Bobs Figure Drawing Workshop

Figure Drawings from 12-14-2011

2011-12-15T19:19:00.000-08:00

My Process:

-sketchbook 8.5 x 11 inches to draw in

-quick sketch with red-brown color crayola

-blue pencil for more detail or refined lines

-shading with pencil or crayola

-bottom plane or background with another color pencil or crayola

The initial crayola line is soft and can be blended for corrections. I ended up with warm and cool contrast with the red and the blue. The crayola is quick and easy for laying down soft color shapes. The color pencil also and gives more hard edges.

Figure Drawings from 12-06-2011

2011-12-07T09:39:00.000-08:00

My blue pen ran out of ink. I switched tools. I used a Crayola, magnolia the color, for sketching in the basic shape and then various color pencils to clarify the lines and tones. The model took poses from 3 minutes to 20 minutes and I captured the drawings in my 8.5 x 11-inch sketchbook.

Figure Drawings from 11-29-2011

2011-12-07T09:27:00.000-08:00

My drawing tool was a refillable BIC 537R pen with blue ink. Smooth clean lines were my focus in this session. My sketchbook the capturer, size 8.5 by 11 inches the dimensions.

The poses were from 3 minutes to 20 minutes.

Making Posters

2011-10-30T19:52:00.001-07:00

I just finished reading a wonderful biography of Henri Toulouse Lautrec by Julia Frey. He created a sensation in Paris in the 1890's with his Lithographic Posters by simplifying the image into bold color shapes. In this week's life drawing class I found myself making posters too.

Life Drawing in Vienna in 1907

2011-10-07T17:19:00.000-07:00

Here is an historical view of the same setup we continue today in our life drawing sessions.

The historical picture is of the Vienna Academy taken around 1907 and Egon Schiele is in the back on the left side.

We have available the same style benches and easels and draw from the model too in this time-honored method.

Dark to Light --- Complete Life Drawing book

2011-06-18T13:10:00.000-07:00

DRAWING FROM DARK TO LIGHT

Exercise: Subtracting highlights

Objectives: Analyzing form through light and shadow; Creating drama by high contrast

In this drawing method you start with a dark value on your paper and work with an eraser to create highlights and draw the model's pose

This is a good exercise and teaches you to see in a different way

Start by putting a dark value on the entire paper. Look at the highlights on the model and draw them with the eraser.

Tonal Drawing --- from Complete Life Drawing book

2011-06-18T12:36:00.000-07:00

TONAL DRAWINGS

Exercise: Using three basic tones to model form

Objectives: Building up a three-dimensional image; Learning to analyze the fall of light

The tone refers to the lightness or darkness of your paper, and your pastel or conte crayon.

You choose a paper with an intermediate tone and use the paper for the basic flesh tone.

White pastel is used for the highlights and a darker conte--not necessarily black--is used for the shadow areas.

Quick Poses --- from Complete Life Drawing Book

2011-06-18T12:06:00.000-07:00

SHORT GESTURE POSES

Exercise: Following the lines of the body to capture the essentials of a pose

Objectives: Loosens up drawing, Concentrates the mind, Helps the student to convey movement

Starting the Life Drawing session with short poses helps the artist to deal with the blank page because you have to jump in and make quick decisions since you don't have time to ponder.

Decide the movement of the pose and find a starting point that is furthermost left, right, top or bottom. Put your charcoal down at that edge of the paper, keep it on the paper and keep it moving as you then look at the pose, following the flow of the body.

Your eyes discover the essential movement and rhythm and your hand responds in kind. Not much need to look at the paper since you are in quick-seeing mode and are training your quick-seeing eye to see the whole pose and its flow.

Keep your eyes moving on the model and your hand moving on the paper.

We favor a set of brief 15-second poses as our warm-up exercise. As we progress to longer poses we still want to jump in quickly and establish the overall movement of the pose before adding details and spatial elements.

Composition --- from Complete Life Drawing book

2011-06-18T11:33:00.000-07:00

COMPOSITION

Exercise: planning the figure in the context of the Life Drawing room
Objective: moving from drawing toward picture-making and a fuller pictorial statement.

Composition is an arrangement of elements.
The artist's goal is to create a mood or express a feeling about the model.

The Life Studio is an artificial environment that needs simplification or rearrangement for better communication and rendering space and subject emphasis.

These pages show how the elements in the room were arranged or
simplified for enhanced pictorial expression.

To study Composition we need a NORM, which is the traditional 'Classical Composition'.

All types of Compositions have the arrangement of forms and the ordering of the picture area.

'Classical Composition' relies on Harmony and Balance as organizing principles.
Harmony and Balance means a still, self-sufficient image within clear boundaries.

Modern innovators rebelled against 'Classical Composition' and valued Movement and Emotion as organizing principles.

Pick one system and use it for composing your drawings.

Pick the other system and use that for composing your drawings.

Study the compositions of Master Artists and determine their organizing principles and how they make variations in these principles.

drawing male model

2011-06-07T14:53:00.000-07:00

drawings from 10 or 20 minute poses, male model, brown paper about 18 x 24 inches, graphite pencil

20 minute poses

2011-06-07T09:06:00.000-07:00

drawings from a 20-minute pose on brown paper about 18 x 24 inches

sketchbook drawings

2011-06-02T10:42:00.001-07:00

Drawings from my sketchbook as a model poses for 5, 10 or 20 minutes.

sketchbook drawings

2011-06-02T10:11:00.000-07:00

Drawings from my sketchbook as a model poses for 5, 10 or 20 minutes.

sketchbook drawings

2011-06-02T09:26:00.000-07:00

Drawings from my sketchbook as a model poses for 5, 10 or 20 minutes.

sketchbook drawings

2011-06-02T09:16:00.001-07:00

Drawing in my sketchbook as a model poses for 5, 10 or 20 minutes.

Draw Constantly

2011-03-12T12:41:00.000-08:00

I got to Life Drawing class early. I like to arrive early to set up the room and welcome the arrivees. I looked around the room and noticed that the portrait painting of Jorgen hanging on the wall was ajar. I thought, this is NOT right, and went over to straighten it out. As I was adjusting it, I sensed and could FEEL that there was some kind of black hole behind the picture, going back into an infinite dark space.
I peered in. I couldn't see into the dark but I could hear some singing. From a Bob Dylan song, the phrase 'How Do You Feel?' It sounded like Jorgen who I have heard singing 'How Do You Feel?'
I said, "Jorgen, It's Thursday. Are you coming in?"
He replied, "No, Bob, I'm going to hang out on my cloud here."
I asked, "What shall I tell them?"
"Tell them to DRAW CONSTANTLY."

The moment passed into the vanishing 'black hole' portal and I considered what it meant to Draw Constantly. Does this mean, constant pressure and precision, never letting up? Does this mean, constant using up of every minute of breath to look, to perceive, to transcribe onto surface?

I didn't know and Jorgen was gone to answer me. I ran home, to my computer, and went straight to Google, my wizard of Oz. I googled, in double quotes, "importance of drawing constantly".
One point four nanoseconds later I was entering these 6 points into my notebook. I was following orders, to tell you about the importance of drawing constantly.

The fundamental point is that no matter what method of visual art YOU Create, you have to be able to draw at some point. These are the reasons why:

+Drawing helps you visualize your outcomes and solve problems in advance.
Michelangelo used a sketchbook better than anyone and even made wax models before finally starting to chip the marble for his statues.

+Drawing keeps you visually articulate.
It is a language and a skill and we need to keep expanding our vocabulary.

+Drawing keeps you visually aware.
As Artists, we notice and see things that others do not.
That shade of blue at dusk, the thin slice of moon, the light coming through the plant or bouncing off the water.

+Drawing keeps you in top form.
Like an athlete, the artist needs to stretch and exercise art muscles. Miss and you are 'rusty'.

+Drawing lets you capture ideas before they disappear. The fertile imaginative mind of Pablo Picasso made 700 drawings in preparation for his painting Demoiselles d'Avingnon. "Carry a sketchpad or voice recorder with you and use it.

+Drawing documents how your idea progresses and the development of the process. It shows us how our minds work.

Scary???
Jorgen DID say, "scare yourself".

Draw.
Constantly.

Drawing-02-04-11 four

2011-02-05T14:59:00.000-08:00

Drawing-02-04-11 three

2011-02-05T14:58:00.001-08:00

Drawing-02-04-11 two

2011-02-05T14:57:00.001-08:00

Drawing-02-04-11 one

2011-02-05T14:53:00.000-08:00

Jorgen Poses- Model Didn't Show Up 8

2011-01-08T13:48:00.001-08:00

I made a screenprint-solar plate print combination of Jorgen posing for his students.

Jorgen Poses- Model Didn't Show Up 7

2011-01-08T13:43:00.000-08:00

Deja deja vu vue, all over again

Jorgen Poses- Model Didn't Show Up 6

2011-01-08T11:52:00.000-08:00

Artists in their own world creating.

Jorgen Poses- Model Didn't Show Up 5

2011-01-08T11:49:00.000-08:00

Model posing in a relationship to the dais.

Jorgen Poses- Model Didn't Show Up 4

2011-01-08T11:31:00.001-08:00

He 'caught' me in my denial of the real world. I saw 'the chair' in a symbolic manner. I used an unrealistic fantasy color of green or blue to symbolize the solid physical universe that was the chair. I miss his vests and his dress socks.

Jorgen Poses- Model Didn't Show Up 3

2011-01-08T11:24:00.000-08:00

One of those times I observed that Jorgen was placing his pose in a definite relationship to the chair. Even more his attitude of anguish at a miscommunication that resulted in NO MODEL led to his venting many frustrations cooking for several generations.

He was offering his soul to us. More than some momentary physicality to interchange with.

Jorgen Poses- Model Didn't Show Up 2

2011-01-08T11:18:00.000-08:00

One of these times I heard his talk about the artist's placement of the figure on the paper is an expression of how the artist felt about himself vis a vis the entire mundi.

The 'mundi' or world was also represented by 'the chair'. It was physically an object in the real world. We 'hated' the chair because it forced us to deal with the real world. Artists prefer to live in a world of their own creation.

Jorgen Poses- Model Didn't Show Up

2011-01-08T11:14:00.000-08:00

Sometimes it would happen through NO fault of the teacher that the model wouldn't show up. In that case, Jorgen would pose for the class.

Speaking of Jorgen Speaking

2010-12-24T22:16:00.001-08:00

Speaking of Jorgen, (or Jurgen?). Here is a 3-part video of most of his Circle Presentation from 1995

This was always the way he started each term with this lecture. There always seemed to be at least one new student so that justified a repeat performance.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dv1jgm-2m48

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4iJOqG58OtE

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rXXfJPx8KPs

Painting of Jorgen Hansen

2010-12-12T14:03:00.000-08:00

Here is one painting one artist made of our mentor, Jorgen Hansen.

Heard Jorgen sing Tonite

2010-12-03T00:51:00.001-08:00

I got to the room 23 class early tonight. The Last Class of the session, ya know with the next one two months away.

I scanned the room.

Jorgen's picture was on the wall but it was ajar. at a crooked angle. Out of respect for my mentor, the late Jorgen Hansen, I went over to straighten the painting. Not that this painting was so outstanding. Better portraits of the Dane were surely during the King's twentysome year reign in room 23. This was just the one on duty now.

As I straighten the painting, a folded envelop slips out and falls. Instinctively my hand jerks out and I intercept the paper before it escapes to the floor.

On the envelop I read the Fourscore and 3 Leons ago speech that somehow Jorgen wrote on the letter and I am the Messenger reading aloud his message.

Tonight? Jorgen's picture askew so I went to straighten it and I hear him singing, like he used to sometimes, being Bob Dylan 'how do you feeeeel.....'

I say, 'Jorgen, I want to be an artist'

I hear him shaking his head. Don't know how much he is amused but I hear him say,

GET ... A... LIFE!!!

He is still a guru supreme. A reminder that you need to have Life to experience first to explain later. And how did HE know from Beyond that I happen to be reading two books at the same time. This isn't unusual, two books. It is just that they both have the same title.

LIFE.

One is the Life of Chuck Close the artist.

Two is the Life of Keith Richards the artist.

There are lots of life lessons here, different for different folks.

and that is our goal, isn't it?

to be different.

Life by Keith Richards

2010-12-01T21:38:00.001-08:00

Strangely enough, I happen to be reading two books at the same time. What's strange is they both have the same title, Life.

One is about artist Chuck Close and one is about artist Keith Richards.

See the previous post to learn about the Chuck Close book.

Here are some interesting ideas I got from the Keith Richards book.

Keith grew up in rural England just after world war II in the generation influenced by Chicago Blues and early American Rock and Roll. His generation were anti-Establishment, revolting against Victorian Age morality and straight in line conformity. An artist like Keith wanted to create music and create his own world to live in. There was a lot of harassment towards those who wanted to be different and make their own rules to live by. Rednecks all around disapproving of your long hair.

One constant throughout the book is Keith's Process for making music. It seems on every page he is writing phrases in his notebook to make into songs collaborating to compose a song. His process is to record and dub layer over previous layers. Likes to use a smaller portable basic recorder and write the lyrics at the microphone. Their passion is performing this music. Process involves Persistence. His band, the Rolling Stones, performed as the house band in a club in London and played there at least once every day for over 3 years. Their 'instant success' as they went on a concert tour was the result of giving over a thousand performances.

I enjoy in the act of creation how as an artist I am in charge of the world I create in my art-making. Sometimes the world I create in is 20 by 24 inches. Some artists can create a whole new world culture because the music they made transformed the physical world we live in.

Book Review Life-Chuck Close by Christopher Finch

2010-12-01T20:51:00.000-08:00

Several items I found interesting from Life, Christopher Finch's biography of Chuck Close.

The artist Chuck Close early on had a clear idea that he wanted HUGE success as an artist. He wanted to have his paintings seen by MILLIONS of PEOPLE. His work had to be in Public Museums .

That meant in his 1950's he had to be in the right place to get an art education. Yale was a great follow-up to the quite amazing JC he first studied art at in Washington. He moved to New York City. At this time the Art Community was small and the major museum for contemporary artists -New York's Museum of Modern Art-was collecting artists just a few years older that Chuck Close.

He was a figurative artist. Abstract Expressionism was king of the hill still. Learning to paint in the stroke of A.E.'s most figurative Willem DeKoonings, he went for his own identity. The whole figure seemed to have hot spots. Portraits. A 'mug-shot'.

the genius of Chuck Close is that his portraits are paintings not of the 3-D subject itself but of a 2-D photograph translated from the subject. And he painted how the photograph was composed and convinced into being the subject now.

The cool thing is he used the method of process that he observed from his grandmother. She worked for hours knitting small squares of material and then spent more hours knitting all these pieces into a bigger something useful. From then on Chuck Close was about PROCESS, no matter what medium he was creating in.

In his life he had continual struggles with health issues -- later even suddenly paralyzed from the neck down. Slowed him down but didn't stop him painting. It was just a little more complicated process. but it was still a process.

Eva Hesse Self-Portraits

2010-10-27T17:17:00.000-07:00

Eva Hesse self-portrait show at the UCLA-Hammer Museum. While at the show I heard "a four-year old could do that."

If looking at and imagining the construction of the painting-it is gestural, non-detailed, and emotional--with art tools available universally and inexpensively and requiring no more deftness than already acquired by age four, yes.

If you look at the overall EFFECT, I bet you don't know one four year-old who has achieved the maturity to see that his role is NOT being the center of the universe. A 4 year-old isn't as Jimmy Hendrix is, EXPERIENCED. Hasn't inhaled the Purple Haze yet. Can't express how he feels about the world and his perceived place in it.

THIS PAINTING EXPRESSES the Artist and his Place in a certain view of the world.

In our Drawing Classes, we are trying to develop both our over-all viewing QUICK EYE and the process-observant detail-oriented seeing and saying. See-more. Say-more.

Doing Drawing is a Fundamental component for our art-making. The drawing that we practice weekly shouldn't be weakly done. Have a goal. Get some bigger picture idea captures into your sketchbook's collection.

Give yourself some choices of where to take your figurative art during the rest of the days. Get some context. See what other Figure Artists are doing. Take your eye and your sketchbook to a Museum or Gallery RIGHT NOW to capture ideas.

Format for Wednesday night class

2010-09-02T10:45:00.000-07:00

Beloved Scribblers,

Here is the Format

for the Wednesday night class.

There are two doors into room 22 and the model stand will be against the wall in between them. There is space for a lower inner arc of benches and an upper outer arc of easels. You can either work DOWN, seated at a bench, with sketchbook, or pad of paper, or UP, standing at an easel and workin a larger format. BRING A DRAWING BOARD. Bring a sketchbook too and if it is really crowded you can sit somewhere behind those already installed.

Allow yourself 20 minutes before the starting time to find a place to park once you get here, carry in your supplies, find a vacant station, set up your stuff, tear off some of the paid for paper on rolls, and be ready to go.

You want to be ready and in place because at 6.30 pm sharp We are Drawing.

Did I mention, You need to bring a drawing board?

Benches and Easels are provided. You might have to bring yours into the room and you will have to put it away outside before you go.

Right at 6.30 our model takes some 15-second poses and we jump in, stretching our work-weary muscles and beginning our escape from Real World. We want FUN now. We represent GESTURES on our paper. We don't need any streaming details, right? Mark a broad swath based on eye-balling and describe the flow and rhythm you perceive.

45-second poses next allow you to make 3 marks. Use one to plant a background for your figure, and the other one to complement the figure and define further. (Figure/Ground stuff)

You are training your 'quick eye' to take an instant picture for you to refer to later.

2 and a half minute poses, allow more experimentation say, as do the 5, 10, and a 20 minute pose. These poses are DANGEROUS because now they give you time to THINK. Before you just saw and reacted.

We take a short break to look at the drawings made. Turn your station around and prop up any drawing. We gather in the front of the room and examine drawings with part curiosity and part analysis. We comment briefly. You get an idea for one last pose, 20 -25 minutes, depending on how much gabbing just took place.

We subtract from the ecosystem any contributions we just made. Put down some paper on the ground BEFORE you start to collect your dust, and wipe off your easel with a damp towel before you put it away outside. Treat the easel GENTLY so it will be usable for you next week. There are RECYCLE BINS for paper discarding .

THANK YOU for your support.

sketches from the model

2010-07-07T16:35:00.000-07:00

Here are some sketches I made today from the model. The poses were 20 minutes. I used Caran D'ache water soluble color pencils.

This is a continuing series and I will work on them later on. I like to keep the figure 'white' and add the color to either lines or the area around the figure.

The paper is Rising Stonehenge warm white printmaking paper to which I added a coat of gesso. I then tear the sheet into quarters so my final dimensions are about 11 by 15 inches.

What Do YOUR EYES See? -2

2010-04-17T10:39:00.000-07:00

In drawing we are just answering in some written form the question, 'What do your EYES see?' Or perhaps, 'What do YOUR eyes see?'

During our regimen of poses we answer the question in several different ways.

During the very short gesture poses our Quick Instant eyes are in training to see a whole shape and its movement in space. All in an Instant. (Being plastic would perhaps see the pose moving in time.)

During longer poses we get to make a richer answer, since we 'have more time'. Your Longer Eye sees some details and you decide what parts you need to 'tell the story' of this pose. You hesitate a little to look first, before you leap into the drawing. Then you decide. Perhaps your technique will be used to develop the sculptural form. Perhaps you develop the 2-D rectangle graphically.

During the 9 p.m. Observation, when your eyes evaluate the writings 'on the wall', (They used to be hung on the wall), you engage your brain too to analyze and your vocal chords to express what you notice.

Just don't be intimidated. If you honestly answer the question, 'What do Your Eyes See?' you can never be wrong. And with the fearless attitude of THE ARTIST, combined with the Jorgen Hansen mantra of "SCARE YOURSELF!!", you could be the next great Original.

(Just don't expect to be rewarded with the world bowing at your feet. Until you go to sleep and dream about that world YOU CREATED, and that YOU are in charge of. Sweet Dreams.

Using the Sketchbook to Develop the Image

2010-03-29T17:00:00.000-07:00

I took advantage of having a model available and made some pen and ink drawings on quarter-size sheets of gessoed 22 x 30 inch printmaking paper. I drew just the outlines of the pose, focusing on the gesture and lines moving in space. I didn't worry about shadows or areas of different value.
Later that night I looked through the drawings and added some colored pencil marks to start defining and dividing the rectangle. Developing the figure-ground thing.

Today it is time to move these figure drawings along. I needed to find a starting point to develop these drawings further. The sketchbook is my place for collecting ideas and I happened to have a book titled Gothic Art in Bohemia to look at. What do I notice? Sculptures of madonna and child; Church buildings, ornate and soaring, inside and outside; illuminated manuscripts; stained glass windows; ceilings divided by curving arches.

I wasn't sure what I would use to satisfy my immediate impulse. I just wanted to explore some of this religious expression. Collect some ideas in the sketchbook. Discover by careful looking and drawing.

The Illuminated Manuscript has a leafy vine growing up the page edge. After I started to draw this I noticed there were several men climbing and hanging on. Surprise! This would work. I would take my drawing and add some organic climbing element. This was enough to get me started. Later it occured to me to use the stained glass window to break up the environment.

I am thinking of this figure work as the latest in my series of 'naked white people' so I want to keep the shape of the figure pretty much white, and have the background be composed of almost abstract color shapes. That is my general plan. The specifics are to be worked out by using the sketchbook.

From my stack of pen and ink drawings, I have 4 that are started. Here they are, so far. I still have further to go with these, and more in the pile to develop this far.

Mister Rembrandt stopped by

2010-02-26T09:55:00.000-08:00

Luckily for the band of scribblers, last night at 9 pm Mister Rembrandt stopped by.
9 pm being our time of Class Observation and Curiosity Massage.

Mister Rembrandt visited using his Drawing Exhibit at the The Getty Center The very small size drawings were shown in pairs and had incredible small detail, more so it seemed in the drawing on the left. Turns out, these were Rembrandts on the left, and his pupils on the right.

To help us develop our eye, let's use the curator's four elements of style in Rembrandt's Drawings.

Sketchy and Suggestive Use of Line
Selective Description of Details
Nuanced Expression and Gesture
Precise Rendering of Light

To illustrate the Sketchy and Suggestive Use of Line, the curator says 'a few dark broad sweeping pen lines over a lighter sketch indicate spiraling drapery.' I look carefully and I see a few faint curved lines lightly but accurately applied by the Master. I see the swirling drapery.

For our second point: 'selective details worked into a narrative'. This sounds like our mantra, PICK YOUR BATTLES. Sure enough, the pupil's drawing attempts to wrap an ink line around EVERYTHING in the field of view. No change in line quality like in the Master's drawing.

The nuanced expression was best illustrated in a drawing of St. John the Baptist gently spilling baptismal water from his palm to the forehead of his convert. The student gesture is clumsy and not subtle. Again, the curator: 'consistent powerful subtle gestures, powerful stance, outstretched finger'' In a crowd scene, in Rembrandt's drawing of the faces I see individual people and not a generic face.

The precise rendering of light was described: 'light shadow on figures, active play, vary direction and thickness of wash' and particularly memorable in a backlight scene. The student didn't have his eye developed yet to see a more complete view. How is YOUR EYE doing?

To bring us back to room 23, and our timeline , and 9 pm last night, Mister Rembrandt's visit helped develop our eye and for that we thank him. And promise to revisit again. (Maybe he will offer us Potato Pancakes or a sale price on an etching.)

The Getty Center show didn't allow photographing from the Rembrandt and his Pupils show but the gallery next door with Dutch Drawing from the same time period did. Happens there were several Rembrandt's drawings here so I can offer them to you.

Pick Your Battles

2010-02-13T11:13:00.000-08:00

Overall, don't be fighting all over over all.

This mantra came out this week during Observation of the drawings. Above all, Pick your Battles.

The particular drawing which elicited the important point contained a delightful journey of exploration and surprise as you followed a path created for you.

With close Observing, I notice a straight line connecting to the papers edge, making abstract areas. A straight line going to the middle and a meandering set of vibrations, this leading to more and varied activity, sometimes with texture. Moving through the world on this paper is a stream of energy with some resting areas. What strikes you is how undeveloped some of these areas are left. A mere suggestion that invites the viewer to contribute.

the artist author consciously picked some battlefields here and there to energize and some areas to leave alone. Without beating this racehorse to disability, the point is, if you don't have some variation in your line as you trace the pathway into your created world, we won't know when you want us to smell the Starbuck's coffee that you are trying to show us then and there at THAT time.

If you try to fight battles along the line, you won't have any Generals left. And the only line we will be following is from our i-pod and Johnny Cash, "I walk the line."

No racehorses were harmed in making of this glob. or was it blog.?

room 23

2010-02-13T10:44:00.001-08:00

room 23 is the environment in sacred time and space that has been reserved for us and our regular use for the past 30 years or more, at least since the time of Jorgen Hansen. Anyone remember WHO invented this environment before Jorgen?

room 23 is the sacred time and space we have to Be ARTISTS and to talk about and live some ART during our time of collaborating together. We are ARTISTS who want to eat and breathe ART all day. Jump in the mess and get all dirty with it.

room 23 at Schott Center is being fiscally threatened with lack of State of California supporting funds. The future is as always uncertain, only it seems striking closer to home for the many thousands of our friends and neighbors.

We were told by Jorgen "the world doesn't want you to be an artist. The world doesn't want you to let your soul out."

The world wants to control you under its own purpose of manipulations.

We need to keep fighting the battles to preserve our Environment. To adapt to the changes that are being forced upon us. We are in the midst of Evolution at work, my fellow artists. We need to band together and figure out where and how our migration to higher ground will take place.

The Azteca were on their fifth migration when king Tenoch saw the eagle and snake fighting over that big lake. We will need the energy of beginners and returners to keep our continuity alive.

Take-aways

2010-02-12T10:14:00.000-08:00

Now that the professional football season has ended, the professional art athlete in us can stop rooting for the Green Bay Packers and get back to our real mission.
Spending some time as an artist during our busy lives.

Let us intercept the football concept that has the greatest correlation with winning, and that is 'the takeaway'.

The WHEN of our Figure Drawing Workshop takeaway is at 9 p.m, during 'part 3' of the evening. Observation Time. At 9 p.m. we surround ourselves with the night's drawings and immerse ourselves in the world of art to let our eyes roam. We step out of our own skins for a few moments, satisfy a curiosity, indulge our senses, ask some why's and how's.

Your goal is to take away a new wrinkle to keep young and fresh and lively in your drawing. You will find that this way of trying something NEW, of being fearless, this way of working through the problems of art-making, will be helpful when you are responding to and dealing with the issues of your life outside of 'room 23'.

Femininity -- the Figure Show

2010-02-09T14:06:00.000-08:00

There is a Figure show called Femininity at Montecito Frame and Gallery at 2173 Ortega Hill Road in Summerland. Their phone number is 805-969-1129.

The dates for the show are from February 6 until the 28. You may have missed the exciting opening that was February 6.

I didn't and it had more buzz than most art openings around our town.
The show was juried by Duane Unkefer, who has his own Chalk Gallery down the road a piece in Carpinteria.

With all the local artists working from the figure, he had plenty to choose from.
I recommend visiting the Gallery to see some wonderful figure work and to take advantage of good pricing on art supplies.

Here is one of the figure pieces that made the juror's cut.

You HATE the Chair

2010-02-04T08:18:00.000-08:00

You HATE the CHAIR!

The CHAIR comes in to play in Part 2 of the Figure Drawing Workshop.
Part 2 of the Figure Drawing Workshop seamlessly starts with the 5 and 10 minute poses and more time to make more marks. Or more time to spend looking and evaluating and responding.

The 5-minute poses are mostly standing and you want to use the 'extra time' to define the basic figure and ground relationship. Look for and define that ground plane the model is standing on and see that space. Train your eyes to do a more-inclusive looking. You are dividing up the surface area as you make marks so use the Gestural Awareness you just gained in Part 1 short poses and divide up the surface into a meaningful arrangement to complement the pose. And compliment the model's hard work for you.

The CHAIR functions to introduce the 'Real World' into our thought-planes. The CHAIR functions to set up a relationship between the sensuous organic living moving figure and the supporting structure of the man-manufactured rectilinear CHAIR that demands to be dealt with. We Hate the Restrictions and Rules its following demands from us. You are an ARTIST.

You remind yourself that you came here tonite with color sticks and burnt twigs to Play and you are not letting this rigid chair get in the way. But you can only delay the reckoning so far and then you must admit to that obit or file that form ten-forty A.

Just remember, for NOW you HATE the Chair. You just long for that time when you have given up fighting it and actually Love the Chair.
Then you are truly an artist able to tell us how the hated CHAIR deals with all that animosity.

Anybody see Charlie Rose the other night?

2010-01-30T11:52:00.000-08:00

As Jorgen Hansen would frequently ask in the Figure Drawing Workshop, "Did anybody see Charlie Rose last night?"

Charlie Rose was the late night interviewer on the PBS television stations and Jorgen enjoyed it when the interviewee was an artist, or actor, or a musician, or other performer.The conversation with Charlie Rose and his subject would generate a topic or a point that Jorgen wanted to have us know about and it gained entry into some of the 'Great Stories' that were part of our learning experience over the many years of Room 23.

Charlie Rose came to our town, Santa Barbara, to be interviewed in person. Did YOU happen to see Charlie Rose the other night?

Our Figure Drawing Workshop Comes of Age

2010-01-29T09:47:00.000-08:00

Thank you all for helping our workshop come of age last night. You matured. You coalesced. Your combined Energy was harmonious as our expanding group of eager artists materialized for the 7 pm SHARP drawing session to begin.
Thanks to YOUR SUPPORT, the night was Splendid for all.

What Jorgen Hansen left us was the room 23 environment he created in that time/space slot to Talk About ART. To BE an ARTIST (for a lot of us, WORK is interfering with our desire to be an Artist twenty-four seven three sixty-five.)
Jorgen encouraged us to be brave and let our soul and our individuality breathe.
He gave us this environment. We continue to use it and improve it if we can.
Sometimes these changes are forced on us.

Let's envision our 3 hours spent in Figure Painting Workshop to be one of IMMERSION. We are immersed in a Model-Centric Environment. Our MODEL is in Focus in the middle of the room.
The next layer is the encirling ring of Artists and their Easels and Benches and Tools. And their Motives, and their Physicalities and Sensitivites, There seems to be some kind of Random Radiation wandering around the room also.

We know how the Workshop proceeds with part 1 and part 2 and the different poses. We are warmed up, we've been scratching and rubbing and cussing up a storm into a stack of drawings. YOU are CURIOUS NOW to see what others have been doing. Luckily, it is now 9 p.m., --- OBSERVATION TIME. Show and Tell.

Immersion means that we turn our Easels toward the middle with our drawing on it. We pin up smaller drawings on the board still. We look at them all Close-Up and we gather in the middle of the room surrounded by an Image Circumference of ideas to investigate.

How can we possibly LOSE? What a RESOURCE to have available.
And with enough time to do a final pose with a new idea.

Keeps me Fresh and 'coming back for more', say 9 out of 10 Recent Graduates

When we have all the drawings side by side on the wall, it is easy to compare neighbors.
When we are immersed in a circumference of drawings, we can connect any two spokes and compare ANY two drawings. To educate our eyes. To train them to see more.
This is HUGE.
May THE FORCE be with us.

Our Class Structure

2010-01-18T20:38:00.000-08:00

Since the physical Schott Center class has been on a break for 2 months, I have forgotten how the class was setup so here is my reminder.

There are four parts to the Figure Drawing Workshop evening.

We begin drawing at 7 pm sharp and have short poses to develop a quick eye and express the gesture.

Then we have longer poses to allow for a more finished way to develop the eye for composition and more details.

Third, at 9 pm, is our Observation where we pin up a drawing to gather ideas from what everybody is doing. By answering the question, "what do Your Eyes SEE?" we formulate and understand the principles of what makes art work and we learn to develop our eye to create better images.
Finally, we have a last pose to try some new idea we just got from looking and talking about all the good art pinned up on the wall.

Our Tradition of Drawing from the Life Model

2009-12-30T14:52:00.000-08:00

Whether we think about it or not, when we gather for our Figure Drawing Workshop with sketchbook and charcoal, we are continuing a tradition begun many years ago. We are learning how to draw, the fundamental step in learning how to be an Artist, by drawing from the Life Model.

Some of this tradition is illustrated here from the book, Studios of Paris, the Capital of Art in the late Nineteenth Century, by John Milner.

Here is a session conducted by a famous artist of the time, Bonnat, in the Ecole des Beaux Arts, the official school. Look how organized these students are. This is how to place easels for maximum efficiency.

Do you think the artists wore vests and ties each time they drew the model?
Perhaps we should treat the situation as a personal religious ritual.

Julian's Academie was perhaps the most popular, so there must have been more artists participating than in this illustration.

Here is the Atelier of another contemporary artist by the name of Cormon. He is doing a demonstration, so the students would know the correct way to make the drawing I guess.

What do you suppose is the strategy of that short famous artist at the left. He isn't paying attention to the master's drawing since he can't see the front of the easel.

Is he getting ready to rush to the front when the model resumes posing so he doesn't have yet another drawing of everybody else's 'figure' blocking the figure of the model?

Figure Drawing Workshop-Paris

2009-12-09T13:30:00.000-08:00

Thanks to the great artist and photographer Brassai, we can see what it was like to attend the Academie Julian.

What I love is the lighting from the skylight windows. With all the finished busts and full-figures on the shelves though the Academie seems like a factory producing exact and faithful representions of the model.

How about the more personal environment of Matisse in his studio and his careful study to be faithful but his openness to interpret in his language?

How about THIS POSE?

How about Figure Ground relationship?

How about the long lines in the pose and the moving in space of the model?

Wouldn't YOU like to be in Matisse's shoes? If he is wearing shoes that is.

the Ridgeline

2009-12-09T09:29:00.000-08:00

Easily overlooked during the models pose, in our effort to get our eyes zoomed in on the details of model, is the Ridgeline. The boundary between the vastly different region of figure and ground.
It's where the feet meet the pavement, where the butt meets the seat.
How can I show this relationship? There is more Plastic involved than in just measuring and describing space.

This presupposes you have brought your 'fast eye' to the game tonite and already have the composition, the 'fit on the page' solved because you are dealing with the border of some of these areas.

I simply want to give you ONE idea-nugget to think about during the longer poses. Pay particular attention to this edge and differentiate

what is man-made: structure, cold, heartless, support and
what is man: organic, warm, breathing, with heart and soul.

Just a reminder to vary your emphasis during your drawing.
Just a reminder to be Plastic and be open to news ways of expressing relationships.
Just a reminder to Bring your 'fast eye' to the Game and create.

How Does It Fit on the Page?

2009-11-26T08:05:00.000-08:00

The context in which the question ,"well first of all, how does IT--- (YOUR DRAWING, pinned on the board, at 9 p.m.)--- FIT on the PAGE" comes up is when during THE CRITIQUE the commentator doesn't commentate right away, pausing, wondering WHAT TO SAY.

JORGEN HANSEN considered that question the primary consideration for thoughtful comment.
(Inside secret--to commemorate JH we often use some of his phrases and references. That's why the veterans are giggling.) (We still sometimes cut off the head or the feet though.)

This,' it doesn't fit well on the page because the feet are cut off' context came up just now in a book I am reading. The book is titled "Provenance--How a Con Man and a Forger Rewrote the History of Modern Art", by Laney Salisbury and Aly Sujo. I heard about the book on National Public Radio 4 months ago and just last week had I worked my way up the Public Library wait list to top-slot, a process that started with 50-some ' waiters' ahead of me back then. I'm reading the book NOW.

The maker of the fake paintings is a well-trained English artist struggling to have his art recognized on its own merits. He knew he was a good painter and he wanted to make his living as an artist. He well-received the first commission (from the Con Man) to make a Matisse-style painting and after learning the true nature of his role, became more involved willingly in the illegality.

You have to read the book to get all the details. I will just tell you about the painting that wasn't working well enough to be a Giacometti original. The artist struggled to get the feet right. (That ever happen to any of you 'SCRIBBLERS'?)

On the recommendation of the Con Man, who was getting impatient for the next original to sell, the artist painted a view-obstructing table to cover up the feet. This made the composition awkward and was out of character, but it got the painting made. (My suggestion is to start with the feet at the bottom. This way you may not have the head but you will have the feet sitting on the paper.)

In the Provenance book, the artist finally lets himself feel good that his art sales support his life. His 'restorations' are fetching huge pounds worth of English currency so they must be painted better than the originals. But they don't ring true because he didn't deal with the foot problem. The 'sits on the paper' problem. He just covered it up. Like cutting the paper afterward to make the image fit better.

Two lessons here:
When you are drawing the figure—especially the shorter gestures---develop your EYE to see how the figure as a whole relates to the four edges of your paper.

Be Ethical in your Life—stay in that pure certain white area and avoid sliding the slippery slope of ever-darker grays.

I enjoy it when something Jorgen Hansen said years ago rings relevant today. Remind me to tell you about 'the Circle' some day.

Thanks giving

2009-11-23T08:39:00.000-08:00

I want to extend to all the members a THANK YOU for your participation in the past and the hope for continued support so we can continue with the Opportunity of having Figure Drawing Workshop available for our future use.

During our two-month period when Schott Center isn't available, Continue to Develop YOUR EYE. Continue using your Thursday night Time Slot for art practice or study. Make drawings in a notebook of your surroundings. Read an Artist Biography. Learn a new art technique.

Above all, get out there and see some Art and report back with what YOUR EYES SEE.

Thank You.
Bob Mask

Ink Pen Figure Drawings

2009-11-15T10:44:00.000-08:00

What Do YOUR EYES See?

2009-11-13T15:05:00.000-08:00

Time is Nine P.M. We have been drawing from the model for two hours now. We stop, briefly, come up for air, and see WHAT is GOING ON tonite.
We seek a peek at what others are doing.

We glance through our pile of drawings, turning back the timing clock to past poses, 20 minutes to 15-seconds, a long way back to 7 pm they go. We pick out 'the good one' and pin it on the wall, for God and all his people to see. Standing close to the wall we look over other drawings at close range and then go back to our chair.

You think you are safely ensconced on your chair, looking at the wonderful wall of fine artworks being displayed by your fellow students when The brilliant Teacher calls your name and asks a 64 thousand dollar Question -- 'What Do YOUR EYES see in THIS drawing?

Couldn't HE have picked the person sitting NEXT to me, and leave me alone?

okay, I have to do it. I just hope to G OD that I don't end up sounding like an idiot. Or NO MORE than is usually expected by those WHAT KNOW me best.

So I concentrate on the chosen drawing and I start to notice things. To answer the 64 thousand dollar question, I will just utter out loud what my eyes are discovering, as I let them both wander around the drawing.

What is the first thing my eyes go to? This must have some form of Dominance. What is it?
I think about what is making the Dominance?

I ask my eyes to see what kind of trails the artist has put in the drawing to follow. Is THE FLOW of the pose expressed? How is SPACE handled? Are there lines to follow, with interesting and varied twists and turns on the way? Or, Do I have to engage my Intellect, the 'top of Jung's Circle' --THINKING, and unpuzzle a riddle of similar shapes to connect and add up together to accumulate an aesthetic result?

It is MY eyes the Brilliant Teacher wants to develop. I can’t depend on Brilliant Teacher providing ME with instant answers. I must train my eyes to see.

Just say what you see. It won't hurt and it will develop your eyesight and mindsight. You'll know it in hindsight. After your turn you add to your vocabulary when the next artist tells what he sees.
Hurrah ---You just survived the Critique!

Go Figure It Out

2009-11-11T23:57:00.001-08:00

I am just mentioning this event for those of YOU who want to put a certain slant on your work. An exotic edge. An erotic hyperbole, e.g.

Others of us are in it for the pure aesthetics of learning how to draw and draw well enough to be erotic wanna-bes.

There is a BIG EROTIC ART exhibit in Los Angeles on Friday, the 13 and Saturday, the 14.

If you go, take some good notes so I can look them over real good and slow.

Thanks.

Two Figure Drawing Workshop Ratios

2009-10-31T10:16:00.000-07:00

Two Figure Drawing Workshop ratios.

I am pinning on the wall a few recent pages from my notebook.

I am positing a couple of ratios to think about.

These items are not necessarily related, (in our thoughts)
but ...

All the time, these items ARE related.

The first ratio to think about, after you have made your drawing, and while you are in a dialog evaluation with your drawing, is this:

ratio 1:

How much of the drawing is the artist?
How much of the drawing is the model?

in other words am I staying inside and drawing myself or am I seeing outside and drawing the world? This is related to Jorgen's reason for "the chair"

ratio 2:

How much of the drawing have I defined?
How much of the drawing am I letting others participate in and collaborate with me?

I am not saying that the correct answer is a fixed percentage and if you deviate, you are a deviate. I am just saying to hold up this grid to your drawing and measure where you are at.

Then you can have some fun either customizing the model out there to your own interior vision.
Or deciding where to put the enticing clues to invite that audience to complete a line here or solve a riddle there.

One Critiquer's Point of View

2009-10-26T10:08:00.000-07:00

While on the subject of art critiques and critical looking at our artwork, let me tell you what a Juror said was the reason that certain artwork stood out and was selected in a recent show.

"avoid the seduction of the merely eccentric"
"have a distinct voice in the image"
"strong achievement from traditional to experimental"

From this first statement I can assume that Your Chicken-scratching isn't relevant in and of itself. (MINE of course, IS). It seems YOU have to have a purpose for those marks so they don't seem quite so random and so they are all working together for a mutual purpose.

Stand apart from what everybody else is doing. I guess this implies that you are getting 'out there' and seeing WHAT others are doing now.

Know something about the historical modes of thinking and representing in that part of the art tree that you are hanging from. And experimentally be willing to take a risk, to try something that looks unusual, to be unafraid to be an experiment.

Realize that feedback is NOT Personally directed but directed at Some Art Object. (If necessary to save your EGO or Reputation, you can just DENY that YOU made it. Maybe you found the canvas that way.)

Vision Testing

2009-10-17T17:53:00.000-07:00

Part of the reason that our Thursday night class critiques work so well is the participation of the artists with each other's art. When called on to reveal what our eyes see in another's drawing, we are forced to look carefully and to decide how the heavy-lifting of idea creation is being handled. Is there a set of long lines that move our eye through the page? Is it distribution of light and dark areas that create a rhythm across the space?

This looking, deciding, and saying out loud is the 'critique', the process by which we 'learn to say what we are seeing.'

Another manifestation of this process is a talk given by an artist while work is being displayed. Look for the opportunity to attend these events. Hear the artist describe the work and his intentions. Find out what influences the artist and what methods are being used.
Ask questions of the artist and discover what is important to them in making their art.

Several local locations come to mind where the artist often gives a talk. Santa Barbara City College's Atkinson Gallery has a regular series of artist talks on campus, the next one being December 2, at 4.30 pm.

The Easton gallery has artists talk about their work. Sometimes shows have the Juror who curated the show give a talk about their selections. This formulating into words of the ideas and techniques of art is part of our art education that shouldn't be neglected.

The flip side of this process is what if YOU are this artist? We all need to have a 20-second elevator blurb about what our art is about. It is better to develop a clear thought about what our art investigates and explores and be able to explain this simply in that 20-second elevator ride. Then we can expand it, if our audience wants more. Let us have our searching lines for when our mouths are closed, our eyes open, our psyche engaged, and our pencils in action.

TechnoCulture

2009-10-11T20:03:00.000-07:00

I wish I could say that I had read all this book, and absorbed the contents, but that got added to my list of extra things to do in that one hour we get to live again when we turn our clocks back each year.

The author of Technoculture is Debra Benita Shaw. She says that 'contemporary culture, self, and identity are profoundly interwoven with technology: we are 'techno-bodies' inhabiting 'techno-spaces'.
I am repeating some of her glossary as a way to continue our thinking about 'Plastic'. We want to be open to the NEW Combinations and NEW Ways of Combining Everything. Don't hurt your brain trying to figure these out. Just look at the different ways of combining two ideas.

Actor network theory: attributed to Bruno Latour and Donna Haraway, which particularizes matters of concern in social ecology in order to focus on the network of actors, both human and non-human, which have to be taken into account in order to effect change.

Culture industry: Term coined by Theodore Adorno and Max Horkheimer to describe mass culture and its political effects.

Data mining: Describes the technique by which computers search databases at high speed to retrieve consumer profiles or security information. (sounds like both your supermarket and your government is spying on YOU)

Deconstruction: Method attributable to Jacques Derrida, which exposes the insecurity of meaning in language.

Embushelment: Term coined by Steve Fuller to describe the difference between the discourse of scientific expertise and the kind of science that feeds the popular imagination. Enframing: The sense in which, according to Martin Heidegger, people and things are understood in relation to instrumentality.

Episteme: Term coined by Michel Foucault to describe the connections between scientific knowledge and cultural institutions in any given period of time.

Hyperreality: Term coined by Jean Baudrillard to describe the construction of reality by the commodity form.

Informatics: Term attritubtable to Donna Haraway, which describes the network of power relations in the information economy. Knowledge economy: Describes the marketing of information as a commodity in global capitalism.

Psychotechnology: Term coined by Theodor Adorno and Max Horkheimer to describe the use of entertainment technology to produce a product that is indistinguishable from propaganda.

Romanticism: Late 18th and early 19th century movement that lamented human alienation from nature in the pursuit of technological progress.

Standing-reserve: Term coined by Martin Heidegger to describe an understanding of nature which sees it only as a resource for technology.

Technocapitalism: Term coined by Steven Best and Douglas Kellner to describe the way that contemporary global capitalism is enabled by and dependent on information and communications technologies.

Technoculture: The interdependence of technology and culture.

Technological determinism: The idea that technology determines social life, rather than the other way around.

Technological rationality: Term coined by Herbert Marcuse to describe 'common sense', which understands all problems as solvable by technological means.

Transhumanism: Belief that technology will eventually provide the means to transcend the human condition.

Like I said, don't hurt your brain or cause any dangerous short circuits. Just remember, though, you heard about it here first.

Think Plastic Cocktail

2009-10-05T10:20:00.000-07:00

In the Movie "The Graduate" we were fed the vision of a new technology, 'plastic'.
One use of Today's 'plastic' technology has starving ARTISTS using a promissary piece of plastic to procure art supplies and even FOOD! Times are TOUGH all-over-the-world.
Let Us LIFE DRAWING WORKSHOP students see 'plastic' as an OPPORTUNITY to evolve.
Let us ponder the concept 'plastic' as a way to get in OUT-OF-THE-BOX LAND for something NEW.
Part of the Artist being you able to use that tool 'plastic' is the Artist using a sketchbook, as constantly as possible, and in it, perceive various ingredients to then compound into 'cocktail'. A mixing to two disparate ideas into a merged one.
Plastic.
Fluid.
slipping through a time warp to see with New Eyes.
Chief Engineer scotty beams you to another planet where the rules are different.
your subconscious starts fires off suggestions in all directions as a sugar rush invades your bloodstream.
plastic.
fasten your seat belts and put the pedal to the plastic.

Reading an Essay

2009-09-29T09:35:00.000-07:00

The Critique

A critical aspect of the Figure Drawing Workshop happens about 9 p.m. We make an opportunity to exercise our eyes and engage our intellects. We observe what kinds of marks are being made in room 23 tonight. We know something has been happening because we have felt the energy and heard some kind of scratching and the occasional grunt or sigh.

Our goal of learning to see has been practiced. Our goal of learning to say what we see will now take place. Now is the time for you to hang up a drawing you made tonight and let us all examine it. We all have a common quest and we all will learn from each other.

After you find a space to pin up your drawing, stay up front and look closely at the other drawings being assembled. Ask yourself how this mark was made. Notice what is unique about that mark and think how you would describe its characteristics. Is it long and graceful? Is it short and energetic? Find an adjective to describe the mood or presence of the drawing.

Our method of calling on the artist for a comment is copied from Jorgen Hansen's tradition. When your turn comes up, briefly answer What catches your eye, and Why. The goal of developing our ability to see requires we engage our eyeballs and intellects, our previous scrutinizing of museum masterpieces, the constant bombardment of visual stimuli, a mixture of all we have read and heard and seen before.

We use the language of art for our brief comment and we stay engaged in this process as others comment because we are looking for some tiny light bulbs going off inside our heads. We are making brainwave connections as we understand concepts. We are learning to see. We are looking for a new idea to try and we stay anxious to have that last pose to try out our new idea NOW.

Writing an Essay

2009-09-23T21:15:00.000-07:00

The Timing of the Poses.

The first poses are for warming up and forgetting the day's distractions. The poses are very short and this forces you to look 'quicker than normal' and develop your quick eye and use the part of the brain that sees the whole image.

We first have poses of 15-second length. In our writing an essay analogy I say that you will develop your quick eye so that during the 15 seconds you can write a word about the pose. My advice is to keep your charcoal hand moving and your eyes quickly moving from model to your paper and back and forth. Don't start at the Head. Start at the Feet.

Start your mark making at the bottom left of your paper and look first at the model's foot you see to your left. Work your way up the left side (what you see to your left) of the posing model, outline the arms, go around the head, go down the right side until you are back at the feet again.

When we switch to 45-second poses you can now write 3 words about the pose. This is a sentence that can describe the main gesture and two other lines expanding your interpretation of the pose.

We proceed to 2.5 minute poses and you will write a paragraph of sentences that also includes the space around the model and the plane of the model's platform.

Poses of 5 minutes, 10 minutes and 20 minutes follow and this is the time to use this looking 'longer than normal' to gather details for your essay. Move as slowly as possible following the line of the model. Add details to show the light and shadow of the form. Add details of the background in which the model exists.

When the clock is running for the 5-minute and longer poses, I will advise you of when the time is half-gone. (or is the cup half-full?). Use this warning to zoom out and look at your whole paper and make sure your drawing is halfway done. I will advise you of 45-seconds remaining and without panicking you look at your drawing and decide where the three lines you know you can make in this time should be added to strengthen your drawing.

This class is about Learning to See and Learning to Say what we See. A lot of this learning takes place around 9 pm when we put up some drawings to have a quick look at and a comment about. We don't want to take up too much time here because if we sit down and stop drawing we get tired and fall asleep and don't want to draw anymore. We exercise our visual eyes and see the marks others have been making. Walk up and take a close look at the drawings. Keep the comments short so that we have time for one last pose in which to try a new idea we saw from someone's Essay.

I enjoy the Essays that you write, realizing that some of them are so unique that 'never in a million years could I write that essay.'

Thank You for your attention.

Bobs Figure Drawing Workshop

2009-09-22T10:59:00.000-07:00

Welcome to Bob's Figure Drawing Workshop

This blog was started by Bob Mask, who currently teaches a Figure Drawing Workshop class in the Santa Barbara City CollegeContinuing Education Division.

When in session, this class meets on Thursday evening, from 7 to 10 pm, in room 23 of the Schott Center, in Santa Barbara, CA

Some members of this class have been coming to draw from the model for 20 years or more.

This class wants to continue in the vein of the honored Jorgen Hansen, who faithfully gave of himself to many beloved students (and a lot of otherwise classifieds too) for over 30 years.

He taught us to prize our individuality and to use our drawing and our art to become a more rounded person. Wasn't the "Circle Talk' about getting rounder as we get older?