Life Drawing

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The Corrado Project

January 9, 2012 in Anatomical Art, Commissions, In the Studio, Kate Renee, Life Drawing | 1 comment

Last spring, I was approached by a man named who was interested in a custom life drawing. He found out about my work through last year’s Flesh and Form show at Altered Esthetics, a gallery in Northeast Minneapolis. He was inspired by my black and white charcoal drawing of a nude woman on her back, and asked me make a custom drawing in a similar manner for him.

My commissioner wanted a piece featuring his girlfriend and the imagery and symbolism that was important to their relationship and their story together. Upon meeting, he came with many ideas and imagery he thought I could include into the piece. He was also kind enough to put together a photo album to work off of with pictures of his girlfriend so I can include her likeness and shape as well as inspirational images from both nature and other artists.

   

 

In addition to a black and white elegant life drawing of his girlfriend, he wanted a touch of blue. Blue is the color of Autism pride, a main feature behind the work itself. He also asked for a ladybug, circles or lunar imagery, Brazil or a Brazilian influence, a hawk, star confetti, a garland and a salmon fish.

Here’s the rough draft. I posted all of the referenced imagery and inspirational photos around the drawing as I created it. While I didn’t have to include it all, I challenged myself to design a composition that incorporated all of the above mentioned items! And months later, I have completed his drawing, life size and included every symbolic imagery and request into the piece.

It was one of the most challenging and rewarding commissions I have done and hope he and his girlfriend enjoys the piece! I’d like to thank my commissioner for being soooo patient with me in completing this piece.

Here is the final work! Can you spot everything I incorporated into the piece?

 

And here is all of the symbolic imagery I included into the piece!

   

Star confetti, salmon and a ladybug

          

Hawk, garland and Brazil

My Medias: Life Drawing and Anatomy

November 21, 2011 in Anatomical Art, In the Studio, Kate Renee, Life Drawing, My Medias | No comments

During college, I chose to focus on life drawing. I have always been drawn to the figure and trying to draw it realistically and found to really enjoy life drawing class. It was one of the few 4 hour studio courses that I enjoyed sitting there and working.

One exercise that I found fascinating was working with the skeletal structure. During my first few weeks of Life Drawing I my professor asked me to take a sheet of tracing paper and draw the inner structure of the figure we just drew. This seemed extremely hard to do and was a bit intimidated by the project. I spent about 20 hours on this one sketch of a skeleton, and in the end I was super proud of what I created. Since then, I have been drawn to an anatomy focused life drawing.

I have always been fascinated with figures and bodies. Since a young age I had wanted to be a paleopathologist (someone who studies disease in ancient man). I was drawn to mummies! I have a small collection of books about mummies and bodies in my own library. I was also introduced to a book called Skin by Claudia Benthein which analyzes the metaphors of skin. I have books by Muybridge and countless anatomy books, including Grey’s Anatomy. My favorite anatomical book which I would recommend is Joseph Sheppard’s Anatomy: A Complete Guide for Artists. During my undergrad, I had this book checked out for 2 years. I finally bought my own copy!

For my final in my last life drawing class I decided to do a self portrait of myself as a skeleton. I took a picture of my body and plotted out the bone structures. Certain bone surfaces stick out such as elbows, hips, knees, backbone and ribs. Then I drew in the bones and created an entire skeleton of myself. What I created was a six foot high drawing of my insides! Creepy, I know!

When I am not working with anatomy I like to work with line, I draw an intricate drawing of a figure and then begin to eliminate lines where light is hitting and thicken likes where there is weight and shadow. I capture the essence of the figure through a stark black and white piece.

So while I have been recently focusing on painting, the passion for life drawing is still there. I have a few ideas about what I want to do next so hopefully some new anatomical pieces will pop up in the future!