Friday, February 29, 2008

Legs and Heater
pastel
30.5 x 45.7 cm (12" x 18")


This model's legs looked too long to me while I was doing this drawing. I measured them several times while drawing, and each measurement suggested that they weren't too long. They still look long, but in this case I'm going with the measurements.

The best advice to artists regarding measurement is to trust your eye in the end. Draw what looks right. The problem is that your eye cannot always make up its own mind as to what looks right and what doesn't.

Thursday, February 28, 2008

Riverwalk, Main Street Bridge
pastel
22.9 x 30.5 cm (9" x 12")


I don't particularly like this painting/drawing. I'm not quite sure what it is; perhaps it's too delicate, or too fussy, and for some reason the whiteness of the snow on the river bothers me - it seems too white and too unreal. It's almost as if Thomas Kinkade , the self-styled painter of light, somehow got inside my head and started to direct the painting.

Tuesday, February 26, 2008































Nude with Curling Broom

ink, pastel, and charcoal
22.9 x 30.5 cm (9" x 12")


The Great Canadian Nude. What can I say!

Monday, February 25, 2008































Novelist and film-maker, Alain Robbe-Grillet, died last Monday.
Here is an obituary from The Guardian.

Blue Sheet
pastel
19.3 x 40.9 cm (7.6" x 16.1")


This is the opposite view of the pose in the drawing posted Monday, February 11th, entitled Model with Unfinished Heater. This drawing was done much faster than that one. I would think that it took about twenty-five minutes.

I wasn't happy with this drawing, mainly because of the vagueness of the face. The model kept looking up to check the time remaining in the pose, never allowing me time enough to get what I could see of the face outlined. However, it doesn't matter a great deal, since the face is largely obscured by the hair.

Saturday, February 23, 2008

Jackson Pollock 51: an excerpt from the 1951 film, Jackson Pollock 51, directed by Hans Namuth and Paul Falkenberg, with music by Morton Feldman.

I have little to say about this video except that Pollock smoked a lot.


Friday, February 22, 2008

Red Lips
pastel
30.5 x (12" x 18")


The colour in this pastel is somewhat arbitrary.
Pinks, reds, and browns dominate the drawing.
The model was resting on a reddish brown sheet and on her pink robe.
To add to the reds, the model was heated by a parabolic heater just to the viewer's side of the drawing, which helped to reddened her otherwise white skin.


The model is someone, most, if not all of Winnipeg artists enjoy drawing. She has quite a distinctive look with her prominent nose and her bright red lipstick. She also enjoys modelling, and her enjoyment helps put the artists at ease, which usually makes for better drawings.

Thursday, February 21, 2008




























Woman With Necklaces

ink and watercolour
20.8 x 14.0 cm (8.2" x 5.5")


This is an older drawing; probably a year old. It's fairly simple and not necessarily that well drawn, yet there's something about it that I like.

Tuesday, February 19, 2008

Road, The Forks
pastel and charcoal
22.9 x 30.5 cm (9" x 12")


This was a grey day at The Forks in downtown Winnipeg, on a small spit of land between the Assiniboine and Red Rivers.

The darkness of the trees and greyness of the day have been exaggerated. This was unintentional. It just seemed to happen.

The drawing was done on a dark grey paper. Some, but not all of the darks were drawn first, then the sky and snow, followed by the remaining darks and the foreground grass and weeds. It all went fairly quickly.

Monday, February 18, 2008





















Model with a Ball

ink
21.3 x 14.5 cm (8.4" x 5.7")


Model with a Stick

ink
21.3 x 7.9 cm (8.4" x 3.1")


These were probably one minute poses, or, possibly thirty second poses. These quick poses are used at the beginning of a drawing session to loosen up the artists and get them concentrating on drawing the overall pose or form before getting lost in detail. They are frequently an artist's best work over a drawing session. They are seldom or never overworked or pretentious. At their best they give you the figuartive artist's most concentrated form of expression.

Sunday, February 17, 2008

Picasso Painting from Le Mystère Picasso

I been searching for videos about artists in which the artist is actually involved. Here's another: an extract from the terribly serious 1956 French film Le Mystère Picasso, produced and directed by H. G. Clouzot. I like Picasso's self-assurance. He seems more relaxed than the film crew.

Saturday, February 16, 2008

Sleeping Model
pastel and charcoal
22.9 cm x 39.4 cm (9" x 15.5")


This drawing was done in about forty minutes. It would have been difficult to get any further than what you see with that amount of time.

The arm above the model's head looks a little suspicious, and the model's lower leg looks crooked or broken. Other than those two areas, the drawing is acceptable, if a little dull.

Thursday, February 14, 2008

Riverwalk
pastel and charcoal
22.9 x 30.5 cm (9" x 12")


This is Winnipeg's riverwalk at the junction of the Assiniboine and Red Rivers. In the drawing the Assiniboine is on the right, and the Red straight ahead. The riverwalk runs along the Assiniboine and then curves around to follow the Red River. That's St. Boniface to the east across the river.

The riverwalk is enjoyed by many people. Unfortunately, in the spring and summer it is underwater two or three times because of flooding. But such is the nature of a riverwalk.

Wednesday, February 13, 2008


































Green and Yellow

ink, charcoal, and pastel
30.5 x 21.6 cm (12" x 8.5")


Accuracy isn't everything in a drawing. Even though the anatomy is a little suspect, this drawing seems to work thanks to the colour and the overall aggressive approach.

Tuesday, February 12, 2008

Minute By Minute, a Torngat video by Alison Davis

One of the artist that I regularly draw with is Alison Davis, an animator. This video is one of her early animations. It was done for the Montreal band, Torngat (probably named after the Torngat Mountains in eastern Quebec). I'm not sure that I completely understand the video, but I appreciate the drawing - this video was all hand drawn - and I rather like the music. (The heroine in the video looks suspiciously like Alison.)


Reddish Nude
ink and pastel
17.8 x 29.2 cm (7.0" x 11.5")


There's nothing special about this nude; however, given how quickly that it was done, I was happy with the result.

Is that a beached whale that the model is perched upon?

Monday, February 11, 2008

Model with Unfinished Heater
charcoal and pastel
30.5 x 45.7 cm (12" x 18")


My wife describes this drawing as a 'guy' drawing. She might be right.
The unfinished heater is the pinkish grey circle by the model's head. This parabolic heater has appeared in many of my drawings. The pinkish grey is the colour of the paper showing through. The vague reddish form at the bottom of the drawing was meant to be the model's robe, but it seems to look more like a bouquet of flowers. So much the better.

Friday, February 08, 2008
































Pole

charcoal and pastel
30.5 x 22.9 cm (12" x 9")


I was trying to experiment with colour in this quick drawing, done during a drawing session on Monday night. The plan was to shade the figure in greens before adding colour. I seriously misjudged the time that would take. I had just begun the shading when the timer went, indicating that the pose was over.

Thursday, February 07, 2008

Under the Bridge
pastel and charcoal
22.9 x 30.5 cm (9" x 12")



There is a riverwalk in downtown Winnipeg which passes under several bridges. This drawing looks east from underneath the Donald St. Bridge.

The drawing was done on a dark paper.

Wednesday, February 06, 2008
































Model with Pole

ink and pastel
30.5 x 21.6 cm (12" x 8.5")


This is the same model as in yesterday's drawing. In this pose he is using one of the poles barely visible in yesterday's drawing.

The drawing took about fifteen minutes. A little more time would have been nice, although there's something attractive in the unfinished look of the drawing.

Tuesday, February 05, 2008

































Model with Radiator

ink, charcoal, and conté
30.5 x 21.6 cm (12" x 8.5")


This simple drawing was done in ten or fifteen minutes.

The lines radiating from the model's arm were poles resting against a pillar. The poles were used in some of the poses during the modelling session.

Monday, February 04, 2008

Tree, Guay Park
oil 16.5 x 19.8 cm (6.5" x 7.75")

I don't know the history of Guay Park in Winnipeg, but it was probably named after the former mayor of St. Boniface and Manitoba senator, Joseph Guay.

Saturday, February 02, 2008

David Hockney on What's Unphotographable

I always find something of interest in photographs or videos of artists in their studios, even when, as in this video, they're talking about not much. Here, David Hockney talks with critic Robert Hughes.

Friday, February 01, 2008

Sculpture of a Boy
graphite and conté
13.7 x 20.8 cm (5.4" x 8.2")

This academic looking drawing was done about five years ago in the Louvre. I don't think that I've posted this drawing before, although it's possible.

I cannot remember the sculptor's name, nor the name of the piece. It seems to me that it was smaller than life size.

The actual image is a little more delicate than the crude scan. The drawing was scanned in its' frame, glass and all. I was rather surprised to get anything useable.