David draws the figure

I've stolen away to NYC for the week to take a figure drawing class taught by a supper fine fellow and excellent artist and teacher, Dan Thompson, at the Grand central Academy of Art. Here's a couple of charcoal studies (18x24) from the past two days. The class is rigorous -- we're drawing almost from 9 to 5 with an hour for lunch. It's been a great week so far.

Pliers Study

Here's a study I just completed of my handy pair of paint-box pliers. First, the block in, massing the basic shape and major values. You can see the remnants of where I wiped the drawing away several times.



After the first hour . . . the big challenge was working out all the planes and angles. It finally started to look like something.


Here's the final study. Roughly two hours over the course of two sittings. 8x8, oil on gessoboard.

Red Chili Pepper

Here's the set up and value study . . . there are a lot of subtle little shifts in value . . . a good challenge to try to look through all the red and see the shifts.


And here's the painting after diving in with the color.



oil on gessobord, 5 x 5 inches