life drawing

 
My good friend Dorian Vallejo has created a beautiful book of his life drawings. You can find it here: http://drawingsfromlife.com/Pages/Book/Book_Page.html. I had the privilege of seeing these drawings, and several
he didn't include, in person several months ago. I can't wait to get my collector's edition copy!

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Went to another fun Dr. Sketchy's at the Clermont Lounge last night.  The model was Ana Aesthetic, who wore very elaborate Scarlet Witch and Marvel Girl costumes. I wish Ana had been around in Dallas when Three Martini Studios was in session. Marc, James, Dorian and I would've dug the comic book themes. Many thanks to Lori for putting this on and to D.J. at the Clermont for his hospitality.

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 After several months off, Atlanta's Dr. Sketchy group had a session on Monday. Dr. Sketchy started in New York and is now a franchised life drawing group in over 50 cities around the world. My good friend Lisa runs the one in Dallas. The tag line is "Art Class Without the Class". Well, that is especially true now with the new Atlanta venue. For the time being, the group is meeting once a month at the world famous dive bar The Clermont Lounge. The Clermont is indeed a strip club, although not the kind you normally think of in Atlanta. Oddly enough, even though I was at a life drawing group at a strip club, I didn't see any nudity that night. The models are typically in costume at a Dr. Sketchy's and apparently, the Clermont is more of a regular dive lounge earlier in the night. There was a great turnout session, and thanks to Lori for organizing the event.

I wasn't really prepared for the low lighting and large crowd, so I experimented around with my watercolors without much success. I do like this drawing. It has a bit of whimsy to it that seems to fit.

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Last Thursday, I had a chance to visit my buddy Dorian Vallejo. As luck would have it, he happened to have a model scheduled and I got to draw with him. It was way too short of a visit, but it was still great to catch up with him and Liana. I played around with some colored pencils of his and this is the drawing I did.

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I had a very pleasant surprise in my email inbox on Sunday:

" It's been about 3 or so years so you might not remember me.  My name is John Forkner.  One of your models, Delilah Buitron, brought me in to model for your Three Martini studio the summer of 2006.  It was the first time I'd ever modeled for anybody and I had no idea how to do it or what to do.
You guys were so great in making me feel at ease and letting me get my feet wet, learning that a 5 minute pose is WAY different than a 20 minute pose! I moved to New York City that September and all my supposed job opportunities fell through unexpectedly--that's how the City works...you think you'll hit the ground running, then everything gets yanked out from under you.  It's a Venus fly trap.

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On March 6th, I went back to the scene of the crime. Yes, I went back to Dallas for a weekend visit. It was too quick, but I packed a lot of great things in. First, I met up with several folks from the old gang at Sal's. Back when Dave Brown and Steve Armes hosted the infamous Friday Night Group at Synapse Studios, we ate at Sal's every Friday night after the drawings session. The first time I visited the group, way back in 1996, we went to Sal's. And again 9 out of 10 Fridays for the next decade. So it was the perfect way to start out my reunion tour.

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I've been practicing using Illustrator and Photoshop. Today I took a pencil drawing I did a few years back of Jennifer Sabatini then inked and colored it in the Adobe Suite. 

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Right now I'm in the Big Easy and I spent the last day of 2008 painting at the Barataria Preserve. The preserve is part of the Jean Lafitte National Historic Park, just south of New Orleans. I started the day with a serene and peaceful hike through the swamp and finished it with this painting of a very interesting old tree on a mound called a midden. If you have been reading my posts for a while, you will sometimes read about the challenges of plein air painting. Unlike the studio, painting outdoors often makes demands of the artist beyond just the painting itself.

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Well, it has been quite a gap since my last post. I'm not happy about that, but the good news is that it is because I've been so darn busy. As mentioned in the last post, I'll be in the 13th Annual Telephone Factory Lofts Art Show and Sale!

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I spent today learning Adobe Illustrator. I've been wanting to be able to get around in it for a while, so today I took a drawing I did at Dr. Sketchy and loaded it in. After a days work, I now realize how I should've done this piece, as well as how to get more of the style I was looking for. Great program, and it is really cool to see your work without any pixelation no matter how close you zoom in.  

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