Nude of the week 33: Christmas love

There's the nude.  Now watch the movie.

Happy Christmas to you all.  Hope you enjoy the movie.

Don't forget to look at the sister blog Poem a Week by my husband Nick for a nice comic poem that will appeal to the childish among you see http://njeanius.blogspot.co.uk/

And don't forget my husbands ebooks at njeanius.uk an excellent Christmas present for anyone interested in the story of the first World War.  

Love from Jeanie

Nude of the week 32: A contė and a pastel of the same model

Drawing in black contė crayon on rough paper giving texture to the darker areas.  The crayon is used on its side for tone and on it's sharp corner for linear detail like the hair.  I like the way the tousled darkl brown hair hangs in disarray about the face.  This pose beautifully fits in the proportions of the paper.

Although this is papstel there is very little colour letting the grey of the paper work for the shadows in the flesh and the drapery.  Warm colour is added very lightly to the model and the main colour is in the hair. The model lies looking up with her hair falling back

Nude of the week 31: Different angles, different media, same model and pose

Water colour from the front, with water soluble  crayon drawn into the still- wet  paint. I was experimenting with the colours of light on dark olive toned.skin.

Pencil from around her feet. I was  thinking in terms of sharp angles here, even on the wavy hair.  

Chalk on grey paper from the front. I was intrigued by the convoluted drapery beneath her.

Pencil from the back (the model has a tiger tattoo on her rear end.)I like the economic lines which say such a lot. You can follow my change of mind as I redraw the arm and the buttocks.

Drawn recently here are four pictures of the same model all in the same kind of pose.

PS. Don't forget to look at my husband, Nick.s poem a week blog njeanius.blogspot.co.uk.  Currently it features poems about the first world war to coincide with the publication as ebooks of Nick's father's books about the first world war.

My brother Robert (Bob) Huxtable has just put up a video about how he detoxed Paddy from heroin.  Here's the link https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qGG_PjbkFU4
 

Nude of the week 30: I draw Jill. She draws me.

 I asked Jill to do some sketching while I drew her.  She did a picture of me.  See below.  My drawing was brown and black chalk on grey paper.  Jill's drawing was in pencil.  I have had to digitally erhance her drawing so that it can be seen.  Hence the funny yellow tones.

PS.  Nick has finally got he father's ebooks published. See http://www.njeanius.uk/war-books.html

Nude of the week 29: Seated nude painted yesterday

Painted yesterday using conté on toned paper, the paper showing through to produce the flesh tones. The paper was sand coloured ingres paper and was not so grey as the paper in the reproduction.  I spent longer on this than I do on most of the sketches shown in this blog.

Last weekend was spent with my family and I drew two of my great nieces.  Lily and Georgia.  They are the grandchildren of my youngest sister and very beautiful little girls they are too.  Both were drawn with blue chalk as they moved around and lived their lives..

Georgia 18 months eating her breakfast

Lily, 4 today,October 30, 2015.  Happy birthday

Apologies over videos not showing in past posts. We have just discovered that the animations we put in various posts don't work on a lot of devices (including my ipad!).  My husband Nick is working to fix this problem and updating the various posts.  He is also working on his dad's World WarOne books which we are publishing as e-books see www.njeanius.uk

The video of the man standing in the last post but one can be seen on YouTube if you click here

Nude a week 28: Three colour acrylic of a seated nude

I painted this a few days ago.  I painted it in three layers using acrylic on  watercolour paper.  I began using just yellow, then I worked with cyan, and finished with dilute magenta.

I like the effect of the yellow showing through and the colours blending in the shadows and the darkest shadows blending of the three colours.  This was a quick pose, drawn from life.

Below you can see the covers which I designed for three interesting ebooks written by my father in law, H E L Mellersh.  They are now available on Kindle, ipad etc.  You can learn more at www.njeanius.uk
 
                                 

Nude of the week 27: Animation of a nude man standing up

 

Man Working. 1

This is a dark brown drawing of a man.  It is one of a series of five drawn approximately from the same angle. He stoops to the ground, picks up a stone, lifts it, stands, and places it high up.  We have put them together to make a nice little animation. All very quick  2 minute  sketches or so.

Click on the arrow below to watch the video.It's much better on full screen so click on the little square thing at the bottom right of the video.

 If the video does not show above on your tablet or phone click here to view it on YouTube

PS: The ebooks of Nick's father;s World War One Books are now published after ages of struggle.  Jeanie did the covers.  See below.  There's much  more at njeanius.uk

Nude of the week 26: Man sits and thinks - and a vicar with clothes on

Black and white chalk on brown pastel paper.  An old man sits and ponders. 

Below is a picture of vicar with clothes on some of which I made.

James is happy with his new colourful stole given to him at harvest festival.

 Here is a picture of me and our vicar James.  I had just given James the new stole that I made from silk.  It is made from the silk ends cut off before making saris. 

I cut the pieces and arranged them in pairs into their separate colours.  Then I saw which colours wanted to go together and put the dark ones at the bottom to give it weight and the lighter warm colours at the top.  For the small cape at the back I wove the orangey colours together and it is all backed with deep red silk.  The edges were secured with a zigzag machine stitch.

Nude a week 25: A series of action drawings

 

Nude a week 25: Jo highlighted with white pastel

This is a recent 30 minute ske3tch.  I like her sculptural shapes.  Jo was painted with soft black lines and brown pastel, highlighted in white pastel.

Nude a week 24: Guest artist - Georg Mayer-Marton

Two nude sketches by Grorg Mayer-Marton

I was studying at Liverpool art college in the mid 50's when Georg Mayer-Marton arrived as a lecturer, small, grey and Hungarian.

From him I learned mosaics. At first I was trying to make them all nice and flat. He taught us to angle the tessera so that the light catches them. After his death a mosaic font of his has been installed in the Catholic cathedral in Liverpool.

He was a great artist and his art was very inspiring to me. He also took me aside, after looking at my drawings and taught me how to make silver-point drawings. One evening he took about three of us students round the Wirral to see his church mosaics. We piled into his tiny car and went from church to church. A lovely trip.

I found his lectures very hard to follow with his soft voice, his Hungarian accent and his very long sentences. During one of his lectures I drew this sketch (a good likeness). I also have a photo of him with me and other students.. It was taken in the summer of 1958 outside the front of Liverpool Art College. Mayer-Marton died in 1960.

The pictures here are from Mayer-Marton's website http://www.mayer-marton.com/ It contains a lovely article about him by my fellow student Gordon Millar and is well worth looking at.

Above are two of Georg Mayer-Marton's nude drawings. I like the fluid lines.  Below is a photograph of him with his students two years before he died.  Lastly a drawing I did of him during one of his lectures

End of the pedagog course 1958, outside Liverpool Art College. Left to right,back row: Sandra Lord, Anne Mossop, 4 women I don't know, Joyce Park,another woman I don't know, Georg Mayer Marton, Myra Shillington, Alex Morrison. Front row left to right: Jeanette Huxtable (now Jeanie Mellersh), Edith Rubinstein, (now Mathur) Albert Robinson.

A sketch I drew of Mayer-Marton during one of his lectures

Nude a week 23: Which hat shall I wear?

 

Charcoal study of a model done in Grass Valley California

Nude a week 21: Woman adjusting her hair

Quick sketch Pastel on dull sand coloured paper

This was a quick pastel sketch using the paper showing through the flesh. Drawing in  sea green and dark brown pastel, highlights with very pale cadmium red and light red. I did this three months ago.  I like the strong highlight on the right thigh.  I like this drawing, it did not quite fit the scanner.  There is more of her left leg on the drawing which is on A3 paper.  The pose is comfortable and relaxed.

PS our daughter Lucy has started a blog about her sculptures.  Be sure to see it at
https://mellersh.wordpress.com/

PPS:  I recently completed a wedding picture for Claire and Robin Hardy.  It shows the lovely couple coming out of the church, just married.  To the left is the wedding poem written by my husband Nick.  The garland above their head is of hops and crab apples.  The picture was painted digitally using Corel Painter then printed on canvas.

Nude of the week 20:Start of digital season with an ipad "pen" sketch and e-book cover designs

A quick sketch done on my ipad

This was done on my ipad using the Brushes App.

 More digital work - book covers done with Corel Painter

These are covers for three interesting e-books which I have been working on for the past week or so. They are books written about the first world war by my father in law. He fought and was wounded in the trenches on the Western Front as did the poet Siegfried Sassoon.  You can learn more on the e-books page of our Njeanius blog.  Click here for the e-book page.

Nude of the week 19: Woman with a bowl of fruit

The nudes I have put up so far are all quick poses.  I began this one with very light pencil strokes and then watercolour.  I really like the way her hair emphasises the line from the nape of her neck over her shoulders and down her back.

The watercolour is painted with a big brush, freely, wet on wet, the slate colour shadow under her arms goes its own way.  The strong yellow wall picks out her lighter profile. First I painted her profile and when this was dry, I carefully painted the wall with clear water, then flooded the deep yellow paint on the wall area.  I squeezed the paint brush hairs together to drip the deep yellow onto the clear wet area.  I painted this area with the paper flat on the table.  I really like the effect of watercolour floating on clear water in this way.  The scene reminded me of the Gaugin paintings in Tahiti.  Click here to see them.

PS: There's a new thing up on the Njeanius blog run by my husband Nick and me.  It's Nigel Pascoe reading "This England" by Shakespeare with nice photos of the New Forest.  Click here to see it.

Nude a week 18: Man on stool, watercolour

Man, watercolour, sitting on a stool resting his elbow on his knee

I like the yellow light on the arms and chest and the head in shadow with the man looking down at the floor.  I like the loose painting which was done very quickly with a big brush.

My ebook cover work

This week I have been working on some ebook covers for books on the first world war by my father in law.  All artwork done digitally. Here is the first one: a biography of Sassoon, more about this next week.

Nude of the week 17: Standing woman with tattoo.

Standing woman dark brown pastel with tattoo

Here I`ve used the soft smudgy quality of the pastel with my fingertips in the halftones. This is a quick study of Alexandra.

Nude a week 16: A seated nude painted on the Ipad with a video replay of the painting

Jill side view. Short pose. The model leans forward engrossed in activity at the left.  The left leg is stretched forward steadying her.  I used a limited palette of 5 or 6 colours.  Also the eraser was used to make the pen lines. For this painting I used the Brushes app.

Here with a short pose, I think of first the main sweep of the pose and put it in.  I take in the negative space of the wall and its shape.  I chose colours and their complimentaries.  I'm aware of patterns like the large pattern on the lower left.  For this picture I was thinking of flat colour and not the nuances of flesh colour.  You can watch the process of painting re-played at high speed on the Ipad.  Here is a video we made from the replay. Apologies for the quality, we have yet to master the process of recording the video on the Ipad.

The wall was not the orange colour shown.  I painted it using the complementary of the blue-greens of the blanket on the lower left.  I limit my palette when I see the possibilities of  a lithograph and I saw that here.

PS: To complement my blog my husband is putting up a blog with a Poem a week,  It is here at this link http://njeanius.blogspot.co.uk/

Nude a week 15: Nude on a fresco tile

A lime fresco of a seated nude painted on a roof tile.

Here's a back seated view painted as a small fresco on a roof-tile about 11 inches by 5 inches (28x12 cm). It was painted as a lime fresco using pure pigments. The colours used were ochre, burnt umber and Prussian blue, used in a translucent way. The colour of the pure lime plaster shows as a soft white mainly across the shoulders and buttocks. All three colours are used wet in wet making subtle cool and warm flesh tones. All painting is done while the lime plaster is wet.

Frescoes should not fade or darken. The colour is fused into the wet plaster. As the plaster dries it binds the colour and the colour becomes permanent. Frescoes can last for over 1,000 years.

I originally painted this picture in Grass Valley, California. You can see more about my fresco work in an earlier blog Jeanie paints frescoes.  Below is a picture of the sort of roof tile I used and another example of my fresco work - a picture of a camellia flower from the lovely tree in our garden that is flowering at the moment..

For those who want to try frescoes there is more info and a chance to buy instruction DVDs at www.frescoschool.org/

A fresco I did of a camellia flower

 

 

 

The sort of roof tile used for the fresco

Nude a week 14:Two Ipad paintings - a nude woman and a twisted tree

Backview painted on ipad

I painted several ipad pictures yesterday,.  Here are two of them.  One a nude, the other an old twisted oak in the New Forest.  Both were painted with Brushes the first of the ipad painting aps.

The nude: Painted yesterday (Feb 17) using Brushes.  First I laid a lime yellow ground using the paintpot (which fills an area with colour).  Then I quickly drew the model from life using using a dark brown line.  Finally I added highlights using the eraser which took the picture back to white. The model was sitting on a pile of cushions.  The picture took about ten minutes.

The tree: This is an old oak with a spina-bifida type problem.  It only holds branches on one side, they twist excessively and tend to droop to the ground on one side.  The branch to the left then picks up strength and moves upwards.  There are two trees next to each other that are doing this sort of thing although the  other one has lost most of its trunk this winter, presumably blown down by a gale. This tree has coins embedded in the bark, we wonder if this is connected with the problem.

Does anyone out there know what causes this this strange twisting?  If you do get in touch!

 A strange twisted oak in the New Forest England

Nude a week 13: Exuberant dancer

Dancing woman captured in charcoal

The model danced around exuberantly as I captured some of the fleeting poses in charcoal.  We were both having real fun.

Nude a week 12: Standing girl, leaning against a wall - pastel

Girl standing pastel on olive paper

This is a pastel I drew in 2014.  I like the bright light I have got on her shoulder, breasts and thigh, and the shine in her hair. Olive pastel paper is a good choice for a colour nude.  I let the paper shine through as a colour; see the hair, the shoulder and the nearer leg.

Nude a week 11 (again!): Back view

 

 

Backview 15 minute pose done in sanguine conte

This was a back view sketch done in sanguine conte.  It was a 15 minute pose.

Apologies for the duplication of the picture yesterday!

Nude a week 11: Two poses on one piece of paper

Conte crayon on paper

Sorry we posted this one before!  A new one will go up today!

This was a very slender model who was extremely supple. The drawings were done in Grass Valley California.  This model got into some very unusual poses and I really enjoyed drawing her.  If the poses are short, I often draw several on one piece of paper as there is no time to change the paper.

Nude a week 10: Happy nude year!

Conté sketch of man kneeling and playing dice.

This sketch, drawn in three minutes using Sanguine Conté, puts me in mind of an ancient Greek concentrating as he makes a move playing a board game or throwing a dice on the ground.

A new year of nudes.  If Nick has got the coding right, this will appear on my Facebook page and my Facebook friends will have the benefit of the "Nude a week" that I'm putting up on my blog at the moment. (Nick got it wrong last time and the last post appeared on his Facebook page.)

Nick and I both wish you a happy nude year!!