Thursday, July 29, 2010

Drawing Lab by Carla Sonheim

I've been having so much fun with the drawing lessons in this book.  I'm at the beach this week, and the sunshine and ocean air is really influencing my work.   Here are a few of the things I've done through Chapter 4. (This is my second time doing each lab.) I'll be uploading everything to the Artists of the Roundtable site when I get home.


Well, you know, every girl is pear shaped eventually, right?  And what girl doesn't need two mouths to talk with and eat with?  And two ears to listen to her friends with??


This is my "Miro at the Beach" and it is one my favorite art
pieces I've ever done.  In a drop of water we have my 
entire beach experience - the sand, the grass, the
skies, and the seagulls.  And across it, the movement
of the sun throughout the day. I really love what this 
expresses for me. I'd like to do it again on
canvas. And I used my new, beautiful Byzantia 
paints from artistcellar!



Above is the ink and eyedropper technique, which I 
quickly discovered that I loved.  It felt very
Asian to use ink. Quick strokes seemed to take
on a life of their own as soon as I put them down
onto the paper.  I just watched them almost paint themselves.
It was fascinating and I really enjoyed it.


This one was actually the most difficult for me -- seeing the thing that wasn't really
there.  I had to ask my husband to help me, and he accused me of cheating
on my homework.  It helped me to watch someone else pick out the image
with a pencil, because even when he named the image and pointed at it, I
still could not see it. I don't understand, really, why I couldn't grasp it, but maybe
with practice I can improve on this.



This is meant to be my mom, but she doesn't actually look like this woman
at all. Still, I like the look of the painting, mainly because it's nothing
like anything I'd ever do. I could do an entire American Gothic
family like this, including a dog and cat. As you can see, green and blue
are recurring themes in this work.


Here is another ocean inspired work, with my beautiful Byzantia paints.
I know this is called Picasso dogs, but my tail is a mermaid's tail, rather
than a dog's tail.  and the human leg has bits of the color of the tail,
as the transformation from human to mermaid begins. The blue and 
sand spray in the background is part of the beach theme.




I did several monkeys before I captured an expression I was happy with. 
I've been into baby faces lately, and this little one was less than a year old when 
his picture was taken.  Isn't he a sweetheart?  Of course, he's green and blue
for the ocean...

11 comments:

  1. Love your work!!! My favorite one is the eye dropper one.

    ReplyDelete
  2. enjoyed viewing Teri....my mom drawing didn't turn out anything like my mom...maybe they're not supposed to!!!! LOL

    ReplyDelete
  3. Love your art here Teri! The Miro inspired beach art is wonderful, and I absolutely LOVE the eye dropper girl - she looks very Asian and exotic! Fabulous!

    ReplyDelete
  4. What fun! I have the book. I'm waiting until my company leaves and I can do some serious work with it. I LOVE LOVE LOVE what you have done. It's gotten me all excited about starting. Now, should I just pack up their suitcases and put them in their car? Is that rude? :)Bea

    ReplyDelete
  5. oh wowwwww....I had no clue that your drawing activities with the Roundtable were this varied in style, technique, and...well, fun! Dude! I love these! I was going to say that "Miro at the Beach" was my fav, but then there were like 5 others that I ended up wanting to call my favs as well. Really cool stuff...and the "ink dropper" drawing really intrigues me! It does look Asian...just like a Sumi-E painting, really.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Teri - I love all these! I think my favorite is the eyedropper girl.... or the Miro.... wonderful! And what better place to create than the beach! Enjoy - B.

    ReplyDelete
  7. I loved your eye dropper girl too! I want to play around more with that technique. I also enjoyed your Miro art. It's amazing how that technique kind of brings it all together.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Oh my but you have been busy! And I love them ALL!!! I totally see the beach in your Miro ... I would have I think without you saying anything about the beach actually. I love the ink dropper method too ... but I like how loose yours is. I need to follow your lead on that. Fantastic work!!!

    ReplyDelete
  9. Thanks for sharing your art with us. I too loved creating the eyedropper portraits although yours is incredible! I'm going to revisit that lab when this class is done. It was really fun. I can see the beach has been very inspiring. I find the ocean is like that. See you soon!

    ReplyDelete
  10. Wow!! You're fantastic Teri!

    ReplyDelete
  11. love your drawing lab results!
    Lee

    ReplyDelete

Thanks for your comments!