A week ago at the figure studio, I got another opportunity to draw the lovely Emily (you may remember her fabulous striped outfits from previous sessions).
Maybe it’s because she and I were talking about hair before the class started, but I found myself fascinated with hers: the curve of her bangs, the movement in her ponytail. We discovered a shared adoration for bright pink hair; I also love purple hair, which she has no feelings about, whereas she’s equally passionate about blue hair, and I don’t care for it. I was tickled to try painting her hair in different colors during the evening, including blue and green. Her real hair color is a pleasant mixture of gold, honey, and maple.
I like my outline sketches very much (I still get happy every time I look at this one propped up against my bedroom wall), but skin tones and flesh are so rich, I can’t help but feel deprived whenever I make a sketch that doesn’t at least allude to colors and volume. Maybe it’s because I started out drawing and so I always pay attention to line first (which enables me to do those quick outlines), or maybe it’s just that I’m not good at rendering volume quickly in watercolor, but it’s definitely easier for me to get into the skin during poses that are ten minutes or longer.
I’m running out of pages in my sketchbook, and I’m getting tired of working with wrinkly paper all the time, so I brought good paper and did the longer paintings on it. Ahhh. I’ve even been thinking, lately, of making up my own little travel sketchbook by binding together pieces of this paper. I’ve spent the past year making do with a sketchbook that uses only run-of-the-mill copy paper… it would be a joy to have some good paper while I’m on the road. If you’re not acquainted with the variety of art papers out there, think of something else you know well, where the quality of the product makes a huge difference — olive oil for example, or bread, or leather (real or faux).
Emily brought some fun garments as usual, including a sigh-worthy confection of a magenta tutu. The pencil and charcoal artists weren’t crazy about it, but I loved it — and it was quick to paint, which left me time for her face. Too bad I didn’t capture it. If I had, and if I’d been able to fit her feet on the page, I’d be over the moon about this painting.
I’m less pleased with my second tutu painting. There are parts of it I really like: the chair legs, her foot, the volume where the tutu fluffs in her lap. But her face is all wrong, and so is her right arm. Her weight isn’t settled in the right way, either. Still, I think overall this painting has a nice feeling about it.
I feel similarly about this last painting, though I like it a lot because of the bold colors and simplicity. Her weight isn’t distributed right; her left side should be curved a lot more to indicate how settled she is in the chair. It’s good that I can see these things, though. This picture was a second attempt at the color experiment I did last week with the lotus painting; I’d held off on crazy colors because I was having fun with the colors of her clothes, but for the last painting I just wanted to go for it — only in a more understated way. I’m pleased with how it came out.
As always, click the images for larger versions and more description.
beautiful paintings, what a fabulous model 🙂
Thank you. 🙂 She’s a pleasure to draw and paint — and talk to, at that.
I love love love this post! Thank you for paintings! I’ll be back to pour over it and learn how you do your blog..
Thanks, Carla!
I love these! 🙂 Tutus are so much fun. So are the socks in the last painting! I think it’s wonderful you are experimenting with colors. I don’t think I got to comment on the post where you first talk about experimenting with different colors, but I was so tickled when I saw that first picture (before I even read your text). My exact thought was “It’s a Fauvist painting! Wonderful!!”. Anyways, keep it up! 🙂
Thank you, Alison! Yes! I always wanted a tutu when I was younger… I was over the moon when we finally had a dance costume with an attached tutu one time. 🙂
Hee, and thanks to my visit to SFMOMA a couple of months ago, I know exactly what you are referring to with Fauvist paintings! Whee!
These are yummy! I really like” Sweetheart”, her face, the colors.
I know what you mean about paper quality. I looove paper and I can be in an art supply store for hours just looking at and touching all the papers.
Thank you, Ré! If I didn’t love watercolor so much already, I’d probably still keep doing it just for the paper. 😉 Speaking of which, oh, I wish I could bring you to this one paper store in Berkeley. It’s a little shop that only does Japanese handmade papers. I haven’t been back there in a while so I am due for a visit… and a couple of doors down there’s another shop called Castle in the Air that carries only the most whimsical art and craft supplies… and on the next block there’s a Paper Source. It’s a dangerous area to shop in, and that’s not even including the clothing stores and restaurants! 😉
The way I feel right now, one would think we were discussing cake! I wish I could visit those stores with you, too!
Cake, art supplies… it’s all equally scrumptious! 😉
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I love your pink tutu lady, Lisa. Your painting is getting more amazing all the time…
Thank you so much, Sherry! I’ve still got so much to learn – this is obvious lately since I’ve been doing some landscape sketches on my travels!
[…] are this week’s figure drawings. When I walked in I was happy to see the model, whom I have drawn before and always liked. I couldn’t remember her name at first but about six poses into a series of […]