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.

Study for a Painting

I brought in a canvas with an underpainting full of eggshells to Olya's class. One of my classmate gave me a firm handshake for the first time since we met "Congratulations for coming up with such a good idea."

I wanted to create a painting/drawing of feet walking on eggshells. To help me visualize the idea, Olya lent me a hand mirror and a small lamp with orange floodlight. Here are a few samples of my feet's "beauty shots".

Each picture screams a story. I told Olya I really liked the last few poses with the feet leaving the ground. "Of the person is leaping," Olya said, "because underneath his feet are eggshells!" Now everything makes perfect sense.

Bill Sharp

I fell in love with Bill Sharp's artworks and felt so inspired! Every little mundane object becomes so extraordinary with his magic touch.

http://billsharp.wordpress.com/

"On the Carpet"

Bill Sharp

"Blue Pitcher with Lemons"

Bill Sharp

Hush Hush

This is my first time taking part in the north county drawing group at A&C Studio. Catherine was very nice and introduced me to a new color called "Cerulean Blue Chrome". She used this color in many of her paintings along with burnt sienna. The studio was filled with the smell of fresh coffee and beautiful light music. The model was lit by warm light from the left, pale studio lights and blue skylight from the top. Three hours went by in the blink of an eye.

Hello Goldfish

A painting inspired by the fish tank we set up over the weekend. I found myself obssessed and unable to stop staring at those poor frightened goldfish. "In a month, " Monk said "they will swim to the top when you get close." "just like the movie! " I yelled excitedly " in "Children of Heaven", when the boy dips his feet into the pond after failing to win a pair of shoes for his sister, a group of goldfish swim to the top and surrounded his blister-covered feet as if caressing them and soothing his pain.

Inside Great Masters' Minds

Great art lessons from art forgers. The forgers are not only excellent craftsmen, but also brilliant psychoanalysts and art critics, and of course criminals.

http://www.artnews.com/2013/11/20/fakers-fakes-fake-fakers/

Excerpt from the article:

How to Draw like Poussin?

Drawing by Nicolas Poussin

“Even Poussin did not learn how to draw like Poussin without years of practice. For just as no one could play the violin in imitation of [a master], unless they had first learned to play it rather well, so it is that no one can draw an imitation of a master draughtsman without being a pretty good draughtsman himself. Long years of practice added to arguably a solid art school background had given me proficiency in the art, and I could at least claim to understand the visual language Poussin used. But now I had to learn his dialect, his accent, his pitch, his almost imperceptible inflections and mannerisms, subtleties that he himself may not have been aware of.”  Eric Hebborn 


How to draw like Matisse?

Drawing by Henri Matisse

“With Matisse, for example, I had to be particularly careful. At the beginning . . . I used a very easy, flowing line for a Matisse drawing. Because he had, I thought, a very simple line. And then suddenly later on I realized that his hand was not as secure as mine. Obviously, when he stopped work to glance up at his model, his line stopped, too, with just that tiny little bit of uncertainty. Where I went very securely on, Matisse was hesitant, insecure. I had to correct that; I had to learn to hesitate also. "  Elmyr de Hory

Creation of Adam

Good images touch people at the time; great images touch people through the ages.

"Creation of Adam"
Michelangelo

We came across some version of this iconic image at some point of our lives. Most recently I saw it on the wall of a local realtor's office. As a proud Italian American,  he had photoshoped his face into the picture as Adam.

I'm not religious in any sense but "Creation of Adam" moves me deeply every time I look at it. Aren't we all looking for inspiration, redemption, hope and transcendence? As a skilled storyteller, Michelangelo chose to freeze the very moment when the two hands are about to touch but have not yet touched, the moment when a human being is about to become truly alive. It generates great anticipation among the viewers, make us anxiously wonder what would happen next.

That's why great art never ages. It invites the viewers to be part of the creation, to interpret the meaning contained in the void in-between the two fingers.