grey graphite drawing; dark and heavy, not even doing justice to the medium either. I did everything wrong from the word go. Maybe the choice was too big, or maybe I just simply ate too much chocolate.

Anyway, I'm posting it as is.

Afterwards, I felt very gloomy about this drawing, so I decided to at least end the day on a colorful note and I did a uick sketch, light wash with ink...its a camelia for those wondering, since this one isn't a Monet either!! The after effect of those chocolates, you see...

All said and done - I had a wonderful session with Casey among the chocolate bunnies, chatting alot, laughing alot....it did me a world of good and I am grateful for having this great, fun friend in my life. Thanks, Casey...