Just TeeJay's Blog

Figure Drawing February 17th, 2020

•February 18, 2020 • 1 Comment

Well, we all made it through Valentine’s Day. Hope that you are relatively un-scathed as well. My friends and neighbors made it pretty awesome for me. I got flowers and chocolate dipped strawberries and my neighbor brushed off my car for me in the morning. Hung out with a lovely human and watched a great movie.

It was a best case scenario in so many ways. I am truly fortunate.

So back to figure drawing at Steve’s on Monday. Great model, nice crowd and I am relatively happy with the drawings. I actually really like the long pose one and am about ready to start asking people to sit for these outside of the Steve’s studio. I have a private place at the house and at my new studio – just need to get my lighting set up a little more portable and I will be ready to go.

More on that another day. For now here are Monday’s drawings.

Time lapse video:

Thank you again for your ongoing support and visiting my corner of the internet. Very much appreciated.

Posted in Art, Digital Drawing, drawing, Figure Drawing, ny, rochester, rochester, ny, Sketchbook, TeeJay
Tags: Art, artist, drawing, figure drawing, figure study, iPad pro, justteejay, life drawing, life study, ny figure study guild, procreate, rochester artist, Rochester NY, teejay

Painting February 6th & 13th at the Hungerford Art Group Without a Name

•February 13, 2020 • 2 Comments

Jessamyn is a great model. Super professional and strikes a pose without any (visible) effort on her part. I admire the models so much. I don’t think I could do it. Even with a brace for my head I think I would still wind up in a completely different position.

Once again in life we have to remember that all of us have different strengths and weaknesses.

My life is settling into some sort of version of normalcy I think or as close to it gets. I feel much more peace than I would have expected and am looking forward to some new adventures.

Painting seemed a little easier this week as well.

First week’s progress:

Some times I don’t feel like I do a whole lot on the second session until after I look at the finished photos. Really I think I mostly just polished this one.

Drew let me try some new brushes that he is using and they were really nice. Of course it also counterpointed how wretched the brushes that I am carting around are currently. I have nice brushes. I just hoard them like a reclusive forest witch trying to protect her magic. Maybe the magic is in the brushes and I can only get it out if I actually use them? Maybe I need to start actually using the nice things that I buy for myself?

Anyhow, here was the progress on the second session.

Crazy how much the light source changes the color.

Overall I am pretty pleased with this one as a painting. I would have liked to capture her likeness a little bit better. I’ve enjoyed being able to paint so much lately.

Off to poke through my brush stash and see what I have to play with.

Posted in Art, Figure Drawing, ny, Oil painting, painting, rochester, rochester, ny, TeeJay
Tags: Art, artist, life painting, life study, oil painting, painting, portrait painting, portrait study, the hungerford building

Figure Drawing February 10th, 2020

•February 12, 2020 • 2 Comments

I was (as usual) at Steve’s on Monday night.

I really do love it there. It’s filled with my kind of people. I was talking with my therapist earlier in the day. I have an over-protective “Protector Part” I tend to know at all times who is around me, where the exits are, have full awareness of anything my brain my interpret as a threat. Restaurants and bars can be mentally exhausting. It occurred to me that I don’t do that AT ALL when I am at Steve’s. Sunday I got there kind of late for the group event and I sat at the first empty drawing horse that I found. It was right near the door (with my back to it). I hadn’t even thought about it until Monday discussing my “security” thoughts.

That was a really nice realization and made me appreciate him and the studio even more.

Yes, I know I have issues. That’s why I have a therapist 🙂

anyhow…. here are the drawings that I made yesterday.

And the time lapse:

No. Mia did not spontaneously transform into a rabbit for one of the poses. Sometimes I catch myself getting frustrated with my drawings. There are a variety of things that I do to get past that. This time it was drawing Mia as a rabbit. It may be the kind of thing I would do again. You never know.

Posted in Art, Digital Drawing, drawing, Figure Drawing, ny, rochester, rochester, ny, TeeJay
Tags: Art, artist, figure drawing, figure study, iPad pro, just teejay, life drawing, life study, procreate, rochester artist, Steve Carpenter art center, teejay

Mid Winter Drawing and Painting Slam 2020

•February 11, 2020 • Leave a Comment

As a function of the New York Figure Study Guild I am not sure if there will be any more of these going forward. The Guild has had a complete collapse of the Board and no one has stepped up to replace them. I don’t know how they would have any options other than to shut down but maybe something will happen. Meantime they did host this one at Steve’s on Sunday. They used to have them on Saturdays and I could very rarely go so I am super happy that they are now on Sundays.

There are usually two costumed models that sit all day (from 10am-4pm with breaks including a longer one for lunch), a whole lot of artist type humans and food and stuff.

I get to see friends, play with paint and get lost in a crowd that I feel at home in.

It’s great.

Mark posed for us. He rented the costume just for this event. The colors synced up perfectly with what Jessamyn was wearing for our Thursday group so the two paintings almost look like a set (although the placement on the canvases are a bit different). *

Here are my stage photos:

All in all I was relatively pleased with this one for a single session portrait.

I will keep practicing and moving forward in art and life. Looking forward to seeing what happens next.

*I will post the photos of Jessamyn after the second session which happens on Thursday.

Posted in Art, Figure Drawing, ny, Oil painting, painting, rochester, rochester, ny, TeeJay
Tags: Art, life painting, new york figure study guild, oil painting, painting, portrait, portrait painting, rochester artists, Rochester NY, Steve Carpenter art center

Figure Drawing February 3rd, 2020

•February 4, 2020 • 1 Comment

I wound up having to take attendance at Steve’s again last night. I’m getting a bit better at it and there were less people there so I think it was a bit easier.

We did have an incident. The steps that they use on stage for a prop must not have been put together properly so when the model stepped on them they collapsed. She was banged up but was willing to continue for the night after she put a band-aid on the worst of it. I felt awful for her and was super happy that she decided to stay.

Henceforth remembered as the night we tried to throw the model on the floor. Who knew modeling had a dangerous side?

Of course after it happened I heard two other stories of models actually passing out during sessions. That has to be so much worse. One of them fell all the way off the stage and they called an ambulance for her. I can’t imagine. Glad it wasn’t anything that serious this time.

FigureIMG_6621 FigureIMG_6622 FigureIMG_6623 FigureIMG_6624

Band aid included for emphasis…

FigureIMG_6625

and the time-lapse video of me working on the drawings…

Until next time… thank you for stopping by and I hope your life is going the way that you would like for it to be.

Posted in Art, Digital Drawing, drawing, Figure Drawing, ny, rochester, rochester, ny, TeeJay
Tags: Art, female figure model, figure drawing, figure study, justteejay, life drawing, life study, rochester artist, Steve Carpenter art center, teejay

Painting with the Group without a Name January 23rd & 30th – Lightning

•January 30, 2020 • 1 Comment

Thursdays at the Hungerford

I have painted Lightning a few times. He is a really nice guy and always in a good humor when he has posed for us. I think his right name is Harold, but he has asked to called Lightning and jokes about how Super Fast he is.

I was intending on making him smaller overall on the canvas. I think I made him a bit smaller than I have been making these faces but I think in the process of that I slid him down the canvas a touch more than I would have liked.

Oh well. These are all just for practice anyhow.

Lightning1 Lightning2 Lightning3 Lightning4 Lightning5 Lightning6 Lightning7jpg

Second week:

Lightning1 Lightning2 Lightning3 LightningFinal

I stopped early this week as I was fairly happy with where I was at.

Always worth the time and the practice.

Posted in Art, Figure Drawing, ny, Oil painting, painting, rochester, rochester, ny, TeeJay
Tags: Art, artist, artists, Hungerford Building, justteejay, life painting, life study, oil paint, oil painting, portrait painting, portrait study, Rochester NY, teejay

New Studio Space

•January 29, 2020 • 1 Comment

Now that Whitman Works is no more… I had to find a new place to house my work. An opportunity presented itself to join a group of artists in a new space at Piano Works Mall in East Rochester. It is a collective group of artists each in their own studio space. Once it is up and running we will have regular events to be open to the public. I am still setting up, but I did get everything out of Whitman Works and moved over. This is the first draft of what is going on in the space.

If you plan on coming out to visit me there – please let me know ahead of time. The space is on the second floor and not always accessible unless someone lets you in.

If you go by and see me in the window with the “I” from piano works… text, call or messenger me and I can come and let you in.

I hope to have more information for you soon.

Posted in Art, Digital Drawing, drawing, ny, Oil painting, painting, rochester, rochester, ny, TeeJay
Tags: Art, art collectives, art studios, artist, central creatives, central creatives at piano works, just teejay, justteejay, painting, piano works, piano works mall, Rochester NY, teejay, Whitman works

Figure Drawing January 27th, 2020

•January 28, 2020 • 1 Comment

I’ve been keeping time at Steve’s but yesterday I kept attendance as well. I’m getting better at that. So I was a bit distracted especially during the early poses.

and the timelapse video of the drawing:

Posted in Art, Digital Drawing, drawing, Figure Drawing, ny, rochester, rochester, ny, Sketchbook, TeeJay
Tags: anatomy drawing, Art, Digital Drawing, drawing, figure drawing, figure study, justteejay, life drawing, life model, rochester artist, Steve Carpenter art center, teejay, time lapse drawing

Painting from Life January 9th & 16th, 2020

•January 23, 2020 • 3 Comments

I still am not quite processing that it is 2020. How did we get here?!?

Anyhow , now that the holidays are officially a distant memory it’s time to get back to a somewhat normal routine. For me that includes attendance at the Thursday Art Group without a Name at the Hungerford.

Rina is a great model. Despite it feeling like it was 90 degrees in the room she managed to stay awake for us.

First session:

Rina1 Rina2 Rina3 Rina4 Rina5 Rina6 Rina7 Rina8

Second session. Thankfully it was no where near as hot in the studio the second sit and everyone coped much better. Rina is a great model and I hope that I get the opportunity to paint her again. I don’t feel like I captured her upbeat spirit in this one. Always something else to reach for….

Rina1 Rina2 Rina3 Rina4 RinaFinal

I am happier with my art and my life these days. I find myself moving forward into a future that isn’t necessarily what I had planned on but seems to be filled with promises. I am looking forward to seeing what life has in store next.

I hope that your dreams are coming true as well. Both those that you were aware of and the ones that came as a surprise.

Posted in Art, Figure Drawing, ny, Oil painting, painting, TeeJay
Tags: Art, figure painting, figure study, Hungerford Building, life painting, life study, paint, painting, portrait, portrait painting, Rochester NY, step by step painting, step by step portrait