Figure class again.
One endless pose, yet again, like last week.
This time, the teacher wanted us to go for the portrait rather than the whole figure. Yes, I know what y'all are thinking. Indeed, I've been doing mostly portraits the whole time, but that was just me and a couple of others in class. Needless to say, because he told us to do a portrait, MembieM (who always, ALWAYS does stunning portraits) cheerfully went for a full-figure. I filed a complaint to her that being the rebel has always been my job, but she just laughed joyously and proceeded to capture the whole model - 'coz MembieM is a free spirit. Ain't nobody tellin' her what to paint.
Now, as much as I wanted to do the figure (and thus keep my rebellious reputation), I simply couldn't. The model (whose name, so I was told, was Paula) was wearing a beige sweatshirt and jeans, which is as boring as it gets. To add to it, she sat a chair and acted like... like... her portrait is being drawn or somethin'.
You know those formal portraits you see in galleries, of uberly blank-gazing people? Yup - that was the expression.
But - it is, after all, class. And we came there to render, so renderin' I went.
I sat next to MembieM and gave it a try. I did one on smooth Bristol surface, and then another one on watercolor paper. The second one actually turned out quite nice (but that's shall be shown in the sequel of this post, sometime next week).
Towards the the end, I couldn't take it anymore. I had to loosen up and get some fresh air into my soul, so I went for some (very) quick sketches of the artists around me. I managed to capture Val and Al at work. Now, THAT was fun! The model looked at me kinda nasty, but hey - she's had 2.5 hours of my undivided attention. That's more than enough, I'd say.
I no longer have these two sketches in my possession, as I gave them to their unsuspecting subjects(*). It was the fair thing to do. Glad I took photos, though.
(*) I'm guessing it would have looked much more professional to write "these two sketches are no longer in my possession, as they are collected". Ah well. Next time.
6 comments:
Regardless of the boring pose, the approach is very effective and appealing. It looks fresh and colorful and confident.
You do the best with what you get, Nava, and I like all of these - and how you've presented them to us like you are behind the artists watching them paint the model :)
Hi, now I understand why I didn't like what I did.....she wore beige and looked sleepy!! Well that's my excuse!!
I enjoyed your painting of my rear view much better very spontaneous and happy.
Valerie
Myrna, boredom sometimes yields creativity, I guess.
Rhonda, Yeah, it was so boring, I had to add some spice to it :-)
Valerie, my wonderful unsuspecting model! I, too, enjoyed sketching you and Al much more than rendering her sleepy eyes.
The bottom left painting is my favorite.
I remember doing the same thing, especially after having the same model in the same pose for 10 sessions.
Bill, Indeed, when you hit the wall of boredom (or boredom hits you - whichever comes first), it can soemtimes yield creativity.
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