more things

Figure drawing is foundation bread and butter.  No matter how skilled you are, this be hallowed ground -- tread and retread often. The way is well-worn by the footfalls of its many faithful.  

You go through reams of paper learning this stuff which, I think, is by design -- can't be too precious with each iteration: the objective is the skill, not the Mona Lisa.  At least, that was my takeaway.  

But, every now and then, a sketch or two rises from the reams that pleases even me.  Here were a few surprises from Art Center (maybe even pre-Art Center, I can't remember).  I like these.  I don't know why.  

  

I remember the objective of this one was to capture fear.
I remember this, specifically, because that was the class that I learned of Repin.

That's Ilya Repin.
Google him along with Ivan the Terrible and His Son,
but only after you've prepared your heart.

media: charcoal, ink, watercolor.

various school things

More things from my time at Art Center.

Painted traditionally (watercolors, gouaches, acrylics, inks....acrylic inks.  I was very adventurous). 

Painted traditionally, for the most part, I should say: there was digital adjusting to the last two.  I once met a fine artist who completely denounced digital -- the use of it at any and all stages of the creative process. 

"T'is cheating," he said. 

"I cheat," said I, raising my hand in dutifully-demure self-abnegation.

He had thought me one of his fold.  I corrected his assumptions and confessed to him my sins.  He patted my head, pitied my youth, and I walked away humbly absolved.  I'm afraid to report that, years later, my dereliction continues and has degenerated further still in its deliberate delinquency.  Call me cheat, scamp, lady of the night.  If you ask me, I bet Da Vinci would've happily (and readily) digitally edited his sketches, particularly before committing them to paint -- to very expensive, hand-mixed paint.  His purity was less from piety, I think, and more from a lack of resources.       

Can you see the violin?

A wine list for children 

A J-rock themed thing.

A mollusk.

medium: watercolors, gouaches, acrylics, ink, acrylic inks, and whatever else pleased my reprobate soul.

digital things

I think I'm just going to throw my digital stuff into this post.  Some pieces from here and there, accumulated during my tenure at Art Center.  

This  was another one of those projects where I ended up liking the sketch better than the final. 

Nuance-y, process-y, technical bits for those who like that kind of thing.

(I happen to like that kind of thing):

Here's where you take the photoshop lessons, the digital matte painting lessons,
and the perspective lessons you've accumulated over the years and mix it all in a pot.

Carnivores.
This is just vector art.  From adobe illustrator lessons alone.
Sola illustratio.

A self portrait.

A painted desert. Pft. See what I did there?

Yet another: sketch preferred over final. Sigh. Mastery is a process, right?

medium: digital

sketching things

More things from another life.

 

the first batch: ink/pencil/marker/gouache. Technique as taught by N. Schureman.

the last batch: charcoal, acrylic/oil. Technique learned elsewhere but for the same class.

paintings, still more

Self portraits from Art Center's Portraiture class with D. Luce.

I like these.  I don't know why.  

medium: oil

  

more painting things

Paintings from Art Center.  I forget for what class and for whose class and who was with me in the which class.  

They might actually have been from the workshops.

 

These funny little abstracts are from the end of a painting day.
I hate throwing away leftover oil paint, but I hate saving it too (it gets a weird consistency).
So I started doing smaller alternate portraits on a sketch pad or spare canvas to try to use up all the paint.
Confession: sometimes I like the caricatures better than I like the portraits.

I love painting.  

medium: oils, predominantly.

painting things

Figurative paintings from ye ol' Art Center days past. 

I forget which classes these were for.  My memory failing is not to be interpreted as subtext or subconscious inner-workings (though would I be conscious of it, if it were?) -- it's more likely the accumulation of too much time passing, too many faces blurring, and the privilege of too many great teachers in too many great classes imparting onto us the singular importance of the basics.  As it should be, I believe.   

mediums: oil (maybe acrylics) on probably canvas.

main site siphon ii: background

This assignment came out of our background painting class. 

This was....an unusual class.  The teacher who normally taught it ended up going to the east coast for a short-term job, so instead we got a series of substitutes, starting with the ever-energetic Sam Michlap, of Dreamworks fame, who, after a four week stint of black-and-white composition boot camp, left us with these parting words: "Don't suck."  

Following him was Donivan Howard, of Disney fame, who had us crash course through the four basic compositions (abstract, deep, flat, and, for the life of me, I can't remember that last one...)

And by the 8th week, we were taking bets as to who would be our third and final substitute, when in walks none other than Mike Humphries, of just...fame.

So this was my fourth and last class with Mike, who decided to make this into an acrylics background painting class. 

good times.

medium: acrylic on watercolor board

main site siphon i: mouse house

gouache

I'm beginning the long-awaited plan to transfer some of the rougher work off my main site and integrate them here.  Shift some of the burden onto her sister site so she can handle the weightier, "portfolio" quality work. 

This was the final for our gouache techniques class at school.  It was my third class with Mike Humphries and the assignment was to design a small house made of natural materials and use it in a composition. 

Rule #1: no trees.

helen consulting with mike on her first round of sketches: "And here's one with a tree stump..."(1)

mike: "No trees!"

helen (puppy-eyed): "Not even a stump?"

mike: "Mmm, no. I want to give you a challenge."

medium: pencil (sketches), gouache on watercolor board (color keys and final art)

1.  The following dialogue is by no means accurate. The spirit of it is spot on, but the word-for-word playback is completely dependent on my incompetent memory.