Today's Montage from Life Drawing

JamieWG · #1 03-14-2012, 10:04 PM

More experimentation today.... I learned a lot from this one in so many ways, so I'm looking forward to things I can do to make a stronger piece the next time around. This is 16x20", acrylic on sealed archival drawing board that I prepared in advance with some dripped and sprayed interference colors on the black board. Poses ranged from 30 seconds to 20 minutes. I did the entire session on a single board, so it's all here --- good

and bad

. In any case, it sure was fun!

Jamie

noge · #2 03-15-2012, 04:21 AM

**skappy** · #3 03-15-2012, 04:52 AM

Great job Jamie I like the composition and colors
Robert

Indiana Kate · #4 03-15-2012, 08:43 AM

If I take off my glasses and just look at the arrangement of colors, I can see the value pattern and thrusts of color. That's good. Also good is the fact that you have the two figures on the right facing in and one on the left pushing in. I wanted to flip the two yellow figures so they were facing in as well. It looks like your model wasn't thinking about changing the direction she was facing, so you didn't have any choice but to make all but two face left. This isn't a big bother, and you have overlapped well. It's just a thought about arranging the figures for the next one.

Keep up the good work.

Kate

wandathefish · #5 03-15-2012, 08:57 AM

this is such a great creative idea. If I was going to suggest something, i would try to get the colorsof the figures. to be less competing. Use a split complementary against the dark background. also the canting of the orange figure is very effective next to the more upright red figures. more poses in different planes would add interest.

wandathefish · #6 03-15-2012, 09:51 AM

dup, ha.

trevors · #7 03-15-2012, 04:07 PM

Looks good and it has a feeling of depth to it as well

JamieWG · #8 03-16-2012, 10:35 AM

Thanks so much for all your support.

Kate, the model was changing direction, but I was way off to one side. One thing I could have done would have been to do some figure crops of body parts to change the direction of motion, but I decided not to. I waited till pretty near the end, hoping for some right-facing poses to pop into the left side, so it's not as if I wasn't thinking about that; but it just didn't happen. Perhaps next time I'll try to get a spot in the center of the room instead. I chose the right side of the room because it was near the sink! Of course in open studio we have to take whatever poses we get. This makes the whole montage idea a real crap shoot, but I'm okay with that.

I go in with the idea that it's just drawing practice, and try to make the most of it and have a good time.

Wanda, the idea behind the color scheme was to work cool to warm, so the very quick 30 second poses were blues and violets that merge more into the background, since cool colors recede, and more or less provide a background color/texture for the longer poses (three minutes and up). Then the warmer colors (actually analogous --- orange, yellow and red) would come forward and overlap each other and the cooler colors in the layers below. I will definitely be trying some different color ideas as time goes on. I think the color contrasts are necessary to promote the layering.....We'll see where this goes. In some ways, I don't think it's as effective as the last one I did. I think this new one actually has too much going on, and I'd be better off doing two of them, rather than cramming all the poses into one, unless I move to a different ratio. This one is 4:5 (16x20). I think something like 5:8 might be better. If I could have spread these out to give a little more breathing room, it would be a big improvement. There is nowhere for the eye to rest, and that's what bothers me about it the most.

**Descartes** · #9 03-18-2012, 07:54 PM

Jamie, it has some interesting sections but I'd agree that it looks a bit too busy (when compared with last weeks). Again my favourite is the orange figure. Not sure about the white edges though. Looks like fun.

JamieWG · #10 03-20-2012, 08:43 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Descartes

Jamie, it has some interesting sections but I'd agree that it looks a bit too busy (when compared with last weeks). Again my favourite is the orange figure. Not sure about the white edges though. Looks like fun.

Interesting! In this montage, the orange figure is my least favorite. The white edges are actually gold, dripped acrylic paint. But those iridescent and interference colors never show correctly in a photo, unfortunately. After doing another montage this past Sunday (I haven't photographed it yet), I'm thinking that it's really too many poses for me to ever be happy! There are always going to be one or two that bug the heck out of me (or more!). So I'm going to use the same techniques and switch gears a bit for the next round. Temperatures are going up to the 80s this week for an unexpected March blast of summer, so it might be a couple of weeks before I'm back to life drawing --- must get some landscapes done.

Jamie

carolkay · #11 03-20-2012, 12:05 PM

Creative--yes--differant---yes,, I like what your doin --keep it up.

**macrobertson** · #12 03-24-2012, 01:38 AM

Jamie, a demonstration of what to do if you only bring one sheet of paper...multicoloured Montage is certainly a way to make an interesting pic, and has a lot of potential for future innovative creations

Mac

jasonart · #13 03-25-2012, 10:08 PM

I really like the concept here. It's a very creative and unique way of approaching a life drawing session. For me, the most challenging thing would be trying to anticipate the final composition, given that you don't know what the next pose will be. It's the luck of the draw! (bad pun)

I like it a lot, well done!

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