John Watkiss figure drawing and anatomy demo sketches

When I took John's figure drawing classes he would, one person at a time, sit down and demonstrate concepts he was explaining, on each person's sheet of paper.
My friends and I would photocopy and share amongst ourselves our bits of scribbled wisdom.
I have now put them together in a YouTube video/slide show.
If improving figure drawing is your thing, I would suggest watching this at full screen and set the speed to .25 and use the space bar to pause and resume play a lot.
It's REALLY great stuff...

60 quick pose figure drawings

Quick pose figure drawings (1-3 minutes per pose). If you can squeeze in some quick blocking, then a decent, lively contour, without missing head, hands or feet, you're on to a winner! All from live models during 20 minute sessions of either 1's, 2's or 3's (minute poses), followed by 10 minute breaks.
Gives the old gray matter a bit of a workout!

I'd suggest full screen on decent size monitor.

Table tennis skeleton attack T-shirt on Kickstarter for 15 days...

Here it is (CLICK HERE), ending on November 20th.

Skeleton forehand attack table tennis t-shirt

Ping pong pirates

I made a table tennis playing skeleton digitally and then used it to make an unofficial poster for fun, of the World Veterans' Championships to be held in Vegas 2018.
It's all the same pose from different sides. When I get around to making a skeleton chopping the ball I'll swap one out for that one. Maybe I'll add eye patches in a future iteration!

Unofficial, just for fun World Veterans' Championships for table tennis ping pong pirates poster

Here's the sculpture.

Skeleton biker sculpture

Here's a skeleton biker sculpture I made digitally which I am thinking of casting in bronze. I'd tweak it a bit more first, but it's 95 percent done.

Lively Mouse now up for pre-order on Kickstarter

My mouse family just grew a bit bigger with the addition of Lively Mouse!

Inquisitive, energetic and ever upwardly mobile, Lively is always trying to get somewhere.

Until June 6 Lively will be available for pre-order at a special price through my Kickstarter project.
And to celebrate Lively's arrival, you can add any of my other mice to the deal (20 percent less than retail).
I should be mailing them all out in September.

Click HERE to check it out...

I wonder if the box is open?

I wonder what's up there?

mmmmm.....cheese...

Everybody wants a piece of what Chubby has got

Meet Lively Mouse, at least a wax model prior to bronze casting

Here's my new mouse, Lively.
Lively will be launched through a Kickstarter campaign where you can pre-order one or more, plus some of my other mice, for 20 percent less than retail.
When Lively hits my Etsy shop, and galleries, the special Kickstarter pre-order deal will be over.
Stay tuned for that, or get on my sculpture mailing list of course.

Anyway, here's some photo's...

Lively's favorite Google search (wax model, prior to bronze casting)

Lively meets Nosey   (wax models of Lively, prior to bronze casting)

A Lively game of patti cake  (wax model, prior to bronze casting)

Wild among the flowers  (wax models of Lively, prior to bronze casting)

Is that a ping pong ball, or a round piece of cheese  (wax models of Lively, prior to bronze casting)

Lively Mouse checking out the bathroom (wax models of Lively, prior to bronze casting)

Lively Mouse fell in the bath!  (wax model, prior to bronze casting)

In and out (wax models of Lively, prior to bronze casting)

Lively in the snow  (wax model, prior to bronze casting)

Lively Mouse exploring outside  (wax model, prior to bronze casting)

Quick pose life drawing fourth attempt.

I'm getting better at getting a descriptive contour line down in the time (90 seconds, 2 minutes, or 3 minutes per drawing) but I must not miss my chance to put in at least a line for hands and feet (when I can see them, sometimes they are covered by cloth or props).
Too often I haven't even done a head when I find myself rushing to it knowing there's only a few seconds left.
Same goes for  hands and feet.
It's so easy to indulge yourself for a full 30 seconds on some excitingly dynamic part of the body, only having to rush madly to get to the other parts!
Anyway, here's some of my fourth session's crop.

Quick gesture drawing, terra cotta pencil on paper

Quick gesture drawing, terra cotta pencil on paper

Quick gesture drawing, terra cotta pencil on paper

Quick gesture drawing, terra cotta pencil on paper

Quick gesture drawing, terra cotta pencil on paper

Quick gesture drawing, terra cotta pencil on paper

Quick gesture drawing, terra cotta pencil on paper

Quick gesture drawing, terra cotta pencil on paper

Quick gesture drawing, terra cotta pencil on paper

Quick gesture drawing, terra cotta pencil on paper

Quick gesture drawing, terra cotta pencil on paper

Frame friendly figures in pencil and watercolor

My splashing on the water color experiment got me thinking about doing something for my Etsy shop.
So I picked up a decent looking, but very cheap popular sized frame from Walmart (under $10) which had an 8" x 10" cardboard matt in it.
Then I got some 14" x 11" acid free mixed media paper, a bit thicker than my life drawing paper so it wouldn't wrinkle as much with the watercolor.
Then I re-drew (in terra cotta colored pencil, and also in graphite pencil) a few of my most recent figure drawings to go right behind the matt, snugly inside the frame, so it wouldn't need any re-positioning or trimming assuming someone had an 11" x 14" frame with an 8" x 10" matt. Actually, an 8" x 10" matt, for framing an 8" x 10" photo, is closer to 7.5" x 9.5"
A splash of water color and some photographing later, and now they're up on my Etsy shop.

A splash of color...

Watercolor, to be precise.
I pulled out some from my third attempt pile and got my sable brush out of mothballs...

Quick pose life drawing third attempt

I feel like I am getting the hang of one to three minute poses with a colored pencil a bit more now.
It's quite interesting being so focused on a person so intensely for 3 hrs, in so many poses.
I was stretching a bit during breaks (20 mins drawing, 10 min breaks) and found myself looking at more nude figures in the wood grain of the floorboards without thinking about it.
Kind of like seeing shapes in clouds. Its seems to happen more when you are not really paying any attention to what you are looking at, and your mind is elsewhere.
Anyhow, my goal for future drawings I think is to try and get some cursory shading in along with a decisively drawn contour line drawing, if I can.
Here's my favorite 9 out of the 50 or so I drew (I'm not showing the real stinkers!)...