Discouraged...

He is staring at me with his unseeing eyes. I´ve been so discouraged thanks to this figure.

I´m working on a drawing of this head; front, side and 3/4 side view. I thought it would be easy.

I was wrong.

My teacher Farigh has studied at the Repin Academy in St. Petersburg, that is where he picked up this figure. He told us about his Russian professor who almost NEVER used an eraser, he was so skilled in drawing. I use my eraser ALL THE TIME. It´s really hard to get the proportions right (I even have a hard time spelling the word "proportions"). 

It´s not a pretty sight. Yet.

My other project is this Bargue drawing. It´s killing me as well.

I left" the Russian head" and the Bargue drawing and went to

Folkkulturcentrum. The models for the day were two opera singers who is performing in an opera for children, "Hans and Greta". 

Hans and Greta (Margareta and Pernilla) and Bosse.

The models take their seats, in the background you can see the gingerbread house.

My sketch of Margareta, pencil on paper

A good painting always starts with a good drawing so even though I sometimes feel discouraged when I struggle at the drawing board I know that, step by step, I will master the

art of drawing if I´m diligent.

“One must know how to draw before one becomes an artist. It is because the ability to draw is the basis for the art. These skills should be developed from early years so that the artist as soon as he starts thinking and feeling, could express and convey his thoughts accurately and without any hindrance, so that the pencil could run at an artist’s will and thought.”                          

Karl Pavlovich Bryullov , Russian artist 1799-1852                                                                                                     

Talking about the Russians, one of the biggest museum collections of Russian art in the United States is found in Springville, Utah. To read about how this came click on this link http://upr.org/post/utahs-famous-collection-soviet-art . I visited the Springville Museum of Art in January this year.

Yuri Stanislavovich Podlyaski (1923-1987)

Portrait of Masha Surtukova Reading (Yellow socks)

Oil on canvas, 79x52 cm

Akmed Abadullovich Kitaev (1925-1996)

Miru Mir (Peace to the world) May Day, Red Square, 1964

Oil on canvas, 96 x 194 cm

Nikolai Ivanovich Ulyanov (1922-1990)

Invasion: Enemy at the Door, 1965

Oil on canvas, 200 x 100 cm

During the 1960s it was a fashion in Soviet painting to attempt to create suspense for "the next moment". In this painting we see a German soldier during World War II, who has come to the house to plunder whatever he can from the house. Or will he just shoot the sickly grandmother and the toddler? Or give them some chocolate?

Evtikhi Aleksandrovich Konev (1914-2008)

Sunday Picnic, 1962

Oil on board

I love the way the artist with very few strokes with the brush has described the shape of the woman in the white dress and the yellow wrap she tied around her head. Simple but totally convincing.

Yuri Petrovich Kugach (1917-2013)

Wedding Dinner Study, Girl in Polka-dot Dress, 1959

oil on board

Fedor Vasilevich Shapev (1927-    )

Country Doctor, 1967

Oil on canvas, 105 x 140 cm

This piece depicts a physician making rounds to the villages in her region. During Soviet times most doctors were women, because medicine was not the prestigious profession it was in Sweden or the United States. The artist says it is his quest to make the figures speak to the viewer and reveal their best attributes.

Arkadi Akeksandrovich Plastov (1893-1972)

Village Girl in the Snow, 1950

Oil on canvas, 60 x 46 cm

Tatyana Nilovna Yablonskaya (1917-2000)

In the Artist´s Studio, 1954

Oil on canvas, 70 x 90 cm

Eriska Thereski Arneskaya (1961-    )

Figure Study with no 

Trace of the Russian Method or Knowledge of the Traditional way of Painting

Oil on Canvas, 2011

One thing I learned during my first year as an art student, is that the whites of the eyes are not white. It´s a globe and the color should indicate just that.

Work out at Folkkulturcentrum in Hjorthagen

Have I told you about Folkkulturcentrum? It is my art gym, I go there to exercise my drawing muscles (eyes, brain and hands) two times a week. It is a wonderful place, unassuming. This is what happened today:

Here is the armchair where the model sits. Anyone can be a model. Today I learned that the youngest model ever was 2 months old (he/she didn´t move for the whole session because he/she was asleep.) The oldest was a 99-year old lady. 

Veronica (she is in charge of the portrait painting at Folkkulturcentrum) instructs Vladek,

9 years old, who is a model for the first time in his life.

Vladek with his father Sascha. Below you see my interpretation of father and son. I must point out that I´m the only one who is drawing, all the other folkkulturians paint with acrylics.

Vladek. Pen on paper, quick sketch

 Since I make very detailed drawings I should sit closer to the model than I did today. I could not see his face clearly because of poor lighting. And by the time the 30 minutes were up he had totally changed the position of his head. The rest of his body did not move one bit though!

 One of the men that regulary come here to paint has a very unique style. This is his painting of Vladek.

This is a quick sketch of Sascha, the father, and as you can see it does not look like him at all. This is OK as long as the proportions are fine. In the russian way of drawing you emphasize the structure of the face. You should be able to distinguish the different planes of the face. This is why I need to make

a lot of drawings of human skulls to learn the architectural construction of the face.

Our next model today was Beatrice.

Beatrice, pen on paper, 30 minutes portrait

I love this portrait of Beatrice!! I forgot to ask the name of the gentleman who painted

this but he makes great paintings. He does not worry about the russian way of drawing and he has had some of his paintings exhibited at Vårsalongen at Liljevalchs!

Viktor (by the Gentleman at Folkkulturcentrum)

Acrylic on paper

Viktor (by me)

Pen on paper, 30 minutes portrait

Paul, pen on paper, 5 cm x 5 cm

November 2013

By now I have done over one hundred 30 minutes portraits. Above is my very first portrait at Folkkulturcentrum, november 2013. Two weeks ago Paul showed up again and I am so glad I have learned about the russian way of drawing since the last time I saw him. 

Paul, one year later.

My pencils, 

nicely tucked away in a pencil case

 I also make figure drawings. The model holds the position in 2 minutes, 5 minutes or 10 minutes and

you are supposed to catch the characteristics of the pose, the movement of the body and of course get the proportions right as well.

At the studio I am working with a full figure drawing of Lasse. This is slow drawing. I have spent 8 hours on this drawing. 

And lastly, in the studio I also work on this Bargue. It is so hard!

It takes forever! All I do is use my eraser!

Dear readers;

this object is used as a vertical so you can compare and measure the parts of the model, 

and find out the proportions.  Some of you knew that.

Back to school, back to blogging!

 I´m back to school and thus it´s time to post more regulary on my blog. Last week my teacher Farigh taught us how to mix oil paint.

 "At one time all paint was made in the studio, usually by the apprentices from their first year and itinerant journeymen. Due to the deep understanding every artist had of the properties of the paints they were making it was easy for the artists to produce artworks of intense beauty and great durability that testify to the skills and knowledge gained grinding colors for their master in their early years."
Tony Johansen, director, East Sydney Academy of Art

If your dying to find out all the details regarding paint making you can visit this webpage: http://www.paintmaking.com/index.html

We used pigments from Italy and linseed oil.

On a grinding slab made of glass you put a pile of pigments and atomize it with a palette knife. You make a hole in the pile and pour linseed oil into it and you mix it together with the knife. With a muller (glaslöpare) you complete the process of grinding with circular movements. 

This is the final result. It´s good exercise for your arms.

At this stage of the process I jokingly  said: "And then you take an empty tube of Kalles Kaviar and try to squeeze the paint into it!?" Well, my teacher reached for something in a box and then held up a small, empty tube. I had no idea there were empty tubes you could purchase!

There are of course bigger sizes of tubes as well. You use  the palette knife when you lovingly

stuff the tube with your own mixed oil paint.

It´s a shame I won´t be able to use my freshly made oil paint for a while. I´m a second year student so I´m only allowed to draw. I´m now making a full figure drawing of Lasse, our model. I have to make a post about him later, he is hilarious. 

This exercise is about, as always, seeing and putting down on paper what I see. I have to measure the model and get the proportions right. I compare the length and the width of the head with the length and width of the various limbs. I measure how many heads that fit into the height of the model. I squint and I measure and I squint and I sigh and I draw a line on the paper. I draw straight lines, simplifying the image. Forget about the curves of the muscles at this stage, what is important is to get the construction right. 

Our model is posing for 30 minutes then he takes a break (he always says:breaky-breaky when the alarm goes off). The whole session is 4 x 30 minutes and he will stand in this position for a couple of weeks. 

One last thing: Do you know what this is? It´s a tool that I use all the time while drawing. Please let me know if you do have the answer.