The Mouth

Our final class focused on the mouth, We talked about the anatomy, and things to look for, the lobes of the lips and how lips are typically in shadow and light. Our model, Heidi was wonderful tonight.

Last Portrait Class, the Mouth 2

Thank you all for a great art class, we'll see you next fall or maybe in the portrait workshop, May 24/25

The Tricky Nose, Week 5

This week we talked specifically about the nose. We identified 5 basic areas: the keystone at the top, the top, 2 sides, and the area underneath. We talked about characteristics of each area, and looked at old master drawings to see how different artists have rendered the nose. Our model, Rosa, was fantastic today!

The Tricky Nose, Week 5

Remember, next week, we meet on Monday at 6 pm instead of Easter morning. Last class, we are having a potluck, if you'd like to bring something easy!

Beautiful Eyes, Looking at Features

We couldn't have had a better model today, especially with today's lesson about the eyes. Grace, who drew with us last session was wonderful! And, she gets the Stone-Statue Award. We first talked about our homework, thumbnail sketches of various portrait paintings, leading into the idea of starting a portrait with a quick thumbnail to help with the composition. We felt our own eye anatomy and looked at our neighbors eyes as well. We talked about the eye socket, the lids, shadowing on the eyeball, the shape of the iris, and where the highlights are. Today's work was very good from everybody.

Beautiful Eyes 2, Looking at Features

We talked about thumbnail sketching, doing a quick compositional impression before beginning. Several of today's drawing have the initial thumbnail included.

Beautiful Eyes 3, looking at Features

A big thank you to Matt for hosting our class at Gallery San Juan's new space. We all enjoyed looking at his and Rick's paintings.

Take-home Project, Composition

This week's project is to look at an art book or magazine and see how the portrait is composed within the rectangle. Draw out the composition as a thumbnail, to better understand the shapes. Above are some examples of thumbnails, not very detailed, just the big shapes. Please bring your drawing sheet to class.

Below,a drawing from my figure group, need new sharpies!

Shadow Makes the Form

Today we talked about shadow shapes, and what happens within shadows. We identified hard edge cast shadows and soft edged form shadows. Avery Adams, local musician and soon to be High school graduate was a great model today! Everyone is making excellent progress.

Shadow makes the form, 2

More great drawings from today's class. After blocking in the major shadow shapes, we looked for darker core shadows, close to the "tide line" of light/dark edge. We also looked for areas of reflected light, classically under the chin, to help turn the form. With so many curved surfaces on the head, there's a lot to keep track of, especially in an area like the nose with multiple rapid curves.