Three Pears Standing - Thirty of 30 in 30!

Three Pears Standing, 10 x 10, oil on panel, L. Daniel © 2015

#30 in 30 Day Challenge

NFS

Goal reached! Paintings painted! Challenge achieved! It feels awfully good and if you were here right now, you would see a silly grin on my face! Now... with one more day left in the month, people keep asking, "what about January 31st?" Well, friends, tomorrow I will post a collage of all thirty paintings and share some thoughts from the journey. So please, please stay tuned.

PS - Yes, things do come full circle. I started with pears and I finished with pears. :)

PSS - Click HERE to visit my blog and see all 30 posts again.

Please join me for these upcoming Workshops:

March 26-29, 2015 | Plein Air | Click here to register: Austin, Texas

April 30-May 2, 2015 | Plein Air | Click here to register: St. Simons Island, GA

Special Post - 1

Seated Female, graphite on newsprint, 10 x 10, L. Daniel © 2014

20 minute pose

As promised, I am going to let you in on a little secret I have been keeping... I have been taking life drawing classes since the fall! It's something I haven't had time for (or MADE time for quite honestly), since college. I quite forgot how much fun it is and how good it is for training the eye (and the hand, and the heart, and the brain.) It's simply great discipline for any artist, regardless of chosen genre. My teacher is David Everett, an incredible sculptor here in Austin who is really good at explaining proportions and the relationships between weight and body masses. I am never ready to leave when the sessions are over. 

Like many life drawing classes, we start with 3 minute gesture drawings to warm up before going to the longer poses. The idea is to catch the attitude and mood of the pose with very few marks. Below are a few from my sketchbook that seemed to come close. It has been great practice, and very humbling at the same time. I have so very far to go!!! (Maybe that is why I kept it a secret.)

 

3 minute gesture drawings