The Bone Doctors Life Lessons

[marlll]

Thanks for sharing it's really helfull for me!!!!!
__________________

I want to learn mandarin!!!

[marks]

thanx

[mentler]

These are some of the workshop demos
on short poses

[mentler]

A few more short studies

[hummel1dane]

Thank you guys, wonderful discussion.

As a student at Angel academy florence I feel a bit cought myself between those two schools of drawing/painting. Being one of the only students at the school who started in the russian sculptural drawing tradition I must admit I feel a bit isolated at times.
At Angels they advocate realism and disregard the obvious fact that the french academy and all classical academies of the past was strongly rooted in the sculptural renaissance way of drawing.

Although they do not teach sight size when drawing the figure(thank you God!!) they still use the strange shadow shape system that seems to have originated somewhere at the end of the 19th century, possibly in the french academy.
The teachers fear the conceptual look more than anything else in the world, and they give this fear to their students. This is the most serious danger, as people never get control over the big elements, learn to see form in 3 dimensions, or learn to draw from imagination, with gesture and dynamic movement.

They do mention those things, but if you are not used to do it from day one, it will never sink in.

This is a backward way of teaching, opposite of how the academies of the past taught their students.
All academies of the past was rooted in the renaissance tradition. Realistic value study came somewhere in the beginning of the 19th century - but it was build upon a deep understanding of sculptural drawing, gesture, structure and anatomy.

I think we will have to wait many many years for a perfect system of drawing/painting education. The russians are close, but even they lack a bit of gesture and realism.

Oh yes, and thank you for your hard work Mr Bone Doctor, and Graydon as well. I love both of your work!!

[mentler]

"We paint with are brains not are hands"

I think everyone agrees with this famous quote
they just disagree on what it means

From 30 seconds on

[mentler]

Obviously I try to work with
line, mass, value and color
as much in unison as possible

[mentler]

I don't usually keep poses that are
under a minute but found a big stack
lying around and thought some of
you without a great deal of life
drawing experience might found
them of some use,

It is important in a short pose to
understand the pose and in my
classes a 30 second pose is really
a one minute pose.

30 seconds to walk around the
model and analyze the pose and
30 seconds of drawing.

Most students don't understand
that we only see about 20% of
the pose from a fixed position so
we only understand 20% of what
the model is doing.

We can't draw what we don't know
and if we don't know what the
model is doing we are going to
have difficulty making a
believable drawing.

In other words, my emphasis is
to draw what the model is doing.

[mentler]

Thanks all for taking a look
hope these are helpful.

If so let me know and I will
continue to post my life lessons.

[mentler]

Found another stack of demos

[Spirit]

Thank you for posting all of these from your demo's, all I can say is that they are a lot more than simply useful! Looking at your poses and studies with your notes, they have helped me realise where I have been going wrong in previous attempts to draw the human figure, such as with gesture drawings. With these, I always focused on trying to draw the model (as I don't currently have access to a live drawing class) instead of what the model was doing. It seems so obvious now, but before I was oblivious to this. Thank you again for posting all of this valuable information for us, and I hope that you continue to do so!

[hummel1dane]

Hey man, great stuff as always!!

Been through your list of mannerist artists - what about Albrecht Durer and Francois
Boucher?
I have Durers Dresden notebook - its full of geometrically constructed figures, seems like he experimented with proportion a lot.
And Boucher's work doesnt look very realistic in my eyes.

I guess the question would be - what qualilfies something to be called a mannerist piece of art?

[mentler]

True Durer is a good example and Boucher who is a wonderful draughtsman as well certainly took liberties with proportion.

Certainly the hands and feet.

Looking real is not how I look at however.

It is about representing the subject the way the artist
wants the viewer to see them.

In Boucher's time small hands and small feet were a sign of beauty.

Once we have mastered the skill sets involved it becomes
a personal choice in terms of representation.

[hummel1dane]

Thank you, Im really glad you are here on conceptart. Continue to inspire!!

[TASmith]

There's a recent topic on golden mean and ratios in composition, in the Art Discussion forum. It's gotten a bit heated, and it'd be interesting to read your take on it.

http://www.conceptart.org/forums/sho...d.php?t=162897

[SweetPea]

I believe that rubens had some different proportions going on sometimes.. and u can bet anything that he was an excellent draughtsman as well... just throwing my bit in...

but mentler these are all really great and helpful thanks for posting them. Do you think that you would be able to explain the geometric layout of the face that you had on page one? tahts been troubleing me for a while Thanks

[mentler]

Chalk board demo and one charcoal form imagination.

Just a glimpse of what goes on in one of my workshops.

[Carbon Productions]

Wow Mentler these are awesome, thank you. Helped me understand where I'm going wrong with figures. Cheers

[mentler]

Here is a few from the
Tuesday short pose sessions.

[JakehC]

Very nice work and very inspiring! I heard you will be doign a master class on figurative studies at the 2009 Industry Giants conference. I am so exciting to have the opportunity to study with someone of your caliber this upcoming summer! Cant wait to see ya there!

[mentler]

Chalk board from last weeks lecture.

[mentler]

Here is the article about my sketchbooks
that appears in the winter issue of
American Artist Drawing Magazine
which should hit the news stands in
a week of so.











Now for the life lesson. I realize there are two schools of thought
floating around about how one creates ones art. One by replicating nature and the other by using ones imagination. The reality of the matter is that
neither one exist in a pure state. We all draw from memory. Once we take are eyes off the subject and affix them to the drawing surface we are relying on our memory to tell us what to put on the paper and where to put it. These schools of thought are sometimes thought of as realism and constructionism. The realist seem to have a great mistrust of anyone or anything that strays from the path they have chosen for themselves. And many that have chosen different paths are not that fond of realist works.
I would ask you to move above the petty disputes and look for beauty in all things and in all art. Being an artist involves learning to see the world with your mind and appreciating it with your heart. There is something to learn from everything in nature and there is something to learn from all great artist's whatever the "ism" is that one attachs to there work. If one tries to justify the validity of what they do by rejecting everything else they are depriving themselves of a great deal of beauty and knowledge. Respect the right of the individual to be an individual, and to see the world the way they choose to see it. There are as many things to learn from Francis Bacon as from Bouguereau they are just different things. You may like Raphael better than Michelangelo because you think Michelangelo's work to be to mannerist. Of course Raphael died at 37 and his later works will starting to look far more mannerist and far more like Michelangelo's. The point is that you don't have to hate everything else in order to follow a particular path.
If you want to eat pizza for every meal everyday for the rest of your life that's fine. Just respect to right of others to have a hamburger once in a while or be a vegetarian. You don't have to like Cezanne as much as Ingres but you should try to find out why others do. We draw what we see, and we see what we know to look for. Therefore the more you know the more you see. The bottom line is that we all see with our minds not our eyes and it is up to each individual to determine how much they want there minds to get involved. I personally make an effort to work a third from life, a third from reference and a third from imagination. The older I get the better I like what I see in my mind as opposed to what I see in the real world. The methods I teach have been in play for about six centuries and if you happen to disagree with this approach I respect your right to do so. However given the linage you may want to give yourself a little wiggle room.

[SweetPea]

wise words mentler! where persay do u teach these methods? only at workshops or at a school perhaps?

[BigJoe14]

Thank you for what you do, mentler. A lot of people will just sit on their hands and think that by simply observing and copying they will learn, but they forget that they must also understand the subject that they are drawing. Understanding what it is that you are drawing, coupled with the practice of imagination/memory drawing, will put people miles ahead of the others who insist on copying from life or drawing exclusively out of their heads.

I see you also share a lot of the same ideas from other artists/instructors, such as Glenn Vilppu and Robert Beverly Hale, and I think that's great. Looking forward to your magazine article. Will be keeping an eye out for it!

[krel]

I hope to one day be as great as you, Mentler. And as eccentric.

Collected your studies into a folder. The colors looks beautiful spread out over the desktop.

[~FPudiU~]

Haven't seen someone with skills and mind "balanced" like yours for a long time

[PyroMania]

Thank you for sharing, Mentler. Your works are both an inspiration and a goal for me.

[Jackieboy]

Seriously amazing! I love your style! Do you have any DVD or tutorials for purchase?

[mary-cherry-me]

You, sir, are not only an inspiration, but a motivation as well!
I aspire to be as good as you one day!

[mentler]

Recent short poses from Tuesday life sessions