Please Critique

[Jim Riley]

Joe

For what it's worth here is a quick attempt to demonstrate a few things that I thought might help your drawing. Forgive the roughness. (I have to find some way of resetting my brushes in Photoshop to avoid the hard edge cloning you will see here).

Having established my alibi, let me explain my effort. Firstly, I agreed strongly with Marta on her observation that the shoulders did not seem correct and I have to say that I am very careful to be sure that those things that contribute to the whole are often more important than the details. I also tried to make the neckline of the jersey show a more pleasing shape and appear to continue beyond and through the hair and eventually flow over the shoulder. (My eye followed this curve on our right side around to the neck in the original).

Karin's good advice to "play around with it" led to changes in the hair. I broke up and added body to the the long, flat, and continuous outline on our left and reduced the odd excess on the right. Also under the category of "play with it" and "put aside the photo" you can improve things like the neck by arbitrarily enhancing lights or darks in the hair to suggest what lies underneath (the neck). If it holds up during posting you will see a few (crude again) attempts to add darks that pick up the neck line and shoulder.

[Steven Sweeney]

Whenever we had a live model with long hair that covered part of the neck or shoulders (and believe it or not, "Richard's" was the longest of anyone's), we'd invariably ask him or her at some point to brush the hair back and leave it for a little while, so that we could correctly place the underlying anatomical features. Then the hair could be brought back to its original "drape" and drawn or painted, in confidence that the anatomy that we could no longer see was in fact right where it belonged. Obviously if you're working from a photograph, you're constrained in this regard, which is why it's so important to do as much drawing from life as possible, even if your primary resource is photography.

Daniel Greene tells a story that I haven't figured out yet how to use, but I'm working on it. He was doing a pastel of a young woman in a long dress and he was having trouble getting her posture and gesture right, and finally he asked the woman (a professional model) if she would pose nude so that he could get the anatomy right. She did, he did, and then the dress was painted over the correct anatomy. I suspect that you'd have to be an artist of Greene's stature to pull this off, so to speak. I mention it only in passing.

Steven

[Karin Wells]

Do you suppose we will ever hear the following version of Steven's story?

"He was doing a pastel of a dignified old judge in a long robe and he was having trouble getting his posture and gesture right, and finally he asked the judge (a professional of some stature) if he would pose nude so that he could get the anatomy right. He did, Greene did, and then the robe was painted over the correct anatomy. I suspect that you'd have to be an artist of Greene's stature to pull this off, so to speak..."

[Steven Sweeney]

I suppose it depends on the judge, but that's a story somebody else is going to have to write.

[Lon Haverly]

You guys are cracking me up. You guys are going to have to take some time off or something. I get silly when I am exhausted.

[Karin Wells]

I have heard (lots of) other male artists tell a version of Greene's story about the young and lovely female model who must remove all of her clothing so that the male artist can "get the anatomy right."

Yeah, right...who does he think he's kidding? I hope I live long enough to hear the second version - at least once.

[Peggy Baumgaertner]

My story is not quite as interesting as Greene's, although it does contain an attractive young model (female), and it has the added attraction of being completely true.

I was in a class where the model was clothed in a long dress. I struggled for long hours trying to figure out what was going on under the dress, and finally asked the model to hike the dress up to her waist. When she did, a collective sigh was heard from the other artists. I have since taught all my students to ask their models to pull their hair back, pull down their collars, roll up their sleeves, and whatever is necessary to see what needs to be seen.

Karin, although the judges story has not happened to me, I have asked an attractive male model to remove his shirt....

Peggy

[Steven Sweeney]

As far as I know, Greene's account is true as well. I was sitting about 10 feet from him when he related it, in his studio, and he was specifically referring to a pastel that to the best of my recollection was called "Queen of Kites," part of a series that he had done for a festival of some kind. He had even produced a substantial supply of fine-art reproductions of the piece (back when doing so was extremely expensive, thousands of dollars up front), which did not sell well to the general public and which he now sells for cost to students at his workshop. The story about the execution of the painting was told simply by way of his discussion of the various prints and posters available. There was no connected applied theory lab at the workshop.

I thought we agreed, Peggy, that the thing with the shirt was a one-off and that it wouldn't go any farther than your studio. Perhaps I had the wrong impression.

"Steven"

[Peter Jochems]

A nude study by Raphael...

Greetings,
Peter

[Lon Haverly]

My grandfather often told this story of a nude model in his art school. She liked to look at the students work while on her break. The only problem - she was totally nude while doing so! My grandfather did not know what to do about it, as you might well imagine, until the next class. Before she removed her robe, he took her aside and said, "When you are posing, you are a nude. But when you are on your break, you are just a naked lady! Please wear your robe."