Life Drawing 09.19.09: 30 mn Portrait Painting

 Last night I had a good time in life drawing. I painted this portrait in 30 minutes with Painter and an Intuis tablet. I have decided to paint at least a hundred portraits in life drawing like this or better, I will post them as they are created.

- David Stein Ferguson

life drawing costume sessions

Here is a pastel from one of the life drawing costume sessions held at the AVAA.

- David Stein Ferguson

Last nights life drawing portrait

 Here is last nights 30 minute portrait from life drawing. I will do 3 more hours of portrait drawing today, working hard to get better.

-David Stein Ferguson

Life Drawing Portrait Post #26

  Todays post is another one of the stack of portraits done in life drawing. I have 3 more hours of life drawing planned today, always striving for improvement.

- David Stein Ferguson

... another portrait...

 Today's post is another 30 minute life drawing in pastel. It is a rainy day here in Austin, perfect for creating art so now I will get back to work.

-David Stein Ferguson  

a 30 minute pastel life drawing

Here is a 30 minute figure, drawn in pastel during one of our AVAA life drawing sessions.

- David Stein Ferguson

the old school animation days...

I am sure those of you who know me have heard me talk about how I worked with a bunch of really talented folks as an old school animator in the 90's for Heart of Texas Productions. I recently spent some time searching for the the commercials and films I worked on way back then and found some stuff that I would like to share.

We did a lot of commercials for T.V. The old company demo reel can be viewed here-

Even though I was a pencil and paper cell animation guy, the days of 3D animation etc. were upon us and this is where I got my introduction to Photoshop, Lightwave, etc.

Eventually H.O.T. was contracted to create three children's animation films for home video about St. Francis and his animal friends. I spent an incredible amount of time drawing cute little animals for these films. I found a clip from the films that someone (probably another former H.O.T. employee) posted on youtube and I am proud to say that I worked on all the animals in this scene. You can check it out here -

Here are a few original blue line drawings from the films that I found in my archive of old art as well. These are some of the many cells that had to be redone and were destined for the trash, luckily I put them away in a drawer instead.

short pose life drawing sessions

Here are a few speed paintings done in the short pose life drawing sessions at the A.V.A.A. Created using Painter my 6X8 Intuis tablet and a laptop.

- David Stein Ferguson

... more 30 minute Life Drawing Portraits

 Here are some more 30 minute portraits from life drawing, 2 charcoal and one pastel on various types of paper. More coming soon.

- David

100+ Figures from my imagination

  Last August I spent one night a week hanging out and drawing with a group of fellow artists at a coffee shop for what we call "sketch night". I set a goal for myself to draw at least 100, 1 minute figures from my imagination using sharpie markers and inkjet paper each time we got together. Here are over 100 them.

 I will post 100+  more later...

-David Stein Ferguson

more 30 minute life drawings...

 I have been doing around five portraits from life every week for over three years now, As a result I have a large pile of drawings like this collecting dust in my studio. I will be scanning and posting at least a hundred of them on this blog. Here are three more, as usual they were drawn from life in various life drawing sessions around town and are all 30 minute poses.  

1 minute, 3 minute & 7 minute Life Drawings

 Once a month we have a great short pose life drawing session here in austin called "naked lunch".  I do a lot of short pose life drawing every week but I usually do it digitally with my laptop, Wacom and Painter but at "naked lunch" I like to use good old pencil and paper. These are the results of last July's "naked lunch" and they are all 1 minute, 3 minute and 7 minute poses. I still need to scan the results from August, I will post them here as soon as I do.

30 minute Pencil Life drawing from 08.30.09

I have been very busy lately and keeping up with my goal of posting every day has proven to be too much for last week, but I never give up and so expect to see more from me this week.

I do a lot of life drawing around Austin. I did 9 hours of life drawing last week and I am preparing to put in another 3 hours tonight at the short pose session that I coordinate.

Sunday I went to the costumed life drawing session at AVAA and I was pleased with my results. Here is one of the 30 minute drawings that came out of it.

I will post more later but for now I must get back on task.

Have a good one!

Digital Portrait of Alex

 Here is a portrait of Alex from a rare 1 hour pose in Life Drawing. 

 Inspirational quote of the day:

" We learn to do something by doing it. There is no other way."

                                                                                      - John Holt

 

"Fergus Girls" or "Fergy Girls"?

Here is one of my original Pinup girls. I am doing a series of them and think I might call them the "Fergus Girls" or "Fergy Girls". I am having a hard time making up my mind. What do you think, "Fergus Girls" or "Fergy Girls"?

The last portrait of Anthony

If you participated in life drawing programs in Austin 2007 and 2008, than you might have had the privilege of drawing Anthony. Not only was he one of our best models but he was a smart and funny guy as well as a friend.

 Last November I was watching our local news and a body had been found in a van behind a Wal-mart. They could not identify the body, "How gruesome and horrible" I thought. About a week later they had identified the body as Anthony, dead of unknown causes at 38. 

 This is my last portrait of him, created in life drawing the last time he posed for us at the A.V.A.A. He was great and will be missed.

R.I.P. Anthony

the reason that I never give up...

I am up at 3:22 am painting and listening to pandora radio when a punk rock song comes on singing "remember me now" followed by a Bouncing Souls song called "kids and Heros"... suddenly I realize that today is the third year anniversary of my Dad's untimely death and I broke into tears. I will always miss him, I remember when I was a little boy I used to lay on his chest and think he was the biggest man in the world. I would try to time my breaths with his. He had honor and he taught me to be a man, he is the reason that I never give up and work untill 4 am every morning to try and bring a better life to my children. Now his ashes rest on a shelf in my studio overlooking my work area, but his spirit lives on.

 Never take the people you love for granted, our time here together is limited.

Rest in Peace Gene Raymond Ferguson

Daily Speed Painting

 Here is one of my daily 2 hour speed paintings I create from my imagination. I employ a strict 2 hour time limit with these and try to do one per day, usually late at night. 

Texas Heat

 If you are coming to Texas, prepare yourself for the heat. It has been getting up to 107 degrees in Austin this summer. The nights have not brought much relief, but it could be worse. How much worse? Below is a matte painting I created in photoshop that illustrates the point.

a few close ups:

Now Updated Daily!

 Hello,

 It has been a while since my last post. It is amazing how busy life can get and it will take super human effort, but I will try to post daily from now on. Wish me luck.

-David 

... while hanging out at the pool.

 I always cary something to sketch with. One of my favorite go packs consists of 3 grey markers and a spiral bound pack of 3x5 index cards. I can be found all around town looking for a good composition. Here is a recent 3x5 marker drawing that I did while hanging out at the pool.

a random page from my sketchbook...

 Here is a random page from one of my sketchbooks. These critters sprang from my imagination while hanging out with some friends in a local coffee shop one night.

digital matte painting

Here is a fantasy landscape done in a different way, a digital matte painting created in photoshop.

... one cold winter morning

I love to sketch the "green belt" trails here in Austin using grey felt tip markers. This was drawn on location one cold winter morning.

Kingslayer

 Here is another original character drawn from my imagination, This one is was painted from scratch on my Intuis tablet using both Photoshop and Painter.