Abract Head...365 Days Of Drawing

TENTH MONTH OF MY UNBROKEN CHALLENGE BEGINS TOMORROW

"Study the abstraction of the head!" master painter Morgan Weistling advised his students at The Weekend With The Masters in CA.

I was assisting Morgan last weekend and hanging onto every word and brush stroke he made on students canvases. I listen to anything this great painter says www.morganweistling.com

So for today's drawing I did an abstraction of the head invented by famed teacher Frank Reilly. You forget things unless you revisit. It was a good refresher for me. It has been quite a few years since I really looked at it and it sure got the drawing challenge for the day done.

FUCHSIA WOOSHA...365 DAYS OF DRAWING

I don't know what inspired me to do a 22 x 28 demo on the last day of the semester today at CAI but I did it anyway of a lass with fuchsia hair. I have found most students find fuchsia hard to paint from flowers, to fabric and hair. All that brilliance.

It was going great until a slight disturbance in my teaching class sent me off-kilter and out of the enjoyment zone of my demo. That can happen so easily I find. So I stopped painting.

Ah well, onto the next. This will just be part of that mile of canvas I need to paint to learn. Good news is the drawing challenge is about to hit its' 10th MONTH!!! YES!!! Not a day missed.

Yesterday's drawing I can't post for privacy reasons around a commission. You will just have to trust me, fuchsia or not.

The Value of Zorn...365 Days of Drawing

One of the many wise things Morgan Weistling said (www.morganweistling.com) in his teaching workshops at Weekend With The Masters this past weekend, was if an artist wanted to really learn how to paint, he should copy Anders Zorn's etchings.

This made me really happy as I have been doing this through the yearly drawing challenge quite regularly including last night with my red BIC pen.

Dog Tired...365 Days of Drawing

A VERY long wonderful day finishing off the final day assisting Morgan Weistling, www. morgan weistling.com, at The Weekend With The Masters in CA.

I had a long drive home at day's end so knew I had to get a quick sketch done in his workshop between my assisting duties which started EARLY. People don't realize when they walk into a workshop room with two model set-ups in a strange non-art hotel conference room, with lighting to work out, etc., that people behind the scenes get there WAY ahead of time.

Anyhow, in a workshop, as I know from my own, the most quiet part is that first 30 minutes when people are staring at their OWN blank canvases slightly terrified. The Master, aka Morgan, doesn't have much to correct at this point, and the assistant, aka ME, can grab a sketch.

This was my moment. How I wish it was better. However, my Motel room neighbors kept me awake until 2 am the night before with a party of their own, and my alarm went off at 6.15 a.m. So I forgive myself.

MOST of all, thank you to Morgan Weistling for the privilege. He shared his EVERYTHING this weekend as he always does when he decides to teach. It is a RARE privilege.

Honor...365 Days of Drawing

It has been my absolute honor this weekend to be Morgan Weistling's assistant at Weekend with the Masters, in Laguna, CA. www. morgan weistling.com

No time to paint for myself... but did make sure I drew to meet my yearly challenge. I post them here. Two were done as my head hit the sheets VERY tired. The third done in his workshop, quickly from life, between my assisting duties.

Another day to go but Morgan Weistling ROCKS!

More to follow on this subject...

The Masters' Way...365 Days of Drawing

A busy rewarding day at Weekend With The Masters in Laguna, CA. This drawing was done very late at night, exhausted, right before I hit the sheets to meet the daily challenge.

I am about to do the same again tonight..knowing that my drawing skills are benefitting from this day to day training, like a musician doing his scales. The Masters show you the way. I am mightily glad I did this challenge. This weekend has shown me why discipline around drawing, especially, is paramount.

Hot off the press...365 Days of Drawing.

EXCITED to be at Weekend with the Masters. Also loved seeing this today, a piece in The Ventura County Reporter about my yearly challenge by the delightful artist/writer Claudia Pardo McFadyen who also took this pic...

http://www.vcreporter.com/cms/story/detail/?id=8243

Now I have to go and do a daily DRAW! And it is LATE, LATE, LATE.

Keri...365 Days of Drawing

My teaching demo at CAI yesterday, 18 x 24, of the very lovely Keri who I have painted a LOT this year keeping things simple. Off to The Weekend With The Masters today in Laguna. Yeeha.

Oh BABY...365 Days of Drawing

Oh baby! What can I say? When you need a quick drawing fix at the end of a busy studio day to meet this challenge, amid making dinner for visiting overseas relatives, get the Loomis book out and copy quick.

Andrew Loomis drew babies best! I learn a lot from copying this great man.

Paralysis By Analysis...365 Days of Drawing

My enthusiasm returned for the daily drawing challenge yesterday-phew. A good drawing that I was happy with, which I painted today for a few hours.

I feel I have shared very openly in this 2010 challenge posting stuff that are 'works in progress', my studio process and art thinking that week. Daringly so sometimes when things didn't look so good. I feel the need this week to point out, after a little thing 'tweaked' me, that not only are my paintings copyrighted images but also MY drawings too.

The internet is a crazy place around all this stuff. I don't think Rembrandt had this problem or Vermeer, do you? Not that I am them but something to be said about creating quietly in your studio...outside of the world of FACEBOOK and BLOGland.

Someone should do some research on what effect all this 'ever-so-public' showing of art is going to have ultimately. Will we be as original as before FB etc.? Or will seeing everyone's else's marvelous work online, on blogs etc., (and it sure is marvelous what is going on out there daily) stifle that? INTIMIDATE one. Paralysis by analysis. Just thinking aloud...that's all.

Dancing Tutus...365 Days of Drawing

I was bored out of mind with the drawing challenge last night and felt the need to step outside of my comfort zone and do something different. So I got a bottle of brown ink and a brush which I haven't used before and dashed out some gesture sketches. The ink came out thick and heavy. I really didn't care about perfection. The tutus were a must tho'.

The second image is from Saturday's drawing for the challenge. The START drawing of a commission. I decided to change the pose from an earlier sketch to a standing one, and I will use the head study from life, also posted, to remind me of a few details of the head as I work from the photos taken at shoot.

SWIRL...365 Days of Drawing

Back to a technique I love and have used throughout the challenge frequently, a combo of oil, charcoal and watercolor on paper.

I love red capes and own two of them, one hanging in my studio with a sumptuous satin lining just so I can look at it.

Anyone out there know of a coarse-textured cotton or linen canvas with large tooth that they like?

SWIRL

14 x 20

Mixed media

Through The Eyes of A Child...365 Days of Drawing

I was very taken with this angel of a little boy who came to visit my studio the other day. He was transfixed by me doing a drawing for the challenge and asked THE most intelligent questions about art as he looked around the studio. His great-grandfather was a famous artist who painted magnificent murals in churches and it is clear this young man is heading for a career in the arts.

The other pix I post are from the studio day yesterday. A portrait commission, meeting and painting a very lovely lady in a single three hour sitting. Boy, what a privilege it is to do this kind of work. I love meeting new people and getting to paint them. It just doesn't get any better for me.

Angels Flying...365 Days of Drawing

Never draw faster than your art angel can fly. I took my time on the drawing of this one yesterday, teaching class demo at CAI, almost as much time as spent on the actual painting. Total head sketch time, one and a half hours.

To be honest, I was not in the groove.

Better get it back today. Sitter arriving to be painted from life in studio for a portrait commission today.

Merry Go Round...365 Days of Drawing

A second attempt the next day to find what I was looking for...now I will decide which one to paint.

WIPE Out...365 Days of Drawing

Tough day at the drawing board. My first drawing of a figure I abandoned, something I have rarely done in this year's challenge. This was my second effort which I fear is a wipe out.

Who said drawing was easy? Or a daily challenge.

PUENTES-A-PLENTY...365 DAYS OF DRAWING

Sorolla's "puentes", tiny sketches, many made in his own studio garden, were among the best things I have ever seen when visiting his studio in Madrid recently. CATCH-IT- QUICK value/color notes made from his cigar-sized pochade box. I am no Sorolla but I do now paint from a very similar 6"x8"box which I LOVE.

On my recent trip, I was kinda thinking the 'puentes' way when I saw a garden fountain. I had less than an hour. Light was falling and dinner plans with company approaching FAST. After the initial sketch was done, which counted for the challenge, I told myself to put the paint down and LEAVE it alone.

The second day I decided to revisit the fountain in the morning before we headed out for the day and painted a close-up of the lion's head.

AS I said, I am no Sorolla. But I sure was thinking of him.

SAIL ON...365 Days of Drawing

A fast-paced travel trip to Northern CA. A drawing done every day, the challenge met. The day of this landscape of the river, I had a little more time to take my sketch to oil. The other days, I made the best of what I could get to meet the challenge with limited time, the hotel lobby, a quickie BIC pen drawing with the Golden Gate Bridge as the star.

More sketches posted from the trip tomorrow.

Leaving on a jet plane...365 Days of Drawing

AS we headed out to the airport, I grabbed my firstborn, Jess, my real achievement in life along with her sister, to sit for me for the daily challenge.

She was gracious as she sat on her bags, packed and ready to go back to her home...

Traveling for the week myself. Will not be posting but I will be drawing...

DINNER DATE...365 Days of Drawings

My dinner date last night and partner for the daily drawing challenge. To see an updated selection of the year's drawings go here:http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=48229&id=1148959101&l=d33c279b80

Routine...365 Days of Drawing

One day at a time...the daily drawing challenge continues unbroken for 2010.

FANCY FOOTWORK...365 Days of Drawing

The feet are probably the only body part I haven't drawn so far in this year's unbroken daily challenge. Half an hour of playing footsie with the BIC pen very useful. Thank you Mr. George.Bridgeman. He taught Norman Rockwell how to draw. How I wish I could have had a foothold in that drawing room.

The other image is a daily drawing that I put paint on yesterday.

Lost and NOT found...365 Days of Drawing..

Time is short. Quick sketch to the rescue. 10 minutes each done from the model in my teaching class at The California Art Institute from different angles.

Not that great but met the drawing challenge. Soon to be placed in the 'lost and not found again' pile. But drawing practice, especially from a live sitter, counts and is accumulative to one's skill set so I don't mind at all.

MONTH 9 Begins...365 Days of Drawing

A non-stop day. Posthumous portrait to finish in studio, visitors arriving from Australia in the evening, shop, cook, clean, a drawing challenge to get done and a teaching class to prep. for today.

I did my drawing at 11pm after everyone had gone to bed. Not my best, no surprise.