Violin Players Live Drawings

Every one of these drawings were aided by Guinness, single malts and, of course, the music.

Drawing Musicians

Adam and Mike and Alison are having a musical evening on Friday night so Ruthie and I go along to enjoy the music and I do some sketching.
Alison above is playing the keyboard, she thinks she looks grumpy in this drawing but I tell her she was intent on her playing, engrossed in the sounds

Adam playing some of his original music.

Wednesday's Life Drawing Class

At tonights life drawing class I got us a portrait model. I managed two drawings and this is the second one which is the better likeness

The Weekly Portrait: Andy a.k.a. Malibu Man a.k.a. the Karangahake Surfer

Andy's portrait composition worked out from life in chalk pastel, to be finished off later with paints and pastels in the studio from photos I took during the sitting? standing, whatever.

Andy's looking for a 9 foot board and until he gets one we had to mock one up for the purposes of the portrait. I reckon I can use artistic license to paint a 9 foot board in the picture.
Andy's recently come back from a four year stay in the U.S. Most of this time he spent in Malibu as a surf/beach bum, bar fly and handyman. Andy's got a degree in Physics and we enjoy drinking and talking about the Universe. Having interesting friends is a must for an Artist, this one anyway..
My son and grandson are back to stay for a while and my son Sam likes mowing lawns so the place is looking great! I've always got more important things to do than lawn mowing it seems.
Check out the great weather, it is the height of Summer here in New Zealand and it looks like being another hot one. Yay!

Portrait of a Woman

I like this painting very much. It's a commissioned portrait drawn from life straight onto the canvas with chalk pastels and finished off in the studio with chalk pastels and acrylic paints.
The pose I chose was one which spoke to me of Judy's personality. The Anthureums happened to be there in the room and I chose them as background for the painting to please myself with bright primary colours and blues and greens which are my favourite colours. Judy loves the colour orange so I imagined that the red and yellow of the Anthureum flower adds up to orange and it turns out that Anthureums have a special meaning to Judy and her family so my spontaneous choice of this plant was a serendipitous event.
Magic! Angelic guidence! I like this painting very much...

The Weekly Portrait: Judy in the sky with Anthureums..

This painting is a commission, a birthday present to a beloved sister.
This is the underpainting made with chalk pastel on canvas and sealed with clear medium brushed over the pastel and all done with Judy sitting before me.
It will be finished in the studio in acrylics.
A few photos I took of Judy at the sitting will aid me in catching the facial expression which most speaks of her real self.
It's all in the eyes and mouth.
Lovely and fascinating work..