Workshop

I learned a lot this Saturday attending a workshop taught by German artist Catherine Edlinger-Kunze. Catherine is a very kind and warm person and also an excellent teacher, and her art is astonishingly beautiful.

Picture of Cathrine teaching

The first half of the workshop was devoted to drawing a live model, especially how to draw a gesture in just a few strokes. To illustrate body movement, Catherine took out a white sock with two tennis balls on top of one anther in it. A black center line is visible in the middle of the white sock. We all laughed at this seemingly funny object. "The tennis balls represent the torso and the pelvis." She said as she twisted the balls in different directions. "Look what happened to the center line." Then we started drawing having the image of the tennis balls in mind.

sketch by Layla Wu

I'd never had an easier time capturing body gestures just by understanding how tennis balls move in a sock. "It's important to understand how body parts function." Catherine said, "there's so much more you can show about what's going on with the body." Drawing outline is good, but understanding how the bone structure inside connect with the muscle and the skin took my gestural drawing to a different level.

We moved on to painting a little past noon. Catherine meant to push us all out of our comfort zone but I felt very comfortable in the whole process thanks to my mentor Olya Losina. I never thought I'd be able to paint a figure merely out of my imagination. Catherine helped me every step of the way to solve issues such as the drawing of the feet and the hand. This is what I got after three hours of work.

painting by Layla Wu

It still needs more work but I'm very happy with what I got so far.