Co-Students work

These are the works of my dear friends at school who have amazing talent and are beautiful people inside and out ! They make going to school so much more fun ! Thanks so much ma friends !

Sumaira's Charcoal assignment of Eye Cast.
She's too shy to get her pic taken but you can be graced with her hand and that rock of an engagement ring !

Keira's Charcoal assignment of a Bust. She is also an aspiring model
and models for my Fashion Shop at Sparrow Lyn

School Props

These are just some of the props students use in their still life compositions. Quite an eclectic collection.

A piece I am personally eyeing........such a beautiful skull. Yeah I got a thing for skulls !

A students left over paper pallete. My current assignment is my first in oils and I can't wait to get started. Haven't touched oils for 3 years now.

Scenes from School and Moi

The last few days of me working on the skull, which is now framed and hanging in my kitchen. I am now onto my first oil assignment in school and itching to those brushes out.

Progress of current cast

Still working on the construct and have spent 2 full days just on the right eye. And I don't think I am done with it yet. The hair is going to be challenging as its the first time for me doing curly hair with so much detail in it.

This cast is called "Guiliano" the good looking twin as everyone refers to it in school. I look forward to transferring it on canvas and actually getting down to painting it.

ARA Spring Show & Sale Art

These are just some of the amazing art by fellow students that are put up for viewing & sale during the ARA Spring Exhibition. The photos do not justice to the actual pieces and worth the trip in seeing them up front.

All pics courtesy of The Academy of Realist Art Toronto.

Scenes from School

The main aisle featuring works of students in graphite, charcoal and oil

Students work in oil

Close up

Courtesy of The Academy of Realist Art

After my trip to India and Dubai, I have resumed classes at school and wanted to share some daily scenes. The students impress me everyday and it is wonderful to be surrounded by so much talent and beauty everyday.

Second Charcoal Assignment - Skull

Oh heck ! The last I posted was exactly a year ago..............that can't be good. I didn't mean to let this time slide but my Fashion Business kind of took over. I am still going to Art school and graduated to level 3 already.

But I promise I am going to post more often as I have started sketching again and turning out some graphite portraits that I am proud to share with you guys. So hang in here with me...........I will try to do better........I promise to do better at blogging.

Just done with my first charcoal assignment and these pics are of the artwork about 90% done. I should be completely finished with it by tomorrow and starting on my second assignment - yay ! 

Charcoal assignment on the easel with cast on the wall to the left

Close up of the cast on the wall 

Close up of the cast and charcoal

Close up of the charcoal 

Me and my charcoal 

Art Talk Chez Margaret Stawicki

These are my favorite Art buddies at one of our bi-monthly Art meet ups at Margaret's place. I always walk away so inspired from their company....our subjects of discussion vary from Art, encaustic painting, best male models to paint (David Gandy won hands down), going to Art Galleries and more. They make going to school so much more worth it! Thanks for having us over Margaret!

p.s. Do you see me wearing one of my designs? Look closely............or hop over to my Clothing shop at Sparrow Lyn. Thank you for the encouragement everyone - it means the world to me.

ARA student meet up

(from L to R) Tamara, Denise, Margaret, myself, Brigitte and Fanny 

And these are my lovely colleagues from Art school at our monthly art meet up. A big part of the meet up is eating and keeping ourselves dehydrated (wink!) and talking about our favorite subject ART. They are all very talented artists and I am in awe of their skills. They make going to school even more fun! You guys are super awesome ladies....................a very wonderful Christmas season to all of you. 

Weekly live model drawing - sustained pose

This is a construct of the live model sustained pose for 12 weeks. We start of building the construct on rough paper and then transfer it to water color paper cold pressed. The transfer is done in charcoal and built up by filling in with the charcoal and using a synthetic brush for shadow work. I loved the pose and the angle I work from but unfortunately I will not be able to finish this as the 12 weeks are coming to an end soon....sigh...

Bargue assignment IV - part 1

Just started my fourth assingment and after the creating the construct, have moved to the articulation stage. It's pretty complex as this time we do not have axis to use as a reference. So we create reference points on the outside of the image.

This assignment is different to the earlier three as we are creating a copy of the image in a large size. I have always loved horses as a subject and also as animals - like a big dog you can't hug! After I complete this I move to level 2 - charcoal!! yay!

Bargue Assignment III - Jeune Femme - part 3 completion

Completed drawing in graphite of Jeune Femme. On the left is the print that I reproduced.

My best work so far !

Close up of the facial details 

Here is the completed drawing of Jeune Femme, didn't think I would finish it but finish it I did! whew!

Click here to view progress of the drawing.

Wednesdays live model drawing

Another sustained post of 12 weeks but I didn't get far this time. Since I knew that I would not have much time I decided to spend the last few sessions modelling just one part of the figure which was the arm. Using the brush I spread the charcoal to create the values and roundness of the flesh. I was happy with my measuring this time round and achieved good proportions in the figure.

I keep telling myself its not a race Lynda......but it's like I have two brains - one talks and the other just does not want to listen !

Cartoon created on rough paper with shadow areas blocked in

Cartoon transferred onto water color paper and worked on with charcoal

Bargue assignment III - Jeune Femme - part 2

Jeune Femme alongside image I am reproducing. 

Close up of Jeune Femme - the right eye is what I spent the last 3 days  on. 

'Jeune Femme' is about 50% done and I am in the shadow modelling stage now. I really enjoy this stage - creating the 3 dimensional illusion with the values and shapes. I spent the last three days working on the right eye (not yet added the eyelashes) and have now started work on the left eye. Of the three assignments this one has the largest shadows to work on.  I should think another months work is left.

Someone asked me yesterday if this is hardwork - I would say no - its just time consuming. The product is directly relative to the time you have spent on it.....and I am loving it !

Click here to see stage 1 of Jeune Femme.

Live model drawing session contd...

The drawing is now transferred onto the Arches watercolor paper and I have blocked in all the shadows. A big lesson I took away from this is to block in the background color first thereby allowing you a comparison for your other values. That took alot of time but still not as flat as I would like it to be. I then used a brush to create the values in the shoulder area. Time only permitted me this much but grateful to even get this far. She was a great model.....did not move and a wonderful pose to work with.

Live model drawing session

During the live model sessions we are sometimes blessed with the same pose over an extended period. So this model was available to us for all of 12 weeks. The first stage (above) was the construct stage after the 15 line gesture drawing (top left corner). I think I am finally getting a hang of the comparative measuring system and my drawing looks proportionate (to me!). Have blocked in all the shadows and next will be transferring it onto the Arches watercolor paper.

Bargue Assignment III

"Jeune Femme"
Bargue Assignment III

Am working on my third assignment (there are a total of 4 assignments in Level 1) and still in construct stage of 'Jeune Femme'. Am being pushed to get the shapes accurate and all the angles. The school teaches us to move our eyes back and forth to identify any mistakes through animation. Have realized I am quite an impatient person and can't wait to start work on the modeling but they won't let me! :(
Nevertheless I just know I am going to enjoy completing "Jeune Femme".

Bargue Assignment II Completed

Have finally completed my second Bargue assignment and in the process of framing it. The prof pushed me alot towards the end to keep working on the shadows and I am glad he did. I got an A- on this and learned alot in the process. This along with my first Bargue will look great in my living room when I complete refurbishing. Am selling all of the furniture I have and going for a French / Industrial look......I digress....more on this in another post.

Click here to view the drawing in early stages.

Bargue Assignment II

Close up of drawing

Bargue Assignment 1 completed

I just realized I had blogged about my first assignment but never put up a pic of the completed drawing so here it is! It was such an eye opener...learning to use my knitting needle to measure, understanding the different pencils, pushing the graphite into the grooves of the paper........! And the best part was the light form modelling...once I put that in it was like putting the final icing on a wedding cake - just made the drawing pop.

Found this gorgeous gold frame which has a sienna sort of patina to it and will hang it along with my second assignment somewhere in the living room.

Oh geez I should sign it...I always to forget to sign my art.

Click here and here to see the drawing taking shape.