Happy Spring, today is the date of the Spring Equinox, meaning the hours of daylight and darkness are equal in length. They will continue to grow longer (for those of us in the Northern Hemisphere) until June with the Solstice, so enjoy the longer days with more sunlight, the dark days of winter are now behind us.
OK, on to explaining my top image, bet you had forgotten about the Journal I was making for my trip to Chicago over the Christmas Holidays. I have been so busy working on other projects that I sort of put it on the back burner. The other day I dragged out the Journal and some reference images and started working on some updates. The top image today is a partial sketch of the baggage claim area at O'Hare Airport in Chicago. I used a reference photo, my own luggage and memory of the facility to draw this. So there isn't a lot of detail and you don't really get the sense of the wide open spaces in the Baggage claim area. Oh well, at least it is now done.
The sign in the area tells travelers to not ride with unknown transport into the city, use the taxis, airport shuttles and or rail transportation. What they don't mention is that people trying to save a buck and taking offers of transport from unknowns have been robbed and sometimes murdered instead of delivered to their destination. I suppose this might happen in other major cities, but I have heard news reports about Chicago. Moral of story, don't ride from an airport in transport you don't know.
Yesterday I managed to get over to Daniel Webster and make some photographs. My new lens and I are still working out our differences but I did make a few good photos. The red maples in some of the wood stands are starting to show signs of spring, with their spring blooms just starting to show. This early spring growth of red maples is red, adding hints of color to the bare trees. In my opinion I think the colors of spring, soft greens, white, and dark reds can be just as pretty as the fall leaf show.
I also saw another blue bird yesterday, and heard the spring frogs calling in the marshes.
Images from yesterday are a Canada Goose that was feeding on the new growth in the pond, and bottom a daffodil I photographed blooming at the North River Sanctuary.
Above is last nights figure drawing. We haven't had this model in quite a while, she is a lovely young woman with a beautiful figure, but she is not my favorite model. She twitches, she shifts her pose, not by a lot but enough to throw off shadows, forcing me to decide how to deal, wing the shadows, or erase and redraw. UGH. So while I am semi pleased with last nights drawing I know I could have done better. Ah well there is always next week, and I wasn't the only one who wasn't entirely happy with the finished product.
I have two photos from yesterday to share today, the top one shows the goose feeding in the pond, I prefer this photo to the one I used as reference for my drawing, but felt the head position in the drawing photo was better for the Journal.
A close up of one of the blooming daffodils at North River. Again I used a different photo for the Journal, there I wanted to give a sense of the whole plant not just the flower. But I really like this photo, great shadows that show off the trumpet of the flower, not always easy to see when the petals and trumpet are the same color.
That is it for today, Happy Spring, and per usual comments are welcome.
Yes, that's quite true about how the model's expertise has a lot of influence over the finished figure drawing. The ones I am happiest with were drawn from a model with great lines, not beautiful, but with rock solid posing ability, who could hold a pose steadily without freeezing into it. another model, much more beautiful, with subtle lines was lovely to draw. Interestingly, both of them were dancers, so I guess their strength made quite a difference to their ability to pose for long periods, despite getting uncomfortable.
ReplyDeleteYour work is lovely, and thank you for showing us. I like the contrast of the drawn/painted daffodils with the sharp photo image of them.
Boud thanks for your comments, the others in the Live Session group I attend have been doing this for years, so I think they don't mind as much as I do. I agree the model that can hold the pose rock steady is top of my list. Our poses aren't usually too difficult - though I know holding any position for 3 hours even with breaks gets painful. I would guess that it more that dancers have a greater tolerance for pain, than it is their greater strength but you would have to ask.
ReplyDelete