When a model keeps the same pose for an hour or more, it gives enough time to fully capture the pose, fully render it, fully work on it and overwork it and get back into it and mess up the freshness and spontaneity.
Whereas short poses - ahhhh, I love them so! you look, you put on paper what it really is about the pose that makes you wanna capture it, and then the model changes to the next one.
Until a year ago or so, I used to regularly take a truly great class, in which we had models pose for periods of 30 seconds to 2 minutes. All you could really capture was the gesture; no time for eye lashes, hardly any time for the arms and legs. At the end of class, we were all dead tired, each of us with over 40 sketches, most of them quite crappy, but the point was that we learned to look, to see. And we learned that 2 minutes are a very long time. And the teacher was actually teaching, a different body part each session, tips about drawing of clothes and how to deal with the clothed figure - one of the best classes, which really changed the way I draw. Writing this, I realize how much I miss that class; maybe it's time to take it again. 
Anyway, Thursday was the figure drawing class, and we had a wonderful full-figured young woman, incredibly graceful, with a flowing dress and a nice little hat. Highly professional, she delighted us with a great repertoire of inspiring short poses (10 minutes each), and the time flew by. Alas, she is the very first model in this class who said she prefers to not have her photo taken. Ah well, yet again I need to face the fact that I can't have the photos of everyone I want to paint.
I like quite a few of the quick sketches I made in class. So did the teacher, who kept chanting "less is more" and other favorite clichés.
Next class, he promised, it will be one single pose for the whole 3 hours!!!
I am so very tempted to play hookey...
10 comments:
Absolutely love the last work.... the color is luscious. It's amazing how an inspiring model can fire you up.
Valerie
STUNNING! What an inspiration. eautifully created.
Valerie, Sandy yes, she really was an incredible model. Hence my lamentation of the lack of photos.
The last one you not only got the line working for you, the watercolor is perfecto! I think Tuesday night at the Palo Alto Art Center there is short pose session every week.
Nava, This last image is striking. You caught the pose, and the colors are so fresh. wow! Holly
Myrna, Holly, Thanks! I think all that freshness comes from not having enough time to go back into it and ruin it. The less time I have to mess with a watercolor, the safer place the world becomes. At least the art world.
Love that last one- boy oh boy is it luscious and loose and the parts left undone are as great as the ones you touched with some magic.
Really wonderful.
I like the bottom piece.
Bonnie, OnPainting - thank you both! Bonnie, your words are music to my ears. I need to touch things less. And, Bill, your sentences get shorter by the week.
Oh, I love these, also, nava. The sketch, the color wash, the spontaneity shows and yet it appears deliberate. Now, how did you accomplish that!?
In photography, each day I go out shooting something and anything. I often confine myself to one lens per photo shoot, to try and mine the possibilities, or one shutter speed...it is freeing to simply have to use your skills in confinement...what usually happens is that you break through some obstacle you didn't even recognize was there.
Anyway, love this and I'd be tempted to skip the 3 hour class as well!
Post a Comment