Day 53 - Dr. Sketchy's

Last nite was the monthly Dr. Sketchy's AntiArt School.  As usual it was ALOT of fun.  The evening is full of contsts and challenges...sketching is fast and loose with multiple poses.  Starts off with five minute poses and ends with 20 minute poses.  None of course were long enough for me to give our lovely model Jessica justice.  Jessica is a burlesque dancer/artist but not in the sense we think of a burlesque dancer but a performer in the old tradition of say the Moulin Rouge...slightly naughty performances but clothed.  

The biggest problem I had last nite was that since Jessica was not an artist model she had trouble holding the poses and seemed to actually collapse so I felt like I was always trying to chase her with my drawing...not easy to do in the short periods we had to draw.  Next time I am going to try to draw her piece by piece  aka the head, the arm, the hand instead of a more typical overall approach.  

We started off with this pose to draw in five minutes.  A tough one and I dont think I did her loveliness justice.  I wish I could have taken a  photo so I could have redrawn her because I loved her poses and this one was lovely to look at.

 Next five minute pose. She was upside down in the chair.  Crazy but fun!! And a definite challenge to draw. This one I think turned out fairly well...just very sketchy!

Ten minutes...way to complicated for me to get all of her done in ten minutes.  Perhaps I should have just done her head! OPPS!! 

Another ten minute pose - Think this one turned out fairly well too...Its all a learning process right?? She had started her collapsing yet...I can't imagine Doing either of the first two poses for five minutes and still have another hour and a half to go.

So will Ruth and I do it again next month...of course!!! We LOVED it!!  Drawing, contests, food, drinks, great music...what more could a girl ask for??

Day 37 - Public Drawing

Scary stuff drawing in public but a far corner in the local Evans Starbucks was perfect for surreptitious sketching of customers. Nobody gave me a glance.


This is what it looked like when I left Starbucks. Done with pit pen and watercolor in my moleskine.  I think I like it....but sometimes you have to look at it for a while to be sure, don't you?!..a bright cheerful sketch...and I didn't even have popcorn while I was there...it's in the local Target .

The colors I used!
Somebody commented they really liked the colors so I thought I would tell you about them...the red is Daniel Smith Quinacridone Red...more bang for the buck than a cad red and non toxic too!! The rust color is NOT raw sienna but DS Quinacridone Sienna...also more bang for your buck. They are delicious colors!!  I also used a couple of tubes of Daniel Smith's Primateks...they are granulating colors made from real stones...Hematite and Piemontite Genuine...to read more about Quinacridones and Primateks see this page and Primteks only on this page on Daniel Smith's website.

Great Shadows are always a problem.  How do I make them.  Generally I use a blue combined with a brown to make them...my favorite combos are cerulean and yellow ochre...lovely light greys full of light.  Another great combo is cobalt with Burnt Sienna or Burnt Umber.  Don't mix them totally to get lovely puddles of color in your greys.

I also used Daniel Smith's  Indigo for the dark shadows...its not quite blue but its not black either...and of course its great mixed with Vermilion and or Burnt Umber for  really dark almost black shadows. Much more interesting than black out of a tube.

I also used my ever reliable yellow ochre, cobalt and ultramarine blue.  Skin was made with Quin Sienna and yellow ochre...the guy had a great tan!! And I used some greyed out Pthalo green on the shirt!!

Have fun!!

Thanks for looking!!!