Sunday, November 18, 2007

Sunday, November 18, 2007 - Saturday's Figure Drawing


Well the model whose body throws me every time was with us again (I do wish we had more variety in our models but how many people do you know who want to pose nude for art students on Saturday morning??). She has thin arms and legs, but her middle has thickened and lost tone - as it does with us all at a certain age :( - and I always overemphasize that and she looks wrong. Maybe psychologically, I'm zeroing in on the thick waist because it bothers me to think about my own waistline (yes, I was a psychology major! ha-ha).

Whatever - I tore up the bad ones when I got home yesterday. So you can't see them!

I was reminded by Tracy (who does sumi ink drawings of these models) to measure and re-measure, using something as a unit to compare all the measurements with. So on the last one, I did that, taking the head and measuring that against everything else - which I think got her middle more correctly drawn this time. She is really an attractive lady, probably in her early 50's or maybe late 40's, and I hate making her look so pudgy all the time.

And I've started another painting using a grid - of different rice papers at different angles and then drawing the figure on top and beginning to paint. This rice paper bleeds a lot!! so no controlling where the paint runs to. This isn't finished - but it's at the stage to wait and see and look at it with fresh eyes later to see what else it needs. Because the bleeds look like flowers blossoming, I'm calling this one Flower Child. Comments and critiques are always welcome.

3 comments:

Sandy Maudlin said...

VERY NICE - I like the sense of surprise and the dynamics of your design.

RH Carpenter said...

Thanks, Sandy. Not sure where this is going - but that seems to be a theme for me lately, starting and not knowing where I'm going!

Ann Buckner said...

Rhonda, I like this figure on the rice paper. Can't wait to see what you do next!