Monday, February 4, 2008

FEBRUARY PAINTING CHALLENGE #1 STAGE 1


I drew three figures from the Pose Maniac site to use for this month. It is amazing how you can turn the figures 360 degrees. I decided I wanted all back views in compatible poses. Sitting in front of the computer, I felt constrained to draw smaller than if I was able to stand and use my whole arm. I did 4 or 5 in my sketch book and then traced these three. The great thing about tracing paper is you can flip the image. This gave me more flexibility in combining the figures into a composition. I wanted to work on a larger piece of paper so I took the 3 figures to the copy shop and had them enlarged. This month is very busy and I wanted to save some time. I retraced the images tonight so I am ready to go. Since I was going to work with shapes, I just used the shapes of the muscles and ligaments. I think this makes for a very interesting division of the body plus as I paint these shapes, it will reinforce my visual memory of the structure of the muscles and help with figure drawing in the future. I can see these figures working into some very abstract forms in the future. Now I have to create a value plan and a color concept and I will be ready to paint. By running off copies of the design I can try different ideas without having to redraw. Normally I like redrawing but this is a complex image and time is a factor.

5 comments:

About said...

Fantastic!!! This is going to look amazing...it looks amazing now! Really looking forward to seeing this develop...it could go in so many directions. This is going to be an interesting month on your blog!!

Nava said...

Very cool - I like their attitude!

Poor gals, are they going to stand on their tiptoes the whole month?

Looking forward to see what you'll do with them!

Michelle Himes said...

I like the design that your figures make together. It looks interesting already.

RH Carpenter said...

Already an interesting design and I'll be watching to see the color come into the painting...

Cecelia said...

Very interesting.
I did some gesture drawings during the Superbowl that I think might be the basis for something.
Those Pose Maniacs are good too.
Congratulations on getting into "The Artists" magazine! I just saw it last night. I'm impressed. Wow! A full page of your own, and another section with a quote! You're really "uptown" as my great-aunt used to say. 8>)) That's just great. I've only "known" one other person who made that magazine. I submitted, but didn't make it.

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