Wednesday, January 23, 2008

Life Drawing Class - First Day

I signed up for the Life Drawing class through the Art Academy of Cincinnati. We had our first meeting today and, although I started the class (and ended it) with a migraine, I was very pleased. The instructor, Carin Hebenstreit, is a painter with a gallery/studio in the Pendleton Art Center in Cincinnati, and she was very helpful already. There are many of the students who have taken this class again and again from her. I would think after a time you'd have learned what you need to know and would work on your own but they may use it as a way to get experience with models they can't afford otherwise.

Anyway, she helped me sight up and measure things and see how I was elongating things (and making the head too big - yep! Sandy told me I always do this!). I'm hoping to get better under her instruction = 12 classes. Wish me luck!
Both of these are graphite pencil on Aquabee sketch paper.

As soon as I get rid of the migraine symptoms, I have homework from Sandy's class (similar to Myrna Wacknov's challenges) but I have to do a good value study first. We will be working with the same photograph each week - 3 weeks or 4 - and using different design elements and colors, etc. Here is the photo I'm going to use, taken at Shaker Village by Jerry, my in-house photographer :)

5 comments:

Sandy Maudlin said...

Your drawing is MUCh improved already, and you were getting good anyway. So glad you are taking her class. Thanks fo the report.

About said...

You've done a fantastic job, especially on the angles of the legs and feet...really nice.
And I guess you haven't really given up the Challenge, you're just doing it in Sandy's class, right? Looking forward to seeing what you do with that yummy pic.

Claudia said...

I like your life drawings. And I admire the project with the picture, doing it again and again for some weeks. That's exactly what I s h o ul d do and still can't: to do a motif again and again...

Ann Buckner said...

I can see such improvement in your drawing. I so admire your persistence with learning and practicing what you learn. What I like on this last figure is the way you caught the gesture so easily and the shading.

RH Carpenter said...

Thanks so much for the comments on the life drawing but I can't take the whole credit as my teacher, Carin, helped me see where I'd flatted shapes and elongated others, etc. Then I did the 2nd one alone with no critique/help because I was seeing it more clearly.
Claudia, doing the same thing over and over in a series is hard for me, too, even if I know it's good for me - sort of like medicine I don't want to take at times!