Amanda Williams - Portfolio

A friend mentioned this ages ago. I promptly forgot about until it popped up out of the grey matter, as it does, for no good reason other than needing a blog post in order to procrastinate on the painting I’m supposed to be getting on with. (I will, I will. In a minute…) Thus, I am not speaking first hand (yet…)

Created by New Yorker Molly Crabapple Dr Sketchy’s Anti-Art School is a life drawing session with a distinctly burlesque flavour. Molly draws saucy Victoriana for magazines and used to work as a life model during art school. She thought they were boring and decided to take a stab at the medium. Thus, Dr Sketchy’s was born. Molly has been running Dr Sketchy’s in New York since 2005.

How different?

In normal life classes, silent students sit in a silent room and draw a bored, oft-uninteresting model. In Dr. Sketchy’s we’ve got scandalous performers as models. We’ve got ridiculous art contests (best incorporation of a woodland animal? Best imagined costume?), comedic skits good music and flashy prizes. We’ve got a selection of posh beverages - alcoholic and not - available to buy. At Dr Sketchy’s we don’t care if you picked up a pad yesterday or 50 years ago. Come to drink or to draw. We’re happy to have you.

Clearly popular, as a quick Google will attest, Dr Sketchy has spread as far as San Francisco, London, Phoenix, Melbourne, Atlanta, Detroit, Los Angeles, Scotland, Tokyo, Austin and even, Perth.

Curious:

Dr Sketchy’s takes place once a month on a Wednesday at The Burlesque Lounge which is upstairs at 267 William Street, Northbridge (the old Ginger’s Garage). The next one:

When: 7pm, Wednesday 26th August
Model: Clara Cupcakes
Cost: $15 on the door

Sounds like fun,
Amanda

A quick note for the locals…

There’s a brand new Monday afternoon life drawing session at the Opera Studio in Midland. The next session is on the 20th April and weekly thereafter.
2pm until 5pm, be there at 1.30pm to set up
The cost is $12 for the three hour session.

You’ll need to bring all your own equipment but there are easels available should you want to save a bit of lugging. If you’re a messy drawer a drop sheet would be a good idea! Tea and coffee provided. As there’s some building activity in the vicinity, which may clog parking, it might be best to park over the road at the shopping centre until something is sorted out.

To get there: go through the Town Hall / Crossways lights heading east on Great Eastern Hwy. The Australian Opera Studio is on the left on the corner of Cale St. The entry is on Cale St. It’s the red building on the left in the picture…

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Please come along and support us. We need numbers so that this can become a regular session and also kick off further drawing activities at the Opera Studio cultural centre. There’s the possibility of a second group on another day, portrait drawing sessions, workshops and a gallery space.

Trying for a bit more peace, an intrepid few Artist Safari attendees decided to tackle the museum again. Maybe it would be quieter on a Tuesday afternoon? Maybe…

You know that feeling? The one where you just know that someone is standing right behind you looking over your shoulder? Drawing in public has it’s moments. The ones when the public forget their manners.

What about when you’re drawing with a small sketchpad practically tucked under your jumper, facing into a corner trying to look really, really inconspicuous (’cos you hate people looking over your shoulder) and just know they that someone is doing just that? How did I know someone was doing just that? Because I could see their reflection in the glass. Grrr…

Jeff reckons I get it more than the guys do ‘cos I look more approachable. They’ve suggested a nose ring, leather jacket, copious bits of chain and a scowl. It would help to be taller too. I’ll work on the scowl.

We gave up after an hour… and headed to the coffee shop for a conference. Conversation inevitably turned to materials and revelations of the interesting inventory of a nearby Asian newsagent…

I came home with a bunch of stuff: a “writing” brush, ink and huge sheets of drawing paper that, I find, takes the ink beautifully. The ink is really different - it’s slightly thicker and smoother flowing than India ink - rich, dense and indelibly black. The paper is amazing as well - soft and incredibly absorbent but not hint of bleeding at the edges of marks. Held to the light there a very fine gridded watermark. Kind of tissue paper, but not, if you you what I mean. Fascinating.

The best thing though (for the ever curious) is a what I think is a kid’s calligraphy practice book. There are pages of figures interleaved with sheets of paper not unlike the drawing paper. Just thinner and transparent enough to see and draw the figures underneath. What a great toy! I imagine by the end of the book I’ll get a (bit of a) an idea on handling the brush and ink even if I can’t read a word of it…

Artists’ Safari…

OK, so I’ve pinched the blurb off the official Artists’ Safari site - why re-write something that sounds just fine?

The objective of the Artists’ Safari is to enable us and our fellow visual artists to enlarge our skills by going out into many different environments and setting ourselves the challenge of “making art” from what we see before us. As a group we can learn from each other and enjoy each others company. This is all voluntary so there is no cost apart from perhaps what it will take to get where we are intending to go.

We have in mind many locations and activities. It is not just a “Sunday Painters” group and potential participants need to think out of the box about where we might end up. In fact despite the intro the Safari will also be running sometimes on other days than Sunday - particularly in summer when it may shift to the evenings. Having said that there will be plenty of landscape and cityscape subjects. We are open to suggestions.

This week we’re off up into the hills to Bell’s Rapids - which is where the Avon River ends and the Swan begins. Come join us if you fancy a challenge.

Pinched the picture too. Oops.

Amanda

Over the past couple of months (holidays, yay!) I’ve been tackling the Bargue-Gerome Drawing Course using the sight-size method of drawing. The drawing course, to quote amazon.com, “is a complete reprint of a famous, late nineteenth century drawing course. It contains a set of almost two hundred masterful lithographs of subjects for copying by drawing students before they attempt drawing from life or nature.”

Now, don’t get me wrong, I’ve done quite a bit of “drawing from life or nature” but sheesh! it’s never too late to learn how…

The plates are a great exercise in understanding classical taste and are conveniently graded from easy starting ones through to arrgghhhh…

The impact though has come from using the sight-size method - my drawing has improved remarkably in many facets: patience, accuracy and the ability to spot mistakes - all of which transfers very well to all kind of drawing.

Sight-size drawing is done from a position about six feet or so back from the easel continuously looking from the object to the drawing, side-by-side, comparing point to point. A measuring devise is used - traditionally a piece of thread held between the thumb and fore-finger of each hand. Other implements that work are a knitting needle, skewer or dividers. I prefer the dividers. Measuring the object, then the drawing, always comparing. Walking forward to make a mark. Back to check, then foward to fix. Back and forward, back and forward - always to the same spot - marked with a piece of tape on the floor.

The whole point of sight-size is nit-picking accuracy. It trains the eye like no other practice. It also drives one stark raving mad! It can take upward of ten hours to copy one of the simple plates from the Bargue book. And the end drawing - is so ruined with erasing and correcting - it’s not worth squat! However, if you stick with it and can see it through the results will never leave you. Quite simply, one learns to see.

I have many, many plates to go and doubt that it’s necessary to do them all but when I decide I’m done: I’ll never, ever do another sight-size drawing again. Well, not for a while anyway…

Amanda

That’s it - we’re done.

“Done in” too - but that’s another story.

Here are a bunch of pics of the finished scene. It will stay up for viewing until the 5th of October as part of Artopia 2007. Worth a drive if you’re nearby.

The Kurb Gallery is located at 310 Williams Street, Perth.

Amanda

Here are a few pics of the scene so far. Looking good and with just two days to go likely to finish on time too. Thank goodness.

The walls we’re covering here are over 3m (9ft) high…

The toughest part of a collaborative project is keeping one’s temper amongst a large group of tired and cranky artists crammed into a small space - day after day after day… That is what one really learns in a project like this - how to choose partners for future shows!!!

Tomorrow…

Amanda

I’ll be busy this week…

Life Drawing at the Midland Art Group was looking a bit unpromising last night. We usually start at around 7pm but the model was late and it was a smaller turnout too. Probably due to school holidays and the particularly horrible ‘flu that’s going around. Not to worry, it just meant there would be plenty of room - some weeks it’s so busy we work two deep with some artists with sketchbooks and drawing boards sitting in front of those standing with easels. Waiting, waiting.

Anyway, come 7.10pm and still no model. Ben, who runs the group is on the phone and finally makes contact only to find that she too has taken ill. Oh no. He was looking really worried. You see around Perth there’s another life group somewhere, run by someone called Gary. Now I don’t know who Gary is, but rumour has it that in that group a no show model has Gary taking on the role himself. Ben is on the phone, armed with a list of numbers trying very, very hard to find another model. “Motivated” would be a good description…

Persistence paid off when a he managed to contact a girl, via a referral, who just happened to be at the video store, a mere three minutes away… A sigh of relief from a very grateful group of artists, led by an even more grateful co-ordinator.

Meanwhile, everyone else had been sitting around sipping wine and coffee, relaxing and actually enjoying getting to know one another rather than sweating over hot charcoal as we usually do. Life drawing is serious work for most of us. Does one ever get good enough to have fun rather than just tense concentration? It’s exhausting work.

So after a late start, and in a lighter mood than usual, a fairly productive evening followed. Three four minute poses, a couple of ten minutes and then finishing with two of twenty minutes each.

This drawing was probably the better of my efforts for the night, even with fairly difficult foreshortening on the arm and foot. I can see the difference that this week’s anatomy study has made to my efforts. It doesn’t hold my pencil for me but it makes a huge difference to what I see.

This week’s effort at life drawing group showed little improvement in my figures but yet again an acceptable portrait sketch. I even managed a likeness. Obviously I have no photo to show to prove that since cameras are a no-no. You’ll have to take my word for it.

I have to wonder about this, why faces are fine but I still struggle with everything else. I’ve drawn more faces. Maybe. I’ve certainly seen more faces than unclothed bodies. Absolutely. Measuring. Anatomy study - or the lack thereof. I really do think that is where the problem lies.

I’ve read and copied the drawings in Bridgman’s Life Drawing. I started working through Loomis’ Figure Drawing for all it’s Worth during the last holiday break. I should finish that. I also have Stephen Peck’s Atlas of Human Anatomy for the Artist on the shelf. Maybe I need to read it again? The truth is the books don’t seem to be helping that much.

Thinking about it, I realise that I’ve never actually had any instruction in anatomy or drawing for that matter. Yes I’ve been in art college for two years. Drawing though isn’t actually taught. We have a class called Formal Drawing which entails a still life, or on three occasions per semester a model, and we just draw. No instruction.

We were encouraged to buy a book on anatomy. With no suggested title, I (in my utter ignorance) looking over the offerings at Borders chose Dynamic Anatomy by Burne Hogarth. Big mistake. It has inspiring drawings but no instruction. It’s much too stylised for a beginner. The teacher wasn’t offering any praise for my choice, but still no indication as to what would be better. How would I know? I wasn’t even sure how to use it. Copy the drawings?

Under guidance from internet friends who really can draw (Hi Rich ) I did eventually end up with the Stephen Peck book, which is the one to get. Plus during this past year I have bought or borrowed Bridgman, Loomis, Vanderpoel and absolutely everything from the library on the topic. And for the most part read them carefully. And copied the drawings. Something is still not sinking in. What to do? More books isn’t the answer.

Maybe I need to find a teacher. When? I’m already studying full time, spending 16 hours a week commuting, caring for a couple of kids and a small farm. What do I do?

Amanda