A Redesign for Exploring Women's Bodies

I decided after 3 years of doing my blog, it's time to re-design it a little bit.  I might keep tweaking it over the next few weeks, so if it looks different each time you're here, no worries!  It's the same place!

My son, Dylan, has left for China for a year.  It'll be for his Junior Year Abroad.  While there, he's going to be writing a blog.  I was so taken with the design he came up with for it, it inspired me to refresh mine a bit.  Here's the url to his blog in case you're curious to see how this 20-year-old is experiencing his year:  http://secondteahouseontheleft.blogspot.com/.

It's been interesting doing this blog.  I've gone through periods where I've written something every day, sometimes twice a day, and others, like now, where I sometimes don't even write each week.  While I was doing Beyond Barbie, it was an excellent discipline to help me recount, to remember, what I'd accomplished during that day.  It was also a great way to let the public know what was coming up in terms of the show and/or performances.  Now that I'm not planning any huge show, I don't have as much to write about.  I'm in a quiet period.  I'm working in the studio a lot - playing, really - but am not doing much work which I want to share.  It's mostly private musing and experiments. 

There's something very freeing about doing work just for myself.  I'm reading about artists and studying their work and sometimes copying it.  I'm working in different media.  I'm preparing for the cruise I'll be going on in December as Artist in Residence.  And I'm teaching.  This Fall I have 11 classes scheduled at Crossroads Art Center and the Visual Arts Center.  Plus I'm doing private Creativity Coaching and Art Lessons.  I love the interactions with my students.  It's a fairly good balance, though I hope I'll find a bit more discipline about getting into the studio.

My daughter, Laura, introduced me to the TV show Friday Night Lights, and I hate to admit that I've been watching it when I would do better to be in the studio playing. It's a very good show!

Hopefully as Fall comes and my psyche understands it's time for school to start again, I'll kick back into work mode.  It's very odd not producing a lot of work each day, but rather just learning new things and experimenting.  I'm thankful I don't have any shows looming since that would put pressure on and stop me from this valuable learning time.

Have you ever gone through a learning time for yourself?  What did you do during it?  What were the positive results as you moved out of it?

Figure Drawing Class

Six weeks ago I started taking a Figure Drawing Class with Tommy VanAuken at the Visual Arts Center here in Richmond.  That may sound odd since I've been drawing and painting the figure for several years now, but I'd never gotten good at drawing the figure from life, and I recognized it would be a great thing for me to do.

Last summer I took the same class with Lisa Johnson, also at the Visual Arts Center.  Lisa is a terrific teacher.  She analyzes the figure and teaches how many head lengths there are to the body and other proportions.  It's very helpful for figuring out precise placement of body parts.  It's also great for learning measuring and comparison skills.  I loved the class and planned to go to Figure Drawing sessions afterwards to continue practicing my skills.  Alas, I didn't.

So this year, feeling like my skills were rusty, I took Tommy VanAuken's class.  He has a completely different approach.  He teaches through gesture drawings.  Gesture drawings are VERY fast (between 15 seconds and 1 minute) representations of the ENTIRE - yes, the entire! - figure.  The point is to capture the essence of the movement.  It also has the incredible bonus of allowing the artist to capture proportions accurately without even trying.  If the eye is attuned to the figure and the hand is attached to what the eye is seeing, the proportions come out accurately, almost like magic.  There's a major skill to doing gesture drawings well, and I won't say I'm terrific at it, but I have improved dramatically over the course of the six weeks. 

The first ones I'm showing here are after about 3 weeks.  Tommy made us do about 40 gesture drawings with thick, fat vine charcoal in 15 seconds.  That was a great opportunity to stop thinking and to capture the essence.  These drawings were made first with the fat charcoal then I went and did some contour lines around the form.  We had a minute for each of these.

 These next drawings are from this past week.  Again I used the fat charcoal then a thinner charcoal pencil to get the contour.  I admit I am fascinated by how possible it is to capture so much in such a brief time. 

Chris, my husband, asked me the other day what it is about the figure that is so endlessly fascinating that people have been drawing it since time immemorial, and, more specifically, that I want to do it twice a week.  I had to think about that.  I think part of it is that it's a discrete object, unlike the landscape which contains so many zillions of objects that they can never all be comprehensively drawn.  The landscape overwhelms me.  Also, we know the human figure.  We know when we're on target, and we know when we aren't.  It's a constant challenge to draw it well.  And there is such beauty, such infinite beauty, in the human form.  The curves, the subtleties, the shadows, the light, the spark of soul. There are so many different forms the body can put itself into, and each person can do each of those (barring physical issues), so there is a never-ending assortment of positions to draw.  I haven't gotten bored yet. 

When I was painting from photographs, I also experienced the spark, the luminosity, the soul, but I got weary of copying from a grid.  I am excited to be trying to convey the beauty now from life. 


Here are a few pictures I drew 3 weeks ago in class.  The first two were 20 minute poses.

 

We had 40 minutes to capture this pose.  It's very helpful to have more time to shade the figure and to indicate the pillows she's resting on, etc.

 
Below is the picture I did last Friday.  There's a lot of foreshortening going on.  That means that part of her body is much closer to me, therefore larger, than other parts (her head, arms, etc.)  In order to draw it accurately, it's important to measure the different parts.  Otherwise, she will end up looking totally bizarre and out of proportion.  Foreshortening is one of the more difficult things to manage when drawing the figure (or anything else, for that matter).

More meanderings through my sketchbook

The last few weeks I've continued working/playing/experimenting in my sketchbook.  It has been one of the most freeing periods of my artistic life.  I don't think I've ever before given myself such a stretch of time without goals or expectations to produce for a series or a show.  My perfectionism has, thankfully, taken a back seat, and my playfulness has come to the fore.

Here are some pictures I've done lately:

Street scene of Main St across the street from the Visual Arts Center.  Practicing one point perspective.  Pen and ink, watercolor, and graphite.

Pattern I more or less copied from a book about visual journaling.  Pen, ink, watercolor, watercolor pencils, wax crayons.

I gave my student the assignment of drawing an apple 10 times in 80 minutes.  I decided to do the same thing.  Until I got going - I couldn't let go of the prettiness of it and wanted to complete the drawing. I started in watercolor then my student wanted to use them so I had to move on - I switched to color pencil after that

After I finished the above apple, I went on to another one.  First I glued some random Dur-a-Lar to the paper just to give me some different textures to play with, then I painted it in acrylics.  I was fascinated to note how the paint acted on the Dur-a-Lar as compared to the regular drawing paper.  It resisted.  I used gold paint for the highlights on the apple.

Sometimes what I do in the sketchbook is affirmations or assertions

.

 

I let myself be bold.  This was one of those times.

Zendoodles are never far away.  This one is Micron pens on Dur-a-Lar.

I use my sketchbook when I'm in figure drawing sessions on Friday evenings at the Visual Arts Center (all are welcome - $6/person - it's a great opportunity to draw from the model)  Sometimes my drawings aren't all that successful because I'm still learning to work from the figure from life.  The picture on the left is how it looked after 20 min.  then I brought it home and had a great time cutting up magazines and making it into something completely different.  Whether the pieces are skillful or not, I'm learning so much from doing them.  It is changing the way I approach art completely.

This is the same model.  I drew the gesture drawing with green Micron then put the body on it with a graphite pencil.  I used the scrap from a magazine to glue it into the sketchbook because glue doesn't seem to work too well on Dur-a-Lar.

A friend told me about this quote.  I thought it was worth noting:  "There's a crack in everything.  that's how the light gets in."  Leonard Cohen

Workin' my stuff.  And what a great place to do it.

This postcard was my place marker at my niece's wedding I went to lately.  Va Beach in the old days.

Another picture from figure drawing sessions.  I love how the white and black look on the red background.  This one made me happy.

21 things that didn't work that night when I was 16.

 

An earlier figure drawing session.  I drew the figure on Dur-a-Lar which is slightly see through - it's translucent - then did a pattern on the page behind it.  I'm intrigued by the juxtaposition of the two.

Allowing myself to play.  Zendoodles.  Colors.  Sumi ink, micron pen, watercolors, on rice paper.

As you can see, I'm not sticking to any one medium or paper or subject or type of creation.  Whatever arises is what gets expressed.  It's a very right brain way of approaching art.  I'll write more about the difference in my next post.  In the meantime, I'm enjoying these meanderings and am very curious to see where they're going...

Playing my way through the pain

This December I'll be Artist in Residence on a cruise sponsored by Semester at Sea through UVa.  We'll be traveling to the Bahamas, Jamaica, Colombia, Panama (going through the Panama Canal), Venezuela, Peru, Ecuador, Costa Rica, Mexico and California.  It will be 25 days long.  It feels like one of the thrills of my life!  I love to travel but felt like perhaps my travel days were mostly over.  This awakened my Wanderlust again for sure!

I'll be teaching classes around the concept of a Visual Journal.  I'll teach Zendoodles (patterns) to decorate the journal with, Composing Photographs Successfully, Blind Contour Drawing, Modified Blind Contour Drawing, Drawing Basic Shapes, One Point Perspective, along with the basic concept of Visual Journaling.  Since I've never kept a Visual Journal, I thought it would be a good idea for me to keep one between now and then!

Generally when I use a sketchbook, I am very careful to create beautiful drawings which I'm comfortable showing others.  I put myself under pressure to make them "good" and don't give myself any room to play or experiment.  I bought a gorgeous leather-bound journal when I was in Venice.  I'm proud of myself for actually using it, but, again, I've only used it to make beautiful art (or as pretty as I can make it!)  I decided I need a change of pace.

While shopping for supplies for the classes for the cruise, I glanced through some of the lesson plans Dick Blick offers on their website.  One of the ones I happened upon is for making a sketch book using raw canvas and acrylic paints.  It looked simple enough so I decided to modify it and make one just like the one I got from Venice except with a canvas, not leather, cover.  And I'd get to decorate it however I wanted. 

I thought about doing the color field art like Dick Blick suggested, but that didn't interest me so much. Instead I gravitated to doing patterns all over it.  That took a couple of days but provided me with so much pleasure and concentrated joy.  I did do a color field painting on the inside but then decided I didn't like it at all - too busy and uninteresting so I painted over what I'd done with purple paint on one side and red on the other.  I put quotes which are important to me there so I can read them when I need inspiration or courage or whatever.

Then I went to the local art store, Main Art, where they have a terrific selection of papers and allowed myself to get whatever spoke to me.  $50 later, I had about 8 different kinds of paper.  The primary one, and what they used in the Venice sketchbook, is RFK Rives, but I also included some MiTientes pastel paper in different colors, some mulberry paper, other Asian papers with cool patterns, tracing paper, glassine, parchment, watercolor paper, Denril (used with markers, I think), and who knows what else?!  I spent the rest of that day tearing the paper to the right size to fit into the book (10"x14" - one page is 10"x7").  Then I grouped those into 4 sheets each which folded over to make 16 pages (2 sides of 8 pages each).  I asked Chris to show me how to use the drill press then used it to drill holes not only in the cover but also in each of the 8 packets of pages (I have approximately 128 sides of paper to use in the finished journal - some packets have more than 8 pages because some of the papers are very thin.)  Then I went to Michaels where I found some thread/string that seemed strong enough to use to bind it then figured out how the other one is bound and sewed up my journal.  I hope it'll hold!  If it doesn't, I can always re-do it.

Pleased with myself, I was ready to sit on my laurels for a while - months - years - who knows? - and admire my pretty work, but I recognized the trap I was setting for myself - this is a journal to USE! not one to just look at and smile cuz it's so pretty.

I boldly did a gesture drawing of the roses Chris gave me for our wedding anniversary last week - mostly wilted, but still pretty - then painted it with watercolor.  Then, boldly, I wrote all over the page.  I wrote a promise to myself that I will use this journal for PLAY and EXPERIMENTATION.  Anything else is a cop out and will be a betrayal of what it is for.   I'm going to make notes on each picture about what I'm doing and why,and I'm going to use all sorts of different materials. 

The second one I did was a total experiment - on parchment, I wrote with  Micron pens I'd found at Michael's on sale -  orange and green - and drew impatiens from a planter on my deck.  This morning I painted them with watercolors.  I found out that parchment isn't all that fond of liquid, but the colors show up brilliantly, and the watercolor dries faster than I expected it would given that it just sits on the surface for a while and puddles.  It's very different than watercolor paper.

Here's what my studio looks like now.  It's a mess with everything sprawled around me, but I love it!  Color pencils, acrylics, pastel pencils, brushes of every description, a book to look at, my journal, drawing tools, flowers, micron pens, a plethora of toys!

I also decided to copy a picture by Frank Lobdell.  It's from a book Chris gave me for Christmas.  Lobdell does figurative work and abstracts with patterns so Chris thought it might give me some ideas as to how to combine the two or move between the two or whatever.  I don't like his work a whole lot, but it was helpful to copy the picture.  I find that to be a good exercise because I learn how other artists work - it makes me use different materials in different ways.  For this one I used acrylics, pastel pencils, color pencils, charcoal pencil, and even a conte' crayon.  After I finished copying his, I decided to play with the concepts on my own.  That's the piece on the right.  I don't consider it finished, but I had fun working with it and look forward to getting back to it tomorrow.  That's the best feeling - looking forward to getting back into the studio the next day.  I've missed that lately.

I'm intentionally not cropping these pictures and making them all pretty, because that's precisely NOT the point!  It is incredibly difficult for me to let myself be messy and to do something which doesn't look precisely perfect - or as perfect as I can let it be.  I think that's one reason I've been in a slump lately - I haven't been allowing myself to experiment or to make mistakes.   I've been creating beautiful work, but the parameters I've been giving myself - to accurately represent what's in front of me - have been stultifying.

I'm also taking Figure Drawing at the Visual Arts Center of Richmond.  You might think I'd be good at that already, but frankly, I'm not.  I can copy 2-D things that are in front of me.  Drawing from life is not yet in my skill set.  I'm rectifying that.  Thomas Van Auken is the teacher I'm working with.  Thankfully he's very good.  He has us doing gesture drawings out the wazoo.  I've already used up most of a pad of newsprint in 2 weeks.  That's fine.  I'm also going to the Friday evening sketching sessions which anyone can come to so I can get extra practice.  I am determined to learn to represent the figure in a way I adore from life.

It's been a very difficult few weeks, feeling somewhat depressed and frustrated and in a lull, but I feel like following these gentle leadings and letting myself PLAY will be the key to moving through the muck and stuck and into something fun and interesting and compelling again.   

Hopefully this sense of adventure will keep me from looking like the self portrait I did last week and will keep me feel enlivened and curious and joyful.  That is, after all, the reason I quit my well-paying job to do my art full time - because the joy I felt doing it overrode any objections I could possible experience - if I'm not letting myself feel that joy, I should move on to something else.

It's painful for me when my creativity and drive are subdued and I can't access them.  I have learned to just let myself ride it out, but that doesn't mean I like it!  I'm hoping that treating myself gently and letting myself play will be the key to transforming the pain into joy.

Spring and Summer Class Schedule

Today I spent some time putting together my class schedule for the rest of the Spring and the Summer.  I'll be teaching art classes for beginners and intermediates and offering a class by a wonderful teacher, Thomas Bosket, for advanced students.  In addition, I have two classes coming up which are about body image - Body Shop and Naked Self Portraiture.  The details are below.  Both are very gentle classes which give participants to look at their feelings about their bodies using different modalities in a safe, supportive environment.

All information is next to the class title.  This information is also on my website, www.susansinger.com.  Please feel free to get in touch if you have any questions about the classes.  I'd be delighted to have you join me for any of these pursuits!

To see a calendar listing all classes, please see Calendar of Classes page.

Putting Together a Face, One Piece at a Time

In this six week class, the student will learn the basic anatomy of a face and have the opportunity to practice drawing each element of the face in detail in pencil.  The last two weeks will be spent drawing a self portrait using the knowledge gained from the first four weeks.  No previous drawing experience necessary.

Friday mornings

May 6 - June 17 (no class May 27), 10 AM -12:30 PM, $180

held at my studio in Southside Richmond

Contact me to sign up and for more information.

SusanSingerArt@msn.com

Body Shop: An Exploration of the Body through Image and Word 

Susan Singer is a full time artist, writer, speaker and teacher who is dedicated to helping people feel compassion towards themselves and their bodies.  Through the processes of drawing, writing and sharing, participants will explore the impact that our body image has on our inner and outer lives.  In this intensive three hour workshop designed for women, participants will gently but honestly uncover how we really feel about the woman beneath our clothes. 

Saturday, May 7, 10 AM - 1 PM

Cost: $40 Members; $50 Non-members of Chrysalis
         * Register by April 22 to receive a $5 early registration discount 
Location: The Chrysalis Gathering Space (3527 Ellwood Ave.)  

Naked Self Portraiture:  Drawing Inward to Draw Outward.

Part exploration of the soul, part exploration of the body, this class will give you time and permission to see yourself as you truly are with loving eyes.  We’ll draw and paint and sculpt with simple materials like Playdoh and finger paint, easy for the inexperienced artist and interesting enough for even the professional artist.  We’ll go inward through Authentic Movement and guided meditation to find the essence of who we are on the inside. Come prepared to disrobe, to explore, to laugh, and to discover richly, deeply your own gorgeous self, inside and out.
(This illustration is not an example of the work we'll be doing in the class.  Our explorations will be much more basic and intended for beginners as well as women with some artistic background.)

Saturday, May 14, 10 - 4 AND

Sunday, May 15, 11-5

$150

Students: $125

At Illumination Dance Studio, Richmond, VA

Contact me to sign up and for more information.  SusanSingerArt@msn.com

Beginning Pastel Drawing at the Visual Arts Center of Richmond

Are you ready to try a new medium? How about one that is direct, forgiving, simple and luscious? Come learn all about color, composition, value, line, and marks, not to mention pastels and pastel papers! This class is ideal for beginners to art, as well as experienced artists wanting to learn a new material.  It is taught with an analytical approach which will allow even the utter newbie to create better art than he ever thought possible!  Materials will be provided for the first night of class and a list will be given out then for the other class meetings.

Tuesday night

June 7 – July 26, 6:30 – 9:00 PM, 8 weeks, $190

Contact the Visual Arts Center to sign up

Intermediate Pastel Drawing at the Visual Arts Center of Richmond

If you've already begun exploring the fabulous, rich, exciting medium of soft pastels, this class is perfect for you! Take time to indulge yourself each week in an exploration of yourself as an artist under the supportive and encouraging tutelage of the instructor. Bring your own project and draw to your heart's content! 

Thursday night

Session I - June 9 - July 14, 6:30 - 9:00, 6 weeks, $155

Session II - July 28 - August 25, 6:00 - 9:00, 5 weeks, $155

Contact the Visual Arts Center to sign up.

Honing Your Vision with instructor Thomas Bosket

If you are at the intermediate skill level or beyond, this could be a fabulous class for you!  In this six day class, Thomas Bosket, visiting professor from Parsons School of Design in NYC, will lead us on a journey together through some tough stuff and some very stunning parts of what it means to be human - a journey that exposes our deepest longings and desires - one that will be tough at times and thrilling at others.  We will be taken out of our brains into our bodies.  We will be exposed to raw energies and experiences that may be uncomfortable but definitively alive. 

In his almost twenty years of teaching art, Thomas has developed many exercises to help students break through their self-imposed limits on their artistic abilities. This class is for students who want to explore the interior aspects of creating art, those which transcend the skill-based aspects.

Sunday - Saturday, June 19 - 25, 2011           Sunday, June 19, from 2-6 with dinner afterwards
           Monday - Friday, June 20 - 24, from 10-4 daily
           Saturday, June 25, from 10-2
Where:  Crossroads Art Center at Staples Mill and Broad, Richmond, VA
Cost:  $600 for all instruction and dinner on the 19th
How to sign up:  send me an email at SusanSingerArt@msn.com, then send me a $300 deposit to reserve your place.  The remainder will be due by June 1.

Basic Drawing Skills

Have you always wanted to learn to draw but never thought you could?  Are you one of those people who says, "I can't even draw a straight line?"  In this class you won't need to, and you will learn to draw beautifully!  You will learn the basic tools of drawing as well as how to see in a way which is fundamental to learning to depict the world accurately.

Come find out just how terrific an artist you can become!  Beginners eagerly welcomed!  More advanced artists welcomed as well!

Friday mornings

July 8 - August 12, 10 AM - 12:30 PM, $180

held at my studio in Southside Richmond

Contact me to sign up and for more information.

SusanSingerArt@msn.com

Doodling Defined: Zentangles

All Levels

We all do it – whenever the meeting gets boring, or the teacher drones on too long, we take out our pens and start doodling.  This fun class will formalize your doodling just enough to make you want to do it all the time – not just when you’re on interminable hold with the telephone company.  You’ll learn new patterns and ways to put them together, and maybe you’ll even invent some to share with the class. This is a fun and interactive class for all ages. Class is appropriate for ages 10 and up. Children under the age of 15 must be accompanied by an adult.

On session only

Sunday, August 7, 1:00 – 4:00 PM, $55

More Details

Contact the Visual Arts Center to register

Individual instruction

anytime mutually agreed upon

If you prefer working one-on-one, Susan offers outstanding instruction in many media including pastels, drawing, oil painting and watercolor as well as art appreciation.  Email her to set up an appointment today!  SusanSingerArt@msn.com

at her home studio in Richmond, near Stony Point

Testimonials from Susan Singer's students:Susan's a great teacher, very encouraging, knowledgeable, organized and can tailor a student's needs to his/her progress

Susan presented very concrete, well-planned lessons which included thorough explanations and examples of materials (papers, types of pastels), techniques and approaches to the medium.  She was encouraging and positive in her instruction, always able to find good qualities in each person's work.

This was by far the most comprehensive coverage of pastel painting I've ever had.  I don't see how the class could have been better!

I feel like I'm improving not only my skills, but also my ability to see what I need to do to improve my painting.  It really helps for Susan to point out what is "off" or what needs to be approached next.

Susan's critiques (each class) helped us to progress more rapidly.  She is very encouraging, yet challenging.  I also learned a lot about color theory and application, which have made me much better able to work in pastels.

Hope to see you soon!

Susan Singer

SusanSingerArt@msn.com

 

The studio!

Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday	Saturday	Sunday
May				6 Putting Together a Face 10-12:30	7  Body Shop 10-1	8
9	10	11	12	13  Putting Together a Face 10-12:30	14  Naked Self Portraiture 10-4	15 Naked Self Portraiture 11-5
16	17	18	19	20  Putting Together a Face 10-12:30	21	22
23	24	25	26	27	28	29
30	31	June 1	2	3  Putting Together a Face 10-12:30	4	5
6	7  Beginning Pastels 6:30 - 9	8	9  Intermediate Pastels Session I 6:30 - 9	10 Putting Together a Face 10-12:30	11	12
13	14 Beginning Pastels 6:30 - 9	15	16 Intermediate Pastels 6:30 - 9	17 Putting Together a Face 10-12:30	18	19 Honing Your Vision with Thomas Bosket 2-6, dinner
20 Honing Your Vision 10-4	21 Honing Your Vision 10-4  Beginning Pastels 6:30 - 9	22 Honing Your Vision 10-4	23 Honing Your Vision 10-4  Intermediate Pastels 6:30 - 9	24 Honing Your Vision 10-4	25 Honing Your Vision 10-2	26
27	28 Beginning Pastels 6:30 - 9	29	30 Intermediate Pastels 6:30 - 9	July 1	2	3
4	5 Beginning Pastels 6:30 - 9	6	7 Intermediate Pastels 6:30 - 9	8 Basic Drawing 10-12:30	9	10
11	12 Beginning Pastels 6:30 - 9	13	14 Intermediate Pastels 6:30 - 9	15 Basic Drawing 10-12:30	16	17
18	19 Beginning Pastels 6:30 - 9	20	21	22 Basic Drawing 10-12:30	23	24
25	26 Beginning Pastels 6:30 - 9	27	28   Intermediate Pastels Session II 6 - 9	29 Basic Drawing 10-12:30	30	31
August 1	2	3	4 Intermediate Pastels 6 - 9	5 Basic Drawing 10-12:30	6	7 Zendoodles 1-4
8	9	10	11 Intermediate Pastels 6-9	12 Basic Drawing 10-12:30	13	14
15	16	17	18 Intermediate Pastels 6 - 9	19	20	21
22	23	24	25 Intermediate Pastels 6 - 9	26	27	28
29	30	31	September 1	2	3	4