Tag: figure drawing

  • Painting Over Safe

    Painting Over Safe

    The first thing I noticed when I walked back into the studio last night, and again this morning, was that yesterday’s painting on the canvas looked very safe compared to the three previous versions of the pose. There wasn’t anything wrong with it, it just looked safe. I’ve been trying to get myself painting on…

  • Figure on Canvas

    Figure on Canvas

    I’m supposed to be finishing some 30×30 boards, so obviously I went and did other things instead. I painted this in acrylic on a 16×20″ stretched canvas. I am not sure if I am going to keep the flesh tones like this, or go off on a tangent inspired by yesterday’s oil stick piece. I…

  • Oil Sticks Unwrapped

    Oil Sticks Unwrapped

    A long time ago I bought what I believe are the original version of oils in stick form, the W&N Oil Bars. I mean it was so long ago I could probably sell them as “vintage art supplies”, definitely last century. I probably used them a couple of times, and they are unlikely to be…

  • Charcoal and Gesso Fun

    Charcoal and Gesso Fun

    Repeating the pose from yesterday, I used a piece of A2 paper that had some layers of figure drawing practise, each one covered with gesso. This makes for a sumptuous textured surface, and another layer of gesso went over the most recent sketch to make a blank page for this drawing. I used the same…

  • XL Charcoal XL Paper XL Toes

    XL Charcoal XL Paper XL Toes

    I was feeling like some big mark-making, so I pulled out one of the XL paper sheets (A1 size) and one of my XL charcoal chunks. They are water-soluble, but I didn’t play with that aspect for this piece, because once it was on the page I liked the way it looked. The only thing…

  • Homeward

    Homeward

    Travel day today, and I have my four-legged lodger for the night, so a quick turn re-acquainting myself with my studio. Compressed charcoal and clear gesso and marvelling at how strange the easel feels after a week away. Til the morn, Suzanne 642/700

  • Pan Pastels Sketch Spread

    Pan Pastels Sketch Spread

    Both these pages were prepped before I travelled, and let me just say I was not in the mood for yellow, especially with limited supplies. It’s a fun reference, though, so it’s in the sketchbook as a first go. I am used to standing for painting, and I was really struggling with sitting to work…

  • New pose monochrome

    New pose monochrome

    I have been wandering about in the woods today, so didn’t get as in-depth with this pose as intended. An acrylic sketchy under-layer finished off with pan pastels. Til the morn, Suzanne 639/700

  • Feet Dangling

    Feet Dangling

    Starting the day with in-person art supplies shopping is better than coffee. Starting the day with excellent bargains on good quality sketchbooks, and half-price canvases is better than, well, coffee with cream. I also bought some thick foam for making stamps, and a bottle of clear gesso. I didn’t bring my clear gesso, but I…

  • Crouching

    Crouching

    I have been distracted today, but I got this far with this pose and idea. There’s a lot more to do, but the basic shapes are there. This is on 300gsm hot press paper, not my sketchbook, so the paint is doing different things. Til the morn, Suzanne 636/700

  • Don’t Move

    Don’t Move

    I’m completely smitten with my pan pastels, and I don’t think I have even scratched the surface of their versatility. Here I’m using them over acrylic, and I’m loving how this turned out, especially given it went through a particularly “ugly stage”. Someone was waxing unlyrical about drawing from reference photos recently, and the problem…

  • Honing Ms Drips

    Honing Ms Drips

    There was a lot of playing in sketchbooks today, and lots of ideas came out of that, and there will hopefully be further play and exploration going on there. I realised that I had been avoiding this canvas for some reason, no idea why, so I put it up on the easel and pushed and…