A Model Song

Charcoal and Chalk on Gray Paper

The drawing above is of a woman who used to model for the weekly drawing class a few years ago. She modeled a number of times as did her sister and brother. She was one of our best models. One evening the class's regular studio wasn't available so we used another studio, one with lighting different from our usual studio. With the light coming over my left shoulder, I took advantage of the unusual illumination to make the drawing shown above.

In the drawing sessions I tend to get caught up in rendering the subject and usually don't really know much about the models themselves. It was near the end of one of these sessions when someone, I think  one of her siblings, told me that this model could sing, and recommended I google her name to hear her singing. It took a while for me to get around to it but eventually I did. That's when I had one of those "I had no idea!" moments. She can sing.

See? I told you. He's not bad either. Dig the pink tie.

For more about drawing sessions, go to "Labels" on the side bar and click on "sketching" or "drawing."

An Easy Easel

Caution: do not set your easel up in the middle of the road!

When painting on 8" x 10" or smaller panels I use one of my pochade boxes. When painting 9" x 12" and larger I use an easel.

Don't I look fashionable?

This easel is a simple one. It's made from alder and uses metal hardware. Each of the three legs are made of two parts, both 7/8" square and 38" long. The parts that hold the painting panel are also made out 7/8" alder. The legs are joined together with a small jack chain that goes from one front leg to the back leg, then to the other front leg. Across the "V" shape formed by the chain are three pieces of coat hanger wire that form kind of a shelf. Coat hangers are a renewable resource. It doesn't matter how many I take out of my closet, there always seems to be more! Here's a picture of the chain and wire shelf:

This is where I usually put a small paintbox or palette. The brush washer and trash bag also hang from this shelf...

...and sometimes other things, as in whatever's hanging from the easel in that last photo. On occasion I've even put a small boulder on that wire-and-chain shelf to weigh the rig down on very windy days! The chain is attached to bolts by "S" hooks. The photo below on the left shows how the chain is attached to the front legs. It's adjustable here to allow the back leg to move farther out for better stability, or shortened to pull the back leg in closer when there is less space available to set up the easel. The photo on the right shows how the chain is attached to the back leg.

The legs are adjustable for height, too. The holes are two inches apart and sized for 3/16" bolts. Wing nuts and washers secure everything. This could be used to help level the easel on uneven ground, but I usually just do this:

How to Level Your Easel - Use Rocks!

The parts that hold the painting panels are held together by a single bolt and wing nut each. Finding  3/16" bolts long enough is a challenge. I had to go to a place that specializes in nuts and bolts.

The top is joined together by another hard-to-find long bolt. This bolt is long enough to allow the easel to be folded up completely for storage.

The angles for the cuts were determined by laying the parts out on the shop floor. When I thought the layout looked right, the angles were marked and cut making sure both sides were even. The wood is finished with danish oil.

I've made two other easels just like this one, except with longer legs. One is made out of alder and the other is oak. The wood was scrap that was being thrown away at a wood shop I used to work at. The parts were cut, planed, drilled and sanded on my lunch breaks or after work. The boss gave me the wood, so the only costs were for the hardware and finish. These could be made out of most any wood. If made from oak, hickory or some other tough wood the legs could be as narrow as 3/4". Pine could be used but might have to be beefed up in size. Whatever wood is used, make sure the grain is straight and knot free. Most of the bolts, wing nuts and washers I used are brass, but stainless or ordinary steel would work, too. Brass-plated acorn nuts are used on the end of the long bolts to keep them from gouging the car upholstery. Can't say that's been entirely successful. Oh, and carry extra wing nuts.

This is a light and sturdy easel. It's been carried to painting spots a mile or more from the car, and if needed, can hold painting panels up to 24" high, maybe more. There might be better easels on the market, but this one suits me just fine!

Pastel Profile of a Woman

9" x 12" Pastel on Coated Paper

Here's another sketch from the weekly drawing sessions. It was done with Faber-Castell Polychromos pastels and Conte pastel pencils on Art Spectrum Colourfix paper.

For more about drawing sessions, go to "Labels" on the side bar and click on "sketching" or "drawing."

Winter Marsh and Mountains

6" x 8" Oil on Panel

Here's a painting I did last Saturday. The view is looking South across marshes by Utah Lake, towards the southern end of the Wasatch Mountains. There's still ice on the lake, but it's starting to open up. Mallards, shovelers, pintails and canada geese are beginning to migrate through. 

Today the warm sunlight won out over the chilly breeze so I sat on a picnic bench near the lake and did a pencil sketch. I don't care what Punxsutawney Phil says, I had a touch of Spring fever today!

Charcoal Portrait Sketch Demonstration

For today's post it's back to the weekly drawing sessions. These are in-process photos of a charcoal drawing from a live model I sketched at one of the sessions a few weeks ago. It was done in a 12" x 9" sketchbook. Here's the initial sketch-in:

After indicating a few more darks, the entire sketch was rubbed with a paper towel to soften lines and give an uneven gray tone to the drawing which I like to work into. The paper towel came from the paper towel dispenser in the men's room. It's been used on a lot of charcoal drawings so it's full of charcoal dust which helps give that gray tone. Who says art supplies have to be expensive? Just be sure you get your paper towel from the appropriate restroom.

Here's how it looked at the end of the first twenty minutes:

During the break we walk around looking at each others work or sit and eat homemade jalapeño jelly on crackers and yak. After break I work up some of the darks and correct some drawing problems, especially in the lower face.

Continuing to work up the darks and beginning to put in some of the light tones:

Doesn't look too happy, huh? That will change. Wrapping up this evening's drawing session, I corrected the eyes, deepened the darks and brought everything together, I hope. This sketch took about two and a half hours. I forget how many breaks we took, but you can do the math if you'd like. Here's the finished sketch:

Sorry I forgot to get a photo of the model. She really was gorgeous - JUST KIDDING! He really was an older gentleman in a baseball cap! That was a joke!

For more about drawing sessions, go to "Labels" on the side bar and click on "sketching" or "drawing".

First Coyote

Book Cliffs Butte 18" x 24" Oil on Canvas Panel

The painting leading off this post was painted last summer. Although the season is different from the following story, this scene was painted in the same general area that the winter painting trip took place. The trip this story is about happened a year ago.

______________

Heard my first coyote of the new year last Friday.

A place in the Book Cliffs near Price in Utah is becoming a favorite place of mine to paint. A road there I like to explore parallels some spectacular geologic formations, and crosses the heads of a number of small canyons.

I've been itching to do some desert painting in spite of the cold, and last Friday seemed like a good day to try. The Book Cliffs are relatively close, so I headed out of the Utah Valley haze and into a clear sunny day in Spanish Fork Canyon. Then it was down Price Canyon and into the desert. My aim was to visit a small canyon southwest of Helper that I had visited last year, but snow had changed the appearance of things and months had faded my memory of the place, so I walked down the wrong canyon. It didn't take long to figure that out, but it seemed like a good place anyway, so I kept hiking.

This canyon isn't quite as deep as the one I had originally wanted to go to but is mostly typical of relatively small desert canyons. At least the ones I'm familiar with. Sandstone cliffs and jumbled boulders form the sides of the canyon. Pinion pine and juniper trees grow in loosely bunched forests and scattered stands in typical p&j fashion, from the canyon rim to the edges of the canyon floor. There are a few scrub oak thickets and the sharp, pointy leaves of the occasional yucca could be seen poking up through the snow. The unusual thing about this canyon was that the canyon floor seemed to be mostly marshland. Luckily, the marshes were frozen, and the ice supported my weight. If not for that this canyon might have been nearly impassable. I still had to push through stands of cattails and whippy little willows. The willows would occasionally whip me in the face or hands, and the cattails' fluffy seeds stuck all over me. I also had to push past the occasional russian olive, which might then rudely remind me how sharp and pointy they can be. There was more snow than expected, varying in depth from half a foot to halfway-to-the-knees. The snow was dry and grainy and surprisingly tiring to walk through.

Walking past several sunlit sandstone walls and outcrops, I had a feeling I should soon set up and paint but I kept on hiking, looking for better subjects. The usual "what's around the next bend" curiosity also kept pulling me farther down the canyon. Eventually I found a place and set up on a sagebrush bench. That's when the sunlight became impatient and abandoned me. The small scattered cirrus clouds thickened into a solid gray overcast, showing little sympathy for my attempts at a visual art career, and also showing the usual disrespect toward weather forecasters who said this wouldn't happen that day. So much for paintings of sunlit canyon walls. I decided to paint anyway. A successful landscape painter I know of has said that every time he goes out to paint, he comes back with either a painting or a lesson. Adopting that philosophy I set to painting, accompanied by only a few passing ravens or small flocks of raucous jays.

Afterward I headed back up canyon, once again pushing through whippy willows and cattails, and through tiring snow. Back out of the canyon I could see some low sun was temporarily getting through the overcast and casting a golden glow on the Book Cliffs. I drove to an open area, a place thick with deer, and started a sunset painting. I finished up this painting after dark by the light of my head lamp.

That's when I heard the coyote.

Yesterday's Drawing Session

12" x 9" Pastel on Paper

Today is Friday the 13th, but casting aside all superstitious fears (knock on wood) I'm going ahead with this post!

In contrast to the drawing in the last post, which was drawn I-don't-know-how-many-years-ago (maybe I should write the dates on my sketches?) The drawing pictured above is from last night's drawing session. It's pastel on paper that has a colored abrasive coating. The paper's sandpaper-like surface is designed to firmly grab and hold pastel pigment.

The earliest layers of a drawing on this kind of paper are blended with an inexpensive and ever-shortening 1" bristle brush. Later layers are not blended. The paper's grit is so rough that if If I use my fingers to blend like I do on normal sketch paper, I'd be leaving too much of myself on the drawing. I want my fingertips to stay on my fingers.

Rarely do I know who the model will be or what medium I'll use before I arrive at the drawing session.  I just arrive with my stuff and roll with the flow. Whether I use pastel on toned paper, break out the oil paints and canvas panel, or simply sketch with charcoal in a plain sketchbook depends on what I think I need to work on, what kind of model we have, or sometimes even how tired I am. One thing is for sure - even if I'm so tired all I can do is scribble a likeness in a sketchbook, I'm going to be there.

For more about drawing sessions, go to "Labels" on the side bar and click on "sketching" or "drawing."