I’ve been distracted lately by a major house re-org, urged on by my selected ‘completion reward’: revamping my office area to include a nice, sunny area for painting. Yum. In the meantime, I’ve been teaching an iPad class and preparing for a trip to Lafayette, LA to teach a one-day iPad workshop and attend a four-day watercolor journaling workshop. More on that later.
I’ve done a few new iPad pieces over the last couple of months. Here they are:
Admiring Make Piece Pretties
Trainspotting
A couple of weekends ago, I spent a pleasant two days in lovely Tilghman Island, MD, at a figure drawing workshop offered by Walt Bartman, of the Yellow Barn Studio and Griffin Art Center. Walt’s wife Robin provided superb hospitality, while Walt kept the seven of us busy with charcoal, graphite and conte. Maria, a professional model par excellence, served as our muse. Here are a few of my sketches from the weekend.
With our two sons and their families, Pat and I spent a peaceful, beautiful and family-ful Thanksgiving in an 100 yr old adobe casa in Santa Fe. Max enjoyed sitting on the casa’s retro-fitted baseboard heating strips and charming everyone in sight. The rest of us enjoyed strolling around the lovely downtown area, hiking in the Bandelier National Monument, eating Southwestern cuisine and soaking up the art and culture.
While we were there, I painted an iPad image of the kiva fireplace in the casa. And since returning, have roughed out an image of the cliffs, fronted by trees, at Bandelier.
the kiva in the casa
Bandelier vista
Last week at the Yellow Barn, we were graced with a fit and angular male model, Wayne, who maintained a very difficult pose with few breaks.
I chose somewhat unconventional compositions. For the first, I was seated at roughly eye level, looking from the top of his head down the length of his prone body (he was laying atop a series of folding tables that seemed none too stable).
nude 1
For the second, which was done more quickly than the first, I sat behind Wayne, a vantage from which his body looked like a lanky wedge.
nude 2
From whatever angle, Wayne is a wonderful model.
Working from a live model at the Yellow Barn, I made three quick iPad sketches week before last. I’m putting the best one first – you don’t need to look at the other two unless you REALLY want to.
nude 3
nude 2
nude 1
Maria and her sassy sundress were posing at the Yellow Barn this afternoon. I think I’m getting hooked on using my iPad & ArtRage rather than those messy oils! Here’s the result of today’s session.
Maria models in her sundress.
My sweet hubby, busy reading the Saturday papers. A new ArtRage/iPad painting, done freehand, based on a reference photo I made of him some time ago. This one was done using only the watercolor tool, over a light pencil sketch on the bottom layer.
Pat, reading the Post on a Saturday, with coffee.
I feel much less comfortable using the ArtRage watercolor brush (and oil painting tools) than I do with chalk, pen, pencil & paint roller. So I’ve been trying to trudge up the learning curve in watercolor. Here are my two most recent efforts:
A flamenco dancer I photographed during our trip to Cuba last Spring:
Dancing in Havana
And a scene from Glen Echo Park, based on a photograph I took a couple of years ago:
Cuddle Up at Glen Echo Park during a Cloudy Sunset
I’ve got 3 weeks down and 7 to go in the Intro to iPad Art class I’m teaching at the Yellow Barn Studio. We have covered some of the most basic how-to information about the ArtRage app and are now exploring/practicing various tools.
In the last week, at the suggestion of Walt Bartman, I tried simulating a traditional oil painting technique – making a monochrome value-study by rubbing out highlights in a toned canvas and then adding color at the value levels developed in the preliminary study. In the iPad framework, I used the paint roller to make a solid underpainting and then used a soft eraser to ‘rub out’ the lighter passages and then added a few darker areas using the chalk tool to capture the darks.
Here are the two stages of the first work I did with this method, painted from our lovely live model Kuniko. First, the study:
Kuniko in kimono, monochromatic iPad study.
And then the colored version:
Kuniko iPad study, developed with color.
I’ve been pondering making a series of gouaches about my family. As the ‘About’ section suggests, there is LOTS of material. My husband and I will head to California soon to help celebrate our grandson’s first birthday. So I decided to make Family No. 1 a study of Max on his original ‘birth day’.
Family No. 1 (Max, Day 1). Gouache on paper.