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

SketchCrawl 38 - world wide event!

Capitol Promenade, 8 x 9, graphite on paper, L. Daniel © 2013

Saturday was the 38th World Wide SketchCrawl, where willing artists around the world gather to sketch, and crawl, and sketch again... ultimately sharing their images and journaling over the internet. The event was started by San Francisco artist Enrico Casarosa in 2004 and it has grown larger every year. 

A group of us from Plein Air Austin and Austin Urban Sketchers (a meet up group) gathered to draw in the downtown Capitol area. It was a delightful way to spend the morning, and especially fun knowing that artists all over the world were doing the same thing! Greetings from downtown Austin!

11th and Congress, 7 x 8, graphite on paper, L. Daniel © 2012

Happy SketchCrawl participants in Austin, Texas

26th World Wide SketchCrawl

Texas State Capital Building, 8 x 8

(Interrupting my Davis Mountains trip postings; back to that tomorrow.)

Today, Plein Air Austin participated in the 26th World Wide SketchCrawl. This is a drawing phenom where artists around the world pick up their sketchbooks and just sketch - and crawl - and sketch again. Then everyone posts their drawings. The global aspect is fun. After drawing all morning, we celebrated with a fabulous lunch outside and passed our sketchbooks around the table. These are my sketches... and you can click HERE to see other drawings from our group. Many thanks to Robin Cheers and Kate Merriman who organized the event! We had a great time.

Down Tenth, 5 x 7

Ninth Street Alley, 7 x 8

State Theatre, 7 x 9

Patio Shadows, 5 x 6