Workshop Piece
August 21st, 2011 § 2 Comments
I took another workshop with Michael Grimaldi at BACAA this month. As usual, the experience was extremely enlightening in pretty much every artistic way. Structure, perspective, anatomy, light – natural light situations. Here is the drawing I created during the session.
I had such a great experience that I am signing up to go back and take Dan Thompson’s workshop at BACAA in October.
Rachel
June 27th, 2011 § 5 Comments
Not much to say about this piece – I really hated it when I was painting, but with a little time and distance, it’s grown on me.
Rachel by Sarah F Burns
New Models
June 15th, 2011 § 1 Comment
Hannah by Sarah F Burns
I just got a new batch of art models for the summer- and I hired them off of Craigslist. People raise eyebrows when they hear this. For the most part, it’s perfect. I’ve found some excellent new models this way. Will, from last week’s post was a Craigslist find. He’s a member of a local dance company and was a lot of fun to draw and paint. Usually Craigslist folks are first time models, and first time models can be refreshing. They do some weird things because they don’t know what the routine is. That being said, it’s always fantastic to use a professional model. They know what their body can handle, they have a sense of what makes an interesting pose. They remember to bring a robe and set the timer and all that.
That being said, this weeks new model, Hannah, wasn’t a Craigslister, she found me at the Art Center. She was available at the last minute so she modeled for us in the last two weeks. It was her first time, and she was nervous and kind of froze up and talked a lot, but she did the job fine, if not very inspiring, the first week. The next week (the week of this painting) she came in obviously stoned, which irritated me, so instead of setting the pose myself, as I usually do, I pawned the job off on the first artist to arrive. Because the model was inexperienced and high, it took them a LONG time to settle on a pose. They picked a pose that was okay, the hand placement is not what I would do, but it was fine and I was sure the model wasn’t going to be able to hold still worth a darn, but again, whatever. I was not excited, but surprise surprise – it worked out. Despite the handicaps, we had a great night and I like my piece. It’s not always easy to know what will translate into a satisfying painting experience. Sometimes we’ll have a pose that knocks me out and my painting turns out horribly. But please models, come to work sober anyway.
New Approach
June 8th, 2011 § 1 Comment
Painting of Will by Sarah F Burns
On the Wednesday evening long poses I usually like to paint on panels sized about 12 x 16 ish. I’m kind of a creature of habit, but I’m also busy and temporarily out of titanium (needed to make the gesso I use to prepare panels) so at the last minute I had to grab whatever I had available – which was an 18 x 24 inch stretched canvas. It was already toned (yay!) I didn’t want to think in full color so I kind of just did a drawing using raw umber. The results you see above – and I have to say I am pleased. Unfortunately I don’t have any other canvases prepared and I still haven’t gessoed any panels, so I’m not sure what I’ll do next Wednesday….
Ink Wash Exercises
May 28th, 2011 § 2 Comments
If you want to go to an evening Life Drawing Session in Ashland, Oregon you have two choices: My group at Second Floor Studios or Steve LaRose’s group at Tease. The spring weather fronts seem to have been blowing in a desire to switch things up and try sketching with ink wash, because in the last couple of weeks both Steve and I coincidentally have switched to that medium. Check out his blog to see his results – which look pretty cool. Personally, I was inspired by a Tiepolo sketch I saw at the Portland Art Museum recently. And how humbling indeed when I got home and gave it a go. But it must be good for my little brain to think in another way.
There’s a ton of potential with this medium – working with a wide value range is pretty powerful and I like the loosey flowy fresh jazz you get. With ink wash too you cannot go back very well – I can blot a little I guess, but it really forces you to keep it fresh and intentional. I’m planning to stick with it for a while – at least until I blow through all my watercolor paper. Hopefully I will get a little closer to the results I’d like to see. I’d like it to be fresh and gestural, yet precise and solid.
Model Painting Night
May 10th, 2011 § 1 Comment
We had a great model in an interesting pose, but this was more compelling.
heater
Patrick
May 4th, 2011 § Leave a Comment
