Three Studies of the Live Model (2005)

Charcoal on newsprint

We spent two and a half hours sketching this model in our drawing
class. The poses ranged from a series of five one-minute gesture
drawings to two twenty-five minute poses for detailed sketches.

I thought that these were three of the best, each of them either a
five or ten minute pose. In each I felt I captured the weight and
movement of the subject without getting bogged down in a lot of
detail. I sketched the two longer poses with 4B pencil on newsprint;
I was pleased with the execution but the result is not worth
reproducing since I think pencil looks terrible on newsprint.

I was amazed at how tense I became, trying to capture the essence
of a person's stance and bearing in under one minute. By the time
we had done ten or so my body was beginning to ache from unconsciously
twisting myself into the same poses as the model! After that, five
or ten minutes seemed like all the time in the world to put down the
essentials of what I saw.

Amaryllis (2005)

Oil on canvas, 24" x 30"

This is the biggest painting I have done to date and also the
fastest, at least by the calendar. It was a present for my
sister-in-law's birthday so I worked on it more regularly than
the usual creations in art class.

The photograph I worked from was somewhat overexposed so I had
to use my imagination as far as lights and shadows. I think it
turned out quite well, all things considered.

There are some shiny areas on the photograph from the flash
reflecting off of areas where I mixed the paint with glazing
medium, giving that silvery look. In real life, those areas
look like the rest of the painting.

Hog's Back Park (2005)

Charcoal pencil (black and white) on tinted charcoal paper

Our teacher brought the whole class to Hog's Back park in Ottawa
to practice drawing the landscape. The idea was to see for ourselves
how things become lighter and more indistinct with distance and try
to reproduce that in our drawings.

I also learned that trees, especially in large numbers, are difficult
to draw. I do like the old-timey feel that the tinted paper gives,
though.