Allegory of Painting

A project completed and I am very glad.  I decided to take a life drawing class this semester.  It is a fantastic class at Saddleback College with Cynthia Grilli.  I love everything about it except that all the homework takes away from painting time and all other time I was uses to having free.  This Vermeer copy was part of the midterm.  The assignment was to copy the values of colors in the original work by Vermeer using vine charcoal and touches of compressed charcoal.  As anxious as I was to do this project, I really like the way it turned out and the process.  Translating color to value is key to everything in painting.  So this is not an exercise that I would choose to do,  but I must say it was worth all the time it took.  

My Brother Rick 22x16 charcoal

This is my brother Rick who was very kind to sit for me to practice portraiture. It is a nice feeling to study a face I have known for so long. I have watched the changes that map his life that he wears on his face. It was fun to study a face I thought I knew very well and find little things in the way his features are different then mine. I am the youngest of four. None of us look alike and I can say that I thought I was adopted when I was a kid. That was a fun fantasy, but I'm not, nor would I want to be. I like who we are, a family. We just are all parts of the parents we shared, but I swear we all got very different parts. Some kids share a likeness and some don't. We definitely are the later.

Drawing a face is a soulful experience for me, a real gift. In every angle, line, crease and shadow are many stories. A photo taken often hides truth and that is okay because often that is what we want. It is quick, a flash and all the work and practice to take a nice photo is over in, well , a flash. It is different when you sit for a portrait drawing or painting. A twenty minute sitting can take you away with many thoughts that take you far far away from the idea of a pretty picture.

I sat for a drawing session last week and felt everything about me settle and relax so that my mind could travel away. I was surprised to see what others drew. They saw the things I often hide. Not able to hold my chin up and jaw forward exposed time or the passing of time. My life seen through someone else's eyes. I love the process. I feel I must make a connection from my eyes, to my muscles in my hand, to the one that is sitting there so exposed.

So thanks Rick.

Portrait and Figure Studies in Charcoal

I have been taking a Life Drawing class at Saddleback College with Cynthia Grilli this semester. We work in vine charcoal which is a very movable medium. Working with a chamois, kneaded eraser, stump and whatever else we can to push and pull the charcoal. I'm actually enjoying it and love the subtractive qualities of charcoal the best. It is very forgiving. For the most part I am working on values. I am a bit shy when it comes to pulling values in strong contrast and yet am totally attacked to that quality in artwork. So these are a few of the things I have been working on inside and outside of class. Some complete and some just at a structural start.

I am finding that I want to draw all the time. I am hoping to relate this to my painting. I have to do a self portrait for the final... Now that is another story.

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