Figure Drawing Class with Robert Liberace, Exploring Prud'hon's Technique

In today's Figure Drawing class, with instructor Robert Liberace, we explored the technique used by French Romanticist Pierre-Paul Prud'hon (1758-1823). Prud'hon is known for his stunning toned paper drawings using charcoal and white chalk to create a sculptural drawing. Rob did a wonderful demo of Prud'hon's drawing technique used blue tinted Ingres paper, vine charcoal, compressed charcoal, charcoal pencils, white chalk and white charcoal pencils, brushes and a chamois.



Liberace begins by blocking in the figure with vine charcoal. Photo by Marie Dauenheimer.



As Liberace develops the drawing he blocks in the large shadows with charcoal and the highlights using white chalk, in a criss cross manner. This is how Prud'hon developed his works. Photo by Marie Dauenheimer.



Finished demo drawing by Liberace. The finished drawing was built up using layers of charcoal and white chalk. Photo by Marie Dauenheimer.



Sketch by Prud'hon showing criss cross application of shadows and highlights.



Drawing by Prud'hon, female back.



Another finished Prud'hon drawing.

Artist Rebecca Alzofon has reconstructed, step by step, Prud'hon's technique. Her website is very complete and worth a look.

National Gallery of Art Program "Seeing Rembrandt's Thoughts"

Last week I attended an educational program at the National Gallery of Art (NGA) on how art conservators, using x-radiographs, can see how Rembrandt developed his paintings. The program was lead by Melanie Gifford, Research Conservator for Painting Technology at the National Gallery of Art's Conservation Department. The program began with Gifford explaining how Rembrandt worked. He typically covered his canvas with a red ground, followed by a gray ground, he would then freely draw and block in the figures using brown paint. His underpainting was applied with bright pigment and in an exuberant manner. The final layer was applied thickly with an impasto that is one of Rembrandt's signatures. He layered the paint on the canvas, almost sculpting the features of his sitters. He also used a sharp tool to scratch paint out. We were able to observe these techniques by viewing the Rembrandts in the Dutch Galleries at the NGA with the use of monocular devices and by looking at x-radiographs of the paintings.



Detail of Rembrandt's "Self Portrait", 1659, National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC.



"A Polish Nobleman" by Rembrandt, 1637, National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC.

During the program we examined paintings once attributed to Rembrandt, but now believed to be by Rembrandt's workshop. By studying the underpainting conservators can reconstruct how the paint was applied. The bravado with which Rembrandt painted is difficult to copy. Below is a painting once thought to be by Rembrandt, but now thought to be by his student Govaert Flinck.



"Man in Oriental Costume" by Rembrandt and his Workshop (probably Govaert Flinck), 1635, National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC.

On March 5, 2011 I will be attending an all day workshop at the NGA called "Views of Venice: Canaletto and His Rivals". This program will focus on the upcoming National Gallery of Art exhibition on Canaletto's paintings of Venice (February 10-May 30, 2011).

Exploring Visual Texture

My drawing students are about to begin an assignment focusing on visual texture. Visual texture is when you create the illusion of physical texture with marks. A fun way to explore texture is with plants and vegetables, I love to draw the shiny polished surface of a pepper or apple and juxtapose it to the roughened surface of a pineapple or coconut. This afternoon I did a few sketches showing plant textures.

For those of you interested in plant textures and drawing plants there is a new book out by Sarah Simblet called Botany for Artists. I plan on blogging about this wonderful book in a future post.

Another artist I have long admired for his use of texture in drawing is Dutch printmaker Jakob Demus. He creates his remarkable prints by using drypoint on copper plates. I saw an exhibition of his work in Amsterdam at the Rembrandthuis and was amazed with the textural interest in his prints. Below is his diamond drypoint print of irises.

In a past post I mentioned botanic artist Ann Swan's book called "Botanical Portraits". Below is her graphite drawing of peppers. I like how she juxtaposed the shiny outside with the rough interior.



Plant textures. Photo by Marie Dauenheimer



Sketch of delpheniums by Marie Dauenheimer



Sketch by Marie Dauenheimer



Drypoint etching of irises by Jakob Demus.



Graphite drawing of peppers by Ann Swan.

Open Life Drawing Sessions at the Art Institute of Washington

For the past five years I have been running an open life drawing session at the Art Institute of Washington in Arlington, VA. The sessions are a joint effort with the Illustrators Club and are on Thursday evenings from 6:00-9:00PM. There is another session on Friday evenings, same place and time as the Thursday sessions, monitored by Tom Broad.

At the Art Institute of Northern Virginia in Sterling, VA there is a session run by Jason Axtell. This session is Tuesday evenings from 6:00-9:00PM.

The sessions are attended by local artists, illustrators, graphic designers and other creative professionals as well as Ai faculty, students, staff and alumni.

It is a great atmosphere to draw in. Take look at a few of the drawings created on Thursday evening, they are by Web Bryant, Liz Floyd and myself. Please join us for drawing!



Sketch book page of 10 minute poses by Liz Floyd.



Charcoal sketch by Web Bryant.



Graphite sketch by Lucinda Levine.



Sketchbook page by Marie Dauenheimer.

Using Red Chalk on Tinted Paper

On Friday I continued to work on my red chalk drawing on hand tinted paper. I deepened the value of some of the shadows and started adding more details to describe the superficial anatomy. I started pulling some highlights out using the kneaded eraser and white chalk. I hope to finish this study up next week.



Red chalk drawing by Marie Dauenheimer.

Figure Drawing Class with Robert Liberace continued

In class this week Robert Liberace demonstrated his soft charcoal technique using tinted paper. Rob has a very confident and energetic way of working. He quickly blocked in the form using vine charcoal. Using a large brush he stabilized the background layer of charcoal by smoothing it out. As he continued to build up the image he added shadows using a soft velvety charcoal. Turning his attention to more detail he used a kneaded eraser to pull out highlights. He also used a paper towel to pull out highlights and lighten areas of the drawing. The darkest darks were added using "Char-koal". The finished drawing seen below has a very painterly quality, not unlike John Singer Sargent.



Charcoal demo by Robert Liberace. Photo by Marie Dauenheimer



Finished charcoal drawing by Robert Liberace. Photo by Marie Dauenheimer



Charcoal portrait of Henry James by John Singer Sargent.

Figure Drawing with Robert Liberace at the Art League

On Friday I started taking a course at the Art League in Alexandria with instructor Robert Liberace. The course is the Figure and Portrait Explored and includes studying the figure with various master drawing techniques such as red chalk, charcoal and silverpoint. Liberace is an accomplished painter, draughtsman and sculptor and a gifted teacher.

This week I started a long study of the figure using terra cotta pencils on a tinted paper I prepared by hand. The paper (hand made by Twinrocker) is prepared using watercolor and shellac and when dry takes the pencil nicely and allows for erasing out highlights and adding them with white chalk. This technique was popular with High Renaissance artists such as Leonardo, Michelangelo and Raphael.

I plan on posting about the techniques I experiment with in the class and the progress on the drawing below.



Red chalk drawing in progress by Marie Dauenheimer



Silverpoint drawing by Marie Dauenheimer



Charcoal demo drawing by Robert Liberace

Open life Drawing Sessions

I have been running an open life drawing session at the Art Institute of Washington (AiW) in Arlington, Virginia for 5 years. After a break for the holidays the sessions resume this Thursday (January 20, 2011) evening from 6:00-9:00PM. The sessions are a joint effort between the AiW and the Illustrators Club. The sessions are attended by AiW students and faculty, local artists and members of the Illustrators Club. Drawing the figure frequently is a great way to improve general drawing skills, observational skills and a way to experiment with new media.

There are weekly sessions at AiW on Friday evenings, run by faculty member Tom Broad. At the Art Institute of Northern Virginia in Sterling, Virginia, faculty member Jason Axtell runs sessions every Tuesday evening from 6:00-9:00PM.

To learn about other open life drawing sessions in the Washington, DC metro area check out the Figure Models Guild.



Figure sketch by Marie Dauenheimer



Figure sketch by Marie Dauenheimer



Figure sketch by Marie Dauenheimer

Spring Fever! Drawing Plants

The days have been cold and dark so yesterday I bought some hyacinths and daffodils. I like to watch them change from hour to hour as they open and their color alters. I spent some time this afternoon doing a few sketches. I plan on doing more when they fully open. I have been influenced by many botanical artists. Most recently by Ann Swan author of Botanical Portraits in Colored Pencil.

I also enjoy drawing vegetables and fruits and exploring their various textures. Painter Liz Floyd is a master at capturing such texture. I own two of her paintings and go to them for inspiration.



Photo by Marie Dauenheimer



Colored pencil drawing by Marie Dauenheimer



Colored pencil drawing by Marie Dauenheimer



Colored pencil drawing by Marie Dauenheimer

Illustrators Club "Sketch Day" at US Botanic Gardens

On Sunday January 9, 2011 ten members and friends of the Illustrators Club (IC) met at the US Botanic Gardens to draw. Our group included young artists such as 9 year old Sienna Butters, high school student Samatha Bryant, VCU student Ben Bryant to more seasoned artists and members of the IC, including past president Lucinda Levine. The botanic gardens is a perfect place to sketch with lots of comfortable, quite places to draw and get lost in the color and texture of the plants.

After drawing for two hours the group met for lunch at the National Gallery of Art. We enjoyed camaraderie and best of all sharing our drawings. The works were amazing and varied in media from Sienna and Eric Butters who used watercolor pencils and finger painting techniques to create their brilliant paintings, to Lucinda Levine who used pen and ink and Meredith Nelson who drew with markers. Web Bryant used graphite and charcoal to create a lush textural drawing, architect Farshad Ferdowsi impressed us with his energetic graphite sketches. Most high tech was our "Sketch Day" organizer Sayeh Benham who used an iPad to paint a red amaryllis. I used colored pencils on toned paper.

Our next "Sketch Day" is scheduled for Sunday February 13, 2011 at 11:00AM at the National Museum of Natural History. Please join us for an afternoon of sketching (we will meet at the big elephant in the main lobby).



US Botanic Gardens atrium. Photo by Marie Dauenheimer




US Botanic Gardens atrium. Photo by Marie Dauenheimer



Amaryllis. Photo by Lucinda Levine



Eric Butters and painting. Photo by Marie Dauenheimer



Meredith Nelson and sketch. Photo by Sayed Benham



Web Bryant and sketch. Photo by Sayed Benham



Color Pencil Sketch by Marie Dauenheimer

Sketching at The Metropolitan Museum of Art Part II

Last week I spent a day sketching sculptures at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. I started in the Greek and Roman galleries and by the afternoon was in the European Sculpture collection. Both these galleries are very comfortable to draw in with lots of benches and chairs. Both galleries feature natural light sources. When I draw from sculptures I try and work from the same piece, but varying the angles.


Houdoun "Bather" 1782. Photo by Marie Dauenheimer


Petrie Court of European Sculptures. Photo by Marie Dauenheimer


Pencil sketch by Marie Dauenheimer


Pencil sketch by Marie Dauenheimer


Pencil sketch by Marie Dauenheimer