Rogue's Gallery!

When one is learning to draw, cups and boxes and such things

of simple shapes are good items with which to start. But

then one needs to have more challenge with interesting shapes.

I have found that stuffed animals serve this purpose well.

They come in very simple shapes, but then some have limbs

that are jointed, or long flexible limbs that give posing variety

to them. The yellow bear in the middle of this photograph

was a lucky find in a supermarket! He can take all manner of

positions and presents a good challenge for drawing a shape

that breaks the bonds of symmetry! Also, his modeling rates

are very reasonable!

Props for your paintings!

This is a large basket of artificial fruit and

vegetables that I have collected over quite

some time. One year a student gave me a

gift of several pieces that were really well

done. You can see the lemon and orange at

the front (or bottom) of this basket from the

collection he gave me. Some artificial fruits

or veggies are really poorly done, but even

they have their uses -especially for me when

I am teaching basic drawing. But I always

keep my eye out for well done fakes! The

best ones I ever got were from Williamsburg,

Va. They have an enormous place just outside

of town (williamsburgpottery.com) and I found

these things in the flower section. I'll have to

photograph them for you to see. The onions

were especially fantastic!

So keep on the lookout for such things for your

own work. I used to only use real fruit and

veggies for my paintings. Then I read that

Cezanne used fake fruit and so I quit buying

these things!

Composing from your photos

When I see a scene that I would like to paint, I take a long shot of it, then close up shots.

The reason? Because when you photograph a long shot, there are things that are not clearly visible in the photo.

Therefore, taking closer shots of the same subject gives you more visual information.

This was a series of shots from last week when I was down viewing the

glorious cherry blossoms in

Washington, D.C.

There were families and couples everywhere, but these two were in a setting that

worked for my painting purposes!