Nudes with Values
 

Perhaps there's a better place for this, but I'll leave that to the current administrators . . .

Having just said in another thread that I have no occasion anymore to work from nude models, I realize nonetheless that for those drawings and paintings I have done, there are precious few venues for display, so I might as well use this Forum thread for its intended purposes. I actually had to quit displaying them in my studio work space (before it burned down), which was in, let

That last one looks pretty bad on my monitor, but that's not unusual, running images through AOL's browser. If it looks awful to everyone else, I'll try to snap another photo -- though I'm afraid the drawing itself is in that closet, which is 1250 miles away from my snowbound position.

Steven,

She is lovely. The sketch is beautifully done also.

This SO HARD to do, as I learned during the figure drawing classes I went to. We were not fortunate to learn the sight size technique then. This show how the proper technique combined with talent and knowledge can result in such a beautiful drawing.

This is the way we all should begin.

PS.

Lets see some more!

This is the first time (I think) I've seen your work, and it was worth the wait. She is, indeed, beautiful, and your drawing from life so finely executed.

Thanks so much for sharing. And, share more!

Steven,

Wow, these are fine drawings! The man's foreshortened leg is very well done with a minimum of fuss. I want to see more of your work, too.

That

Steve,

I also want to compliment and thank you for posting your perfectly finished nudes! It is a treat to view your work, and it will be great to see more.

Seeing these make me want to find a similar multi session, long term pose opportunity. The best I can get with the life drawing group I am currently with is a twenty minute pose. Sometimes that seems like too much time; especially if it gets off to a bad start. There just is not time for all the refined observation you have mastered. Time to find a group that likes to do longer poses!

Garth

Steven, these are very beautiful drawings and I agree with everybody here - please post more often!

Steve,

These are great! It's great to have very long poses over a period of weeks, isn't it???

Garth, maybe we can get a Philadelphia area group together to do long poses and hire our own models. It's a thought. Alex, are you interested?

Steve, please post more of these if you can find them and dust 'em off. They are lovely. I believe these are the first works of yours I've seen also. Where are you hiding them?

I think your drawings are extremely well done and would love to see more as well.

There is something really intriguing about the standing nude and I can't quite put my finger on it. It has a turn-of-the-century quality about it, but also something surreal, Duchamp-esque. Perhaps it's that stand she's holding. I think it's brilliant.

Steven, I always read your posts with great interest, and these drawings are just a confirmation of your insight in representational art.
Scott is right, there is something very special to them. They remind me of William Bailey nude works.
Many thanks for posting them
Ilaria

Steven, these drawings remind me of the Charles Bargue Drawing Course. Such a classical rendering, just beautiful! I had seen your cast drawings, which were incredible as well. With such drawing skills, you must have tried your hand at painting as well. Please post some of your paintings, I would love to see how you made the transition and in which style you continued to work.

Yes, I did make the transition -- I should be ashamed to admit that I hardly draw at all anymore beyond initial sketches for paintings -- but owing in part to the domestic circus I call my life, I do not presently have access to the paintings from the life classes. I hope to get hold of them sometime this summer, between the dog-and-pony and high-wire acts, and get some digital images captured.

P.S. I have in fact posted paintings around the Forum, usually for purposes of illustration, but even I have lost track of where they are.

Some newer members might not know that we actually have a Cafe thread in which still lifes and landscapes can be displayed. I did recall hanging one there.

Steven,

These are sensitive and lovely - beautiful work. You have a delicate hand. (or a really good mahl stick:) )

Steven,
I swear I have been everywhere in this forum over the past four years or so, and have only seen ONE of your drawings of the cast of a head. Finally, you have stepped into the light. And I am not at all suprised by the beauty of these drawings. It was worth the wait!

Let me join the chorus here, more please! Thank god these survived the fire.

Steven, great to see your work! The charcoal of the woman is beautiful! Very well done.

I wasn't surprised to see the pencil of the man, (is it proper to use his name?), we're using him right now for our long pose, plus another student and I are sharing him as a portrait model. He's told us a few "Bougie" stories......

Yes, "the man." He keeps up a running commentary on how he's going to quit modeling, but year after year, he shows up in drawings and paintings, at this student show or gallery or that State Fair art show. I think he likes the hours -- not really an 8-to-5 kind of fellow. The first time I saw a painting of him with some clothes on, I was a bit disoriented. Perhaps that's because all he was wearing was a black leather vest and mini-skirt and fishnet stockings, with a cowboy hat and saddle as props, in a piece called, as I remember, "The New West." (This preceded "Brokeback" by years.) The founders of the Atelier were reportedly not amused.

Some of Daniel Greene's studio models have the same ubiquity. Not only do I see them in various published images by assorted artists, but Greene himself uses them as "extras" in his populated works (such as the auction house scenes).

I'm sure there are a few Bougie Studio stories to tell. (I've got the good dirt on a couple of folks, which I'm holding in reserve, pending my tell-all memoirs.) We were a small-studio microcosm of nearly every "artiste" stereotype and neurosis. In the balance of all things, I've heard more than a few Atelier Lack stories . . .

(But none about you, Debra. Yet.)

Hi Steven,
I wanted to reply to this wonderful drawing for some time now, but have been stressing with something else as you might well know.

Everybody should go through the process of doing such a solid work. It might seem like a lot of work, sort of like going to America; it is only a matter of getting the boat into the water and begin to row......but it can

Steven, that mini skirt is one of the things he pulled out of his suitcase when he came for his first sitting for the portrait. We were "hard put" to find something suitable in there that wouldn't make him look like the painting you just described. We finally decided on jeans, a white tank top, and a leather jacket - the clothes he came in.

I'll try to keep my nose clean so you won't have any stories to tell about me.

OOh! I would have loved to paint that!

I thought I could find a couple more drawings at my present location, but so far only this one. A very light pencil drawing and, so, extremely difficult to photograph. My apologies for not being able to supply a better image.

Though this was a quicker, single-session drawing (about 2 hours total drawing time) and isn

Your drawings are real good. I envy you.

Thanks, Judson. I used to keep some of my early drawings around, just to amuse people. One of my first, of which I was pretty proud, was seen by a friend who laughed and said, "What happened to his head?!" She isn't laughing anymore, but I still don't hold her in the same regard I once did.

Anyway, just as a guide, these drawings came along after what I am conservatively estimating to be 1,000 hours of life drawing, with lots of different models, through many seasons of both weather and life. It wasn't until I reached the 1,000-hour "mark" that I began to be able to manage these. Perhaps I'm slow, but there was no short-cut.

These are so nice, Steven. I guess I missed this thread before.