Category: figure painting

Painting a naked model takes time

Post author By meldrum
Post date 2020/09/23
1 Comment on Painting a naked model takes time

watercolour nude

I have started painting nudes again. It’s a real challenge, human skin-tones are so fine, so delicate. I am enjoying it though. It takes a lot longer for me to complete a nude, I’m not used to that. I don’t really have the patience for it so I spread the painting over several days, I work for an hour or two each day until it is finished. This is the best way for me to work right now, I hope I can improve my concentration with the next watercolours that I plan to paint in the coming weeks. Nude: 36 x 26 cm

Click the thumbnail below to see the full-sized image.

Tags figure drawing, figure painting, Life drawing, naked model, nude, watercolor nude, watercolour nude

figure drawing figure painting My Life Drawing Sketch Watercolour

Monday’s life drawing

I decided to figure paint, exciting when you only have 5 minutes or even worse, 2 minutes. Painted on Fabriano non-cotton paper, it was cheap and better than that nasty Canson paper. Cotton paper is too expensive because one uses so much during a 2 hour session.

Tags figure drawing, figure painting, kroki, Life drawing, Mäster Olofsgården, watercolor, Watercolour

David Meldrum figure drawing figure painting Nude watercolor Watercolour

Life drawing again

Five minute watercolour figure painting

My first life drawing since the spring and I decided to use my watercolours. I used cheap Canson watercolour paper, I hate it compared to Arches or Fabriano but it’s just too expensive to waste a block of quality paper during a life drawing session. I used Koo i noor woodless watercolour sticks for the first time, I really liked them so I’ll be using them a lot in future. Each of these watercolours took five minutes to complete, at that speed one cannot hesitate – a quick line sketch of the figure and then paint as much as you can in the remaining time before the pose ends. It’s stressful for sure but I find it exhilarating.

Five minute watercolour figure painting

Tags figure drawing, figure painting, kroki, Life drawing, watecolor, Watercolour

figure drawing figure painting My Life Drawing Watercolour

Saturday’s life drawing

Venue: Basis, Stockholm 20160402
I tried something new yesterday and I was very happy with the result. I used a liner brush and W&N sepia watercolour paint. The poses were quickies ranging from 2, 3,4 and 5 minutes. I will be doing this again in the future, this is guaranteed 🙂

David Meldrum figure painting Watercolour

Sunday’s figure painting

Venue: Konstnärshuset, Stockholm. 20160228

On the last Sunday of each month I go to a two hour – one position life drawing or figure painting session. It’s a fun day because I meet up with the local Stockholm UrbanSketchers beforehand to sketch for at least 3 hours! 🙂

Model Jonas who is a dancer on Arches rough 300g watercolour paper

David Meldrum figure drawing figure painting My Life Drawing Nude watercolor Watercolour

Sunday Nude

Post author By meldrum
Post date 2016/02/01
2 Comments on Sunday Nude

I spent the whole day yesterday drawing and painting. First I met up with fellow Stockholm – Urbansketchers. We gathered outside the library at Kulturhuset which is a large cultural centre in the middle of Stockholm. Later in the day some of us attended life drawing at Konstnärshuset, this watercolour took 40 minutes. It was challenging because I had to paint wet on wet most of the time. I had to apply thick paint for the eyes, otherwise the damp paper would have blurred them out of recognition. If you would like to see my urban-sketches please visit here.

Sunday figure painting

David Meldrum figure painting Nude Watercolour

Painting a live model

I wish there were more opportunities to paint longer model poses here in Stockholm. Maybe the art colleges have. If anyone out there knows of same position, one, two or three hours model posing please do inform me.
This watercolour took one hour in total to paint. I say in total because we had a 20 minute coffee break after forty minutes. See previous post for the last painting from the evening, it was a quick one that took 10 minutes.

One hour watercolour of live model, Arches Rough 300g

David Meldrum figure drawing figure painting My Life Drawing Watercolours

A quick watercolour nude

Venue: Konstnärshuset, Stockholm 20151129

This is a quickie I did last Sunday. I painted a longer one which took 90 minutes but I just want to finish her eyes before I publish.

A5 watercolour 5-10 minutes

David Meldrum figure painting Watercolour

Two hour pose

Last Sunday I spent two hours painting this portrait of a male nude. I didn’t quite capture the likeness very well but I’m happy with the end result anyway. The picture is about A3 in size and on Fabriano Rough 300g paper.