Pain Can Be a Good Teacher....Uh Huh!

We have had a couple of busy weeks lately so I missed posting last weekend. We took an unexpected trip up north to Manzanita, OR. Manzanita is a lovely little town on the north coast of Oregon and is soon to be our future home town.
It really is a good thing I like to juggle as it seems I have been doing a lot of juggling of tasks lately. In addition to daily life and working hard at school, I am reaching out a bit into the future to find a place to rent in the fall. Usually that is not such a problem but Manzanita is a tiny town of less than 800 souls and with a large number of short term vacation rentals but not many long term ones.
I have been occasionally checking Craigslist even though we are still a few months out and, much to my amazement, I found the perfect house. It has everything I clearly stated, out-loud and in writing, that I wanted. To make a long story short, we took a spur-of-the-moment trip up north and took a look. We submitted our application this week and are waiting to hear back from the landlady, who amazingly enough, lives here in Ashland! So, at the moment, we are keeping our fingers crossed.
In the meantime, there has been a lot of growth in the learning department for me at school. Alas,  I wish I could take a picture and point out all the areas of growth. I also wish I could tell you that it was a lovely joyful journey but we all know that just isn't the way it works!
One of my fellow art students is a gentleman in his 70's (I think) who told me that all his friends tell him how lucky he is since he just gets to relax, lounge around, and learn art. He laughs and says, "if they only knew how painful it is!" Painful indeed. Relaxing? More like blood, sweat, and tears (sometimes lots of tears)! Lest I get carried away and unintentionally scare someone away from putting in the time to learn art, the rewards for your toils are beyond imagining!
Yesterday I started out to work on my charcoal drawing and, after three hours of painful confusion, I made it worse! My drawing seized control from my tenuous grasp and merrily ran all over me. Yes, it really is possible! It sort of felt like opening an old fashioned wind-up watch case only to have all the springs sproing out all over the room. Finally, at the end of those three sweaty hours, I managed to coral it back in place where hopefully it will be docilely waiting for me on Tuesday.
The rewards for all that pain? My knowledge and skill took a giant leap forward! No worries though, I know very well that I will be taking a few steps back too. I managed to pull myself together during lunch (and after a phone call to my husband to lament, OK, whinge, a bit) so that I was able to take a few baby steps forward during our long-pose figure drawing session.
So, what do I have to show you this week? Well, the drawings from last week that I didn't get a chance to post. Here they are, the first is a photo of the actual cast, the second the final drawing, after 12 hours. It was a shorter session so the drawing is not as finished as the longer ones.

This guy is a true block head. We are currently working on another cast, the one that beat me up yesterday, and the long pose figure drawing. I will take a few pictures in progress but not the whole progression for next week. In the meantime, the weather is really trying hard to warm up and be, well, spring. I am aslo enjoying my walks to school through the lovely town of Ashland. Hope to have good news to report on the house statues next week. Until then, -Renee

Evolution of a Charcoal Study- Day 2

 

I know what you are thinking, "this looks like day one!" Right? Well, I assure you, it is day two. I spent the entire six hours getting the proportions of the face, head, and upper torso working right. It just isn't as easy as moving a line out here or a line in there. When ever you make a correction the whole drawing needs to be re-adjusted. I just about have it ready to go to the next stage which is to add one more tone so that I have a light, medium, and dark value. Once that is working I go to 5 and then full tones. I have to stop and check that everything, including the drawing, is still working before moving on. It is amazing how fast the drawing goes awry when your back is turned. 

Today, as usual for a Friday, was model sketching and construction drawing. I will post the construction drawing in another post as I haven't had a chance to take a picture of it yet. I came home from school and then left with my husband for the first Friday Art Walk and Chocolate Festival. An irresistible combination. We made a date of it and had dinner out too. It has been a very productive and enjoyable day. 

Tuesday is the next school day we will be working another session on our study. Should have more dramatic changes for you all to see then. -Renee

Evolution of a Charcoal Study-Day 1

 

I thought I would do something a bit different this time. We have three more weeks left in this term and this is what we will be working on for the remainder. I thought I would post a day-by-day progression. This is the first day out of six days over the remaining term. Each day consists of two 3 hour solid sessions. This is near the end of a total of six hours! As you can see, it does not go fast. When I left today I made a note to myself to adjust the proportions of the face as they are slightly off. It only takes a millimeter for things to start looking funny. When you have several shapes with many sides that means many opportunities for things to go wrong. Over all I am happy with my start. This is the first bust or human head cast we have done. It is one of my favorites to look at but very challenging to draw! In spite of the challenge, I am enjoying the process tremendously. 

I took this picture so you can see the actual cast and lighting set up. Future pictures will be a close-up of the drawing and the final day I will do both a close-up and a picture of the cast. 

In the meantime, still researching where to go next! -Renee

Charcoal Studies Continued

I am a bit late with this post. We signed a rental agreement on Saturday and have spent the weekend scrubbing down the house and moving our stuff in. We aren't all the way in yet but hope to be by next weekend. The house has a lot of potential but has been sadly neglected and there is a lot of damage I have had to catalog and take pictures of.
So, this week we are working on a longer charcoal study with full range of tones. This drawing is from last week. It is a simple set up but was a bit tricky to draw. The pine cone took a lot of time. The handle on the jug is just a little too straight up and down but overall I am pleased. You can see the 5-tonal reference I drew in on the lower right corner. Every shape on the page has to match one of those tones.
We also had a change in our construction drawing session. We are moving on to organic forms. We had a cast of a face section to draw. I will try to get another post in or put it on the regular post to show it. Don't get your expectations up too high. It doesn't look like much!
This post is a bit short as we are still working on the house. I will be up to full speed again soon. Having the house will allow me to spend more time drawing on my own. I should see improvement with more time under my belt!
-Renee