Figure Studies, 2011. Charcoal on bristol board.

Last weekend, I went to a figure drawing session at the Kimball Jenkins art school in Concord. It's been a while since I've drawn a live model so i thought it would make for good practice. These are my most successful, I think. The one on the far left was from a 20 minute pose and is my favorite out of all of them. The other two were more rushed. The figure seated in the middle is my least favorite, which is a shame since it was such a good pose. I think it's the face that throws me off - I was in such a hurry to finish that I made a clumsy, last-ditch effort to finish before time was up.
(In the last one the model is holding a peach that I decided to render with a red pen)

RISD Housing

I'll be living in Homer Hall again - I was hoping for either Nick or East, but I'm excited nonetheless. My roommate is a Miss Abby from Missouri.

EDIT: Got to talk to Abby and several other of our neighbors in Homer - Abby's awesome, and they all seem like a nice group. RISD takes different types of artists and puts them together by personality and interests. I was placed in a 'performing arts' section, which will be great since I was in a theater-centered group through much of high school. This is all making me even more excited to go back there where I felt so at home with everyone I met. Our floor seems to be mostly guys so far, though - I hope a few more girls show up.

Fluency, 2010. Mixed media, 10' x 14'
From my junior year. Created as an escape from a stressful AP project.

Apparition, 2009. Ink, 8' x 8'
From my sophomore year, something that began as a doodle but I ended up liking it a lot..

The Harbor, 2010. Gouache paint, 10' x 45'
The project: A representation of an 'altar,' or certain place that is significant to you. For this I chose a spot on the Boston Harbor, on the compass that looks out into the bay and towards the airport. Although I was largely raised in New Hampshire, much of my family still lives in the Boston area and the city is a very dear place to me. Whenever my family and I are in town for a visit, we stay at the Marriot next to the aquarium. The compass is a short walk from here and for years I have enjoyed walking up and down the harbor and stopping in this one spot. I decided to use gouache as I don't usually use paint and I love that it has the softness of watercolor but is still opaque. I chose not to use references and worked only from memory.

When I first finished this, I wasn't very proud of it. I felt that I had made it to be too simple and that it was not recognizable as Boston. However it was very well received by my teachers and friends, which surprised me. Sometimes I do regret not using references, but I think I benefited from working with the simple elements from my memory and not worrying about the small details.