meldrum artI seem to want to draw and paint artists that I admire. This week’s offering is Alberto Giacometti. I should have made his nose a little longer and a little bigger but otherwise I am happy with the result. Normally I tend to draw very quickly so this was an exercise in patience for my part. It took 90 minutes roughly to complete.
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| Alberto Giacometti pencil sketch on Fabriano A4, 21 x 29,7 cm |
Location: Konstnärshuset, Stockholm, 20140225
This weeks model enjoyed testing our abilities to the limits. He formed all sorts of strange angles and shapes with his body. I enjoyed it immensely, although I did feel quite tired after the two hour session was over.
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| Five minute pose |
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| Five minute pose |
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| Five minute pose |
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| Two minute pose |
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| Two minute pose |
Location: Konstnärshuset, Stockholm, 20140218
Well, normally I am very self-critical but this time I have to admit that I’m totally happy with my life drawings. Instead of shading with a 6B lead, I used pastels. A friend uses charcoal and I was envious of the amount of shading he was able to achieve for each pose. With a 6B one has to shade carefully otherwise it looks rough and unattractive to the eye. This takes time and time is short at the life drawing sessions. So using pastels is perfect, they are quick, colourful and create smooth fills. I do not like charcoal as it creates intense contrasts. This results in very dramatic drawings which is something I do not want achieve. I’m searching for a more sensual, softer approach.
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| Five minute nude |
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| Five minute nude |
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| Five minute nude |
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| Five minute nude |
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| Five minute nude |
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| Two minute nude |
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| Five minute nude |
Location: Basis, Stockholm, 20140215
I’ve drawn Lars many times. He is fun, he has a name for each of his poses, like the ones below: “The Base Ball Player”, “The Prisoner”, “Björn Borg” and “The Egg”. I cannot remember the title of the first pose unfortunately.
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| Ten minutes |
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| Ten minutes |
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| Two minutes |
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| Two minutes |
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| Ten minutes |
Location: Konstnärshuset, Stockholm, 20140211
Today I improved some of the sketches I did at yesterday evening’s life drawing session, the first drawing especially, it was originally just a two minute sketch with little detail. I enjoyed finishing it and adding some design into the mix.
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| Two minutes plus ten |
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| Ten minutes |
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| Two minutes |
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| Five minutes + two |
“Dear Charles Reid, sorry for painting you in such a way that you look like you just survived a bar fight.”
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| Charles Reid – Watercolour Artist and Teacher |
I bought this wonderful book by Karl Mårtens at, Konst & Folk Gallery. I really like karl’s approach to watercolouring, a mixture of Zen Buddhism, Scandinavian simplicity, Japanese calligraphy and natural artistic talent. I had a look around on the internet and have not found it so you’ll need to visit the gallery if you want to buy it.
Visit Karl Mårtens website here.
The Gallery address is:
Konst och Folk
Hornsgatan 32-34,
11820 Stockholm
Tel: +46 8 644 60 60
Email: galleriet@konstochfolk.se
http://www.konstochfolk.se/
Honestly, the more time I spend on a drawing the more I wreck it with uncertainty. Keeping it pure isn’t easy after two minutes. This is why I haven’t shown any of my drawings that were longer that two minutes this time around.
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| Two minutes |
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| Two minutes |
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| Two minutes |
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| Two minutes |
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| Two minutes – plus a little more shading |
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| Batman |