Here’s what I’ve learned about figure study class. I have to do the first part of a drawing without my glasses on. Otherwise, I get caught up in detail too soon, and my picture turns to mud. For the long poses today, I left my glasses off until the end. I like the results much better this way.
Thanks to the wonderful man (I don’t know his name) who encourages me whenever he sees me at the open sessions on Sundays and gives me tips about how to make my paper go farther (paint over the used stuff with gesso) and preserve the ones I want to keep (use fixative on art that’s hung vertically so all the inevitable spits and dribbles never hit the paper).
Plus I love his art. He paints with watercolor and gauche and his figures are so vivid. Today he showed me how he has been painting nudes in his older paintings. One nude was seated in front of a huge rusty barge. The male figures from today were peaking in and out of a jungle scene with bright flowers.
All three of my figure studies, the gestures, the standing man and the seated man, are available on ebay.
beautiful studies – and I think more of us need to look at the world with our glasses off and not get caught in the details!
That sounds like a great idea!
I really like your work! Your story of the glasses reminded me of my wife. About a month ago we were traveling late evening. My wife took off her glasses to clean and she became another person. It was like she discovered a whole new world with all the colors and lights. She was very happy to sit back and enjoy our 1 1/2 hour drive with out her glasses. Yes, we can see things in a different light.
Thanks! That’s a great idea about traveling blind. I was just wondering today how I could possibly get myself to relax while driving here in Jacksonville and the answer is obviously to make it harder to see what’s going on around me. This would probably only work if someone else was driving, though.