Live Model drawing - Theory

Last Thursday afternoon the Model Theory course started, four times 2 hours of intensive drawing and listening.

Maurice Elstub and Gwenaelle Chabaud in deep concentration

It is semi-private tutoring, with a maximum of 4 participants and the objective is to learn 'how-to-do-it', as well as the theoretical basics on proportions, perspective, light, dark and shadow and anatomy.

Camilla Fitzgerald and Trish Morris working hard on their 10-minute pose

Marina in a 10-minute pose

The first 3 afternoons we work with photo’s and teacher Marina as our model (dressed) and there is plenty of time for LOTS of comments and advice (or 'nagging' as we call it) and discussion and evaluation of the work! The 4th session we'll have a real live, nude model...

Of course we've only had the first session, but that was great fun and impressive improvements were made and everybody was dead tired after 2 hours (which is a good sign!)

Tomatoes in aquarelle

Tomatoes in the bowl of Anna-Karin Fast. Not yet finished but already interesting!

Last week the aquarellistas took a break from the roses without thorns... The  occasion was the exercise for the starters, who were going to paint a still life with rounded shapes to consolidate what they learned in the spheres-exercise.  I brought a couple of round (and not so round) objects, a red pepper, 3 sherry tomatoes, an orange, a round bottle with nailpolish and two marbles to practice on... Anna-Karin had a wonderful string of big, juicy, red tomatoes with her - and we ended up painting tomatoes, each of us in their own style! The tube with "Winsor red" is almost finished...

 Lesley Bufton's still life with nailpolish and marbles: to be continued...

 

Edith Alborni's tomatoes in glass bowl

Tomato still life in interesting colours by Bibbi Isaksson

And last but definitely not least, no tomato but a gorgeous rose by Ann Edwards -

as you can see she did a stunning colour&contrast job again!

Oil painting on Tuesday morning

a large abstract in Veronique Vandenhoek's trademark neutrals

a bright view of houses by the sea by Jacqueline Degeorges

Namibian lady by Charmian Murley

Nelly's class is an atelier libre and as the pictures show, it is very exciting to see the range of ideas that people have and the different techniques they use to express themselves.  We see how the other students work so we learn from them too.

by Charmian Murley

Pim’s Acrylics class - a special project

Once a month Pim has a special project for his Acrylics classes. Last month the project was “Summer: Hot & Dry”. The February project was “Spring: New life & rebirth”.  Members can either come with their own photos or images that they want to paint, they can paint from memory or use one of the many suggestions Pim has prepared for the class. Below you see 3 of the artists with their work.

Anne Marie Viborel and her interpretation of spring

Gonnie Rikken and her interpretation of spring

Irene Olkkonen an her interpretation of spring

by Irene Olkkonen

Watercolour starters - progress!

Tuesday afternoon is aquarellista (or 'zen') afternoon, and apart from our regular, advanced artists, there is also a starter group. In five or six afternoons they learn the groundrules of the technique. This post is meant to make them a big fat compliment on their progress - with the results of the 'suggest volume' exercise...

 Lesley Bufton's finished exercise - it is fabulous! Note in the first place that it has volume, then the bird with its wonderful feathers, the orange ball down left, the fried egg in the middle and all these other animals with their intricate details!!!

Roly Bufton likes the big picture and the bright colours - and his painting shows it! Below the striped red-pink cylindre demonstrates that the suggestion of volume is better when you follow the shape with your pattern

Roly's excellent spheres! They seem to roll from the paper!

And the same for Lesley's marbles... fabulous...

The 'advanced' group in the meantime is working on their top secret entries for the Grand Prix d'aquarelle... Next week more about that!

Variations on a theme

Rose by Ann Edwards - she will add a strong shadow in the next stage

Ann, Cathie, Edith and me got together on Aquarellista Tuesday, everyone else was either traveling, having extensive lunch with husband or ill... The four of us had a great time, we drank tea from XLmugs, discussed our work in detail and have something to show for, all with 'Roses Without Thorns' in the backs of our heads... 

Cathie van der Stel's angel - even more beautiful now that it is finished

 Cathie also started another version of the  thornless rose... Not finished but already stunning!!

Would this be the one for the contest? Or still a study... 

Edith Alborni's rose without thorns - she worked wet-in-wet combined with a little bit of masking fluid

And in the same line of thought, maybe slightly less serious, I started painting a very corny single-cover, of a sixties single by 'Gert & Hermien' with the title "No roses without thorns"

Live model drawing - Monday 9.30 - 12 - Marina Kulik

Sunniva Langmoen, Neville Moray, Lucia Gualtieri and Sandra Seymour-Dale hard at work...

Every other Monday there is a live model class, for the artists who are seriously studying the human shape and want to train their hand-eye coordination. I don't think there is something more difficult than drawing the human body, in proportion, and with a likeness! Yet the Monday morning group does a great job...

Mélisandre by Charmian Murley

I have noticed that the people who participate in the live class are not afraid to take on whatever subject with their pencils...

Sue Ellis

Our "model du jour" was new to us, Mélisandre, a professional model from Paris - and it was a fantastic experience to work with her!

Virginie Bertoluzzi

She sits incredibly still, I don't have to tell her anything about positions, she knows what will be interesting to draw - and from all angles.

Gwenaelle Chabaud

Apart from that she has a beautiful body... No wonder she is fully booked all the time, but I'll try to get her as often as possible, and we may spend the full Monday with her and use paint...

Trish Morris

I took pictures with my phone, they came out really bad, so I'm afraid I won't be able show you Sunniva's, Neville's, Sandra's and Lucia's work this time...

Marijke van Schijndel's quick sketches