Another busy week of art

My classes at Atelier Artista run everyday Monday - Friday. 

Drawing begins at 9am - 12:30 and Painting classes begin at 12:30. 

I also teach at other times throughout the week and on week-ends.

 On Wednesday Evenings, I regularly host figure drawing, find out more here: https://www.atelierartista.com/figure-drawing
Above is my drawing from last weeks Wednesday evening session.

 I was asked to hang some work at Holy Grill across fro MEC, They sent me the picture above.

 I got on the front cover of MRU's "reflector" newspaper for a course I've been building in creating Graphic Novels and comics. Read the article here:

http://www.thereflector.ca/2017/10/07/calgary-artist-brings-graphic-novels-alive-at-mru/

 On Friday's, after my "Full Figure" drawing human anatomy course I teach an afternoon elective at Waldorf School. Above is the project the kids accomplished this week.

 The "Keys to recovery" exhibition was a huge success.  3 of my students sold their work at Auction!!! Above is the curator with a piece by Aaron Sidorenko.  http://aaronsidorenko.ca/

 I got to pick op 4 works made by friends and hang them in my studio for the time being.

 I teach at ACAD in during the week in the evenings and two classes at ACAD on the week-end.

 In Drawing 1 we are working on creating the illusion of depth and form on a two dimensional surface. I cover concepts including orthographic and isometric projection.

 As we work towards graphical and linear perspective, 1 point and beyond.

In my Arts Academy we finish the last day of our drawing portion with a self portrait and measure of the face, before we move into paint.

It may seem like a lot, but variety is the spice of life.

There are so many interesting and creative things going on everyday in my life and at Atelier Artista. If you want to find out more, take a class, come draw figure on Wednesday nights or anything like that check out AteleirArtista.com and sign up for the newsletter for more updates!

Return from Guanajuato

I'm glad to be back. The very next morning after my return I opened the atelier and we got back down to business.  There are warm and fond memories to revisit, pictures to go through, unpacking to do and a whole lot more. As they say "No rest for the wicked".

These feet did a lot of walking, it was hilly, so I bought myself these nifty boots. The entire trip my hands kept busy, I sketched, painted watercolour and gouache and saw many sights. My mouth tasting the culinary favourites of the region. My ears listened to the cacophony of the busy streets and battling Mariachi bands in the plaza.  There is much to tell and share, but it will have to arrive in its own time. For now back to the Atelier!

Listen to this! We started the portrait class with the study of the ear and why? we have to draw it that way. I did a quick demo after anatomical notes on the board. I gave each student a reference photo to study and transmit onto their paper.

 After the portrait drawng class we moved into the afternoon portrait painting portion where we continued our study f the ear. In this session we painted in the skin tones based on what we drew previously. We roughed in colour an defined.

 The following day in Still life/object studies we learned to draw bone texture with two skulls I borrowed from the decor of my house.

 I did a demo of finding dark shapes and some lights on toned ground.

 The students did great work describing the forms in their own styles. After a short break we moved into paint studies and how to mix warm and cool grey tones and how to lay them in for the skull study.

 We scraped back our work after the lesson ready for another painting session anther day.

 We also have a new studio assistant, on loan from JJ peters. Thanks to her sleuthing skills we have a full sized skeleton in questionable condition to work with. That was just the first two days back!

Coming very soon....

....more updates

plus

the latest episodes on Youtube from Guanajuato!

Skulls on toned paper

Today in drawing class we worked on one of my favourite techniques for creating representational form and dimensionality using tonal values.  The assignment was given after a demo on how to squint and see the darks apply them, then erase out the lights and to go back building up the forms with adding or taking away material but not relying on line to draw what they see. In no particular order are some of the images I snapped during class and to share with anyone interested or who missed class, you know who you are, hopefully this is helpful ;P

Like a proud father...

It is Father's day and I got up early to send my well wishes to my dad's.  Hopefully you have done this by now too. Now its time to turn the table a bit. I'm staying at home, making me a stay at home dad today. lol. Joking aside, I am like a proud father when my students and the people I work with achieve their goals. Sometimes I pull out my camera when I feel this way and write this blog to share it with you. So here is a bit of gushing over my "kids".

I am proud to announce my Blackfoot Graphic Novel is off to the printers so in a short time there will be 2000 copies of my participants and elders to be proud of all the hard work they accomplished. I also want to share some of my Drawing 1 students work from class this week that made me feel a bit like a father showing off 'cause he's so proud.

We did skull studies last week on toned paper. This is only the 4th class. It is the first time many of these students have not only drawing this way but also with charcoal as a material. Rather than go on and on about the process, the chamois etc. I think Ill just let you look at the drawings and their development for yourself. In no particular order. enjoy.