Wow, well it has been a while! Yup I have been a little to
busy to get to the blog as of late and my students gave me *#%^ about it. So I
am going to attempt to catch up.
Here we go!
Since April (the last time I posted) I have implemented a
social network for the class call “Figuratively Speaking Artwork” (instagram
@figurativelyspeakingartwork). Although, this also keeps me quite busy, the one
thing it does allow is an unbiased view of the students work as well as many
inspirational submission from artists worldwide. The site allows communication
from anywhere in the world and from several different ages as well. The overall
goal is to create traffic to other social media sites such as Facebook,
Blogger, and Twitter. All of, which is slowly starting to pick up steam. So my
next endeavor will be to create a Facebook site that can help with stylization,
conceptual design, compositional placements, and the overall aesthetics of
figurative art. For now I just want the social sites to be focused on the human
anatomy or “life drawing”, So that will be the goal.
Now, I want to talk about the class itself. Since April we
have had several changes. We have lost some artists and gained others, so it
has been bitter sweet. Carson long time monitor, friend, and crazy creative
artist took a position she could not turn down. Although, she is happy we miss
her laugh and wonderful fearless style. Also, Marsha another great artist left
for her summer trip and some relaxation. So like I said some left and new
artist have come in, we have Mathew, Marianne, Beau, Kathy, and Tom. All are
unique and different to the life class some have honed skills others are
growing rapidly.
We also have new models that shared their wonderful style
with us. We were lucky enough to have William a real cowboy that shared stories
as well as a rough look with a musical twist. We also had Hallie a beautiful
woman who shows strength and love with poses. (images are below) These models
as well as our staples were a wonderful change.
The changes allowed for a very strong and award winning
show. The Figuratively Speaking art show was help in the larger gallery and I
am proud to announce that the best in show was a student. Pat, a powerfully
talented artist took BIS for her work that showed skill, compositional
excellence and in my taste fearlessness. Others from the class placed as well.
Overall the class is my diamond it is what I look forward to
every week. Even though there are times I am overly tired and drained, yet I would
not trade it for the world. Life drawing is daunting and easy taught or
learned. It takes practice and dedication and for that I am truly thankful to the
entire artistic class that shares their talents and skills with me.
A thought to draw by:
“The technical study of the body, while necessary to the
artist, can result in stiff figures that look put together. This is typical of
anatomy study that is not supported by real life study: the student ends up
literally putting the body together from what they learned, rather than
recreating it from what they observed. Yet what brings
a human figure to life cannot be taught or put down in a chart. It
is the energy in that figure – happy,
rushed, sorrowful, still, childish, uncertain, comfy, exhausted – you can only
"learn" it from life. I put "learn" in quotation marks
because you must not expect to learn it with the mind (the way you might learn
that the average distance between two eyes is equal to an eye). You learn to
internalize it, to feel it in your body. If you can feel it in your body, it
will make its way into your drawing and you don't have to think of how to do
it. This is the key to expressive, lively drawing and it goes for non-human or
even non-living subjects, too”
