I took the winter term off to get my right hip replaced and recover enough to be able to climb the 37 steps up to the Belmont "el" platform for the ride up to Evanston. I felt a little rusty when the spring term started but soon got back into the groove under Richard's tutelage and with my friend Lucy's encouragement.
"Martha" is the portrait for April (not to be confused with "Aprill in November").
"Martha" was done on toned paper with vine charcoal and white pastel pencil.
In May, Richard (the teacher) thought it was time for me to graduate to gray pastels. I started using Nupastels, which are harder, and Rembrandt, which are softer. I used black, white and 5-6 grays in between on gray paper. The model for May was Richard (the model, not the teacher).
For June, the model was Satoy. This time I used white paper and was beginning to get the hang of using pastels.
Richard's class will meet again in the fall. This summer I was planning to take an Introduction to Figure Drawing Class, but it was cancelled due to lack of entrollment. I will be taking a weeklong Figure Drawing workshop with Steve Ohlrich later in the summer and am looking forward to that experience.
