These orchids have totally captured my attention. I can’t stop thinking about how to paint them better.
My neighbor gave me orchids the other day and I picked them up today to move them to a better location. But something happened and I ended up painting them instead.
What could be better than playing in a fountain surrounded by your parents on a hot day?
Painting from models is great, except that you need to work really fast to complete a sketch in 20 minutes. Working quickly is fun, actually exhilarating, kind of like the feeling of running or skiing downhill a little too fast. And to further add to this excitement, for the last six months or so, I have been forcing myself to make a snap decision about a narrative for each pose, and then to see how I can convey the emotion of whatever particular story I chose. I have been doing this because so many of my 20-minute sketches seem emotionally flat.
For this pose, I decided to build a story around the way the model was holding her hat and looking off to the side in an alert way. I decided that this woman had been trying to catch up with a group of faster walkers, but, after falling further and further behind, was having second thoughts. Of course, it would have been better if she were clutching her side rather than her shoulder, but I did not think of that in time.
We had such beautiful flowers today at my friend’s home, where we painted as we hid from the summer heat. The sunflowers seemed to be reaching for the sun and the sun in turn seemed to be eager to enter the house and interact with the flowers. I tried to capture this movement by exaggerating the lean of the stem and adding in visible light rays.
This sketch is from a model with gorgeous hair and a quiet demeanor. With her chin down and her right shoulder raised, I thought she looked like a reluctant party attendee. I liked the way she tilted her head with a bit of backlighting catching the sweep of her hair.
I met up with some friends this morning and we painted flowers in vases, which is a pretty good way to paint on a hot summer day.
Deliberate Sketching 