Michael G's Sketchbook

[Michael Georges]

Rhea - Open Studio, July 22

I am coming to like the umber sticks much better than the sanguine with this process as you can use the white to tone down areas and do a little blending without getting that sickly pink color that you get with the sanguine and white.

For my skill level at this point, it is working better.

Rhea was beautiful, and had very high set ears and thin lips. I looked and measured and squinted multiple times and by golly that is where her ear was. It gave her a very classical old world look and was a lot of fun to draw.

[Michael Georges]

So I have been at this life drawing stuff for about 20 weeks now, and I thought it might be good to give a sort of progress report and reflect a bit on this focused time drawing from life.

As I have written about before, I had spent more than 100 hours drawing from life through the years, but had never really achieved any proficiency. The first drawing below is where I started from - certainly not an auspicious beginning...

While I still have a LONG way to go, in just 20 weeks I feel like I have seen pretty dramatic improvement. My comfort level drawing from life has gone way up. I see huge improvement in my ability to get a likeness. It has greatly helped my ability to perceive and represent value as it is expressed in color from a live form across a distance. It has improved my compositional skills, understanding of edge control, head anatomy, etc.

In short, I am really pleased at how quickly I have seen improvement!

Last night our model flaked out, and Lanette, our host agreed to model. The second picture is Lanette and I think represents a lot of what I have learned in these 20 weeks.

I still have a vast distance to go, but I have rarely done ANYTHING in my life that has been so interesting, engaging, and so rewarding!

[Mischa Milosevic]

Michael, the progress is quite evident. good for you. do tell us the umber sticks the # and brand you are using.

[Christy Talbott]

Michael, this last one is my favorite, really nice!! You've inspired me. I'm going to keep a sketchbook for life drawings as well.

Christy

[Michael Georges]

Christy! YAY! I hope you do start a sketchbook for life work! It is a really rewarding thing to do.

Mischa: These are the Cretacolor 05.6mm Sepia Leads on Canson paper.

[Michael Georges]

Our model was Chantell again last night. This is the third time I have drawn her, and I really struggle with a likeness for her - even though she has very distinctive features.

Complete likeness not withstanding, I am feeling as if I am close to another step forward - even if it is a small one. When you start drawing from life, a lot of the time you don't know what you don't know...ya know? You have no tools, no language to even proceed forward and it is a hard road.

These days I am learning so much on anatomy and proportion and translating the form that I have much more to think about when I am drawing - i.e., I finally feel as if I have a toolset and a vocabulary to use when I am puzzling these out.

The step still eludes me, but I feel I am close.

[Michael Georges]

Hazel modeled for us last night.

[Enzie Shahmiri]

Micheal, it is great to see how you are sticking to the open studio sessions. Good for you!

How many hours did you spend on the last one?

[Michael Georges]

Hello Enzie, thanks for your encouragement! Always helps.

All of these are about 2.5 to 3 hours.

[Michael Georges]

We had Nicole again last night, a lovely and talented African American lady - beautiful bone structure and a lovely long neck. I am trying out a method of feature placement based on how Daniel Greene approaches it - basically placing all of the horizontal lines of placement first and then working out from the middle to get vertical lines of placement.

I still need more practice at this, but I am pleased with this week's effort.