The Indianapolis Art Center has had a new building since 1994, long enough that it probably isn’t considered the “new” building by anyone other than those of us who remember taking and teaching classes in the old facility. But even though the building was supposedly designed with artists in mind, to my way of thinking the artificial lighting in the painting and drawing studios is not good. The rooms have large north facing windows but in my 17 years of taking classes there I can’t recall ever utilizing that natural light. - Until today. Today we shoved the model stage toward the north side of the room, against the wall so no one need have a back view and we drew for three hours without a single artificial light being turned on! It was glorious! And I started a new sketchbook! (Not exactly new, I’ve had it laying around the studio probably 10 years and only filled the first 10 pages, but still…) It’s a pleasant surprise to grab a nearly empty, sketchbook and discover it has really nice paper within. Not just smooth white bond paper but something a little heavier with enough tooth to grab the medium used.
2 minute warm-ups.
Col-Erase pencil.
15 minute pose
Col-Erase pencil, brown.
25 minute pose
Col-Erase pencil, Sienna.
25 minute pose
Brown thin marker with brown brush marker outline.
25 minute pose
HB lead, soft, but thick.
20 minutes of a 45 minute pose.
Brush marker used like a dry brush effect.
Saturday night I drew at a baby shower for an expecting hair stylist from Lush Hair Salon.
I just learned through my blog reading that Robert T. McCall, the premiere Space artist of the Space Age (what I consider from the Mercury 7 to the end of the Shuttle missions, has died at the age of 90. A good run, or, in his case, a good flight. Some may remember his iconic image from the Kubrick film 2001.
But he produced so much more.
And no, we weren’t related (as far as I know) even though my Dad’s name is the same. My Dad was the premiere railroad executive, father and friend.
I’ve been busy the past few weeks finishing the comic book I’ve been working on the past year. The deadline loomed large and I had to work on the final stages pretty much non-stop. But the first issue is finished and I was able to go back to the Sunday open model session today.
These are not from today but I found them in the sketch pad so I figured I hadn’t scanned and posted them.
These are from the session today.
I was contacted by a client in New Orleans that wanted a gift for the Silver King, King Osiris 2010. A fun job!
Today I went electric at the open model session at the IAC. That is to say that I hauled in my laptop and a newly acquired used fairly old, but still serviceable (after I paid to have WACOM fix it) Cintiq to try some digital drawing/painting during the 3 hour session.
The five 2 minute warm-up poses.
A 15 minute pose, these are all done using Painter X (I tried Painter 11 with the software patch but it crashed before the poses ever started so I went back to the workhorse version 10).
25 minute pose. Using the oil paint brush and the blender brush.
Another 25 minute pose, same brushes.
A 20 minute pose, this time using the conte crayon brush and blender (I like the blender, it’s like finger painting without the mess!).
I had one more but I fell prey to the old overwriting plague. Lost my train of thought and just hit SAVE when I should have used SAVE AS and renamed it.
And of course me being me, for the last attempt I did a quick caricature of one of the artists across the room.
For the past few years I’ve been creating a calendar to send to some of my clients, family and friends. The clients get the version pictured below which is shamelessly self-promoting, including banner ads at the bottom of each month showing examples of the various work I do. (The family version has no ad banners but lists all the family birthdays, anniversaries, etc.) Knowing what I like in a calendar I designed this for maximum note taking space in each day block. It is printed on 12″ x 18″ sheets of 80 lb. white stock, printed, hole-punched, coil-bound and fitted with an aluminum bar hanger, personally bent to shape by yours truly. Very much hand-made from start to finish.
While I’m on the subject of calendars here are photos of a project I did this year, creating fun caricatures of fork-lift trucks for NMC, Nebraska Machinery Corporation.
Friday night I drew at a large holiday party in a private residence. This will be the last of the pre-Christmas parties mainly because I have stuff of my own to do to get ready for Christmas! Merry Christmas to everyone reading this, Here’s the photos;
This was a fun, somewhat challenging commission job. The challenge came in getting an adult head onto a baby body, inside a limo, with interstate signs and Chicago outside the car. Arranging all that material and still have the figure be the focus was the challenge. After I closed in the point of view to give the figure the dominant area it all fell into place. The golf bag and clubs were my idea to fill up the left side of the composition.
I did this one last year for the same client;
Tonight it was Commonwealth Biomonitoring, Inc. at the Propylaeum Tea Room in downtown Indianapolis.
Saturday night I drew for the Ambrose Property Group holiday party.
I’m a gold member of the ISCA (International Society of Caricature Artists) and on the forum there’s a thread where a member posts a celebrity name on their birthday and the members draw a caricature of that celeb. I don’t get to participate very often due to being busy but I wanted to make a special effort to do this actor whose work I like. We recently saw him in The Men Who Stare at Goats which was an enjoyable film.
Saturday night I drew for a couple of hours at a house party.
I haven’t posted anything I’ve done at the IAC Sunday sessions for awhile so here’s some things from last week and this week.
Tuesday I spent a great afternoon drawing at a trade show in the Indianapolis Convention Center for CertaPro Painters.
Last night I drew at the annual awards banquet of the Indiana Minority Supplier Development Council held in the Indiana Roof Ballroom. Here are some of the photos;
I spent a week in Sandusky, OH at the International Society of Caricature Artists, the ISCA. I didn’t take many photographs but many others did. Brian Vasilik, a very talented artist did a video walk through of the “big room” where we all drew, all week, some staying up all night most of the week. It was not uncommon after about Wednesday to find people asleep at, or under their tables, taking a rest from non-stop creativity.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F3D0oGigzIo
photo by Shay Glover
Sunday evening I drew for three hours at the Hyatt downtown for 1st Resources at the 2009 AgriBank Conference.
The Host, who didn’t get drawn last year, so I did him in color. The number of people signed up and the time I was booked necessitated only black line from here onward.
Tuesday I drew for five hours at the Troyer Food Trade Show at the Sports Center of the French Lick Resort.
Rarely do I refuse an opportunity of drawing a Superman suit!
