May 2019 – johnminnion.com

Mike in thought

Mike makes a point

Mike from all angles

Five ten-minute poses from different angles. Drawing hair was an important part of this session. Our artists went about it in various ways:

by Angela, with intricate attention to the chaotic rhythms in Mike’s hair.

Views of Mike

Reference photos for developing pictures.

Beth and ukelele by Peter

Pope John

TJ by Angela and Jane

TJ is tall, lean and dark. And a great subject to draw. These poses were around 20 to 30 mins.

TJ by David and Nneka

by Nneka. A bit of wash, used sparingly, nicely suggests TJ’s dark skin. This also gives a sense of his long, lean figure.

by David. Same pose, different angle. TJ is seriously tattooed, which does obfuscate things when you are trying to analyse skin tones. Often we try to ignore tattoos for that reason, but David couldn’t resist the bass clef. I can’t remember if the other arm has a treble clef?

TJ by Julie and Maria

by Maria. Using the colour of the paper as a basis for the treatment of flesh tones. The white effectively masks around the figure, making it stand out. The original is quite luminous.

by Julie, also using the paper colour as basic flesh tone, and masking around the figure to isolate it.

TJ by Eve and Steve

TJ is new to life modeling and he did a great set of poses. The challenges of tone and light that come with drawing dark skin made this a fascinating session.

by Steve. I thought this was a beautiful portrait – one of your best.