New Artwork

What has Stefán been doing with his art lately?

It has been awhile since I posted, so I wanted to get back to it. Here is a quick retrospective on the last couple of years.

 - 2010, A Great Year for My Art - 

In 2010 I began taking a classical drawing class with Constance McClure. The class followed the method of Juliette Aristides' book "Classical Drawing Atelier". So here are some drawings from that class:

Cast Drawing of a classical bust

"Four Bacchantes"
(pen & ink,  May 2010)
My copy of a Master Drawing by Giuseppe Tiepolo

Tiepolo

"Venus and the Target"
(charcoal & pastel, July 2010)
-My copy of a Master Drawing by François Boucher.

"Langley's Thou Hast Led Captivity Captive"
(pastel & charcoal, September 2010)
-My copy of a Master drawing by James Langley

There is a story that goes with this one. I was inspired by a drawing by James Langley, which I found in the Autumn 2009 issue of Drawing magazine. This was a figure drawing that was created almost entirely by a subtraction process. I was intrigued with the possibility of erasing the colored ground to reveal the highlights of the figure. When creating my copy, I could not initially find a Conté crayon for the ground that seemed to be the same color as the original drawing. The sanguine crayons I could find in our local art supply stores were too orange. So I attempted to first lay down a ground using a redder pastel, hoping to then blend in a warmer top color. Therefore I used a carmine pastel (Rembrandt 318.5), over which I applied a layer of Conté (2340‑18). Subsequently I found that I was not able to erase all the way down to a white color, and could only develop “pink” highlights. I had started working with a vinyl eraser, and eventually moved to a harder rubber, but to no avail, as the highlights remained pinkish. I assumed that there must be some oil or binder in the pastel that had bound with the paper making it effectively impossible to remove. When I later spoke with a knowledgeable art supplies dealer she explained the pigment in the pastel had likely dyed the white paper.

Shane Wolf's Figure Drawing Workshop - August 2010

During August 2010, I took a Figure Drawing workshop. It was taught by Shane Wolf (Cincinnati native currently living and producing art in Paris). The workshop was presented at the Manifest drawing studio, here in Cincinnati. This intensive workshop consisted of two 3-hour session per day for five days. During the morning sessions we had a female model, and during the afternoon sessions we had a male model. Here are the final drawings from that workshop:

"Lura"
- Graphite on tinted paper, August 2010

"Brian"
- Pastel on tinted paper, August 2010

 - August 2011 - 

I took another workshop with Shane Wolf this last summer (Mon 22 Aug - Fri 26 Aug 2011).  This one was not figure drawing but Portraiture. It was a fantastic week, spent doing something I really enjoy. Although, of course, I'm not 100% pleased with my work I feel that I really learned a lot, and am anxious to engage in this intense activity again. Here are the two long-pose portraits resulting from that workshop.

"Kathryn"
- Graphite on tinted paper, 26 Aug 2011

"Anna"
- Graphite on tinted paper, 26 Aug 2011

I sometimes fantasize that if I had the resources to do this more consistently that I could become a decent artist.

Birth of the Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky Urban Sketchers

At the end of 2010 the studio I was at decided to terminate the "Classical Drawing" course that had been so rewarding to me and several other serious art-enthusiasts. We had also developed some camaraderie, which we were loathe to lose, so we decided to continue to meet at the same Saturday time, to convene in different places and draw whatever came to view. We think of it as "Impromptu Art Created at Informal Locations." We were also inspired by an international movement called Urban Sketchers (see www.urbansketchers.org). So we formed our own chapter: the Urban Sketchers of Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky (visit our website and see many examples of fine sketches at http://cincinnatinorthkentuckyurbansketchers.blogspot.com). So this is what I've been up to, with respect to art for the last two years.