Figure Drawing UWW Summer 2018

One of my summer pleasures since about 2012 has been attending the Community Figure Drawing open studio at UW Whitewater on Monday evenings.  There is no instruction, just three hours with an undraped model for participants to draw or paint.  The fee is reasonable, and nobody minds if anyone comes late or leaves early.  I enjoy driving the back roads there and back, and treating myself to frozen custard on the way home. 

It's a joy.

Last summer, because of my cancer diagnosis, surgery, and chemo sessions, I did not attend figure drawing, and I felt the loss.  But this year I am pretty much back to my real life (with asides for CAT scans and check ups), and I have had cataract surgery so that I am no longer fearful about driving at night.  So anyway, I went back  to figure drawing Monday night.

I will admit that I was uncertain about whether I could still draw worth a darn, but just told myself that this activity is not a contest, and that the pleasure was in the process, not the results.  Sometimes I have to take my attitude aside and lecture it about these things. In the end it turned out OK, and I enjoyed getting back into drawing from direct observation, and a little larger than I do in my studio or journals.

These are some of my drawing from Monday evening.  I have a special fondness for the five minute poses, since they force me to really concentrate and go for large shapes instead of details.  The last one, the face, was done in fifteen minutes, because I needed to leave my 8:30 p.m.

Community Figure Drawing

I knew it had been while since I posted, but I'm shocked to see how long it has actually been, especially since I have been drawing, painting, making collages and all sorts of things. 

Community Figure Drawing at UW Whitewater is a program that has been going year round for at least twenty years, although I've only been attending about five summers.  A few weeks back the director of the program emailed to say that regular attendees were being invited to submit direct observation drawing for a gallery show on campus, a show that turned out to be very nice. I was a little nervous that my gesture drawing , done quickly on loose paper, unframed, might look a little like something put up on the refrigerator with magnets, but no.  They looked fine.

The attendance at these session varies,  Last week was free and the place was packed, around twenty people.  This week the regular summer price of $10 for three hours began, and only four people attended, which is disappointing. I only stay two hours, since I like to leave and drive while there is still some daylight, what happens when a person has older eyes I guess.

Anyway, I worked smaller last night, and experimented with using neocolor crayons, which make less of a mess on my hands.  I layered gesture drawing right on top of one another, and ended up liking that effect fairly well.  I used a plain old pencil for the longer poses.  Examples follow.

Summer is Over

This week in southern Wisconsin has been glorious - blue skies, temperatures in the 70's, low humidity, few bugs.  These are the sort of days that when I was teaching, inside a cement block room all day, I wanted more than anything to be outdoors.  I appreciate my freedom to come and go, to paint my front door, plant a pretty mum, photograph at the cemetery, take a top down ride on a country road.

But, summer was good too.  I backed away from entering my art in many shows.  I did enter two WRAP (Wisconsin Regional Art Program) shows, and came away with mixed feelings.  I enjoyed both presenter/judges - each as very accomplished and enthusiastic.  But neither struck me as being a very articulate judge.  I can accept differences in taste and opinion, but I want whoever is judging the show to present clear criteria for what makes one piece better than another.  Simply saying "I liked it" isn't enough, and neither is the perennial lament that the show was difficult to judge.  Sure it is.  But the judge's job is to have, and to apply, reasonable criteria and explain it to the people did the work, and paid for the privilege to show it and have it judged.  For the judge to admit they know little about sculpture, or photography, or abstraction, and then go on to judge anyway is a disservice to everyone.  Maybe there can be two people at these events, a presenter and a different person as a judge. I don't know.

I went to fewer Monday evening figure drawing sessions than in previous years, mostly because through much of the summer it seemed that Mondays evenings were stormy.  The studio is about twenty miles away, and sessions are in the evening, so if the weather is bad I generally just stay home.  That said, I went to about four sessions, and did some drawing that I enjoyed.  The last one I attended was a month ago, and I only took out the sketches to spray fix this morning.  I'm always surprised by them, when they've been put away for a while, and usually like them better after that breathing time passes.

 This weekend is the State WRAP event in Madison.  My painting didn't win any special award, though my little artist trading card sized painting was chosen to be included in a calendar, and sold, which was nice.  I look forward to the social event on Friday evening and the speaker on Saturday.  It's humbling to see how much good work non-professional artists around the state are doing.

Community Figure Drawing

The one area where I have learned to work a bit larger comfortably is at my summer session of figure drawing.  This summer it seems like nearly every Monday evening featured thunder storms, some of them memorable, so I missed a couple for those, and last week I had a senior moment and drove the twenty or so miles to the session only to discover I had forgotten my drawing materials.  Duh.

But the week the weather was fine, and I loaded the car early in the afternoon so there was no forgetting.  Our model, Will, is very easy going a comfortable, and all went well. 

I usually do ll the shorter poses on Canson "Biggie" sketchpads with charcoal.  I like the short poses, which allow for variety, and lots of practice. Also models can hold more interesting poses for short periods of time, unlike the longer poses which need to be something a person can hold for 20 or more minutes.

The last poses of the evening are a little longer, 20-40 minutes.  I don't especially want to work on this sort of sketch more than twenty minutes, just because by that time I am usually getting tired, and I am not interested in tremendously detailed drawings.  There are a couple artists who campaign for the longer poses, so at the end of the evening I just leave early.  This time I rather liked my pencil drawing of the model, though one hand never was resolved in the time allowed.  Still - I enjoyed the session.

Random

It's the first day of summer, the solstice, but sunshine is in short supply.  We've been in a rainy patch this week, and that has prevented me from heading up to Door County as I had hoped I could do.  My art seems to be limited to Monday evening figure drawing and playing around with an online collage sketchbook class I signed up for.

My project involving entering the names of Janesville's oldest burials at Oak Hill cemetery on Find a Grave was put on hold temporarily when hackers brought the website to its knees for a couple days.  I realized when I couldn't look up my entries or make new ones, that I may have the beginnings of an addiction here.  When the site was restored yesterday I headed out to Oak Hill to photograph a few old headstones.  I was surprised to see that workers had already demolished the 1912 red brick drive-through porch on the chapel.  I wondered how that would affect the appearance of the building, and was surprised to find I think it will eventually look better without the addition, though the old porte cochere did provide welcome shade.

Other than that we are still camping in our own house, living out of an old green Coleman picnic cooler while we wait for our new stainless steel refrigerator to arrive.  The old Amana quietly expired a week ago, and now that I no longer have it, I am appreciating the wonder of readily available ice on hot days.  We are eating out a lot.

Monday Evening Community Figure Drawing

Week two of the summer session of Whitewater's Community Figure Drawing went fairly well.  Our faithful male model posed, and I found myself doing a better job of filling up my large (18x24 inch) sketchbook pages in both 5 minute and 20 minute poses.  I did beg him to quit sitting in the wooden chair with slat back, since drawing the chair was taking up most of my time and psychic energy, so for this pose he sat in a simple desk chair.

Both of the drawing here are 20 minute poses.  I'm still feeling rusty after taking so many months off, but this week was easier than last, and I just kept at it, not beating myself up too badly in my own mind and taking each pose as it came.  I usually leave the session with 8 or 9 drawings after about two and half hours, so I see that as a good thing.

There was an unexpected pleasure last evening that had nothing to do with trying to draw.  A young woman introduced herself by her first name, and said she was new to the group.  It turned out she was also from Janesville, and was an elementary art teacher.  When I asked about her last name I knew why she looked familiar.  She had been in my freshman English class over a dozen years ago.  I remembered her mostly for her friendly smile and her passion for drawing horses. 

Small world.

Back to Summer Figure Drawing

18x24 inches, charcoal

5 minute gesture drawing

It's summer, at least according to the local university calendar, and time to begin various and assorted renovation projects.  Last summer the school where I like to attend open figure drawing sessions on Monday evenings ripped up a couple parking lots and roads, and this summer they're doing over the experimental theater space and all the ceilings and light fixtures throughout the arts building.  I guess it doesn't matter, as long as a model and several artists show up to draw.

It's hard starting back into figure drawing after not having done it since last August.  As hard as going off a diet and then going back on.  As hard as exercising, then becoming a couch potato,  and then heading back to the gym.  Inertia gets you.  All winter I did collage work,and when I drew, it was portraits from photos, no larger than 8x10 inches.  In summer I like taking an evening to drive the half hour or so to the university, treating myself to some supper, then drawing from direct observation for a couple hours. For these sessions I really like working larger and bolder than usual, and often the warm up gesture drawings are more appealing to me than the longer poses.  It certainly was true this week.  Just bang it out, and suppress the urge to fiddle with details.

 18x24 inches

colored pencil and pastel

The model usually does a series of short, 3-5 minute, warm up poses, and then does a couple twenty minute poses.  This was one of those, and I find myself playing around with details more than I want even at 20 minutes.

18x24 inches

Derwent Coloursoft pencils on toned paper

There is always a 40 or 45 minute pose, broken up for the model's benefit into a couple sessions.  I think I wrote 20 minutes on this drawing, but it actually was 20 minutes on the body and another 15 or so on the face before I packed up and headed out.  I like it well enough, though not so well as the bolder gesture drawing.

I generally leave a little early for a couple reasons.  First, and probably most important is that it takes me almost 45 minutes minutes to get home taking the back roads, and I am so keyed up after the drawing session that I need time to unwind before bed.  I find that if I stay until the end people get to chatting and I don't make it out the door in enough time.  My other little secret is that I like to stop at Culvers on the way back and indulge in some frozen custard.  This week they had $1 shortie shakes.  My fresh raspberry shake was a perfect finish to the first session of the season.

Back in the Studio

Luce, for Julia Kay's Portrait Party

9x11 inches, colored pencil on toned sketchbook paper

Spring is going wild outside here in southern Wisconsin, and I have been having a devil of a time making time to do any art.  I think I can chalk it up to a basic need to get outside after that very long and brutal winter.  My body needs sunshine and fresh air!  That said, I think doing my art, as much as I love it, is a little like exercising in that once I let it slide it is hard to get back into the habit.  

So, earlier this week I put aside planting flowers, pulling weeds, and photographing headstones for a few hours of drawing.  It started when I went digging for my materials for the summer figure drawing program I like to attend at UW Whitewater.  I have a "go" bag of drawing materials, a couple large pads of paper, and other miscellaneous necessaries, but all of it had disappeared into the morass of my art attic and needed locating.  Looking at the various pens, chalks, and pencils got me considering my small stash of Derwent Coloursoft pencils, and I suddenly had to use them.

This is the small portrait I did from a photograph for the Flickr group Julia Kay's Portrait Party.  Luce must have taken a shot of herself sitting at the computer, hence the lighting.  But I liked her expression and the way her hands framed her face, so I chose her to draw.  I have done a series of these portraits using very few pencils, and adding a textured background by rubbing over an embossing plate.  It's quick and easy, and makes an interesting but not overwhelming background.  

Clearly I need to replenish my stock of these buttery soft pencils, because I like the effect here very much.

Equinox 2013

My most recent abstract paper collage, 8x8 inches

It is a beautiful day in the neighborhood, and I was mostly in Madison at the State WRAP conference.  I always come away from these shows and talks invigorated and full of ideas.  The Wisconsin Regional Artists Program is a venerable program, begun over 70 years ago at the University of Wisconsin under the guidance of John Steuart Curry.  The idea was, and is, to promote artistic growth in non-professional rural people.  The program sponsors shows around the state, an opportunity for amateur artists of all sorts to show their work, and get encouragement and feedback on it. At each local show a certain percentage is chosen to go to the state show, which has traditionally been on the UW campus. 

This is my piece, almost a full sheet, which hung in the Pyle Center in Madison for the past month.  This painting started out as a watercolor, based on a photo a model at figure study allowed me to take.  Later on I added pastel, which made the colors more interesting.  She always posed in yoga clothes, which made a painting of her easier to send to a show like this.  I'm not sure how they would respond to nudes, which is what I usually draw at figure studio sessions.  I was interested in the judging this year.  I know judging is entirely subjective, but was surprised at how few figures or portraits received any special awards or recognition.  There were some beautiful pieces at this show.

So anyway, the autumnal equinox happens today, and we head into fall.  I'm enjoying cooler evening temperatures, which make working upstairs much easier than when the temperature is higher.  But I know the days of hummingbirds, basil in pots, and tender flowers is coming to an end soon.  And that is always sad.

Figure Drawing, New Pencils

Five minute gesture drawing, charcoal, pastel

The summer session of Whitewater's Community figure drawing continues, with a small but loyal group.  We all get along well, though individual goals vary wildly.  One craves long poses, while others prefer more variety.  One works very small, and others work larger.  One works in charcoal, another in pencil, a third in ink.  But all enjoy the immediacy of a live model, and the discipline of working week after week.

Thirty minute drawing, colored pencil on toned paper

While I have been resisting spending too much time on faces, preferring to emphasize overall shape over detail, I enjoyed using a new-to-me small set of drawing pencils from Derwent.  They're called Coloursoft, and I adored the silky application, and rich color.  I got mine in Sturgeon Bay last week, and plan to return in a week or so when I return to Door County for a collage workshop, and I want a few more to try.

Community Figure Drawing at UW Whitewater

People have been participating in life drawing session at UW Whitewater since the 1970s, and the university allows the sessions to continue for interested area community members during the summer.  The group has free use of the drawing studio, which has a good raised platform and lighting, and schedules female and male models for people to draw.  This summer the non-instructional sessions are Monday evenings, 5:30 until 8:30 pm at the Greenhill Center for the Arts in Whitewater, Wisconsin.

It's a good deal.  The models are currently paid $36 for a three hour session, and the cost is split among the people who show up to draw.  So, it's better to have more participants, rather than fewer.

I enjoy the sessions because it is one time when I work directly from life, rather than from photographs.  I like working large and loose, like changing my emphasis from week to week, working with different materials, concentrating on line one week, or working on trying to link shadow patterns, or find a way to use watercolors in a compelling way.

Other participants work in other ways, some drawing only in graphite, or colored pencil, or pastels.  Some are mostly interested in capturing an accurate portrait, some like to capture gesture more.  The best sessions are well attended, when a sort of energy and camaraderie develops that carries everyone along for the entire evening.  Other evenings, when only one or two artists attend, the energy seems lower.

I find an evening of drawing to be a splurge, a sort of art-y retreat from the rest of the week, though it is hard to find ways to share what I draw.  Quite a few of my friends are baffled by my enthusiasm, and frankly seem embarrassed by the very idea of drawing an undraped model.  Many area shows will not accept art that features nudity.  I keep looking for converts, though, posting little flyers for the sessions, creating a page on Facebook.  But the group remains small.

These are two of the five minute gesture drawings I did this week.

Figures in the North Woods

For a number of reasons, I never took a workshop in 2012.  This year I was determined to not repeat that mistake.

So, I signed up for a class with Robert Burridge at Dillmans Resort four hours north of here, near Lac du Flambeau.  The class description indicated that the emphasis would be on drawing an undraped model, then painting in acrylic, and using collage elements, to create abstract paintings.

I spent weeks ahead of time going over the materials list, covering full sheets of watercolor paper with white gesso, figuring ways to get as much as I could into as portable a format as I could. I made sure my electronics were charged, that I had cords.  I took drawing supplies, paint, collage materials, adhesives, a bucket, in short, the works.

There were some issues.  I forgot that there is no cell phone service at the resort - it's remote.  And anyway, even if I was in Lac du Flambeau, or Boulder Junction, my yearly contract and payment was up.  So, the phone stayed in my suitcase.  I had my iPod Touch for checking weather, email, and for showing people wee photos of some of my art, but realized when I got there that I had the wrong recharging cord - for the iPad, instead.  Oops. I was able to borrow one from another student.

My drawing materials were OK, and I had enough paper, but I should have brought my gesso to use as white, and to cover up the things I did that I never want to anyone to see outside the classroom. I definitely should have brought bug spray - the skeeters were fierce.

But it was an excllent week.  I admire Robert Burridge's work very much, and it was a great opportunity to watch him work and solve problems. My roommate, whom I had never met before, was congenial and fun.  It rained, but not so much as to make life miserable.  I got to hang out in a classroom that overlooked a lovely lake, with eagles and loons on it.  People loaned me gesso.  Thumbs up.

My only quibble - many of the tips and stories were repeats from another class.  It didn't hurt to have some of them repeated, but I would rather have had more time with the model - she was lovely, calm, and altogether a professional.

Anyway, I probably made a couple dozen 3-8 minute sketches of her in charcoal, pencil and ink.  These are just a few that I liked. They're larger than I usually work, and I am determined to find a large sketch pad that has toned paper.  For now, I plan to tone a few blank pages for the local summer session of figure drawing that will be held starting Monday at UW Whitewater.

Random Thoughts

Life has been keeping me hopping lately.  We just returned from a week-long cruise to Alaska, and the weeks leading up to it and now trying to catch up have played havoc with my usual routine.  Before we left I tried frantically to get all my bedding plants in, the deck scrubbed and re-stained, and lose a few pounds.  I did get everything planted.  The deck is half done, and I lost four pounds - all of which magically reappeared after a week of cruise ship food and drink.  I didn't paint a thing in May.

The cruise was great fun, but I fretted about the cat, and worried that all the plants I put in would dry up and die.  I thought Alaska was beautiful, and I did some jaw-dropping and bug-eyed staring at humpback whales, rafts of sea otters and crowds of harbor seals.  It occurred to me that I probably couldn't live on Alaska's rainy coast without losing my mind.  It's too wet and cloudy, even though the mountains and glaciers are stunning.  It also occurred to me that people with expensive cameras and long lenses need to remember that the people with cheap cameras have just as much right to a clear shot as those with better equipment. More than once my view from a tour boat was totally blocked by a photographer with all sorts of fancy equipment in tow.

Maybe I'm just in a bleak mood because of the results of the Wisconsin recall election.  I promise, I'm not going there.

When we got home I had an email from a local berry farm that strawberries are in.  I had a bag of rhubarb from my friend Mary in the refrigerator, so today I made strawberry rhubarb pie.  This will not help with weight loss, but the time for fresh fruit is short, and missing it is worse than calories, I think.  I used a quarter cup of tapioca to thicken it, but the juices still bubbled over, as you can see here.  I'm looking forward to dessert tonight.

I decided that I had to get back into drawing and painting.  After a few weeks off, it's hard to start again, sort of like when I stop going to the gym.  Getting back into the routine requires some self discipline.  A note from the open studio group where I sometimes do figure drawing reminded me that it had been a while since I worked on a figure.  This started out as a watercolor, but is becoming a mixed media piece, because the paint is largely being covered over with pastels - a medium I rarely use.  I like it so far, though my husband's noncommittal "Uh huh" makes me think it needs work.  It's not finished - I'm just glad to get back to working on something.

Monday Night Figure Study

Monday night was a happy one for many Wisconsinites because the Packers won big.  I am not a sports fan, so rather than spoil my husband's fun, I decided to drive to Whitewater for Monday night figure study.  I don't usually like to go out during the regular school year, since I don't like going both ways on rural roads in the dark.  But I hadn't really drawn from direct observation much since the end of summer session, and felt the urge to go.

I approach the evening sessions a little different than most of the other participants.  I often use several media, including paint, while most of them use dry media exclusively.  I also do my work in two large bound notebooks (one for watercolor and acrylic, one for dry media) , and I keep all my sketches bound together, while most of the others work on loose sheets.  Finally, I really do not worry much about the results, and try to interest myself in the process, and trying to see improvement over time.  Maybe I'm just rationalizing because so many of the others are so very accomplished. 

I was a little sad when I realized that my favorite notebook that I use for dry media is getting filled up. So, I experimented.  I have a couple of large pieces of kraft paper that came when I ordered some Japanese rice papers.  I cut the sheets up and used spray adhesive to mount them over pages that had smeared charcoal or pastel, or drawing I really wanted to forget.  I wasn't all that careful about making the brown paper absolutely square, and I didn't worry too much about wrinkles in the paper, though I didn't aim for texture.  These two little sketches were about five minutes each.  I just used the brown as a midtone and added black, white and brown conte crayons.  I like the effect very much.

I think this was a twenty minute pose.  When I showed the pages to some of the others, one woman said that spray adhesive is toxic and that she would never compromise her brain cells by using it.  She uses her won homemade wheat paste.  That sounds grand, and I agree that spray adhesive is nasty stuff, but I like how well it works, with a minimum of extra moisture on thin sketchbook paper.  As for my brain cells, I'm sure I have compromised them already, though I do try to use spray products with adequate ventilation.  I liked the way the added kraft paper provides some variety in the sketchbook, and it stiffens some of the pages as well. 

This was a thirty minute pose.  I added some sanguine conte crayon here to warm up his skim tones some.  I think that if I analyzed this closely I'd see some problems with proportions, but I was still pleased with how the materials worked out, and plan to glue in some more sheets of kraft paper, and try again, maybe the next time the Packers play on Monday evening.

Monday Evening Figure Drawing

Monday evening's figure drawing model

Three years ago I started seeking out figure drawing studio sessions so that I could improve my ability to draw and paint from direct observation.  The first year I drove 40 miles to Madison, and took a class at the university.  It was good, a nice group, helpful instructor.  My problem was the timing - 7-10:00 PM.  With an hour drive each way, I found myself being very tired driving home, which sometimes was downright frightening.  So, I asked around and discovered the group I have been working with at UW Whitewater on Monday evenings.

The Whitewater studio group meets earlier - 5:30 - 8:30 PM in the summer, which works better for me.  It's also a shorter drive than to Madison.  This group has a small core of people who have been drawing together for a long some, some of them since the 1970s.  Some are local, while others drive in from area towns, and occasionally a university student or staff member joins us.  People are very welcoming, and everyone has his or her own way of working.  Some use draw media, graphite, pastels, charcoal, while others paint.

Some sit to work, other stand.  There are easels, and there are a couple tables.  The university has a studio with a raised platform and theatrical lights, though recently several of the lights are out of order. There never seems to be anyone else around to ask for help in the summer, though it is a bit easier during the academic year.

During the session we play music, and the atmosphere is relaxed.  We have both male and female models, some clothed, many not.  But there is always a feeling of camaraderie, a refreshing lack of competition among the people who show up to work. The cost is very reasonable, $5.00 per session.

If anyone in the area want to join in, let me know and I will get more details to you.