A Collection of Figure Drawings from Fall Semester 2022

Every once in a while I like to open up the sketchbook and share my latest works with you, and since teaching multiple anatomy/figure drawing classes I’ve been drawing a lot lately. Here are a few of my favorites from the last semester..

I seriously loved this stately model; doesn’t he remind you of like a casual-cool Henry VII or some other classical regal portrait?! He just got that self-assured-scepter-holding ‘kingly’ vibe I suppose.

And keep an eye out because I have a few photos of student work to share, including a few of me I’m sharing in my newsletter this week. We had a model cancel so I sat for some portrait drawings and many of them turned out surprisingly well! (If you’re not already getting my ‘Birds of a Feather’ quarterly letter you should definitely join in at the bottom of this blog post or through this link!)

With these next few you’ll notice a trend.. and that is they are all drawn of our models’ backs. I allow my students to all get their seats with the best, most forward views of our models so sometimes the only space for me is to set up around back. But I’m not complaining at all, any chance I get with a life model is an opportunity to learn!

And did you see the drawings from my first ever pregnant figure model? Now THAT was an amazing experience! The drawings turned out beautifully, if I do say so myself ;)

1.24.2023

Drawing From My First Pregnant Model

What a treat beyond treats to be able to draw the female form during one of its most glorious and transformative times!

Our lovely model-with-child Luna actually came in for three of my anatomy classes and I was sure to let my students know what a special, possibly once in a lifetime, opportunity this was. We all really enjoyed creating beautiful, soft, curvilinear works on those days.

This first one was when Luna was five months pregnant…

And these other three were when she was fully seven months along - wow!

I wish we could have Luna and her tiny miracle back again, but alas she has moved out of the state. I feel so fortunate to have had her come in and I really hope I am afforded such a special opportunity again one day!

Here are a few of my students’ drawings too. Some of these are from folks who have only had a few weeks of figure drawing practice.. aren’t they so skilled?!??

10.15.2022

Sketchbook Tour 2022

Yay I am so excited to be sharing my two latest full sketchbooks today! Sketchbook tour videos tend to be some of my most popular, and I totally understand why. I too love thumbing through other artists' personal works, sketches, attempts, and even (slight) failures.

These sketchbooks are comprised of all figure drawings, most from life but some from online figure models. I like to use Carbothello My Stabilo pastel pencils and white chalk for my drawings on Canson Mi-Tientes paper.

If you're interested in getting a one-of-a-kind custom handmade sketchbook from my Nest to yours, pop over here for all the info and ordering (these are only available once a year for about a week)

If you are seeing this video after May 22nd and would like more info on getting your own handmade-with-love toned (or white) paper sketchbook pop over here to be kept in the loop for my next sketchbook release.

Here are two videos on how I create my figure drawings: Vid 1 // Vid 2

5.15.2022

Attempting a 30 Day Figure Drawing Challenge

“Attempting” being the key word there - ha!

Totally on a whim on April 1st I decided to challenge myself to create a figure drawing every day for 30 days straight. I say on a whim because as of March 31 I had no plans to do a challenge, but when I enjoyed creating a figure drawing so much that very next day, I thought ‘why not?’ Just do it.

In the first couple of days I actually asked my Instagram followers if anyone had attempted any kind of 30 day art challenge in the past, and if so, what were the results. I honestly didn’t get a lot of positive responses, as in, most people either had been too intimidated to try, or they didn’t have much success when they did.

Which is kind of why I had never tried one myself!

This challenge wound up being pretty successful in my opinion. I only missed two days of drawing and I allowed myself a little wiggle room as far as doing two days of drawing at the Picasso exhibit, and three of the days were spent working on a figure painting I had previously started. I also had a little more time this month for drawing than I have in the past 6+ months so I wanted to seize that opportunity too.

Here’s a few pics from the beginning of the month, or you can see them all in order on my Instagram @caleighbirdart.

If you decided to try an art challenge too, either like mine with a personal challenge, or an official prompted one like Inktober, please let me know how it goes either here or in the video comments.

And last but not least, if you are interested in acquiring an original figure drawing I have them available at especially good rates this month to coincide with this challenge. Visit my Shop here.

5.2.2021

Real Time Figure Drawing Demo

Aloha friends! Today I'm bringing you a real time figure drawing demo as part of my 30 Day Figure Drawing Challenge, which I tried to do live week before last but YT deleted it almost as soon as I was finished - I think because my drawing reference photo was viewable (even though I thought it was a 'safe' one!).

Anyway, this one is far more concise since I did edit out little things like erasing mistakes and swapping out materials, plus this figure is only a back so I won’t get flagged for sharing my reference photo.

As far as this 30 day challenge goes, I decided to do it to help get myself back in the groove of figure drawing. Since covid has shut down so many open studio figure drawing sessions I haven’t had the opportunity to draw from life in over a year and I’m missing it terribly! I can feel myself getting rusty so I wanted to get back on the saddle and slip back into my comfort zone.

If you would like more info on getting your own handmade-with-love toned (or white) paper sketchbook pop over here to be kept in the loop for my next sketchbook release.

Materials I use to draw (any purchase through my special links helps my channel at no cost to you so thank you!):

White Chalk Pencil

Parisian Blue Carbothello Pastel

Kneaded Eraser

Mono Zero Eraser

4.18.2021

30 Day Drawing Challenge

So this month I decided to do my first ever 30 Day art challenge for the month of April just to torture myself - ha!

No but seriously, I’ve never tried to do Inktober or any other challenge concerning making art every single day for a month, and I probably haven’t had such consistency since I was in grad school. My motive for pushing myself in this way is to help get myself back in the groove of figure drawing. Since covid has shut down so many open studio figure drawing sessions I haven’t had the opportunity to draw from life in over a year and I’m missing it terribly! I can feel myself getting rusty so I want to get back on the saddle and slip back into my comfort zone.

After only two days of posting I had someone ask if these sketches would be for sale so I decided to figure out some sort of fun/creative way to price them, rather than having one fixed rate price or having to come up with different prices every day even though they may be on the same size paper, but take drastically different times, so what I came up with was this….

For this month only, I am putting each figure drawing up for sale according to how long it’s taken me to create. $1 = 1 minute. I will probably wind up doing at least a few 20 to 40 minute figure drawings as well so anything that takes me less than 45 minutes, i.e. priced at $45, will add $6 for shipping; otherwise US shipping is included in the price.

I do not create prints of my figure drawings so when you purchase one you really do own the only copy.

I actually announced the challenge via a YouTube video two weeks ago where I did a real time live figure drawing demo, but it got taken down I think because my reference photo was visible. I thought it was PG-13 enough to show on YT but I guess I was wrong. Luckily I didn’t get a strike or anything, so I just decided to redo the video using a super safe reference photo as well as pre-recording it for conciseness. That comes out this Sunday if you’d like to see my actual pace at drawing figures.

Anyhoo, I would love for you to follow along on this challenge (and help me stay motivated to keep going!) over on my Instagram @caleighbirdart. I’m about halfway done so things are looking promising!

And on two of the days I counted painting Vedina’s body (I already had the portrait part done) in this tiny figure. Vedina is an awesome singer and performer I met through Instagram and we’re doing this collab art piece; she supplied the exclusive reference photo and I’m doing the painting. I’m still going to put in layers of her hair and gold leaf in her jewelry and a surprise staff with a lot of meaning behind it, and of course plenty of resined plants. I’m psyched!

4.15.2021

Creating a Professional Artist Portfolio

Welcome to Ask an Artist 5! We are going to get into how to make a portfolio for your art that is professional and thorough and will open doors for you when opportunity arises.

Creating a college application portfolio is very different than creating a fine art portfolio, so the first thing we will talk about is how they compare. Then we'll get into why you should be doing artwork in a series, and ultimately what the five components of a great art portfolio are.

Feel free to pop me a question here or in the YouTube comments to be discussed in an upcoming ‘Ask an Artist.’ You can also see some previous episodes featuring other figure drawings and questions here.

If you'd like to snag some of these amazing super smooth pastel pencils, the first two are the ones I'm using in the video and the other two are some of my favorite colors. Any purchases through my special links helps to support my channel so thank you!

White Chalk Pencil: https://bit.ly/3d3COLh

Raw Umber Carbothello Pastel Pencil: https://bit.ly/30zLfL8

Steel Grey Carbothello Pastel Pencil: https://bit.ly/2YIvbED

Deep Purple Carbothello Pastel Pencil: https://bit.ly/2XTkGPk

How I create my figure drawings (and this one too)

How to Photograph Artwork

How to Photograph Artwork Without a Glare

How to Write an Artist Statement

How to Write an Artist CV

If you would like more info on getting your own handmade-with-love toned (or white) paper sketchbook pop over here to be kept in the loop for my next sketchbook release: https://www.caleighbirdart.com/handmade-sketchbooks

10.4.2020

How to Sharpen Pencils for Drawing

When you first learned how to sharpen pencils as a small child in a classroom, remember how much those metal gears used to grind your pencil down? Yikes!

Luckily we have grown up from that and now treat our drawing pencils much more kindly by sharpening them without a sharpener, but instead with a knife or razor blade and sandpaper. With this method you can get your pencil lead as long as you like it for variety in shading abilities. Enjoy!

If you get a sanding board from this link it helps to support my channel, thank you:)

Nitram Pencil Sander https://bit.ly/35Rhuq5

5.8.2020

Mirror Self Portrait Drawing

I didn’t post the full ‘Mirror Self Portrait’ on my blog post yet, so just in case you missed the video last week, you can watch the entire drawing process as well as the crazy way I had to film it here. This is the most accurate self portrait I’ve ever created and I’m super proud:)

chalk pastel, 18 x 14 inches, drawn from life

5.6.2020

Mirror Self Portrait

Now this mirror self portrait was a fun one to create! It is a serious exercise in really trusting in yourself to please your toughest critic - yourself!

Drawing a self portrait is something I haven't done since grad school and I am quite excited to share this process demo, including not just a timelapse of my drawing, but letting you in on how I had things set up in order to get the up close camera shots that are literally between me and the mirror.

Here are the materials I use to draw. If you purchase anything through my special links (even if you choose different colors!) it helps to support my channel so thank you!!

White Chalk Pencil: https://bit.ly/3d3COLh

Parisian Blue Carbothello Pastel: https://bit.ly/2KNxmjD

Pencil Extender: https://bit.ly/2uCRQqC

Kneaded Eraser: https://bit.ly/2VC4qBB

Map Eraser: https://bit.ly/2wgzoop

Mono Zero Eraser: https://bit.ly/3885Fej

And I don't remember the brand of this paper but this is my other fave kind for use with pastels or charcoal: Canson Me Tienes in Steel Grey: https://bit.ly/3f8uqff

Make sure to tag me on Instagram if you create your own mirror self portrait - I'll share it in my story!! @caleighbirdart

5.1.2020