Title: Man Propped up on Rug

This watercolor life drawing captures with vibrantly colored washes a nude male figure as he sits gazing off the page to the right. We see him in profile with a knee up, and propped on firm arms. The model is an attractive and athletic young man with longish hair, mustache and a slim build. I love how the colors interweave on this figure and the hint of a rug grounds him in the scene. We don't get as many male models as women so they are a treat to paint at any chance with their angularity and definition of muscle tone.

This is an original watercolor painting, not a print. It's painted on Arches 140# cold press paper. The only background detail painted is the rug behind the model and a light shadow in the foreground. The white of the paper interweaves through the figure. Artwork is signed and includes a signed Certificate of Authenticity, is backed by foam core and protected in clear acetate, ready to mat and frame to your liking. (The copyright notice is to protect the image file only and is not part of the original artwork).

Image size: 14.25" x 11"

Painting and drawing from a live model is a way for me to react spontaneously to a subject that is right before my eyes for a limited period of time. There’s no planning, revising or refining. The results are often a measure of my ability to focus in the moment and react intuitively to what I see through quick choices of brush lines and shapes. The results can be very exciting and surprising.

I’ve been doing figure drawing from live models since my fine arts studies at the University of Colorado. There I earned a BFA in painting and drawing in 1971. I took on the challenge of representing the humanity of the model while trying to render accurate and expressive proportions and began to understand why this exercise is a staple of art education and a basis of painting throughout art history. I try to keep in practice especially when my career as an illustrator is lacking in creative projects. (http://sandyhaight.com) During the shorter poses I use my sumi ink and materials and have found this to be my new challenge! I’ve been trying to find a way to reveal the figure with a few suggestive strokes to represent the pose and the vitality of the model. The shorter poses are always the most dynamic and expressive and lend themselves well to sumie. As the poses get longer I work with watercolor and get the wonderful results that you see in this shop section.

In 2012 I qualified to become a signature member of the Northwest Watercolor Society (NWWS). The initials now follow my signature on newer watercolor paintings that you can see in the Floralscapes section of this shop.

code: ew-11

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