Mid-Summer

It is really hot outside which makes for some lazy summer days.  Since I have been back from New Hampshire, I have managed to stay busy between working in my studio and working on reading and writing for the National Board.  I did get my scholarship to pursue National Board Teacher Certification so I did some writing for one of the portfolio entries.  I am also re-reading through the standards which has proved enlightening.  The first time I read them, I didn't really know what I was reading.  Now that I have a better understanding of what I have to do for the National Boards, they are making a lot more sense plus they answer a lot of questions that I have had.  Such as, what are the overarching goals of art education?  I won't be able to do any more writing at this point, at least until school starts and I have students, lessons, and artwork to video and write about.

I did go to 2 life drawing sessions at Stu's this week.  On Tuesday night, with the 20 minute poses, I worked in my sketchbook while focusing on proportions.  Craig was our model and I managed to be fairly accurate with depicting his poses.  Towards the end of the evening, I didn't like the poses so on one drawing I focused on just drawing his foot and on the next drawing I drew just his head.  These are both areas that I need to better develop my skills on, so the practice was very worthwhile.

On Thursday night we had Sita as our model.  She did 2 long poses.  For the first pose, she laid on her stomach over a bean bag chair.  I just couldn't get a feel for the pose, even though I tried painting it from 2 different points of view.  I fact, I threw both paintings away when I got home!
Her second pose was more to me liking as she was sitting upright on a couple of pillows.  I was using the painting technique I learned from Patrick McKay at NHIA; the technique that uses acrylic paint and a 2" brayer.  This first painting, titled "Sita", was painted on 22" x 30" watercolor paper.  I decided to leave the background white, but might eventually go back in and saturate the negative space with a dark brown hue, but that remains to be seen.

I still had some time at the end of the night and decided to focus in on Sita's face.  This one is titled "Portrait of Sita" and was painted on 22" x 36" brown kraft paper.  I really do like the earthiness of the brown paper.  I used white paint for the highlights, trying my best to not tint any of the other colors that I was using.  This portrait actually captures how Sita looks so I was quite pleased with it.  I also like the stronger combination of lines and shapes that are evident in this painting.  I believe it was my most successful painting of the night.  It is very expressive.  I will use it as one of my examples for my IB art students when I teach them this technique (I might have to roll back the breast area, it kind of depends on the maturity level of these particular 11th graders).

I am enjoying my lazy Sunday and look forward to what I might create in the coming week.