March Madness

March has been a crazy month. I had hoped to get some pictures up sooner, but life got in the way. I am approaching the last part of my second year in art school and I feel happy at what I've been able to accomplish. Yet, at the same time I feel unsatisfied. One of the more difficult parts of school has been learning to be patient. Although working hard and putting extra time helps ultimately it takes time and consistent practice before it all comes together. Slow and steady wins the race. I don't know how much longer I'll be able to keep going to school. Times are tough and school isn't cheap. I've committed myself to getting through at least one more year, but the fourth year is still a question. This year I have drawn the figure, painted the casts, and am still working on the ecorche or anatomy study. Next year I will paint the figure in a single color. Hopefully I'll get to do some figure sculpture and portrait and start painting in color. If I am able to stay a fourth year I would push the color painting and do some still life painting. I have included pictures of my ecorche sculpture. I am still sculpting the muscles on the right side of the body and the left side will remain the bare to show the skeleton. I've thought about maybe sculpting the deep muscles on the left side... we'll see. I have also included a picture of the bust I have painting over the last month. It isn't the best picture, but it gives you a good idea how things are going. Last of all I included a picture of the figure drawing I completed in March. Each month my figure drawings have gotten better. Slowly each one has felt more solid. I'm really happy with the portrait.

March

We made it to March. That in and of itself is a huge accomplishment with all the little things that have been going on here...snow, sickness, snow, church responsibilities, snow, parenting duties, snow, and everything else...and oh yeah...did I mention the snow?

Even with all the trials we've been facing, I feel like I am making a lot of progress in my art work. I am very happy with how this particular cast painting is coming out. At the end of last year I felt like I didn't know quite enough. As we are coming to the end of this year, I am happy to feel like I now know how to paint (even though I haven't learned how to incorporate color).

Winter Storms

Due to a winter storm I stayed home from school today. I'm a little relieved. I've been so tired lately. Life has been overly busy lately and I needed a break. I should still be able to get some drawing and painting done today. I have included a few pictures of my human ecorche project. I have completed the skull, spine, ribs, and arms. This Thursday we will complete the skeleton and should start on the muscles soon. I have also included a picture of my cast painting. I painted an underpainting for the first time and am very happy with the results. I'll finish up the underpainting tomorrow and start the final pass. You can see it is already starting to look 3-dimensional. I also put in a picture of the portrait of my figure drawing. I finished the block-in stage last week and started to turn form.

January 2010

"Congratulations! Today is your day. You’re off to great places. You’re off and away." (Oh the places you'll go, Dr. Seuss, 1990, Random House, pg. 1) This has been a key focus of our night-time reading lately. It has held our girls attention, at least, as well as can be expected for their ages.

2010 is off to a good start and I feel like I'm off to great places. My studies at the Grand Central Academy of Art are progressing well. Sometimes it is discouraging to recognize how far I still have to go, but every once in awhile you get a glimpse of where you are and can see how far you've come. January has done that for me. Painting presents a lot of new and frustrating problems, but as I began my new cast painting this month (the bust) I realized, to some relief, I have learned something. I shared the drawing with you last post. Since then I painted a value study to understand the organization of the values on the cast (essentially how much light each area is receiving). The director of the school mentioned last week he wants to see us get through cast painting much quicker than we are doing currently. The whole idea behind cast painting is to learn the process of painting and how to turn form in paint (make it look 3-dimensional). After I complete this cast I will paint a sculpture (full figure) and then move on to painting the figure and probably doing a little work in figure sculpting. I have also included my wipe-out of this cast. You apply a some what even layer of paint and wipe away the lighter areas. This creates a feeling of 3-dimension that is the base or platform you paint over.

I was also excited that I finished my figure drawing for the first time. I say finished, which really is a relative term... really it seems like it is never finished, but I mean that I made an attempt at every part of the body. Some of the things that came out of my critiques this month follow: Overall the block-in is good and seems to be getting better and better every month. I need to maintain that progression. The turning of form is better, but can still be better. The half of the form that receives the majority of the light is getting too dark. Light as it falls across the form from direct light to the terminator or shadow is not a linear relationship. In other words the amount of light that falls off of the form as you move from light to shadow or absence of light is not the same. The light falls off exponentially. The areas closest to the shadows can probably drop slightly in value and the areas closes to the direct light need to lighten up. I also need to put some work into drawing hands. I'm looking forward to getting started next month.

Sorry I forgot to take pictures of the ecorche in progress. I'll get something up soon. Right now I have the skull, rib cage and pelvis sculpted. I'm happy with the results.

Still Moving Forward

It seems like it has been forever since I've posted. I feel like things are moving forward well. I'm still drawing the figure in the morning and painting casts in the afternoon. We did start ecorche at the beginning of January (Thursday afternoons). I'm really excited about it. Each week we have anatomical drawings that are due. We then sculpt those same anatomical portions of the figures during class. Last Thursday we started sculpting the skull. I need to put more time into it because I didn't finish, but it's coming along well. I'll take some snap shots and post them soon. Also, on my own, I have started studying color. I've been reading some books and doing a few exercises. I will try and post some of what I'm learning as well. I would love to start getting some ideas from other artists about what they found helpful in understanding color.

Today I've posted the figure drawing I'm doing and the bust I'll start painting this week.