Monday, April 19, 2010

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!

Sunday, April 18, 2010

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!

Sunday, April 4, 2010

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!