rjonesfineart

Sweet...

2012-02-10T11:21:00.001-08:00

"Candy", oil on canvas panel
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And another candy still life...

"Still Life in Red", pastel on paper

I think this is the first pastel that I've finished in months. It's also the biggest painting I've finished in months. After working in monochrome with the figure drawings and using a limited palette with the oil paintings, it was a little refreshing to use COLOR with the pastels. Feel free to comment or criticize.

Persimmons

2012-01-30T13:00:00.000-08:00

"Persimmons", oil on canvas board
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Oriental Cup

2012-01-02T12:12:00.000-08:00

"Oriental Cup", oil on canvas panel
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"Apples", and some unfinished business

2011-12-19T12:39:00.000-08:00

"Apples", oil on canvas panel
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I haven't done a pastel still life in months, mostly because I've been painting with oil, but I still go to drawing sessions. For different reasons I think some of the better drawings are the ones that are unfinished. I felt some had a strong start, or I tried something different and didn't mess up too badly.

I really liked this pose. I think I established the lights and darks, but I ran out of time before I could get into the middle tones.
There aren't a lot of male models around, so it's a change of pace when one models for a session. That said, I liked the pose and I trying to work with value shapes while using a few lines as possible. I tried to used the ground to shape the subject and add hard edges and lines later on. Totally different from the way I'm used to drawing.

Anyway, feel free to comment.

Grapes

2011-12-07T17:49:00.001-08:00

"Grapes", oil on canvas

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Still Life with Cherries

2011-11-16T16:02:00.000-08:00

"Still Life with Cherries", oil on canvas panel

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Blocks

2011-11-11T18:06:00.001-08:00

"Blocks", 8x10, oil on canvas panel

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R. O. Y. G. B. I. V.

2011-04-19T13:48:00.000-07:00

In case there's some confusion, "ROYGBIV" stands for red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and violet. I'm starting to really like drawing old, worn out antiques.

As always, feel free to comment.

Strawberries

2011-03-08T12:14:00.000-08:00

And now for something completely different.... ;-)

I went about painting this still life about the same as usual, but this time I took pictures of my process. I like it when other artists show their process work, so I wanted to see how it would work with mine. My paintings almost always start off sort of abstract because I'm trying to lay out dark areas, light areas, and figure out other composition issues.

Next I start with the block-in drawing, which is basically a line drawing with colors and values added between the lines. I usually work on everything at the same time, so that everything has the same amount of completion and I don't end up focusing too much on one part of the painting and lose the overall composition. But since I was working with strawberries (the leaves wilt quickly), I finished the strawberries one by one.

In the first pic I laid out my main dark and light areas, and while I worked on the strawberries individually, I worked on the rest of the painting in stages. First I refined the dark background, added the block-ins, and then worked on values. At this point I blocked in the fruit and added some color. This also allowed me to mark the position of the fruit.

At this stage I'm still blocking in strawberries. I've refined most of the background and I'm almost finished with the bowl.

Here's the finished painting. One of the fun things about working with this still life is rendering the different surfaces, like the rust on the can and the skin on the strawberries. Feel free to comment or criticize.

Another Figure Drawing Session

2011-02-14T10:09:00.000-08:00

It's been a looooong time since I posted something. After working on oil painting and figure sessions I realized that I haven't worked on a still life in months. I finally got started on one this last week. In the meantime here's something from one of the sessions I've been to. Over a span of about three months I've done a lot of these drawings, including a lot of bad ones. This is one of the better ones. Feel free to comment of criticize.

Another Figure Drawing Session

2010-11-18T14:43:00.000-08:00

I'm trying to refine my process a little bit, meaning that I'm focusing more on the drawing than the values, shading, etc. Feel free to tell me what you think.

Onions and Peppers

2010-10-18T12:34:00.001-07:00

I thought I'd go away from the vertical compositions I usually work with and work with a horizontal arrangement. The view is from a lower perspective and everything is arranged side by side.

I like drawing red onions. They have a small, rounded shape and they're easy to draw. It's a lot more challenging to render and paint them because of the subtle value and color changes along the shape. And it's tempting to draw the lines in the onion skin too dark.

I'll be doing more oil painting from now on, mostly to get more familiar with it. I've been checking out a few daily painting sites and I'm really inspired to give a try. I just hope I have the discipline to stick with it.

Feel free to comment.

Still Life with Chinese Tile

2010-09-21T12:16:00.000-07:00

I had a really hard time setting this one up. I wanted to direct light from the top left of the composition to the bottom right and really emphasize the vertical orientation. Since a lot of the composition is in the dark, I wanted to soften the edges in the dark parts and sharpen them in the lighted areas. Finally I wanted to emphasize the highlights on the fruit to show the path of the light.

Despite the fact that it took so long to set up and paint, it was fun painting this one. The Chinese text was really challenging to draw and render because the light caused a subtle change in value, so it wasn't entirely black in some areas.

Please feel free to comment.

Figure Drawing Session

2010-09-09T11:24:00.001-07:00

I've taken a little break from life drawing sessions, mostly because of other things. Here's one that was finished almost a month ago. It comes from a long pose (3 hours).

Feel free to comment...

Still Life with Puppet

2010-08-08T13:41:00.001-07:00

I had a lot of problems with this still life, mostly with the composition. I intended to use dark colors in the background, using light/dark contrast to bring more attention to the focal point. I kept repositioning everything except the rabbit but nothing seemed right. After about a week, I finally settled on this arrangement. From start to finish I added a few things and took some things out. All in all, it was frustrating to work with textures and the perspective but I had fun with this painting. It was definitely a learning experience, and hopefully I'll do much better next time.

Since the last time I posted my still life "Plums" was selected as a finalist in The Artist's Magazine 27th annual competition.

As always, feel free to comment or criticize.

A Change of Pace

2010-06-10T10:28:00.000-07:00

For a change of pace, I'm posting a portrait (more like a profile). This one took about two hours with breaks. Feel free to comment or criticize.

Still Life with Plums and Lemons

2010-05-31T16:27:00.001-07:00

Here's another still life. As always, feel free to comment or criticize.

Red Onion and Eucalyptus

2010-05-09T14:40:00.000-07:00

Here's another still life. Feel free to comment or criticize.

Plums

2010-04-14T11:27:00.001-07:00

I haven't posted in a while so here's a still life. More to come, and as always feel free to comment or criticize.

Figure Drawing Workshop

2010-04-05T18:16:00.000-07:00

I will be having a figure drawing workshop at Suite 106 art gallery at the Jacksonville Landing. The workshop will be held for four sessions every Tuesday starting May 4. The cost is $80 plus a $10 model fee. Space is limited to eight students.

Materials:

Vine charcoal
graphite pencils
kneaded eraser
newsprint pad (18 x 24 or larger)
Drawing paper (I use Strathmore 400, 18 x 24)

Sign up at rj6971@bellsouth.net

Blue

2010-04-05T09:15:00.000-07:00

This was my attempt to really push the light/dark contrast, so I arranged the darker bowl in the shadow and the white cup in the cool light. I used the blue scarf to put some color in the composition. This was also my first time drawing and painting pansies. Hopefully I'll do better next time. The colors and the white really "pop" when you see it in real life, so I don't think that the photo does the painting justice. I'll probably take a few more pictures and see where it goes from there. Feel free to comment or criticize.

Still Life in Red

2010-03-19T12:17:00.001-07:00

I did this still life to play around with complimentary colors, in this case red and green. I tried to set up the biggest contrast at the focal point, which is the Oriental cup and the apple. The darker cup stands out more when placed against the lighter green apple. Feel free to comment or criticize.

"Jars"

2010-03-04T11:39:00.001-08:00

I haven't updated my blog in a while so here's a still life. I've been busy working on new things for a show and some upcoming competitions. I'm planning on entering at least 5 this year, most of which are national. Anyway, feel free to comment or criticize.

Still Life with Radishes

2010-02-07T12:33:00.001-08:00

This painting is another try at finishing in one session. It took about three. The clay pots were really hard to render faithfully because of the texture (it's a mix of grey and red with lots of rough and smooth surfaces.) Feel free to comment

Geisha

2010-02-03T12:59:00.000-08:00

Lately I've been trying to do still life paintings in one sitting. This one was done in two sessions, so at least I'm getting a little faster. I think I had a problem with getting the values right, even when I left out most of the details. The vase in front looked a lot brighter than the doll from what I saw, but I didn't push the contrast as much as I wanted to. Anyway, feel free to comment or criticize.

Guajira

2010-01-22T15:32:00.000-08:00

This one was done in conte. I spread the conte shavings with a paintbrush, and then erased the lights out with a kneaded eraser. I apply the dark values with a darker conte stick. I tried to really push the darks to create more contrast, and focus the details on the face to establish a focal point. I wanted to show the figure in the context of a background without taking away from the focal point, so I avoided using lines as much as possible.

Feel free to comment or criticize.

"Matt"

2010-01-14T10:43:00.001-08:00

Here's a portrait of a fellow artist who volunteered for a portrait. He has strong facial features, especially the nose and the eyebrows, and I thought a profile would be the best way to show these features. Feel free to comment or criticize.

Still Life with Daisies

2010-01-08T16:20:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year to everyone. I just realized that I hadn't posted anything in a while, so I'll start off by posting a still life. I've been working on a lot of these lately and I'll upload some more work in upcoming posts. As always, your comments and criticisms are welcome.

Unfinished Figure Drawing

2009-12-10T10:59:00.001-08:00

I don't know what it is about this one that I like so much, but I thought I'd post it. When I draw the initial sketch and lay the ground, I almost lose the drawing underneath. Then I erase the lightest values and add the darkest values with a darker conte. This is the way the drawing usually looks after doing this, just before I work on the midtones. At this point the drawing has the most contrast. As I work on the midtones the drawing can lose some of its impact because sometimes I overwork the midtones and it weakens the drawing. That said, I wish I had enough time to finish it. Feel free to comment.

Still Life Rough Draft

2009-12-06T19:02:00.001-08:00

I'm working on a new still life that "features" two pears. I've been playing around with different arrangements and compositions but nothing looks right so far. Here is one of the rough drafts seems to work OK. Feel free to comment or criticize.

2009-12-01T13:38:00.000-08:00

Figure drawing in conte, hour long pose. This drawing was done a few weeks ago. Feel free to comment.

Figure Drawing

2009-11-25T12:30:00.000-08:00

I'm trying to make the values and edges a little "softer" in this one. I don't know how successful I was. I think the drawing ended up being a bit too light. Anyway, this was done in 25 minutes. Back poses are easier to draw so I was able to get a little more done.

Feel free to comment.

2009-11-20T09:56:00.000-08:00

Here are a few more figure drawings. The first one was done in charcoal. The next one was done in about an hour using conte. I laid the ground with conte shavings and spread it with a paint brush. I "added" light values by erasing with a kneaded eraser and dark values with a darker conte crayon. The last one was done in about 20 minutes. I tried to work on the drawing instead of adding values.

Feel free to comment.

2009-11-09T11:05:00.000-08:00

This one was done at the St. Augustine Art Association's figure session. It's on Mondays from 7-10pm. They do a few 5 minute warm up poses to start and go into the long pose for the rest of the evening. This took about two and a half hours. I'm starting to like profiles a lot more now. I think it's because it looks like the subject isn't posing. To me, it looks like the artist captured a moment of time when the subject was doing something else or thinking about something else. It's also a different way of looking at a face, and since it's simpler to draw, I can get more done within the time limit. After a while, if you go to enough of these sessions, you start seeing the same models. So I think this is a slightly different way of looking at her.

Feel free to comment.

Figure Drawing Session

2009-10-30T15:37:00.000-07:00

Here are two drawings from the Sunday drawing session. I usually work on the figure, but lately I've been focusing more on drawing the portrait. It's rare that I can get someone to hold a pose this long so this is a good opportunity to draw a portrait from life. I did about five drawings. I'm showing the portrait and the hour-long pose.

Here's the long pose:

Both were done with conte. Someone commented that I work in a "minimalist" style. Feel free to comment, criticize, or question.

Figure Drawing Sessions are Back

2009-09-18T11:03:00.000-07:00

Now that the figure sessions have started up again after a month long hiatus I can get in more practice drawing the face and figure. I really wish I could do this more often, but there are about four or five sessions I know of now, so there's an opportunity for practice at least four times a week. This figure drawing was done at the St. Augustine Art Association. I've included a closeup of the face (more like a profile).

Feel free to criticize or comment.

"Go Figure" show

2009-09-07T12:17:00.000-07:00

Butterfield Too art gallery in St. Augustine, FL had an opening titled "Go Figure". It featured the art of about 8-9 artists who are regulars at the figure session held on Tuesday evenings. The artists are really talented, and the drawings showed different styles, perspectives, and media to depict the nude or partially nude model. Artists worked in pencil, pastel, oil, and conte. I used conte crayons for these sessions. I had about six works on display; here are three of them. The figure was done at this session, and the portrait was done at another open figure drawing session, one hosted by the St. Augustine Art Association.

This figure was done in an 8-hour open figure session at the Artistree art gallery at Jacksonville Beach. The model holds the pose for 20-25 minutes, takes a break, and resumes the pose. We took a break for lunch and finished the session at around 5 pm. There's never enough time to totally finish a drawing, even after 7-8 hours spent working on a drawing. Oh well...

Feel free to comment or criticize.

Still Life Paintings

2009-08-20T18:37:00.000-07:00

I haven't posted anything in a long time, so here are two still lifes. Two of the life drawing sessions I go to have been cancelled for August, and that has cut down on the figure drawings a lot. I've been practicing with still life drawings to make up for it. At least this way I can practice with color, which is hard for me to do, and composition. These were done in pastel. Feel free to comment, criticize, or question.

2009-08-06T17:33:00.000-07:00

This nude was done in about an hour's time. I really enjoy the challenge of drawing the reclining figure from a foreshortened perspective. It's harder than a straight on view of the model, but a lot more rewarding if it's done well. I try to draw an "envelop" of the whole figure and then break the large contour into smaller parts. I then refine those smaller parts until it looks more like a drawing of the model. I use the head as a unit of measurement for things like hands and legs (mainly to compare size). Feel free to comment or criticize.

Tomatoes

2009-07-24T12:49:00.000-07:00

I got the inspiration for this one while noticing a plant in the house. Once you stop and really look at something, you notice a lot more about it. I kept looking at it and wondering if I could draw it faithfully. I used tomatoes to play on the color contrast (red-green, yellow-purple, orange-blue). For artists who are familiar with the color wheel, they're directly across from each other. I wanted to make a few focal points in a very busy, detailed painting of leaves and branches. I figured the eye would jump from tomato to tomato and look at the leaves of the plant, which sorta forms a background to everything. I also wanted to recreate the illusion that I usually see when I look at the plant. I notice mostly green masses like the larger leaves at first, and then the smaller leaves as I keep looking. I just sold this one so at least someone out there likes it ;).

Anyway, feel free to comment, question, or criticize.

Practice, Practice

2009-07-16T13:33:00.000-07:00

I try to practice with color at least four times a week. I could do a self portrait, but I think it's a more interesting to do a still life. I usually draw something small like a vase or a flower. For this one I used cherries. These cherries were red and yellow. I don't have a lot of yellow pastels so this was a challenge. Feel free to comment, question, or criticize.

Tuesday Night Session

2009-07-16T12:55:00.000-07:00

This session was little different from other ones I've been to. Usually the model is nude and assumes a pose that's easy to hold for a long time, like laying on a couch or lying on the floor. For this one the model had on clothes and was posed in a comfortable chair with lots of drapes. I thought it was a nice change from the norm so props to the lady who ran the session. Props to the model for holding the pose for so long. It's probably hard enough to hold still for ten minutes. She held it for at least 30 minutes before taking her first break.

I worked on the figure with this session and it took a while to get my proportions and measurements right. It's a tough pose because her right arm and left leg are foreshortened. I think I struggled the most with that. After I started to render the values, the hands still didn't look right in relation to the rest of the figure and the feet were a little too big. Then the model took a break, which can really affect how the drawing comes out. When she resumes the pose she has to get as close as possible to the original pose, and when she doesn't it's almost like starting over again. For the most part, the model gets it right. I don't think I did enough with the hands and the knee doesn't look as foreshortened as it should be. I wish I had another half hour on this, but I think I accomplished most of what I set out to do.

Feel free to comment, question, or criticize.

2009-07-16T12:48:00.000-07:00

Here's a closeup. The setup was done well and the model did a really good job considering that this was a two and a half hour pose.

Monday Night Session

2009-07-16T12:18:00.000-07:00

Usually at a drawing session I draw the figure, but every now and then I'll try to draw a portrait. It's rare that I get a chance to draw a portrait from life. Figure drawing sessions present a good opportunity to draw a portrait with decent lighting, and I only have the face to worry about and not the full figure. I don't have to put as much time into measurements and proportions with the face as with the figure. Portraits are still pretty hard for me to get right, and the fact that I have a time limit doesn't help much. That said, I get a more finished drawing when I work with the face. Anyway, I need the practice.

This one was done in conte. I use a sharpened conte stick for the preliminary drawing. After the drawing is done, I add conte shavings by rubbing the conte stick on sandpaper. I spread the shavings with an old filbert bristle paint brush, which gives me the midtones. I add in the darks with a darker conte stick (also sharpened) and make highlights and lighter tones with a kneaded eraser. It helps me focus on lights and darks without worrying about color. I spent about 40 minutes with this drawing, and I probably could have added hair with another 20 min.

Anyway, feel free to comment, question, or criticize.

Nude

2009-07-06T12:13:00.000-07:00

Here's another nude. This one was done in an hour, maybe a little more. I try to draw the reclining figure from a foreshortened perspective. It's a lot more challenging and I think it looks better.

Feel free to comment, criticize, or question.

Intro

2009-07-01T10:32:00.000-07:00

I'll be using this blog mainly to post drawings of the figure and still lifes. I'll also post paintings that I'll enter into competitions and exhibitions, as well as other announcements. I've been going to a weekly figure drawing class for about three years now (maybe more than that). It's been a great way to get some practice drawing the figure and developing skills. Anyone who tells you that drawing from life is the best way to develop as a representational artist is right. The human figure is a complex mix of shapes and lines and measurements, and it's a real challenge to draw it.

Anyway, I'll be posting my work on a regular basis, so check back often and tell me what you think.

Let's get the ball rolling with a drawing. This one was done in an hour.