In addition to being slow (glacial) with painting recently, I have another confession to make: I have been looking at naked women. Well, woman.
You see, I’m taking a life drawing class and, you know, drawing from life. So far the course (at the Washington Studio School) has been great exercise for my artistic muscles. Working from a live subject is much more challenging and rewarding than working from a photograph. In a lot of ways, a photograph is already composed for you, and you really just have to copy it (I know, I know, most of my paintings were created this way). With life drawing, you have to realize 3-dimensional objects into 2 dimensions. You are a creator. You have to understand how spaces and shapes and light work together to create something that looks natural. That, and the model moves!
You can see a few of my attempts to the right. I’m optimistic that re-learning the basics of life drawing is going to pay dividends in the quality of my painting in the long run. That’s the good news. The bad news is that in the short run, there won’t be many new paintings to look at.
I’ll post more drawings as they come.
