Figure drawing sessions...

First session of the figure drawing workshop this season. Didn't feel too weard to draw humain figures again. I'm glad I kept drawing a minimum this summer to keep a bit of the sensations. Now I achieve the ressemblance, so I guess it's time to concentrate on the quality and variety of my linework, pencilwork and the use of colour. How to ad "matière" to my drawings, which is going to be fun! I show you this portrait just above from yesterday and a few others from last year, so that I (and hopefully you) can see the évolution, if there will be any...

My Moleskine today (5)…

Seashells (2)…

My Moleskine today (4)…

Fading roses... they might be "sad" because autumn seems to be here.

My Moleskine today (3)…

My Moleskine today (2)…

What did Rembrandt think about drawing "anything" ?

Even if he didn't think it's a good thing to do, I'll continue to see where it will take me. I feel like it could go far if I play the game long enough and I hope my creativity and imagination will get wings to fly by then...

My new "studio"...

I'm just very happy about my new own space where I can work, so I guess it's normal I feel like sharing this.

My Moleskine today (1)...

The "Métro" is a good place to draw even if the conditions are difficult. It's complicated to keep sketchbook and pen stable. Most of the times it's too crowded and people get on and off to quickly, when they stay on for a while they tend to move all the time. It's also difficult to avoid bad looks when they notice you stare too much. I see lots of interesting faces I would like to draw on the subway but most of the time it's an impossible mission. So, when I can't draw for any reason I imagine that my eye is a "laser" that replaces the crayon. I follow every detail of what I see with my invisible crayon which is an exellent way to "sketch" without matérial and without anyone nowing.

Seashells (1)…

This is a seashell called Harpidae Capriti, from Mauritius...

I'll make this kind of study for fun and practice. It's like a warmup, a way to get to work without too much worries about what I could put on my imaculate sheet of paper. I hope these drawings will get better and better with some hard work and patience.

Week end in the country side...

I spent a short week-end in the country side of Normandie, which turned out to be pretty nice...

For once I got up early, for "double once" it was sunny (rains a lot in Normandie) and for "triple once" I managed to do something in my sketchbook. Even if the result is not great, it's a start as usually it seems to be impossible for me to do any drawing there. Until now I didn't find the reason why, but I guess it's because I can't isolate my mind to concentrate.

The house is my sister-in-law's and it's one of those timbered houses so typical in Normandie.

We also went for a walk in the woods and found a few muchrooms and picked lots of blackberries to make a cake and jam...

Book and sketch while waiting...

Had to wait for my son to finish his sport session, didn't bring my sketchbook but found another solution... even though the drawing doesn't have much to do with the title of the book. It has more about the season to do. Leaves were flying in the september wind.

Sketches of the day…

Didn't have a concrete project for the day, other than it was more than time to grab my pencils again. Not much time left of the afternoon so I had to stay nerby my home. The wheather was nice and I really felt like sketching outdoors. I only told myself to try to get anything on the beautiful "creamy" paper in one of my new sketchbooks. The result?... a piece of wall on which the cables of the electric system looked prehistorical and interesting to me and my can of Coke (which is my only drug I think besides drawing. Or no, talked too fast, there are many other things I can't live without, no doubt about it).

Mauritius - watercolors (2)

Mauritius - drawings (2)

This is the evolution or my drawings during two weeks more or less. The first ones are "shy" as there had been a while since I spend time drawing. At the end I feel I could develop different ways of drawing, if I work on it. But I would like to "seperate" them in that case. Or maybe not, perhaps at the end it will be just "my way of drawing and painting",

a mix of it all ?

These seashells among others just joined my growing collection…

Mauritius - drawings (1)

Trying out a new tool, a grey felt pen. Nice feeling to work with, even though the range of values is limited. I could use several pens in different values, but then again, as the paper gets easily saturated its limited too.

I wanted to make a double page of this young man, but I never got the time... time is the winner as usual.

Mauritius - watercolors (1)

Back home and to life's reality after spending time in paradise...

These watercolors help me to remeber those sweet moments.

Apart from the first one they are all painted on a boat in a little complicated conditions, the boat changing directions all the time and moving with the waves. (I was also supposed to be the "photograph reporter" every time the "fishermen" catched a baracuda or some other sea monster, which interrupted me regularly as the baracudas are hungry fishes). One day we even followed a whale and her baby for a while, an amazing moment! At the end of our stay I didn't come along on the boat, as it finally made me seasick while painting and as it takes time for me to get rid of it once I'm sick. These watercolors are painted directly without any drawing on before hand to avoid the feeling of coulouring instead of painting and to gain some time as I had to paint quickly.