Drawing Hair

I don't often draw or paint in the life drawing class I teach but last Wednesday our model showed up with her hair tied up in a bow and combed down tight with natural waves and a mass of damaged and dyed hair that she is growing out flowing down and over her shoulder.
I thought it looked very 1930's and I had to draw it.
I love drawing hair, for me it has everything that could be found in plants, sky, water in terms of shading, highlights and texture and also lines, lots of lines, straight, curved, entwined...
Hair draws me, so to speak, and dawing it seems sensual and satisfying.
Freudian? Don't know and don't care, all I know is I love drawing hair.....

The Green Jandal ! !

At Wednesday's life drawing class our model was Jason who has amazing tattoos and was sporting a short bristly haircut, was a little shy and kept a Japanese robe close.
Stewart wanted our model to be clutching something, a rope or staff, and be in manly guy-stuff poses (read: agressive and armed with a gun)
I found in amongst the props in the Waihi College drama room where we hold our classes an umbrella and, so equipped, Jason struck a pose and the Green Jandal was born when I immediately drew, above, the cover for a graphic novel about the adventures of a wandering Japanese bhuddist warrior-priest.
And didn't everyone in the class wordlessly follow suit!
Life class Graphic Novel Studios was created with our first action hero drawings....

Robyn

Anne

John

A stray at life drawing class

A lady walked into our life drawing class last night looking for Heidi McCullough's painting class held on Thursday evenings in one of the Art rooms at Waihi College.
She had driven down from Whangamata and I had to tell her that this was the life drawing class I teach in the Drama room at Waihi College on Wednesday evenings.
The Art room you want is just next door there, I told her, and it's tomorrow. . . but while you are here why not stay? You've driven all this way, have a go at life drawing.
So she did, and she tried willow charcoal on large paper and then I gave her some chalk pastel to play with and above is her first trial of this medium.
It's all good fun and I hope we see Karen at life drawing again sometime.
Below one of my efforts from that class, pastel and pencil on canvas.

Charcoal sketch on canvas

I like this one done at life drawing class last week. Willow charcoal on canvas this will become a painting

A 20 Minute Portrait Painting

At life drawing class I am exploring fast painting from life and encouraging the other artists to come along for the ride.

Painted Life Drawings 24 3 10

The life drawing class is now a private venture because community education budget cuts by a Government that believes in debt and poverty and other unimaginitive ideas has completely destroyed a 50 year tradition of Adult Community Education in High Schools all over the country.
With the assistance of the headmaster of our local College we are able to continue our class in the Drama room rent free.
Yay!
I have no real beginners to teach drawing to at present so I am endevouring to further inspire the regulars at the class with encouragement to try fast and free painting of the model and to get away from realism.
If Mr. Devery the Drama teacher whose room we use on Wednesday nights ever finds out I am encouraging the use of paint in his domain I will be growled at so I am taking extra special care to ensure the carpet remains pristine and paint free and no one will ever know. 'Cept you, of course, but I trust you to keep our little secret.
I am also finding more models, not necessarily nude but people with interesting faces or figures or dress sense to keep alive a sense of novelty and challenge.
The paintings above are my first attempts at teaching by example fast and free painting from life.

The Athlete at Life Drawing

At the recent Waitangi Day music festival here in Waihi I saw our local newspaper reporter crouched in front of me taking photos of one of the bands and I was dazzled by the beauty of her long and lean and sinewy arms and hands and immediately swooped on her and suggested she model for our life drawing class.
Sally agreed and told me she was not only a long distance runner but also a long distance swimmer.
Not a trace of fat does she have and Sally is a life drawing students dream in terms of the muscles and tendons of the body.

Life Drawing Class starts again 17 Feb 2010

I forgot my camera at the first life drawing class of the year last week. At the second class, last night, I did this drawing of our model's husband, Steve.
Steve dropped our model, Georgia, off at the class and he and their two daughters Amelie and Cassidy stayed for an hour and offered a wide variety of fast warm up poses and longer portrait studies by just being themselves and we all enjoyed the warmth of family and gentle music.
Magic!
I gave this large drawing to Steve when he and the girls went home

The Last Life Drawing Class of the year 2 12 09

I did some drawing on this, the last night of Life Drawing Class. I had seen on an art blog a style of drawing using a red quick sketch under-drawing and then the finish dark pencil lines with the red showing through. I used a red chalk pastel and then a sepia watercolour pencil on prepared paper; glossy magazine paper with jewellers tissue glued on to it with ochre tinted varnish.

November 4; Life Drawing Class

Double dipping

To tonight's life drawing class I took two paintings I had been working on all day to ready for delivery to the Waikino Spring Art Exhibition tomorrow morning.
They are both unfinished and I had to ignore my class and do some work on them when I should have been mentoring....
The annual Waikino Labour Weekend exhibition is my favourite exhibition and I never miss it, it is the highlight of my year and heralds the start of Summer and the tourist season and stirs me to produce at least 3 new paintings for exhibition there every year.

New paintings begun at the Life Drawing class

To the life drawing class last night I brought two prepared canvases and drew on them in chalk pastel. Our model was draped in a white crochet quilt. These I will make paintings of.

Life Drawing Class 9 9 09

I did this pastel on canvas last night at life drawing class. Mother and daughter models, I imagined a she-wolf in her lair with a cub. Don't get too close, is she sleeping or just being still?

Two Models at the Life Drawing Class

Last night's life drawing class we were lucky enough to have two models

A thirty minute painting

I took paints and canvas to the life drawing class last night and ducked out of my teaching obligations to please myself with a couple of fast paintings of the model.

A New Blog; Life drawing class

I have started a new blog showing the efforts of our local life drawing class which I run every Wednesday evening during the school term in the Waihi College drama room.
The class is a mixture of ages and experience, from absolute beginners learning to draw to experienced artists who are happy to have a model available for practice or creating new works based on the human form.

Life Drawing Class: Mother and Daughter models

Our young model, Samantha, has a go at drawing her Mum who was our other model at the class last night

Samantha throws us her special Star pose and the crowd goes wild..

Mother and Daughter together. Trying to draw two people in short poses was a challenge for everyone but lots of fun for Samantha's bright energy just lit up the whole room.

The Weekly Portrait: Nuba the Staffy

Last night at the Life Drawing class our model brought along her dog, Nuba, so I took time out from looking out for the various artist's interests to draw her.
In this pose Nuba is obediantly playing "dead dog" and is laying beside her Mistress who is sitting on the podium with her arm around Nuba.
If you can't see our model's arm around the dog it's because you have no imagination at all or maybe because I didn't draw it. You choose.

The Weekly Portrait: the life drawing student

At last night's life drawing class I was not in good form, I'd had lots of stress from family stuff right in the middle of major renovations of my house. Stressed out and run down so I took time out from looking out for the class for a bit and did a large drawing as a personal rest and recreation exercise and then like a child I coloured it in. Sigh..
Oil pastels and water soluble oil pastels on paper

The Weekly Portrait: Helene

 
Helene attends the life drawing class I run on Wednesday evenings in the Waihi College Drama room.
And I love drawing hair.