Trudging

 

 

I’ve been AWOL a bit.  I started a new job last month and things have been pretty hectic in my life as a result.  It’s like trying to grab a drink of water, from a fire hose.  You can quench your thirst but it’s not necessarily a pretty sight.

Hopefully they will settle down a bit so that I can continue blogging and writing about what I am learning in my art classes.

 

         Untitled Torso Study by Robert Liberace   

Last month I attended Robert Liberace’s Upper Anatomy workshop.  Most of the folks in attendance were either sculptors or painters.  People flew in from all over to learn from Rob.  Sometimes its hard to remember just how well known and well regarded he is, to me he is Rob and I consider myself really lucky to study with him.         

In the workshop,   Rob covers everything, the tendons, muscles, bones and ligaments.  One of the items on the materials list was an anatomy book.  I had both Goldfinger’s Anatomy as well as Anatomy for Artists.  Both books were helpful.  We all brought anatomy books with us and tried to soak it all in.

Some did better than others;  I was in the others group-and could only remember that the hip bone was connected to the thigh bone.  But everyone learned a great deal.  Adam was the model.  Adam has about 3% body fat and he’s a body builder so you could really see the muscles that Rob discussed.  It was funny because Rob would talk about a specific  muscle group (example the terres major) and Adam would flex his.  They were a pretty amazing team.

 

 

Untitled Studies, both by Robert Liberace 

 

Back Study, Adam

 

Some did better than others;  I was in the others group-and could only remember that the hip bone was connected to the thigh bone.  But everyone learned a great deal.  Adam was the model.  Adam has about 3% body fat and he’s a body builder so you could really see the muscles that Rob discussed.  It was funny because Rob would talk about a specific  muscle group (example the terres major) and Adam would flex his.  They were a pretty amazing team.

 

For some reason I was particularly drawn to Adam’s back and when I had the chance to do so, I sketched it.  Here is a photo of the a pencil study and a silverpoint study I worked on during the class.  

 

Silver Point Back Study

 

 This silver point was from the longer pose on the last day of the workshop,  I think we had about 3 hours to complete this. The drawing is silver point on a prepared ground (in this case the plaka)  in a molskinne sketchbook.

I find I love silver point, it’s an easy method to use as long as you are subtle and work slowly.  When drawing a small portion of the anatomy I prefer silver point over most mediums.  Hopefully one day I will really master it.  I feel some what condifent with it now but there is so much you can do with it that I have literally just scratched the surface.