Another portrait from life

August 28, 2013 J R DunsterLeave a comment

I’m loving this new portrait drawing group! We meet weekly (won’t meet next week due to the holiday, alas). Each week we get a volunteer model to pose for us—three 20-minute poses. We are a diverse group, and use a variety of mediums—oils, acrylics, watercolors, pastels, charcoal, and good old pencil. I’m doing pencil so far, but hope to drag my oils in soon! I rarely get a chance to do a “long” (one hour being relatively so) pose.

Here’s this week’s offering:

Karen was a wonderful model, very patient with us! She said it was hard to keep a smile on her face (we all understand how that is!) and so her expression ended up being more somber. She wore a lovely and colorful print dress, which I didn’t bother to capture since I was just drawing in pencil.

“Marisol” portrait from life

August 28, 2013 J R DunsterLeave a comment

I just started attending this art group that meets once a week (more or less) and draws or paints a volunteer model. It’s a wonderful group of people and allows us all to get some valuable practice from life!

I often harp on how important drawing from life is. Photos don’t capture things the way they really are—not quite. I don’t mind using photo references, I won’t be ashamed of using them, but at the same time I realize how important drawing from life is!

I hope to bring my paints to one of these sessions, as other artists have. We have an hour of model time (one pose) so that should be enough time to do something!

Very, very excited about this.

Last week’s model was “Marisol” who came with her adorable little dog, who was a rescue. The dog was nervous but at the same time, a great model! As was Marisol. I used the first two 20-minute pose sessions to draw Marisol, then used the last 20-minute pose to draw her and the dog. Here are the results:

“Marisol” drawn from life, 8″ x11-1/2″ in my sketchbook.

“Marisol” and her little dog. 20 minute pose.

drawings · figures & nudes

Recent sketches from life (NSFW, obviously)

August 17, 2013 J R DunsterLeave a comment

Time again to post some latest Life Drawing efforts.

I had two evenings of figure drawing (each night at a different place) this week. Both nights, I sucked. Oh well, it’s been a while since I was able to attend figure drawing. And next week I hopefully will be able to attend a portrait drawing group, where artists meet to do portraits only from life! I am looking forward to that.

Drawing from life is an ongoing thing. For many artists it is. We keep coming back to do it again, and again, and again. We don’t outgrow it, and we shouldn’t! Without that regular drawing practice, we get rusty (like I’ve been getting lately) and that’s bad. Don’t ever believe that you’ve had “enough” life drawing because you took a semester or two of it in college.

Anyway, here’s what I’ve got to show this time.

The one above was done a few months ago. I never got around to posting it, until now. And the one below, same thing. Done a few months ago, didn’t get around to scanning it or posting it.

Figure drawn from life. On 8-1/2″x11″ sketch pad.

Below is the only sketch produced this week. I cropped the drawing to just show her head. The rest of the sketch didn’t turn out so great.

“Amy” (but it doesn’t look ANYTHING like her!). Sketch from life.

paintings · portraits

“Flowers in Her Hair” oil sketch 6×6″

August 10, 2013 J R DunsterLeave a comment

Available for sale on DailyPaintworks. Oil on cradled panel, 6×6″.

I actually did this painting last year, but finally, finally I post it on this blog! I used an old B&W public domain photo reference, and as such, had to add the colors myself. But that’s an enjoyable challenge!

Works in Progress

Work in Progress, Cowboy

August 10, 2013 J R DunsterLeave a comment

This is an exciting experiment. I am posting this from my email account! Squee!

I found a photo of this painting in my computer’s scans folder. Now I need to finish it! I added a few fiddles in Photoshop to see where I could go with it.

Oil on 6×6″ Gessoboard.

P.S. I went in later and a little editing to this post on my regular computer. Like adding tags and category.

Work In Progress, Cowboy in Greens. 6×6″ Oil on Gessobord

drawings · figures & nudes · portraits

More figure drawings! (Some nudity, may be NSFW)

August 3, 2013 J R DunsterLeave a comment

Time for more figure drawings! For a very long time, ever since I took my first figure drawing class at age 18, I’ve kept returning to life drawing classes and sessions. This kind of drawing discipline helps keep skills sharp. You have to draw the model in front of you—no time for lots of erasing and fussing, as the model won’t stay still forever!

Portrait of Young Woman, from life. 8-1/2″x11″ graphite on sketch paper

And here are a few more sketches from a nude model. These sketches are usually done from 15-30-minute poses. Never longer than 30 minutes.

The above sketch is available for sale on DailyPaintworks.

And yet another!

portraits

“Intense” oil sketch 6×8″

August 3, 2013February 9, 2023 J R Dunster1 Comment

This is a small painting I did on a Raymar panel several months ago. From my “novela” series, I continue to explore different expressions and emotions in these portrait sketches. I love Raymar panels, by the way. This is the simple acrylic-primed panel with a semi-smooth texture (for portraiture).

Another aim of this portrait sketch was to try to be less “fussy” (obsessed with picky details) in my painting technique. This attempt was partially successful.