The Reading Man- Orange Line

Kid on Train

I have been commuting via Boston's MBTA Orange Line quite a bit lately. I had a chance to do some sketching on the train this weekend and that led to this little sketch. Separating the line layer from the color work makes it easy to color the loose sketch on a tablet in a fairly fluid guilt-free manner (in other words without being fussy about blending). You can then duplicate the ink or line layer and drag it on top of the color. By doing this you can work in a subtractive manner with the pen's eraser tool.

Renee in Deep Recline 10-minute

Renee Recline 10-minute

Renee 10-minute poses

Renee 5-minute poses

15-minute

10-minute poses

five minute pose

Paul 20 minute

I was trying to play with a sanguine color for this drawing. I'm not sure if I squandered a 20-minute pose or not? But I do like this sketch.

Paul 10 Minute

This might be the best study of the night. I think I had a good pose and did not try to do too much with the 10 minutes.

Paul 5 minute poses

I started conceptualizing a method for studying the skeleton over a gesture study. I really just tested the aesthetic appeal more than drawing actual physiological structures. It has give me the idea to use the gestures I am creating each week as a basis for the study of the boney structures. I'll look forward to posting some of those soon.

Paul 1-minute

Mandible Drawing

I started this around 11 AM and did about 2 1/2 hours work on this study of a human mandible replica. it still needs polishing but some of the textures are beginning to come together. In this drawing I stayed away from the blur tool entirely. and found myself playing with the transparency more than anything. I also switched back and forth between different brush tips. Which again i think its important to restrain oneself on having too many tools. I used the same blue background as I described in the last post. The idea for this grey blue ground came from a colleague who teaches life drawing using toned surfaces for a good portion of the semester. It truly helps to thrust the image into reality.

10-minute pose 5-13-09

What a dynamic poser this model was! He started right off with some very difficult positions and maintained those well through out the session. Each position was kept short to accommodate the difficulty of those poses. I did get one nice 20-minuter at the end where I was able to do some heightening with white on a blue/grey ground. Unfortunately in my haste to network and catch a few names I saved over this drawing. I am disappointed but really fired up to get back in there next week and recreate that similar look and feel. So I have that to look forward to all week!

10-minute pose

5-minute poses

2-minute gestures 5-13-09

Small Child Color Sketch 5-08-09

Here my quick sketch of this child was intended as an experiment with color. Part of me is amazed but the highly render look and feel of digital artwork, but a part of me is still a traditionalist and I want to see the sketch look a material not like a rendering. here I was playing with transparent color and thinking about watercolor.

Man Drinking Coffee 5-08-09

I am really appreciating Adobe Ps layering capabilities. By using layer, I can work with visual measuring and create a structural sketch to be refined on another layer. Then as the drawing develops you could choose to hide the structural layers that underlie the finished drawing.