A beautiful girl 

Charcoal on Paper

This is another drawing of my favourite model at the moment (you would have seen her in my last post over the shoulder)


I'm very happy with this drawing, even though it was never fully completed - the incompleteness of the drawing adds a certain charm.


How to buy this painting: How to buy a painting

Over the shoulder

Charcoal on paper 

This is a soft charcoal of one of my favourite models - Drawn during a life study session.

I was late for class and had to rush to get as much done as possible before the model packed up.

In total I had about an hour with this drawing.

 How to buy this painting: How to buy a painting

May's Second Charcoal

Charcoal on Paper

This is the second charcoal I'm posting this month.
I think there is something (hopefully at least one thing) in each drawing that I fall in love with, in this drawing it's the fabric wrapped around her hips - I love the folds in the fabric and the way the light captures the folds.

At tea time someone said, about my drawing; "She looks cross."
The model, overhearing the comment, looked at my drawing and said; "No I don't, I look pretty!"
Gog bless her.

May's Charcoal

May's Charcoal
Seated Nude - Charcoal on Paper
(SOLD)

I have a massive feeling of accomplishment with this drawing.
Why? Because the model loved it to the point of wanting to buy it!

And I love the light on the hair falling down in front of her face.

April's First Charcoal

March was not an inspiring month for me; I finished no paintings and my drawings turned on me.

When I tell people that I draw and paint the response is often, "Oh nice, that must be so relaxing."
To which I grimace and think to myself "bloody idiot!"

There is nothing relaxing about drawing or painting at the level that I attempt to, and there is no pleasure in it either, but there is enormous pleasure in having finished a piece, especially when it works.



April's started off much better than March - it felt good to have finished this drawing.

February's Charcoal

February's Nude
Charcoal

I'm really starting to love charcoal as a medium, but they're starting to stack up. I'm wondering if I should start selling them. Or maybe I should just give a few away...

Stephen Scott - Seated Nude - Charcoal on paper

Seated Nude
Charcoal on Paper

Our model was a beautiful blond girl. This was the first time she sat for any group and she sat fantastically. It was a absolute pleasure to work with her.

Stephen Scott - Seated Nude - Charcoal on paper

Seated Nude
Charcoal on paper

About a year ago I hated charcoal; it was an annoying medium - the charcoal refused to do anything I wanted it to... now I'm starting to understand.

The model was from Zimbabwe, but she's spent the majority of her life here in South Africa.

Seated nude; charcoal on paper by Stephen Scott

Seated nude
charcoal on paper by Stephen Scott

Another week in the fantastic house with it's studio on the third floor!

It was the first week of winter for us - the studio was cold and impossible to heat up, our model huddled as close as possible to the heater during breaks, but during the pose she sat beautifully - the sign of a good model.

It's fascinating how the best models are also the smartest - our new girl has an honors degree in fine art and is currently working at the University of Cape Town.

Seated nude - Composition sketch (pen on paper)

Seated nude - pen study on paper

This was a quick study in lights and darks, the idea behind the sketch is not to be a final work of art, but rather to be a template to work from.
Unfortunately I never did a painting of this pose from this angle, it was done in the last 5 minutes of a session and the model was unable to make the next session.

Pen sketch - composition drawing

Before starting a painting I will always do a sketch, often in pencil or charcoal. The idea behind the sketch is to test the tonality and the composition of the picture... it gives me a chance to solve the problems and complexities of the task at hand.

Once the sketch is done I'll often draw all over it as a choose which part of it I'll use as a painting and for measuring the drawing while transferring it to the canvas.

This sketch survived me - I spent more time on this drawing than I should have, but I loved doing it!

Sleeping Nude - pen sketch

Sleeping Nude
Pen sketch on paper

This is one of my favorite models, she's lovely, has a beautiful figure and sits like an angel. This was a quick pen sketch during one of the painting sessions.
The pose is lovely, I wish I had chosen this position to do a painting from!

New unfinished work - seated nude

Seated nude - in progress
Oil Canvas - Large

She's back! One of my favorite models.
We started a new session with her on thursday night, she's got an incredible figure and she sits like an angel. Hopefully this painting will not turn into the disasters that my recent paintings have mutated into.

How to buy this painting: How to buy a painting

Diane - 7 November 2007

This was a short sitting (about 1 hour) and it was a with the purpose of trying Richard Schmidt's technique of working the drawing out of a mix of burnt sienna and ivory black.

It's a fairly simple technique, but can be very difficult to master. I was lucky with this one; I liked the result.

The painting starts by covering the entire canvas with a thinned mixture of burnt sienna and ivory black (the mix should be blotchy so that you have patches of sienna and patches of black) - the mixture is thinned with turpentine. Once the canvas is prepared it needs a short while to dry, it's time to start painting again once the paint no longer is able to run.

The painting is then done by both painting fresh tones of the sienna / black mix and by using a cloth to rub away the coloured texture causing highlights. I.e. Paint the darks and rub out the lights.

The pose is exactly as was in Richard Schmidt's book and I followed his instructions closely. This was to be the under painting with a more complete colour painting worked over it, but I liked it so much that I was compelled to stop.

We had a small exhabition at the office (I work for a large South African retailer) and this painting was sold within the first hour of being on display. It was never meant to be a finished work of art so I the selling price was very low (the buyer actually gave me more than my asking price!)

Oil on board - SOLD