so it’s time to go to life modeling. Erica was our model and she always does a great job. She’s a lovely girl who is great fun. I had to bake her some cheese crackers because she missed them last time I made some a few weeks ago. So the rest of the group all got some too.  Anyway I used the caran d’ache and kilimanjaro paper and a lot of paper.

I blocked her in with the yellow ochre crayon. Then I checked her measurements.  They were right!  Sometimes things just work. Sometimes they don’t. This time they did.

I used the plumb lines like Roz Stendahl talked about in Sketchbookskool to check hand and arm placement as well as her ear. Only her ear was off.  Miracles do happen – or maybe it’s practice.

And I had great fun laying on the colors and then spraying them with a very fine mister. Love to let the caran d’ache drip. I am finally learning to control the dripping somewhat. To keep it from running so much. There are two things you can do.  Lay the board down and it will not run as much OR mop it up before it runs. Once it starts running it usually stains the paper and you loose your whites.  I also like rubbing it out with either a damp bounty paper towel or my dads  old hog bristle grumbacher filbert.

If I remember next time I think I will draw her with the flesh colored crayon because I do not like the way the yellow ochre shows thru the background blue and makes an icky green.   Of course I will probably forget  I like that yellow ochre crayon!

I think her head went well. It looks like Erica. It’s very hard to get detailed with the caran d’ache which gives it a dreamy look. It also causes you to loose the whites easily like between  her hands.

I had intended to finish her hands at home because I knew she would move them when she got back into her pose after the first break. Models always do.  Instead I ran a few errands and came home and took a good long nap.

Hopefully I will finish her tonite or tomorrow.

Thanks for looking!