6/14/2010 Sketch of Sierra (Oil on paper 24" X 18")

Detail

New sketch - Monday night @ Panza Gallery 6/8/10

This is a detail of the painting below...

Ron Donoughe's daughter Emma.

Still-life work...

I started this one yesterday - still have some elements to add.

Here is the completed painting from last week - I sent this one to Gallery in the Square today.
Until next time...

New Still-life in progress

Some news...

I recently had paintings accepted into the Westmoreland Museum of American Art Biennial and the Art of the State: Pennsylvania 2010 at the state museum of Pennsylvania in Harrisburg.

Some new figure drawings...

Charcoal...

Black & White charcoal on blue toned paper.

Two new drawings -

I finally brought my skeleton home from school after almost ten months. I've been working on these over the last couple of days. I will hopefully have some actual figure drawings to post tomorrow. Until then...

Open session @ Panza Gallery 3/25/2010

This is a 15 minute sketch from the open figure session last night. Ron Lessig is the model.

Sketch of Kristen #2

This is from last night @ the Academy of the Southside. I didn't get a good likeness but that's just how it goes - you win some, you lose some.

Monday portrait 3/22/10 @ Panza Gallery

Lauren

Three new figure sketches

Yesterday, I got together with John Pisarcik & Thomas Hunt at John's studio on the North Side to do some figure drawing/painting. John's studio is wonderful & he does some fantastic figure drawings. He's a great guy too! Thanks for opening your space up to us John! Thanks also to Lauren for modeling for us.

Postcard - Academy of the Southside

The guys at the Academy of the Southside blew me away with this postcard that they had made to announce the figure drawing class that I will be teaching during their upcoming spring term. Thank You Tim, Shervin, & Dan for this opportunity. It is great to know you guys & I look forward to working with you!!

Panza Gallery - open model session 3/18/2010

Lauren was our model last night - the best female model in Pittsburgh. This one (above) & the one below are two minute gestures.

Ten minute pose.

This last pose was about 25 minutes. I was inspired to try this because of the quick sketch figure sessions at the Academy of the Southside. Also, I recently made about 60 of these panels in sizes varying from 4" X 6" to 9" X 12" (this one is a 9" X 12").

Portrait of Kristen

This is from tonight's portrait session at the Academy of the Southside - the first of two sessions that she will be posing for. Thanks Kristen!

Monday portrait session...

Steve was our new model tonight - he did a great job especially considering that the lights were fairly close to his face. Way to go Steve - thank you!

Portrait of Jordan

This was done at the Academy of the Southside on Tuesday night.

Figure sculpture, continued...

I did more work on the rib cage, shoulder girdle and head today. I also added some muscle to one side of the face & skull.

Something a little different

Part of my Drawing II class this semester involves having the class develop what is essentially an elaborate relief sculpture of the human head out of Plastilina on a wooden armature - (anyone who had McMurray's Human head class @ Edinboro University will remember this - Bruce, I'm mainly talking to you here!). I love doing these sculptures & the materials are so easy to work with. I believe that the complex forms of the skeleton & various muscle groups can really be more solidly grasped, from a drawing aspect, in three dimensions. I am currently attempting to develop a full figure (approximately 1/4 life size, maybe a little less). I'll post pictures here as I get more work done. This is a really great thing to do to improve your drawing. These photos are from two nights' work of constructing the armature & building up a rough idea of the major forms - this is really like the gesture stage, but in three dimensions.

More snow - enjoy!

paintings...

These aren't the best photos, but here is some new stuff I've been working on.

Welcome to western PA!

Another sketch...

The snow finally stopped and there is actually a place to park again at the Academy of the Southside! This is what I got done...

New still life

Recent oil sketches/paintings

Here are a few of the new things I've been working on - I posted a new folder of paintings (some new, some older) on Facebook & I'm hoping that there aren't ten different posts from me notifying everyone that I was uploading these photos. (I'm not really sure how FB works as far as this goes.)

Start of a new painting of Lauren

Got the rough lay-in done today, as well as developing the areas of the head/headdress and shoulders. There are still quite a few drawing issues to be resolved. I'll have to wait until next week to make a lot of these changes. Thanks Lauren!

paintings etc...

Still life done at the Academy of the Southside

Another still life...

Rough lay in of a painting of Lauren - one of the better models here in Pittsburgh.

Drawings etc.

Here are more drawings/studies for something new that I'm working on. These are related to the studies I posted about a week ago for the same piece. The model is one of Pittsburgh's best - the amazing Ron Lessig.

Ron's back - I've been using toned paper with white charcoal a lot and I love it!!!

Legs - same toned paper & white charcoal - this one uses graphite for the darks and contours instead of charcoal.

This oil sketch was done mainly to record some color relationships - I like to try and record a general impression of warms/cools, values, etc. & work from the drawings to recreate the colors from memory. I'm not as worried about the accuracy of the drawing at this point (as you can see!).