Category Archives: People

You Say You Want a Revolution

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Last year at the Holland Tulip Festival in Holland, MI, one of the larger windmill attractions recreated a revolutionary war camp.  This is a recreation of a photo taken of one of the recreators.  He came over a hill looking exhausted — though it was probably from posing for hundreds of pictures rather than fighting hoards of redcoats.

I drew this in charcoal on 18×24 paper as part of a one hour (or so) demonstration to my nephew who has an interest in art (Skype is a wonderful thing!).  Lots and lots of problems with it, but I’m not terribly upset with it considering the speed with which it was drawn.

 

Tiny Dancer

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I’m not happy about the amount of time I’ve spent in 2010 doing everything except making “art”.  I went to the art institute today looking for a little inspiration.  Amazing how quickly you can lose a few hours in a place like that.  This is a sketch of a small sculpture I saw while I was there.  I didn’t get her name (apologies to the original artist), but I liked the way she looked.

Self Portrait

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My first attempt at a portrait.  Made my nose too long, and didn’t capture the look of the bandanna correctly.  It’s been about 3 weeks since my last serious attempt at drawing anything, so I’ll cut myself a little slack for not remembering to check my measurements against more than one reference point.

Figure Drawing Class

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I haven’t posted here in a long while.  But that doesn’t mean I’ve stopped drawing (although I have not been drawing as much as I would like).  I’ve been taking a figure drawing class at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.

I’ve been hesitant to post these drawings.   I have a number of nieces and nephews whose parents might object to them seeing drawings containing nudity.  I also have several colleagues who have been known to check out my drawings while at work; where viewing pictures of nekkid people is usually frowned-upon.

So rather than my normal posting policy of one post per drawing, I am including several drawings in this one post.

Before you click the link to read the entire post, be warned: The following images contain artistic nudity.  If you are offended by depictions the unclothed human body, do not click the link.  If you are under the age of 18, get your parents’ permission before clicking the link.  If you are at work and there is even the remotest chance that someone in your office will accuse you being a pervert, wait until you get home to click the link.

You have been warned.

OK.  Now that we’ve gotten THAT out of the way, here are the rest of my drawings from class so far:

Donovan McNabb

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Another athlete courtesy of Sports Illustrated.  In this case, Donovan McNabb doing what he does best: scramble out of trouble.

This sketch started out as just a study of his arm and hand, but I thought I needed to give the disembodied arm a little bit of context; so I sketched out the rest of his body.  Maybe if I do enough drawings of individual parts, I’ll be able to put them together into a cohesive whole someday.  This method was good enough for students during The Renaissance; it should work for me.  Right?

Roger Federer

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federerIn keeping with my goal to draw more people, I decided to draw this pic of Roger Federer from a recent Sports Illustrated.  This was my 2nd sketch, and the one I am happiest with.

This is what the rest of the page looks like:

federer-sketches

Nap Time

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christmas-napAfter my experience drawing someone in constant motion, I moved on to a more stationary subject.  Again, the likeness is not quite there, but at least I am starting to gain a little confidence.

And for those of you wondering, those glowing orbs above my subject are Christmas ornaments hanging on the tree behind his chair.

Mario Time

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emerson-playing-video-gameThis is my nephew.  He’s doing what most kids his age do on Christmas morning – playing video games.

It’s not a very good likeness, but I was more interested in capturing the shape of his body.  Even that was more difficult than I expected; turns out, he’s a very active gamer.  Don’t let anyone tell you playing video games isn’t exercise.  He didn’t stop moving the for more than a few seconds at a time.  Maybe next time, I should just snap a photo and draw from that.

Classmate

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classmateI finished my work a little earlier than some of the others, so I drew a classmate while I waited for the critique to start.  I’m still not 100% comfortable drawing people, but I’m getting there.

Reading Between the Lions

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art_institute_lionThe Art Institute of Chicago has these giant bronze lions on either side of the steps leading to the main entrance.  People sit on the steps and read between the lions when the weather is nice.  As for me… I stand across the street and draw them.  And of course, the woman on the steps was talking on her cell phone instead of reading, thus messing up my very clever title.  Maybe I should have gone with a telephone-related title like ‘Hold the Lion’ or ‘The Lion is Busy’?

This lion is the one on the north side of the entrance.  His unofficial name (given to him by the sculptor) is ‘On the Prowl’.  When one of our home teams is in the playoffs, the lions are dressed in team jerseys.  They even have super-size helmets for the lions for football season.  Since it isn’t playoff season, the lions are naked.

I did the line drawing during lunch this afternoon and painted it when I got home this evening.  There was just barely enough time to eat, walk over there, draw, and walk back.  But the weather was really nice today, so I felt like I had to take advantage of it.  People hovered around and looked over my shoulder.  I could hear them whisper to each other, “Ooh, he’s drawing the lion!”  It was, simultaneously, nerve-wracking and exhilarating.

This was real challenge for me for a few reasons: 1. I am intimidated by drawing living things, even if (as in this case) that living thing is not really a living thing; 2. Mostly related to number 1, I actually included a human being in this sketch; and 3. I had to paint from memory so I was left to my own devices with respect to color and shadow.  The lion’s looking a little chubby, but overall, I’m happy with how this came out.

Joe Torre

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joe_torre

I was flipping through a recent issue of Sports Illustrated while I was at the barber shop today. It had an excerpt from Joe Torre’s new book in which he gives his side of the story about how the negotiations for the 2008 season fell apart – an interesting story, even if it was a little one-sided. Anyway, there was a nice full-page pic of Joe.

The guy in the chair looked like he was about halfway through the haircut, so I knew if I wanted to draw this image, I’d have to hurry. I was right — I didn’t get very far.

My goal with this was to do a complete scribble job. I didn’t want to make any sort of contour drawing, and I wasn’t going to focus on smooth shading. I wanted to treat the whole thing almost like a paint sketch — no underdrawing; just shapes and areas of color. Instead of using color, I’d could only do shades of gray; due to time constraints I could only scribble them in as quickly as I could.

I would have liked to get a little better contrast, but I think the resemblance is somewhat there. I will probably try this technique again at some point. Giving myself the freedom to just focus on areas of shade instead worrying about getting the contours correct was interesting.

Handy Dandy

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handI haven’t drawn a hand in more than twenty years.  From what I recall, they’re hard to draw.

The thumbnail area is a little wonky on this, and the top of the thumb where it bends toward the hand is a little off as well.  But overall, I’m surprised at how well this turned out.