Figures, Figures... and hopefully more to come...

We did not have plein air painting this week, but I did make it to both Figure Group on Wednesday and Figure Drawing Class with Ben Shamback on Thursday. We had one of my favorite models for Figure Group - she has such an expressive face and has done great holding a pose. Here's my attempt to use watercolor and also apply some of the principles I've picked up in the Figure Drawing Class I'm also taking. We had pretty good turnout and hopefully will get enough artists to show up for the next couple of sessions before we disband for the rest of the summer. We are trying to figure out how to continue Figure Group into the fall and to determine where we will meet. More to come, I hope.

Thursday was our last session for the Figure Drawing Class. I've truly enjoyed this class and it has been a great refresher on drawing the figure: we've addressed contours, gestures, core vs. cast shadows, planes, etc. Although I missed the session last week, this week and last consisted of drawing one pose for the entire 3-hour class. Here is my attempt to apply all the principles we learned these past few weeks, plus Ben advised me to "lay in some of the background" to provide a reference value for the shadows and highlights on the figure - I kind of got carried away doing that. But it is amazing how many adjustments and improvements you can make over a 3-hour period. I think I'm about done with this one and am pleased with how it came out - only a few tweaks needed... This is charcoal (jumbo vine) on drawing paper.

Today I hosted my Mama Lisa painting group at my house. We had 10 of us participating in our monthly painting session and it was great fun. I started another watercolor portrait of grandbaby No.2 - I'll post when it is finished. It will be a companion piece to "Life is Good".