October 18 Drawing & more photos

Above is last nights drawing. We had the same model that we had a few weeks back, but this time the pose was much better, at least from my position. This is the model that I only did head and shoulders of the last time I was drawing her. I am fairly pleased with how this one came out.

What was fun about last night was that we had a good group of participants unlike last week when there were only 3 of us (not counting the model) The total turn out last night was 8, including Scott but not including the model. Of the 8 artists 6 were painting, but each artist used a different style/approach to their painting, and the differences weren't simply based on different views of the model. One artist was outlining her figure in black, she ended up leaving the face blank with no features. This creates a rather flat image on the canvas. Scott suggested the artist might want to check out the paintings of Alice Neel, an American artist who died in 1984. She was known for her portraits, but they aren't pretty studio images, rather they are dynamic abstractions. Scott takes a rather abstract approach to the figure, working with large blocks of color. Another artist widened the body and made the models head relatively small. A third painted just the head and upper torso, similar to what I was drawing a few weeks back. The last two painters were going for realistic and both manage to create successful images.

I can admire the abstracted works of other artists but since I am still struggling to create accurate renderings I think I will stick with that for a while longer.

Prior to attending the studio session I drove over to North River, a MA Audubon site. I was there last Monday and was interested to see what changes had taken place in the week.  The tree below was still green last week, with maybe just a couple of leaves changing color, I love those New England stone walls.

 
Since we haven't yet had a hard frost there are still a few flowers blooming.

 Below are some leaves fallen onto the wooden walkway that leads to the river view dock. 

That is it for today's post. Only the one drawing because I have been working on my challenge quilt. I am trying to have it done prior to getting our new challenge this coming Friday. When it is done I will update the blog with images. In the meantime comments are always welcome.