Felix d'Eon: Start To Finish

Drawing Pete:

'Pete came by today to model for an Academy - this is a sort of drawing done in the 19th and late 18th centuries, usually of the male nude, as a drawing exercise to perfect one's drawing ability. While it was originaly meant as student practice, in the hands of some master's it became a profound and finished work of art in its own right. i have continued that tradition in my own studio, usually doing one Academy a week. The following is the process for the latest Academy of Pete.'

'I decided before he came that I wanted to draw him in the straw hat I bought before leaving for Tennessee and sandals, in order to set up some sort of narrative. I have a large shell collection, and Pete came up with the pose - of himself listening to a seashell - himself. I loved the very first pose he did right away, so I started the drawing without the usual preliminaries of gesture drawings. In the photo above, the drawing is seen after the first half hour. I used the distance from the top of his hat to his neck as one unit, and with that as a measurement figured out how big to make the figure to fit on the page, and then laid him out in very soft tones.'

'Below is the finished drawing! I added a small seashell at his feet to place the figure in a context, and to help make sence of the shell in his hands, which has mostly obscured. I spent the last hour or so going back over the figure with my stumping tools, smothing and refining, and carefully observing the model so as to get all the shadows just right.'

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Drawing Steven

'I had Steven come to the studio today to model for a drawing; I decided to do a double portrait of sorts, in which he would play two different characters. I had a general idea in my head of how the two figures would be posed before I started. Below, you can see me working on the first part of the drawing.'

'In the photos below, you can see the first part of the drawing in progress. I have laid out the first, foreground figure, and have largely drawn it from the top down. The sheet of paper is much larger than would fit in my scanner, so I have only included close-ups of the actual figure. I usually start with a light brown colored pencil, and in this drawing, I used a dark brown pencil for the shadows. I then added a touch of red watercolor to his lips and cheeks, and white acrylic paint as the highlights on his face. I use acrylic on his face because a brush with a fine tip gives me far greater accuracy than a thick piece of chalk, which is what I used for the white highlights on his body, where less precision is necessary.'

Below is the image as it appeared at its conclusion.

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Painting James:

'In the photo above you can see James in the pose, while I work from life on the preparatory drawing. The drawing takes up the full first session. Oil paint is transparent, so I make a drawing that I can transfer to canvas, that way I make my mistakes in the forgiving medium of charcoal, rather than the unforgiving medium of oil. After the first session, I transfer the drawing to canvas, and with the second session, start the underpainting.'

'Above you can see me at work, contemplating the painting. At this point I took a break and let the painting sit for a couple of weeks, while the paint dried and I thought about directions to take it.'

Above: Steven stretching during a break.

'Finally, I feel finished for this session. The landscape is largely finished - I am going to work on the stream running in the corner, and will add bright highlights and leaves to the vegetation to the upper right when the paint dries. Unfortunately, the model just got a full time job, and doesn't have as much time to come in - hopefully soon he will make some time for me for a final session, and I will finish up his feet. This painting is tantalizingly close to being finished!'

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