Life Drawing

Here's another
from last week's
session.

Chalk and pencil
on rough -bruhed
acrylic.

Life Drawing

We have a great old building in Key West; the Armory from the 19th century. Inside on Wednesday nights for most of the year there's a life drawing class. This is from my first time last week.

The usual quick 2-5 minute warm-ups leading to longer poses up to an half hour. A little egg timer gives a feeble ring at each session's end.


I grabbed a batch of papers and rag boards from my studio that were colored with left-over oil or acrylic paints. I've got loads of them in various textures.

The model's prop cane lent a theatrical aspect to some of the poses. And to play a bit I invented an imaginary boudoir setting behind the reclining nude. That was the lengthiest pose at 35 minutes.

'PERFECT'

A NEW RENDITION of a sweet houndie. I really have fun doing the lettering! Mixed media (sold) on paper.

'HOME'

MOST  of the dogs I paint look like labs or golden retrievers. I started this painting with a more chocolate-colored acrylic background. Acrylic and watercolor. I've sold the original and have some prints (just 25) available. Good dogs get good homes and golden halos (23 carat, here) bobbling overhead.

'FORMAL'

I DID THIS after watching Ethel Merman belt something out on Youtube. The close-ups were a little scary! Technique is mixed aquamedia brushed and stenciled.

I did an edition of this gal and each has 23 carat gold scrolling across her bodice. To make the prints a better 'fit' in a standard 16 x 20 frame I've added collage flowers along one side. I'll show that soon...

'MOM BIRD'

Happy Mother's Day!

THIS IS the third or fourth time I've painted this family group (daddy bird is bringing the car around 'cause he's taking everyone to dinner) in their leafy garden. Acrylic and watercolor on paper.

Ethel MER-MAN's brother

And another in the same technique....

Ethel MER-MAN

I did a series of these swimmers.

Here's how I do it:

I do a line drawing of simple shapes with a fine rolling writer pen or other hard ball-point. I press hard into the surface of rag board; it's a scrap from my mat cutting. Next I rub over the surface of the drawing with oil pastel. Finally, I load a brush with watercolor and flow it into the pen grooves which are free from the oil pastel. That gives us the batik/resist quality to the line.

This measures about 5 X 7 inches. I scanned it and use these mer-man 'tiles' in some of my unique collages- I'll post one soon.

'DAY DREAM' a limited-edition print $50.

"DAY DREAM"  shows a dog at around 5 in the afternoon. 100 prints in the edition on quality paper.
Signed on the Strathmore mount.

'QUANTITY AND QUALITY'

QUANTITY AND QUALITY started off as an abstract acrylic background.  You 'whip' bubbles into your acrylic washes by adding flow medium instead of water and frothing it before you paint with it. Do it in value/ color contrasting layers for color peeking through the bubbles.

Watercolor and colored pencil for some of the details...about 9 inches square.