Erin in Triplicate

Charcoal, 45 minute pose

Charcoal, 35 minute pose

Charcoal, 50 minute pose

Tonight, at the Literary Cafe, I completed 3 sketches of Erin, our model. I also managed to do a quick sketch of one of the artists in the room. I hope to keep working this way - quickly establishing the crucial areas, light and dark patterns while attempting to be freer with my medium.

Man in Black

Charcoal on brown kraft - about 2 hours.
I love Emmanuel's Walter White hat!

Graphite, 30 minute pose

Art Panel Carrier - Cheap!

I've decided to join the Ohio Plein Air Society's annual competition at the end of the month. With this event only being a few weeks away, many hotels are booked on the last Friday. Unfortunately, this means finding a distant hotel or staying at the "pet friendly" one for the night. Switching hotels also means, I need to keep my paintings in the trunk of my car since having a hotel, home base as storage will not be an option. (knock on wood, the weather will not be too hot!) I have several RayMar carriers, but not one large enough for my 16" x 20" panels. I'd also like to avoid buying another carrier. I've seen a few elaborately made of cardboard, but I really didn't want to spend the time. Here's my solution:

For each side, I taped together two file racks from Office Max. A strip of duct tape was use to attach a 10" x 20" canvas panel to each side of the file racks. A long cord for a handle was attached to the opposite end of the racks. I already had the cord and panel handy...the grand total came to about $12!

In this image, I added in another panel into the slots and stood the carrier upright. I can keep it flat in my car trunk. One extra plus - I realized that I can take this carrier apart, when no longer needed, and use the separate pieces. The racks can be used to store my smaller paintings and I can still paint on the 10" x 20" panel. I hope this works out!

Graphite drawing

Graphite- 3 hour session

Mark Ferguson

3 hour pose, pencil

3 hour pose, charcoal

Wish I Used Washi Tape

Charcoal, 3 hour Pose

French artist Alexandra drew with the PTA before my time. She made wonderful drawings of portraits using washi tape. (Check out Larry Zuzik's colorful washi tape drawing of her through Tim Herron's facebook page or my Pinterest Designerly art/ paintings board.) Being in town visiting relatives, she agreed to pose for us. PTA artists pay the model with our drawings. If she takes this drawing home to Paris, I can officially say that my work is in a European collection! ha ha, lol!