Travis Schlaht workshop at Bay Area Classical Atelier - June 2013

David on Claessens; 18 x 15" - about 30 hours.

Had a great time painting with Travis Schlaht at Linda Dulaney's Bay Area Classical Atelier for two weeks in June.  The studio space is great with nice north light and the time with Travis was super useful for me.  I consider the above painting a learning tool more than a finished work.  It has many things I'd like to fix but it will be a good reminder of the things Travis reinforced with me at the workshop.   Ted Minoff is doing a 1 week portrait workshop @ BACAA soon - highly recommended as well!

Here is my small study on gessoboard from the last few hours of day 9 and 10. ( about 8 x 10")

Travis has such a fine control of drawing, value and color - it was a powerful refresher to see where I sometimes over-rely on color notes and might more usefully save them for key moments..  Much thinking on this to do!   To wit, I unearthed an older painting that I thought I would share, having re-photographed it with my Nikon!  ( still very unfinished with odd values and color notes here and there).  A fantastic model and person .. I shall miss her!

Sophia 18 x 24" oil on canvas. From life back in 2011!

Kevin Wueste practices the figure - from the past week and a bit..

From left to right - Signe, Titine and Signe!  All from life - charcoal on newsprint.  5, 20 and 10 minutes respectively.

Signe, Titine, Madeline and Titine clockwise from top left. 20, 10, 10 and two 5 minute drawings respectively.

Gestures except that one in the middle bottom - just a drawing @ the end of the pad so it's all bumpy from the cardboard.  2-5 minutes here..

Avery Wueste - Watercolor 10 x 10" First Watercolor Portrait in 5 years!

Yes that's my thumb..

A few of my recent figures and heads.. mostly from life except when they're not.

It feels like a bit of a guilty pleasure to draw w/o teaching now... Very odd ..  I also bought the wrong paper ( rough newsprint).. and it's not my wheelhouse.  So, thanks for looking!  More new paintings soon!

Figures from life - Rachel is the model - very fun to draw her - she poses dynamically !

Rachel on rough and Daisy in the bodice leather thing..

Some 20's and 30's movie star studies and a quick 3 minute seated gesture of Rachel..

Mandala (Sanskrit: मण्डल Maṇḍala, 'circle') is a spiritual and ritual symbol in Hinduism and Buddhism, representing the Universe.^[1] The basic form of most mandalas is a square with four gates containing a circle with a center point. Each gate is in the general shape of a T.^[2][3] Mandalas often exhibit radial balance.^[4]

The term is of Hindu origin. It appears in the Rig Veda as the name of the sections of the work, but is also used in other Indian religions, particularly Buddhism.

In various spiritual traditions, mandalas may be employed for focusing attention of aspirants and adepts, as a spiritual teaching tool, for establishing a sacred space, and as an aid to meditation and trance induction.

In common use, mandala has become a generic term for any plan, chart or geometric pattern that represents the cosmos metaphysically or symbolically; a microcosm of the universe from an enlightened perspective; i.e., that of the principal deity.

Here are several of the Mandalas created by my two Color Fundamentals classes this semester.  This is the final project of the semester which is a culminating effort.  The color schemes are a dual analogous, split compliment (with one dominant primary as mandatory).  These students have spent on average 25 hours - and some approaching 100 hours on these works.  There are many more excellent ones - this is a cross section of some of the top works.

Congratulations to Mae Kikuchi ( top right below) and Taylor Suchy (top left in bottom box of Mandalas) for being selected for the 2013 Academy of Art Spring Show!

Clockwise from top left: Haini Zhi, Mae Kikuchi, Rachel Smith, Med Bullock

Clockwise from top left - Taylor Suchy, Jenny Oh, Daniel Manou, Ellen Wong.

Paint-A-Thon!

The Fisherman -
Dreaming of the Seas Ahead Oil on Panel - From life April 2013.

The above painting (Model: Ward) was mostly completed at the Spring Semester Paint-a-Thon at the Academy of Art.   Our Female model absolutely flaked ( on about 20-25 people) and thank you Suzanne for pinch hitting.   

The light here was from the side ( right) about head high and I have not painted w/that light ever so it was good practice..  About 5 hours and some time @ home ..

The tableau - she continues - though not without continued effort..

"Ignominy" 12 x 10" Oil on canvas.

Jonathan - torso study/back charcoal on paper

Jacqueline - torso study /back + bum charcoal on paper

"Colleen" - demo on Drawing paper with willow and charcoal pencil..

The foot - a demo - it can begin simply as a wedge and you can go to town from there..

Dear Sir(s), 

Here are a few recent works that I thought worth showing ..  Crawl..Run - right.  n=Crawl..

"Potrero Girl" - from the live model - on Mi Tientes with carbon, conte and white chalk

"Lyric turning" - done in class from the live model - charcoal on newsprint.

 Head Demo - from life in class

Portrait study done @ my last Robert Liberace workshop.  Thank you Daphne for shipping it ( I still owe you !) and Thank you Rob for being such a cool cat!  Only got about 2 hours on this or so .. maybe 3 then had to jet!

"Liz" - demo on graphite drawing for my students..

 "Clarisse" - same as above.. but using a stroke-y technique..

Samantha, Yibo and Sue-Jong.. head drawing demos for my students..

"Chelsey Fields" - about 12 x 17" Charcoal on Paper

A demo drawing for my Intermediate Figure Drawing students - about 4-5 hours total.

"Gregory"  

An Alla-Prima study from life, in oil on loose canvas.  About 3 hours.  17 x 10" give or take.

Painted at a model workshop at the Academy of Art University this past week.