Model Moves

This is again from my most recent (May 11) life drawing session. Our model did a series of graceful poses for one minute each. As with all artists who do life drawing, I wish that I could preserve the sense of motion and life in these drawings if I were to do them in a more finished style. Some great artists manage it. All I can do is keep drawing. Now if I could only get the model to do comic-book-style poses. I bet she would if I asked her. I don't know what model I will draw next but I know it will be a female.

Art is the only thing I really want to do these days. Well, and visiting wineries and drinking wine. I am hoping to combine the two with vineyard-themed artwork. You've seen some of it. There's more where that came from, I hope. I never get bored with doing art, and every year there's a new vintage.

Lair of the Yellow Dragons

"Blogger," the host here, had some problems but it seems that May 12th's post is now restored and I can get back to putting up the art. This tranquil scene is a view of Falls Church Maintenance's vehicle shed, containing dragon-like digging machines and heavy trucks. You can also see the rainwater collection tank at the side of the building, fed by two roof tubes. This art was done entirely on-site ("plein air") while I sat on the tailgate of my car. I hope to submit this piece to an exhibit of work done outdoors. The requirements are that all the work be done in one session on-site (no touch-ups in the studio) and that it depicts a location in Falls Church city. I wonder if anyone else will depict industrial or maintenance equipment. Usually "plein air" concentrates on pretty gardens, landscapes, and historic buildings, although I've seen some great industrial images done on-site using digital screens.

"Lair of the Yellow Dragons" is Pitt brown technical pen, black marker, and colored pencil on Bristol board, 14" x 11", May 12, 2011. Click on the pic for a larger view.

Most recent figure drawing

There was live model drawing again on Wednesday night at Falls Church Arts. Our model this time was an athletic, trim, elf-like girl who could easily pose for someone from a fantasy tale. This drawing was from one of the longer poses, about 20 minutes. I think it's pretty good, though I may have made her torso too narrow. Also, there are too many straight-ish lines in my drawing...another example of how my drawings of people look like buildings. And yet I am trying to reproduce what I see. Should I exaggerate the curves and make her look more voluptuous? I would give that a try if I had more life drawing time. There's one more session left and then I must search further afield for more opportunities to draw from live models. I know of some other arts groups who do life drawing, so I will have more chances to do figure studies. An artist can never have enough of this practice.

The Vampire Saint Germain

I've never been a huge vampire fan. Certainly not like the fanatic followers of today's vampire books and shows. In my youth I did follow the "Dark Shadows" TV show and liked the character (and the fin-de-siecle fashions) of Barnabas Collins, but I never fantasized about being, uh, bitten by a vamp or turning into one, even though I am nocturnal by nature. Later I read a few vampy novels by Anne Rice, but I gave up on the story after about the third book ("Queen of the Damned").

I have, however, done numerous vampire pictures as commissions for friends who are far more into it than I ever was. This is one of my better ones. It was painted for a fan in Lincoln, Nebraska, who ordered a portrait of Chelsea Quinn Yarbro's vampire hero, the "Count of Saint Germain," as a present for her sister. She requested that the Vampire look like a TV actor from the soap opera GENERAL HOSPITAL, Paul Rossilli. In the commission materials, she included a TV fan magazine with a picture of Paul for reference. As a fantasy portrait, this is one of my "oldies but goodies."

"Young Saint Germain" is acrylic on illustration board, 6" x 9", June 1983.

More Quick Poses

Here are some quick one-minute poses from my most recent session drawing a live model. This one had a different body type from the first one but she was still a very good model. You can see her in colored pencil on my May 5th posting here.

My life drawing style is rather "naturalistic," designed to represent the reality of the figure in front of me. Other members of the drawing group produced more abstract, gesture-based images, or attempted to form the body in color and paint texture. But if I had ambitions to be a comic book artist, I would need to transform this "realistic" figure drawing style into something which would be entertaining for that audience, with elongated proportions and large, spherical breasts. Maybe I'll try that for a pose at my next life drawing session.

Aleytys

I did this for a portfolio piece, and also to practice figure painting. I used a girly mag photo as my model, and was never pleased with my attempt to render the nude figure. However, I managed to get across the dopey quality of the heroine, who fornicated her way through planetary adventures wearing as little as possible. "Aleytys" was a creation of the late Jo Clayton, who mixed feminist allegory with cheesy pulp science fiction. Aleytys was an unknowing member of a super-race with psychic powers. She was "possessed" or perhaps "invested" with a magical piece of jewelry, the "Diadem," which also contained three other personalities (as represented by the ghostly pairs of eyes in the halo around Aleytys' head).

Aleytys, like countless other science fiction and fantasy heroes, had flaming red hair. Red hair is a feature which never leaves the sf/fantasy genre but returns again and again and again. Every author adds red-haired characters and usually first-time authors (females especially) give their heroine or hero red hair. It is a sign of special gifts and abilities as well as genetic superiority. Many years ago I wrote and published an article about it called "Red-haired Heroes, Brown-haired Losers." At one point I considered writing a humorous story about an ordinary-looking brown haired girl who finds she has magic powers once she dyes her hair red...but loses them when the roots begin to show.

"Aleytys" is acrylic on illustration board, 11" x 17", October 1982.

Moonstone character sketch

Ever since I was a little kid I've wanted to draw superheroes. And I did, populating my notebooks with colored pencil designs of costumed heroes. I used "Venus Paradise" brand colored pencils, which later evolved into the Prismacolors I still use today. I gave them powers and designed costumes for them. But I never did any sequential graphic continuity (comic book pages) with them. I have never stopped drawing superheroes, even though there is neither status, profit, or profundity to be had from them. When I got into working with acrylic, I used this medium to paint superheroes, of course. I wanted the slick look of Vincent diFate and Alex Ross, and rarely if ever achieved it. But I kept trying, painting heroes on little fragments of illustration board left over from other projects.

Even now, when I think of putting two colors together, I wonder how they would look in a superhero costume. The standard heroes are in primary colors, blue/red/yellow. But lesser characters could dress in more unusual combinations. Villains often wore green or purple. I would search for Marvel or DC characters who were not main players, and attempt to portray them "realistically" with acrylic. This is one of them: "Moonstone," a glamorous female character who started out as a super-villain and ended up on the good side. She was garbed in gold (or yellow) and silver, with dazzling metallic elements of helmet, bracelets, and silver boots. This is my rendition of Moonstone in this costume which was not used for very long. The artists replaced it with (of course) a much more revealing version without the threatening helmet and metal gear.

"Moonstone" is acrylic on illustration board, 3 1/2" x 7", April 1987.