Back In The (Figure Drawing) Saddle

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A new year brings new challenges and, for me, one is to get back to drawing from a live model. As it turns out, there is a weekly drop-in figure drawing session about 15 minutes from where I live. Five bucks for two hours. Can’t beat that. It’s hosted in the studio of a well-known local figurative artist. Besides her, there were five of us and a very, very good model. I went for the first time last night.

I did a LOT of this kind of drawing when I was in art school in the late 1980s, up to nine hours a week for three years. But since then I’ve done very little, partly because I’ve been trying to get a handle on oil painting and partly because I couldn’t find a group that didn’t think that 20 minutes was a short pose. This is much more to my liking- a bunch of thirty second and one minute poses, then some fives, then a couple of tens and a few fifteens. We drew for a solid hour, took a ten minute break and then drew another fifty minutes. Heaven!

I still had my masonite clip board, some, by now, “antique” rough newsprint and lots of different types of drawing media- compressed charcoal, conte crayons, charcoal pencils, etc. One of my goals was to simply try out different sticks and pencils to see what felt right and to get used to this type of drawing again. I had no idea what to expect. Would it be like learning to ride a bike and remembering how to do it years later or would it be more like riding off a cliff and having to make a very long climb back to where I had been since I last did it?

A little of each, I think. Here’s a progression of five drawings, starting with a thirty second gesture drawing and working up to the final 15 minute study. Needless to say, I highly recommend this to every representational artist, no matter what your subject matter. The human figure is endlessly challenging, but the point is less to turn out pretty drawings than to hone and train your eye.

30 second gesture drawing-compressed charcoal
one minute study-compressed charcoal
one minute study-compressed charcoal
five minute head study-conte stick
final drawing of the evening, 15 minutes; conte stick

I didn’t hurt to have a model that artists like Waterhouse, Millais and Rossetti would have happily hired.

Mongolia Monday- This Week’s EBay Listing 1-4-10; A Takhi From Khomiin Tal SOLD

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I thought I’d get a two-fer this week and combine my eBay listing with Mongolia Monday since the painting up for auction is a 8×6″ oil of a takhi (Przewalski’s horse). It’s from a photo that I took at Khomiin Tal, the westernmost of the three takhi reintroduction sites in Mongolia. I visited there in September of 2006. What an adventure that was for me! I flew out to Hovd, met my guide and then went by Russian Fergon van (those of you who have been to Mongolia know what that means…) east over 100 miles on what the Mongols call “earth roads” to the river valley where the horses were. I got to see them in late afternoon and morning light and got a lot of good reference. Here’s a photo of some of the horses grazing-

Takhi grazing at Khomiin Tal, western Mongolia

And here the painting that is currently available at auction here

Takhi 8x6" oil on canvasboard

Happy New Year! And Thank You To All My Readers!

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Niki and me, Redwood Creek, Dec. 19

Lots coming up in 2010…but first I’m doing some necessary career “housekeeping” like updating my marketing plan, setting up a budget spreadsheet, continuing to add info. to my Flick! painting records, planning a couple of gallery submissions and starting to think about what paintings I want to do for the jured shows I plan to enter. I even got in some drawing time earlier in the week between doing…..absolutely nothing useful.

At Trinidad State Beach, Dec. 25; photos by my husband, David

How about you other artists? What are you doing to get ready for what we all hope is a happy and (more) prosperous new year? If you feel like you need to take the next step to get your career moving, I highly recommend “I’d Rather Be In The Studio” by Alison Stanfield. She also has a great blog that you can subscribe to. Good, solid stuff every week.

That’s the business side. What are you going to do to nurture your art? Try a new media? Take a workshop? Concentrate on a particular subject? Travel to an inspiring place? Or……

(Photos taken within a half hour of our home. Yes, we are really lucky to live in northern California!)

Mongolia Monday-More From “Among The Mongols”; Traveling By Horse

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While I’ve done my traveling in Mongolia by vehicle, the following, for me, really evokes what it’s like to journey through the countryside. I’ve included a few images from my trips.

“Traveling in Mongolia has many pleasures, but ordinary traveling is so slow that the tedium threatens to swamp them all. Horseback traveling does away with the tedium as far as possible, and presents the greatest number of new scenes and circumstances in rapid succession. Night and day you hurry on; sunrise and sunset have their glories much like those seen at sea; the stars and the moon have a charm on the lovely plain.

Ever and anon you come upon tents, indicated at night by the barking of the dogs, — in the daytime seen gleaming from afar, vague and indistinct through the glowing mirage. As you sweep round the base of a hill, you come upon a herd of startled deer and give chase, to show their powers of running; then a temple with its red walls and gilt ornamented roofs looms up and glides past.

Hill-sides here and there are patched with sheep; in the plains below mounted Mongols are dashing right and left through a large drove of horses, pursuing those they wish to catch, with a noosed pole that looks like a fishing rod. On some lovely stretch of road you come upon an encampment of ox carts, the oxen grazing and the drivers mending the wooden wheels, or meet a long train of tea-laden silent camels.

When the time for a meal approaches and a tent heaves in sight, you leave the road and make for it. However tired the horses may be, they will freshen up at this. They know what is coming and hurry on to rest.”

The previous post is here.

Juried Show News!

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Mongol Horse #3- Young Stallion 16x20 oil on canvasboard

“Mongol Horse #3- Young Stallion” has been juried into Art Horse Magazine’s “EX ARTE EQUINUS III!

You can see it here There will not be a physical show. Images of the art, in a variety of media, will be published in the summer issue of the magazine and a selection will included in a limited edition book, both due in March. I’ve made it into the book and greatly look forward to getting a copy.

Lesley Humphrey, who placed first in painting in Ex Arte Equinus II, was the painting juror for this year. Her juror’s statement is here and is very well-written.

And if this image looks familiar, yes, this painting was juried into an American Academy of Equine Art show earlier this year.

Mongolia Monday- “Among the Mongols” Book Review

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I have built up a decent collection of books about Mongolia from a number of sources and now have most of what is readily available, some of which have been reviewed in past posts here, here and here. This one was a major find, however. It fits into what is really a sub-genre of travel literature: books written by western missionaries who have gone to “exotic” faraway places to seek converts to Christianity, something I will say up front that I have no sympathy with whatsoever.

“Among the Mongols” (The Religious Tract Society, 1888) is, however, a delight from beginning to end. The Rev. James Gilmour may have originally gone to Mongolia to save souls, but seems instead to have had a romping good time spending 21 years traveling from ger to ger across the countryside learning as much as he could about the Mongols and their culture, including the language, providing free medical treatment and talking about the Bible when opportunity permitted. About halfway through the book he allows as how he never gained a single convert and then writes two entire chapters explaining why converting the Mongols is almost impossible and maybe even not such a good idea. The second chapter is called “The Mongols’ Difficulties About Christianity”. And then it’s back to important business- how the Mongols celebrate Tsagaan Sar, their New Year. Here’s a quote from that chapter on how Mongols eat that demonstrates his good-humored enthusiasm and eye for the telling detail:

“As soon as the banch (small meat turnovers) was finished, every man pulled out his knife and set to work on the meat (a large platter of mutton). It is a little alarming to see a Mongol eat. He takes a piece of meat in his left hand, seizes it with his teeth, then cuts it off close to his lips. The knife flashes past so quickly and so close to the face, that a spectator, seeing it for the first time, has his doubts about the safety of the operator’s nose. Practice makes them expert, and their hand is sure, and I have never heard of any one, even when drunk, meeting with an accident in this way. The configuration, too, of the Mongol face makes this method of eating much safer for them than for us. A Mongol’s nose is not that prominent, sometimes hardly projecting beyond the level of the cheeks, and the foreigner’s nose lays him under a considerable disadvantage in dining after the Mongol fashion. “

Needless to say, Highly Recommended! More excerpts to come.

You can purchase your own copy here and here. Don’t pay over $30 for a decent copy. There is the London edition, which is the one pictured above, a US edition (cited by Michael Kohn in Dateline:Mongolia as recommended reading) and a new paperback reprint.

Have You Heard Of “United States Artists”? I Hadn’t.

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A Facebook artist friend posted a link to a web page which said a survey showed that 96% of Americans value art in their communities, but only 27% value artists. What’s up with that?

That page is part of the site of United States Artists, whose mission is to provide direct support to artists by means of substantial grants. Really substantial grants. Like $50,000 each for 50 artists EVERY YEAR. Before you start hyperventilating with anticipation, artists have to be nominated. You can’t just apply. Anyway, check out the site. And feel warm and fuzzy about the fact that someone has finally figured out that most of us work really hard at our art, but don’t make a lot of money at it and that the money has generally gone to cultural institutions, not the people who do the actual creative work.

Needless to say, I wish United States Artists every success.

11 Recommended Drawing Books For Animal Artists

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by Bob Kuhn

Obviously, drawing skills are fundamental for the creation of visual art, whether it’s representational or not. By “drawing” I mean having the hand/eye motor coordination to make the marks you want, where you want them and the way you want them with your tool of choice, whether or not you approach your work using lines or shapes.

For the purposes of this post, however, I am talking about the use of “dry media”- pencils, charcoal and the like on supports such as paper and canvas. Plus the ability to represent an animal realistically and accurately. It goes hand-in-hand with the development of what I’ll call “visual judgment”, which is how you learn when you’ve made a mistake and what you have to do to fix it.

Part of the inspiration for the following comes from a comment thread I recently saw on Facebook in which an artist flatly stated that “passion” was the most important component of a painting. I would submit that passion uninformed by technical skill in areas such as drawing, design, form, structure, light, value, color and the handling of edges creates work that might have a certain initial level of visual excitement, but won’t stand the test of time or even close scrutiny. To my mind, lack of skill creates visual distractions that get in the way of the artist’s ability to express their passion. I also think that it can be used as a convenient excuse to get out of the hard work (it is HARD and it is WORK) of creating art.

by Walter J. Wilwerding

I recently was a member of the jury which evaluated applications for membership in the Society of Animal Artists. Five votes were required for acceptance. The  jurors were all artists with very keen eyes who were also uncompromising in their standards. I enjoyed the experience very much, both for the chance to see a lot of animal art and to learn from the other jurors. It was an objective process. The judging was not based on “like” vs. “not like” or “passion” or other vague emotional responses. The drawing of the animal was the first thing we looked at, whether it was a painting or a sculpture. Accuracy and an understanding of the structure of a species, plus a firm grasp of basic anatomy (“A leg can’t bend that way.”) were key. If the drawing of the animal was faulty, the application was rejected. It was one of the most consistent problems I saw in the work we viewed.

If, after taking a long, objective look at your work, you can see that there is room for improvement in your drawing skills, consider these books, which are from my own library and that I have found useful over the years. In no particular order:

-Drawing and Painting Animals by Edward Aldrich

-Animal Drawing, Anatomy and Action for Artists by Charles R. Knight

-Animal Drawing and Painting by Walter J. Wilwerding

-The Art of Animal Drawing by Ken Hultgren

-Drawing Animals by Victor Ambrus

-The Animal Art of Bob Kuhn…A Lifetime of Drawing and Painting by Bob Kuhn

-Drawing With An Open Mind by Ted Seth Jacobs

-The Pencil by Paul Calle

-Fast Sketching Techniques by David Rankin

by Charles R. Knight

And, for animal anatomy, you need both of these:

An Atlas of Animal Anatomy for Artists by W. Ellenberger, H. Dittrich and H. Baum

Animal Anatomy for Artists, The Elements of Form by Eliot Goldfinger

by Ken Hultgren

I’m sure that there are other good and useful books about animal drawing and anatomy and I invite you to share them via the comments section.

Mongolia Monday- Contemporary Music, Part 3

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This is the last part, for now, about the music scene in Mongolia. This time I want to show what a variety of musical styles there are.

First is Nomin Talst (which I believe means “azure crystal”). They seem to have started as literally a boy band in around 1995 and are much loved. An Italian guy who married a Mongol girl started a fan page for them on Facebook. The first video is  for what I think was their first hit “Bid”, which means “We”.  At least it’s the first cut on their greatest hits CD. They score way high on energy and cuteness.

This next one came to me from a blog that I subscribe to, AsianGypsy. I still tear up when I watch it because it encapsulates so much of what I have come to love about Mongolia. It’s called “Minii Mongol Naadam”, which means “My Mongol Naadam”.  “Naadam” means “festival” in the general sense, but specifically it’s the big national holiday. The main celebration takes place in Ulaanbaatar, but there are local versions all over the country. I got to do both this last July. You can see photos on my blog here and here. Naadam is centered around competitions in the Three Manly Sports – horse racing, wrestling and archery, all of which are represented in the video.

Here they are, all grown up.

Next is Altan Urag, which means “Golden Lineage (of Chinggis Khan). There are seven members. They are trained in both traditional instruments like the morin khuur (horsehead fiddle)and bishgur (traditional horn) and singing methods like throat singing and long song. The group has traveled to music festivals internationally and may be the musicians best known outside of Mongolia.

The next one is just the music with no video, but well worth a listen, of course.

Finally, one of the best traditional pop vocalists, Javkhan. I only recently found out about him and then realized how often I had heard him on my driver’s CDs or radios as I’ve traveled around Mongolia. He really ought to be a big international star like Julio Inglesias or Tom Jones. Jaw-dropping voice.

Finding this last video solved a mystery for me. I’d heard a particular song about once per trip, but could never find out what it was because I didn’t speak Mongolian and was never with someone who spoke English. I sort of memorized a couple of bars of the chorus and hummed it for a few people, but no luck. Then I saw this and the mystery was solved. Great visuals with old film footage, too. A short course in Mongol culture, complete with warriors on horseback. But it mostly seems to be tribute to Mongol women (busgui) from socialist times to the woman who won a Beijing Olympics shooting medal, plus teachers, nurses, and some gorgeous fashion models.

If you’re interested in more, visit the blog Mongolian Music.