The Ryder Studio – Day 2

 

Copyright 2011 Anthony Ryder

“A neat workbench is a symptom of a sick mind.” ~ unknown

Day Two

The Ryder Studio

Santa Fe, New Mexico

The second day was very frustrating for me at the Ryder Studio. It was frustrating in the sense that I felt like I was back in kindergarten, learning new things. I thought I already knew how to draw. Wrong! The highlight of the day was Anthony Ryder’s demonstration.

Anthony Ryder says that you want to capture the likeness of the model. Likeness is found in very fine measurement. Ask yourself, “Does it feel right?” We heard this question many times throughout the 10 days.

Recognition of a person is known from a distance. Look to the larger aspects of the frame, the body language. In a portrait, fine tune the big shapes to capture the person.

Order of the block-in

1. Big outside shape – don’t try to get the outside shape perfect – adjustments come later.
2. Features.
3. Reconcile the two.

Nose

The nose goes up into the forehead and below the nose. Measure the length of under the nose to the top of the lip.

Neck

Neck muscles attach to underneath the cranium to the spine and to the shoulder. Think of the neckline of the shirt as a root ball of a tree.

Lips

The mid-line shadow twists like a ribbon.

Shadows are very important to the facial features.

The lips and eyes don’t have an outside shape. Draw the light and shadow and the shapes will appear!

3-D forms have a horizon.

Have you ever heard the expression, “Pass the hammer, there’s a fly on the baby?” It was said so we would not draw solid outlines around the shapes.

Did you know that drawings have a very sensitive attitude? Tune your perception to the model.

Draw the configuration of light. When placing or tracking the shadow edge, place the soft line at the terminator or form shadow edge. The form shadow edge (a.k.a. the terminator) is where the form turns away so much that it turns out of the light altogether and drops into shadow. This definition is found on page 98 of Anthony Ryder’s book The Artist's Complete Guide to Figure Drawing.

Shading

When beginning to shade, map the areas first and gradually build up the shading. Value change of the wash is very dependent on the light source. (Value bands – related to the shape of an object.)

Hair

Draw the hair with large shadow shapes.

Any linear form in the body will be translated by other linear lines running through it.

Anthony Ryder’s wife, Celeste, helped us each day. She said we need to make friends with the medium or process. I have to agree with her.

The Ryder Studio – Day One

 

“People are born like crackers, all crispy. They become stale when we try to normalize all their inconsistencies.” ~ Anthony Ryder

I recently spent 10 days at The Ryder Studio in Santa Fe, New Mexico, learning new portrait techniques from one of the current-day masters of drawing and painting, Anthony Ryder . I will give you a 10-week synopsis each Monday on The Drawing Board of what I learned each day.

Day One

The Ryder Studio

Santa Fe, New Mexico

Anthony Ryder glides the pencil over the paper in a feather-weight, not too heavy strokes. Kind of like a figure skater gliding over the ice or like brushing off lint from clothes.

The first step to drawing a portrait is what he calls the “block-in”. This is a series of lines that possess the length and tilt of the head. As nature does not possess straight lines, neither does the human form. There are no horizontal or vertical lines on the human form. Only curved lines exist.

There are short line segments that can be drawn into curves.

Use your reaction for measurement of the human form.

Your drawing will start to give you feedback the more involved you become with the piece.

When creating the block-in, do lots of cross-referencing to make sure the perspective is correct.

After the block-in of the outer part of the figure is drawn, start the block-in of the features. Anthony usually starts with the placement of the nose first, then moves on to the eyes and mouth.

Produce a non-contained space within the portrait. “Life has fewer fences than we think”, says Anthony. We do not see edges in nature, nor will we see them on the human form.

Painting with Colored Pencils Workshop

Colored Pencil on Stonehenge Paper

Copyright 2011 Valerie Jones

 

Painting with Colored Pencil

presented by

Valerie Jones

Saturday, August 6^th, 10 AM – 4 PM

Location: Art Center in Johnstone Park

201 N. Cherokee, Bartlesville, OK

Artists of all levels can watch their colored pencil painting come alive in this workshop. Participants will learn how to create an under painting using colored pencils dissolved with solvents. The result of this process will make your drawing turn into a painting.

Register now! Class size is limited to 15 participants. A supply list will be sent to you upon registration.

Date: August 6th, 2011

Location: Art Center, 201 N. Cherokee, Bartlesville, OK

Workshop Fee: $60 for Bartlesville Art Association members, $75 for non-members.

Payment due at time of registration.

Registration is due by July 22nd.

Art Donations

Work in Progress, “Jaxon”

2011 Copyright, Valerie Jones

I recently ran across an article on Empty Easel, titled Getting Requests for Artwork Donations?  The article is about what to do if you are asked to donate your artwork. 

I occasionally get requests to donate a piece of artwork to a good cause.  If I believe in the cause, I will donate a small piece.  Art takes time to produce and time is valuable. 

The article goes on to explain that blogging takes time too.  If you have noticed, I haven’t been blogging the last several months.  I will not make excuses but will state the facts.  I had been working on a commissioned piece.  When I work on commission, blogs from me will cease to exist.   I also have a young family that is important to me.  Their needs will be met before blogging can occur.  I would like to be able to blog three days a week, but right now that is not possible with my life schedule.  I also work so most of my artistic energy goes there.

My goal for this summer is to post once or twice a month.   If time allows, I will post more frequently.  I enjoy hearing from each and everyone of you!

Everything’s Coming Up Roses

Study of a Rose

by Valerie Jones (2011)

My goodness, it has been quite a while since I posted anything.  While my readers have been busily writing and keeping the world up to date with their lives, I have been playing nursemaid, mother, wife, and the many other hats I wear.

I did this painting today at work for a group of painters.  I showed them what a painting will do when you add just a little more darks and lights to the mid-tones.  And I showed them what a painting looks like when you mix your own darks and not use black.  For some reason, they love black.  I do not use black.  I mixed red and green with a little blue to get the darks on the rose.  I added a little more blue to the dark color to get the darks on the green background.

This painting will be donated to our local United Way chapter for their awards ceremony in May.  I work for Elder Care and the art department has been asked to paint 25 paintings to be put on plaques for the award ceremony.  We did this last year and it was a success!

Jones’ Pump Jack

Jones’ Pump Jack

Copyright 2011 Valerie Jones

This piece was done with Prismacolor Colored Pencils and Derwent Watercolour Pencils.  The pump jack was completed first using the Prismacolor Colored Pencils.  I completed the pump jack first as an experiment.  The colored pencils acted as a crayon resist to the watercolor,  just as I’d hoped it would.  No masking needed.

I completed the background using the Derwent Watercolour Pencils.  This was achieved using a wash on the background first.  To create the textures, I dipped the watercolour pencils in water to soften.  This is a great way to create texture.

Have a wonderful day living creatively!

Negative Beliefs About Art – Thoughtful Thursday

Copyright 2010 Valerie Jones

In the book, The Artist's Way, Julia Cameron states, “Much fear of our own creativity is the fear of the unknown.” I have tested this theory and find she is absolutely right! If I am fearful of a technique or medium, I have trouble starting new artwork.

The author lists some commonly held negative beliefs:

“I can’t be a successful, creative artist because:

1.   Everyone will hate me.

2.   I will hurt my friends and family.

3.   I will go crazy.

4.   I will abandon my friends and family.

5.   I can’t spell.

6.   I don’t have good enough ideas.

7.   It will upset my mother and/or father.

8.   I will have to be alone.

9.   I will do bad work and not know it and look like a fool.

10.   I will feel too angry.

11.   I will never have any real money.

12.   I will feel bad because I don’t deserve to be successful.

13.   I will have only one good piece of work in me.

14.   It’s too late. If I haven’t become a fully functioning artist yet, I never will.”

When we have these negative thoughts, they are just negative thoughts. There is rarely any truth to them.

Keep thinking about the negatives and you will become scared. You will start believing these negative thoughts and become too scared to create.

Julia also says, “Most blocked creatives carry unacknowledged either/or reasoning that stands between them and their work. ‘I can either be financially successful or an artist.’” She was writing this for me! I was taught through society that you can’t make a living as an artist.

Next time on Thoughtful Thursday, we will explore ways to turn these negative thoughts around.