My April - May Update in Photographs

April and May have been incredibly busy and there has been little time for posting on my blogs so here is a brief summary using just photos of some of my art activities and adventures.

Sketching on May 11th at the Canada Agriculture and Food Museum (photo courtesy of Diane Duford)

Painting & Sketching In A World Where There Are Octobers

October is a favourite month of mine. The colours of the trees changing, birds migrating, sweaters needed and hats and mittens taken out of storage. Here is a brief summary of some of my October art encounters and activities.

Artist Talk

I love exploring new art techniques and learning about and meeting other artists. One "artist encounter" that I enjoyed in the month of October was an artist talk given by Brian Turner  at the general meeting of ArtEast in Orleans. Brian works in watercolour and he also teaches an 8 week watercolor class through the Kanata Art Club website for details (www.artforall.ca)

Brian Turner gave an artist talk on composition at the ArtEast General Meeting

June 2017 Report

Finally! The perfect weather for urban sketching and plein air painting has arrived!

In June, there were SO MANY more opportunities for more life drawing (The Atomic Rooster, Art House Cafe and Atelier Denu ) and I managed to organize another sketch event for the Ottawa Urban Sketchers (at Doors Open Ottawa in conjunction with Synapcity's "100 in 1 Day" event).

May 2017 Report

May was an incredibly busy month and I am only just now realizing that I have not blogged. I have been doing a LOT of life drawing and I organized two urban sketching events (see my tweets below).

I also finished another sketch for The Wrench (Ottawas only street newspaper for the homeless) and continued with my sketchbook experiments.

June, July and August are all busy too but I will put more effort into regular blog post updates.

Below, I have added some of my tweets and sketches from the month of May 2017.

My watercolour sketch for The Wrench

Life Drawing

I have been absolutely loving the multiple opportunities for life drawing in Ottawa this spring: The Atomic Rooster , Atelier Denu (Thursday evenings) and the Art House Cafe (Tuesday Evenings)

Atomic Rooster - May 2, 2017 - My tweet

Atelier Denu - First Session - May 12, 2017 - My tweet of one of my sketches

Atelier Denu - May 19, 2017 - My tweet

Urban Sketching

I organized two more urban sketching events in May. The Experimental Farm (May 13) and the Great Glebe Garage Sale (May 27)

Experimental Farm - May 13, 2017 - My tweet

I did this sketch outside in the rain. Worth it though because the silos have changed.

Experimental Farm - May 13, 2017 - My tweet

Great Glebe Garage Sale - Urban Sketching - May 27, 2017 - My tweet

My Ottawa Urban Sketchers Bike mobile - Great Glebe Garage Sale

Urban Sketch - Great Glebe Garage Sale

Outline - Great Glebe Garage Sale sketch

Finished urban sketch - Great Glebe Garage Sale

And, as usual, there has been plenty of practice work and studies in my various sketchbooks. I do hope to complete some final pieces this summer for my new website launch. Stay tuned!

Colour Studies - gouache

Facebook Group - Different Strokes Art Challenge

Drawing At The Rooster: Tea Party

Tuesday night I attended the monthly "Drawing at the Rooster" (DATR) event in Ottawa at the Atomic Rooster on Bank St. This open and free event is hosted every month by two Ottawa area artists, Peter Purdy and Rebecca Gilman.

"Drawing at the Rooster is a monthly life drawing event. There are multiple live models (clothed/costumed) that will do a variety of short and long poses. 

Each event has a different theme! Drawing at the Rooster is a no cover event, and is a creative, non-judgmental environment where artists of all skill levels will have an opportunity to practice their life drawing skills.  (Source: DATR facebook)

The evening started at 7 pm with the models Rhapsody (as "The Rabbit") and Carmen (as "Alice") doing quick, short poses leading up to fifteen and twenty minute poses by the end of the night (at 10pm).

Model Rhapsody as "The Rabbit"

Model Carmen as "Alice"

I tried something entirely different this month and used toned paper, graphite, gouache and water colour.

Pasted toned-paper sketches into my sketchbook

20 minute pose: Rhapsody as "The Rabbit"

20 minute pose: Rhapsody as "The Rabbit"

15 minute pose: Rhapsody as "The Rabbit"

I liked the mixed-media process but, if I were to do it again, I wouldn't use titanium white. It was harsh and I needed to soften it later. I would try zinc white gouche next time. Also the toned paper was lovely but the paper I used buckled quite a bit. (Scans of my sketches were quite wrinkled and so I am posting photos instead).

GREAT News! A NEW Life Drawing Venue

Ottawa artist Kat MacGregs was at the Art House Cafe / Urban Sketching event on Wednesday night and wants everyone to know about a new Life Drawing event at the Art House Cafe.

Kat wrote:

You are invited to join open life drawing sessions hosted at The Art House Café. This public event encourages those of all skill levels to come try their hand at sketching semi clothed models. Evening poses consist of 5x 1 minute, 5x 2 minute, 4x 5 minute, 2x 10 minute, 2x 20minute, and 1x 45 minute.

The Café will be open to provide beverages and snacks.
Event starts at 7:00pm ending at 10:00pm, with a single break in between.

Limited drawing utensils available, easels available for rent ($2).

We welcome those of all orientations, ethnicity, ages, sizes, skin colour, genders, etc.

All drawing sessions are hosted on unceded Algonquin territory.

Here's a link to our Group Page: https://www.facebook.com/groups/290806461336951/

And our First event can be found here: https://www.facebook.com/events/1626185980731454/

I plan to attend the inaugural session on March 28 - sounds like it will be great!

My Previous DATR Blog Posts

• Drawing At The Rooster #18 http://moynahanstudio.blogspot.ca/2015/08/drawing-at-rooster-datr.html 
• Drawing At The Rooster #19 - Sailor's Delight http://moynahanstudio.blogspot.ca/2015/09/life-drawing-19-sailors-delight.html
• Drawing At The Rooster  #20 - Heroes and Villains http://moynahanstudio.blogspot.ca/2015/10/life-drawing-20-villains-and-heroes.html
•  Drawing At The Rooster #25 - Life Drawing http://moynahanstudio.blogspot.ca/2016/03/another-night-drawing-at-rooster-25.html 
• Drawing At The Rooster #26 - Femme Fatale http://moynahanstudio.blogspot.ca/2016/04/drawing-at-rooster-26-femme-fatale.html
• Drawing At The Rooster #28 http://moynahanstudio.blogspot.ca/2016/06/drawing-at-rooster-28.html

Drawing At The Rooster #28

Tuesday night I attended the monthly "Drawing at the Rooster" (DATR) event in Ottawa at the Atomic Rooster on Bank St. This open and free event is hosted every month by two Ottawa area artists, Peter Purdy and Rebecca Gilman.

"Drawing at the Rooster is a monthly life drawing event. There are multiple live models (clothed/costumed) that will do a variety of short and long poses. 

Each event has a different theme! Drawing at the Rooster is a no cover event, and is a creative, non-judgmental environment where artists of all skill levels will have an opportunity to practice their life drawing skills.  (Source: DATR facebook)

My sketchbooks at the Atomic Rooster

My Previous DATR Blog Posts

• Drawing At The Rooster #18 http://moynahanstudio.blogspot.ca/2015/08/drawing-at-rooster-datr.html 
• Drawing At The Rooster #19 - Sailor's Delight http://moynahanstudio.blogspot.ca/2015/09/life-drawing-19-sailors-delight.html
• Drawing At The Rooster  #20 - Heroes and Villains http://moynahanstudio.blogspot.ca/2015/10/life-drawing-20-villains-and-heroes.html
•  Drawing At The Rooster #25 - Life Drawing http://moynahanstudio.blogspot.ca/2016/03/another-night-drawing-at-rooster-25.html 
• Drawing At The Rooster #26 - Femme Fatale http://moynahanstudio.blogspot.ca/2016/04/drawing-at-rooster-26-femme-fatale.html 

The evening started at 7 pm with the three models doing quick, short poses leading up to ten and fifteen minute poses by the end of the night (at 10pm).

I loved this final fifteen minute pose of the night with all three models!

I started the evening sketching the short poses in my Strathmore Toned Tan sketchbook using my favourite Progresso 8911/HB graphite pencil.

Three minute pose

Three minute pose

I also used my gouache in my Strathmore Toned Tan sketchbook for some of the short poses. I am currently obsessed with using the dioxazine purple gouache as my "black"

Three minute pose

Five minute pose

Loved the big earrings and sunglasses!

Ten minute pose

I switched to my Strathmore 500 series cotton sketchbook part way through the night.

Ten minute pose

Fifteen minute pose

I decided to switch to water colour for the fifteen minute poses at the end of the night

Two fifteen minute poses

The final fifteen minute pose of the night

I really enjoy these monthly "Drawing At The Rooster" events and I am looking forward to July!

Drawing At The Rooster (#26) Femme Fatale

 

Last night I attended the monthly "Drawing at the Rooster" event in Ottawa at the Atomic Rooster on Bank St. This open and free event is hosted every month by two Ottawa area artists, Peter Purdy and Rebecca Gilman.

"Drawing at the Rooster is a monthly life drawing event. There are multiple live models (clothed/costumed) that will do a variety of short and long poses. 

Each event has a different theme! Drawing at the Rooster is a no cover event, and is a creative, non-judgmental environment where artists of all skill levels will have an opportunity to practice their life drawing skills.  (Source: DATR facebook)

The evening started a bit late and there were three models for the evening. Each model held poses for two, three, five, ten and twenty minutes in duration.

Below are some photographs of the models and their various poses and some scans of my sketches of the first model of the evening.

Model #1 sketches for the 2 minute & 3 minute poses

 

Model #1 sketches for the 5 minute and 15 minute poses

Model #1 sketch for the 20 minute pose

Model #3 sketch for the 3 minute pose

Model #2 sketch for the 5 minute pose

Previous DATR Blog Posts

• Drawing At The Rooster #18 http://moynahanstudio.blogspot.ca/2015/08/drawing-at-rooster-datr.html 
• Drawing At The Rooster #19 - Sailor's Delight http://moynahanstudio.blogspot.ca/2015/09/life-drawing-19-sailors-delight.html
• Drawing At The Rooster  #20 - Heroes and Villains http://moynahanstudio.blogspot.ca/2015/10/life-drawing-20-villains-and-heroes.html
•  Drawing At The Rooster (#25) - Life Drawing http://moynahanstudio.blogspot.ca/2016/03/another-night-drawing-at-rooster-25.html