Stacy Weitz Minch

12x9", pencil on paper, 1/26/16 My figure drawing from last night. I'm still fighting the tendency to blow my drawing up larger than it should be :/ I think I did alright with keeping the lower half of the body to size, but the head and shoulders definitely seem a little top heavy--shoulders too broad and starting too high, and thus head a little large too. I like his face, though. It looks quite a bit like him :)  It's strange how as I step back and evaluate my drawing, I'm aware of the proportion errors, and I erase over and over, but end up doing the same thing when I get into the drawing--there must be different parts of the brain firing. Gotta get that in sync. Brains are wild and wonderful things ;)

12x9", pencil on paper, 1/19/16 Last night's figure drawing. I decided to sit and draw this week, so the proportions may be slightly off ;) This guy was the most consistent model I've ever seen. He barely shifted his position at all, and got back to basically the exact same stance after each break. Amazing.

12x9", paper on pencil, 1/14/16 I decided to censor this guy a little bit for the web, because it just seemed like there really should be a fig leaf, loin cloth, or some strategically placed drapery or something there for this particular pose and angle ;) I'm getting more used to drawing at an easel (as opposed to holding the sketchbook on my lap--which is something I want to get better at doing because I definitely paint at an easel), but I still have the tendency to make the image bigger than it should be (you can see my original sight-size tic marks on the left size of the paper, and that my completed image is quite a bit bigger than I initially plotted out). I read somewhere that when Sargent was painting the initial lines for a portrait, he would always block the head in slightly smaller than life size, to offset the tendency to draw larger than life--so I guess it's not just me who has that problem ;)

12x9", pencil on paper, 1/13/16 It happened to work out this week that my Wednesday night was free instead of my Tuesday night, so I was able to attend a three-hour portrait drawing session instead of the usual figure session.  Portraits are so challenging, which is probably why I find them so interesting. As I went along, I was trying really hard to get the full value range, but it just wasn't working out with my pencils and fine grain paper. I guess next time I will have to keep my materials in mind and not try to go so dark if I'm working with the same stuff--probably caused myself some unnecessary frustration. Overall, though, I'm okay with how this went, especially considering I haven't tried to attempt a portrait longer than about 20 minutes in a very long time. It's always a learning experience, and I hope I never stop learning as an artist--though I hear the curve gets more and more gradual as time goes on ;)

12x9", pencil on paper, 12/8/15

Last night's figure drawing. This was a two hour pose, and well, if I don't get slower at drawing each week! I think it's because I'm becoming more and more aware of my accuracy errors and caring more about fixing them. Probably not a bad thing ;)

My older sister was in town for Thanksgiving, and she agreed to hold still for a little bit while I sketched her :) This is not a perfect likeness, but it reminds me of her anyway... I filled in most of the values after she had left, so had I had a little more time, I may have been able to get a better likeness. Next time she's in town ;)

12x9", pencil on paper, 11/24/15 This one got a little messy ;) I wasn't quick enough to get the pose right in the first 20 minutes (why do I draw so slowly when I'm standing at an easel??? sketchbook on my lap, I feel like I can get a quick basic sketch done pretty quickly). And it was the same story after every break (and the pose shifted ever so slightly each time). So there was a lot of erasing and redrawing. I was using different paper this time (more textured than my usual), that also made my lines softer, which I'm not so sure I like. This model has such a beautiful nymph-like quality that I didn't quite capture (she's much prettier than I made her here... just started refining the features in the last 5-10 minutes and didn't quite get there). So overall, some room for improvement :) But when I feel bad about my most recent drawing, all I have to do is look back at the first night I came out to draw in March... haha ;)

12x9", pencil on paper, 11/17/15 This was a two-hour pose, but I didn't get very far on it :) For one, I was standing up, which always throws me off a bit. I've been trying to figure out why that is, since standing definitely does make it easier to quickly compare your drawing to the subject. I think it's because I don't have something to rest my arm on, and it makes my fine motor skills a little less... fine. Also, one of the students there at the CAS was trying to help me approach the drawing the way they do there at the school. Which is a slightly different way of looking at things than I usually do (though really pretty similar, if a little more structured than my usual way of working), so it threw off my groove just a little bit (not a bad thing). I redrew those legs about a zillion times. It didn't help that I had been up half the night before (my baby has decided about 1-4am is a great time to be awake, ha).

12x9, graphite on paper, 11/3/15 My figure drawing from last night's session. I was trying to focus more attention on mass than I usually do. My drawings tend to be a bit cartoon-y sometimes. Looking at this, I can see that her left hand is a little too big and far from her body. Should've stepped back a little more to compare, but I was tired and didn't feel like standing last night... so I sat to draw.  Funny--it's almost the exact same pose as last week's model. Weight on a different foot, though (and a different model :)

12x9", pencil on paper, 10/27/15 I was a little more caught up on sleep than I was at figure drawing last week, thank goodness. Same model as last week, and a two hour pose.