Saturday's life drawing

Venue: Basis, Stockholm. 20140329

Our model last Saturday was the old lady who underwent chemotherapy.
Her red, sad eyes and hairless head, she was dignified and comfortable as she posed in front of our microscopic eyes. People are almost as tough as life itself, almost.

Watercolour A4

Quick pencil sketch

15 minute pose

Pencil and paper

Venue: Konstnärshuset, Stockholm, 20140325

I brought the minimum to life drawing yesterday evening. A few pencils and a block of A4 paper.
The model's poses were quite contorted, very hard to draw, luckily she did a few classical poses too.

Five minute pencil nude

Five minute pencil nude

Five minute pencil nude

Nudes in progress...

Here are some nudes I did at life drawing last Saturday.  I want to give them another wash or two to see what developes.

Useful watercolour portrait videos by Michael Holter.

I stumbled over these videos while searching the internet. I was looking for inspirational figure painting and portraiture in watercolour. Michael Holter is very similar to Ted Nutall. I hope my style matures to be more free and loose. Saying that there is a lot to learn from Michael and Ted and their approach to portraiture in watercolour.

Wednesday's life drawing

Venue: Master Olafsgården, Old Town, Stockholm.

I am enjoying playing around with watercolour, I learn a lot from these quick sketches.

Ten minute watercolour nude

Fifteen minute watercolour nude

Ten minute watercolour nude

Three minute sketch. Too much fixative, that's why it's so wrinkly.

Tuesday's life drawing

Venue: Konstnärshuset, Stockholm. 20140318

The model is a dancer, he was very theatrical and amusing to draw.

Five minute watercolour nude

Five minute watercolour nude

Five minute watercolour nude

Two minute nude

Inspiration is important

Venue: Basis, Stockholm. 20140315

I've drawn this model too many times, I know all her poses, no surprises. I'm not blaming the model, I just wasn't able to get it on. Saying that, I am actually happy with the first sketch. The other fifteen or so sketches from the session were well below standard.

Later:. 20140317
Man, I'm grumpy when I don't feel so well. I gotta stop moaning, life is too short for negatives. I am looking forward to new, positive, life drawing opportunities this Tuesday evening. :)

Ten minute watercolour nude

Ten minute watercolour nude

Feeling good

Venue: Mäster Olofsgården, 20140312

It's amazing what a good night's sleep can do. Yesterday, I felt rested and it really shows in my work I think. There was a beautiful model to draw which of course helps. It was also the first time I did life drawing at Mäster Olofsgården in the old town of Stockholm. Nice place, crowded but friendly, I knew a lot of the life drawing junkies there and I am sure I will visit again. ( Please excuse the bad scan quality, I had no access to good light. )

Ten minute watercolour nude, 24 x 32cm

Fifteen minute watercolour nude, 32 x 24cm

Five minute watercolour nude, 32 x 24cm

Five minute nude

Ten minute nude

Five minute nude

Action Bear!

Lars, who has the nick name, Action Bear posed last night at ABF. I don't normally attend the life drawing there but my Tuesday figure drawing place of choice (Konstnärshuset) was cancelled due to illness.

The lighting is extreme at ABF, rows and rows of fluorescent tube lighting in a large white room. Hard to see the human form in such harsh conditions. 

Should I go to life drawing when I am tired? I was really exhausted, I don't let it stop me but I wonder if I should give the drawing a rest sometimes. I found it hard to focus. Below are a few drawing from the evening. The last sketch is my homage to Francis Bacon, I just felt like playing around, I think I was frustrated by my lack of sleep.

Figure painting once again

I really enjoyed my return to watercolouring at life drawing. It turned out to be a rather special day, the intended model never turned up and we were all packing our bags to go home when this beautiful Russian girl volunteered to pose. It turns out that she was an expert at posing, really beautiful poses. She must have done art-modelling before. ( The model who did not turn up was the uninspiring one I had last week, so you can guess how happy I was about our bit of luck. )

Five minute watercolour nude

Two minute nude

5 minute nude

Skin-tones

I painted this nude from an image I found on the internet. I think it's a good effort, but of course there are things like skin-tones and a hand that I'm not totally happy with. The point of this watercolour though was for me to practice and learn and I certainly did discovered many positives and negatives while doing it. The battle for mastery goes on ...

90 minute nude,  20140305

The Three Amigos

This is a must see video if you enjoy the work of any of these watercolouring greats, Joseph Zbukvic, Herman Pekel and Alvaro Castagnet. I owe at lot of what I've learned to these artists and their wonderful DVDs.

Looking for inspiration ...

It isn't easy to do life drawing when one isn't inspired by the model. At least I wasn't at first, but then after I had spent some time studying the model's overweight and untrained frame I noticed he had an interesting face, so I focused on that. I sound like a bitch, I'll probably burn in hell!

15 minute sketch

10 minute sketch

10 minute sketch

Shading practice

Drawn from a reference on my computer screen. I practice my tonal values and shading a lot at the moment. It's something I have done very little of in the past.  It really is important to get a good understanding of tonal value in art.

Shading practice