A preparatory work is always done in order to discover a few techniques needed for taking measures and displaying the subject on the sheet.

The poses taken the previous day are repeated daily for about 30 to 45 minutes in order to allow the students who want to finish up a drawing to do so during the whole length of the session. The students who want to do differently can always circle around the model during that time in order to catch one view or another concentrating on some anatomy detail or aiming for sketching from several angles.

If you continue on with an oil painting session, you can always use one of your best sketches as a draft for a painting. If you decide to do so, you can actually adapt your approach during the life model session. You will still have to work on a still life in order to follow the oil painting session though.

Life model drawing is a necessary step in learning how to understand how the human body looks and how it moves. I hope to see you in Brussels one day with Piet. We’ve had the best of time so far and we look forward to keeping up the good work and enjoy learning what only very few can have access to…

Christine actually picked a rather difficult subject. One of the objects in her still life was in fact a mother-of-pearl box.

“These were small objects that I like very much and I always dreamt of being able to paint them some day”.

Christine passed over each step and managed, according to one of the objectives of the course, to completely change her values on at least two aspects. She used her retina in a different way. Christine was actually able to improve her observation skills by a major step, not only with shapes but also with tints, colors and reflexions.

Whenever we look at an object, we actually only see that particular object. Then, we see the details of the object and only then, do we see the details of the details.

Christine noticed that each time she was moving her eyes or her head by half an inch, the spots reflecting the specter broken down into the mother-of-pearl box were different. She actually was the only person of the class who used turquoise and bright pink to render the reflection of the mother-of-pearl.

To summarize that exceptional training session, Christine, mentioned the incredible riches of both the human aspect and the artistic discoveries.

Piet Herzeel, founder of the Signus online drawing course, firmly believes in this. Actually, after many    months of putting the online course together, he had a true need for a live class…
It was also, for him as well as for the students, a great opportunity to enjoy the wonderful city of   Brussels.

He has had two sessions so far during the past two summers.
The first one was only devoted to oil painting, Flemish technique and last summer had a little more  variety with a session on dry pastel, live nude drawing and also Piet’s specialty again, the oil painting,  Flemish technique.

The sessions usually take place at the end of july when people often have a little more time. They take place at the 1st and 3rd floor of a private house located in a peaceful street of Ixelles. The second floor is actually used to lodge a few students. Meals are taken on the spot during the lunch break or at one of the small restaurants of the area depending on your preference.

PASTEL TECHNIQUE

In just a few days, you will know all that you need to know so you can find out how you can appreciate this  particuliar technique.
All Signus training sessions require a minimum of knowledge in drawing but you don’t need to be already a pro.

The material.
For the last sessions it was asked to bring dry chalk pastel as well as pastel crayons. As for the paper, the half tint sheets are fine.
You can find several kinds of paper at the school in order to become familiarized with the different sorts.
If you cannot bring any pastel, you will be able to find some there at a very affordable price.

OIL PAINTING

Piet does not wish the students to bring any material. All you can bring would be an apron, rags of coton (not fluffy. Bed sheets per example), 3 small empty jelly jars. The paintbrushes you are supposed to bring will be described early next year.
You can also bring two or three nice looking objects of your choice that you will be able to paint after you organize your still life. A choice of appropriate objects are available there and you can also paint a fruit or some food that you can buy in the neighborhood.

LIFE MODEL DRAWING

For the life model drawing, you will find all the necessary material in the room but if you prefer, you can bring charcoal crayons or chinese brushes if you are used to them. Some students feel more at ease with their own material.

And after a whole day of learning and practicing, the city of Brussels is to be visited with its history and museums…  Piet always makes sure everybody has the best possible time.

Even when the water surface is agitated, the horizontal lines should be used… Of course, the undulations of the water seem to push us toward other kinds of lines going the way the water goes. It’s tempting to fall into the trap. Actually, unless the water is really running in all different ways, it’s best to keep horizontal lines as much as possible. Of course, it is needed to skip a few lines here and there and to “organize” a certain irregularity among them.

When the weather gets rough or if we are to draw a waterfall or some rapids on a river, the lines we draw should follow the general movement of the flow. Just make sure you don’t overdo it. As with skies, when we draw water, we have to be very bashful with lines. In drawing water, the plain surface of the paper is actually the best base as long as we know how to shape it with the right amount of lines.

The picture  is a good example of how the lines follow the flow until it becomes stagnant or at least flat. Notice the few lines used to show a large volume of water. Using too many lines would have taken away the impression of heaviness.

When drawing skies or water, let’s be greedy on these tempting lines…

As for the common points, and that’s what is of interest for us, we can easily notice that the back is almost perfectly straight in both categories.
Also, the antelope and the buffalo as well as the bull have a very flat head from the poll to the tip of the nose.
The ears are fairly low on each side of the head because the horns, big or small, cut or not, are set on top of the head.
Unlike the horse or the cat, the whole body, from shoulders to buttocks is full of angles.
Cattle have in common a very straight horizontal back and belly.
In both categories, the hind legs tend to slope forward.

Notice the rectangular shape of the body

A wild and gracious version of our farm cow

Straight legs are, most of the time, considered as an esthetic quality for a dog. Nevertheless, for some dogs such as the bull-dog, bowed legs are needed for good proportions.
The details of the anatomy are very visible on a greyhound. There is not much fat or skin or hair to hide it. The yorkshire terrier’s anatomy, though, is totally hidden by his hair.

The snub wrinkled nose of the pekinese is quite different from the pointy nose of a dachshund. Besides that particularity, they both have a similar body with short legs and a long body.

When it comes to drawing a dog, the conclusion is that only a close observation of each individual can lead to an accurate portrait.

Whatever its age or its origin, we must admit that it is the most charming piece of jewelry and the most precious ornament on a woman. It is actually the pretext for so many gracious moves and ravishing poses.

Sometimes mysterious, sometimes frivolous, imperious or teasing, it allows the protected face to shelter or to hide a smile, dry off a tear. It’s used more often to restrain a yawn due to a boring affair or to conceal a burst of blush listening to a hot story, than…

To keep off bugging flies,
To protect from the cold when the sun goes down,

Nothing more fanciful, alert, spiritual than the hand-held fan :

A fan can express all that you feel,
all that a heart can suffer.
It can flatter, refuse, agree,
condemn and approve.

It is therefore not a surprise that it has inspired so many poets and suggested delicate illustrations to
so many artists. Such as Watteau, Fragonard, Lancret, Moreau the young if we only mention the XVIIIth century artists, when nicely decorated fans were in fashion !

To make a pleasant composition and create an attractive painting on a fan, one must know how to do a little bit of everything, one must bend to all conceptions.

There is no limit in the composition of a fan or a screen blind.

All subjects can be painted, no matter how strange it may look, as long as you stay away from the common and the trivial : one can remain gracious while being original at the same time, treat highly unconventional subjects while keeping a good taste, even use, as decorative motive, unexpected objects or quite ordinary things while staying distinguished.
It all depends on the way you make your composition and interpret your work.

You can use a vegetable as well as a flower ; you can use a fish or a bird ; a dog, a cat, a rabbit can
make a terrific subject. I even pretend that the little pink pig can be a very pleasant subject. It can be part of a charming little scenery.

It has been said that, in faraway countries, that fairies can turn ugly things into gold or precious stones ; all you have to do is to pick something trivial and turn it into something beautiful and charming…

Unlike the dogs, the cat’s anatomy has remained the same altogether. The actual cat that we all know is quite the same as the one worshiped by the pharaohs.

Even his big brothers such as the tiger, lion or panther, have kept their typical shape.

To summarize, we can depict the cat’s body as narrow from one end to the other. The back legs, higher than the front ones, give him that powerful look and the wide  jaws show the hunter in him.

The forehead is receding and the ears far apart. The eyes are wide and round with an expression of concentration. The neck is short and strong.

The cat always gives an impression of suppleness and the abundant skin sort of hides all anatomical details.

THE HORSE
The animal that has been drawn the most has always been the horse. Being a symbol of animal beauty and one of the most loved animals, drawers and painters have always considered the horse as their favorite subject after humans, among the living creatures.

The most important proportion to know is this one: You can draw a square (Fig 1) that reaches the  base of the neck to the beginning of the tail and then goes down to the hind foot, then left to the forefoot and finally up to the neck. The shoulder is perfectly located above the front toe. The quarters right above the point of the hock. Notice that the back of the square is lined up with the long tendon  going from hock to fetlock.

Fig 1

The line E, F, following the neck, represents the half of the line A,B. Its angle depends on where the head is carried.
The distance between the poll and the muzzle represents a third of the distance between the poll and the root of the tail.
The eye is located at about a third of the distance between the poll and the muzzle.
On the adult horse, the distance between the crown of the withers and the point of the elbow is the same as the distance from the elbow to the fetlock.

As in any type of drawing that involves living things, having a good knowledge of anatomy brings a tremendous help. You might have noticed that an animal will not necessarily stay still as you’re trying to sketch him. A certain amount of reconstruction will then be needed and your knowledge of anatomy will allow you to finish your drawing with precision.

It is important to realize that the skeleton of a horse is built with the same principles as those in the human skeleton. The legs, of course, are stretched in a different way. It is quite interesting to notice that the bottom part of the horse’s leg, made of a single toe, is much more elongated than in the human leg when the top part of the leg is almost hidden inside the body of the horse. You will also notice that the names of the bones are almost the same as in the human skeleton.

A few common mistakes:
The eye should have an angle of 45 degrees with the line of the face instead of being parallel to the line of the face.
The hock  should  be lined up with the back of the croup. The croup should always be round and full when the shoulder should be bony and straight.
The forelegs as well as the hind legs should be parallel and straight. All four hooves should be placed a little forward and should be shorter in the back than in the front.

Fig 2

Fig 3

Fig 4

Fig 5

Fig 6

Fig 7

Fig 8

Fig 2 and 4 show how the forelegs and the hind legs are parallel two by two. Fig 3 shows how the head slowly narrows down from the poll to the muzzle.  Fig 5 shows the position of the neck reaching down to the ground in order to eat. Notice the beautiful curve…
It’s commonly accepted to say that the horse only has one foot off the ground at a time when he walks, two when he trots, three when he canters and all four when he gallops. Fig 6 shows a galloping horse. Fig 8 shows a horse who is starting to trot after walking and Fig 7 shows a jumping horse with his neck lined up with the back.

Horses have been considered as a classical and mandatory model for drawers all along the history of man from the cavemen until now. It’s a beautiful animal who deserves our admiration and artistic interest.

Drawing in lines
As you draw in lines, you should use different widths of lines depending on the distance of the subject. The nearest to our eye, the thicker the stroke should be and of course the furthest away, the thiner it has to be.
Actually, some lines, as they represent a scene far away can be almost invisible, barely suggested (Fig. 3). As it can be a good thing to add objects to give roundness to drawing, it could be more difficult to respect the laws of perspective when using the outline approach. Fig. 4 gives a good example of a simple drawing done with the line approach. Fig. 5 shows us how details can totally change the general aspect. You can see how the perspective on all the details on the coin are respected.

Sometimes, it is possible and even recommended to leave gaps in the outline if you want to depict an excess of light or if you want to give an effect of speed. Those techniques come from the very essence of human vision. The way we focus on certain things more than on some others changes our perception of what we really see. In order to catch the essential, the eye (or the brain) omits or simply guesses parts of the lines that are actually there. For the same reason, you can also draw a mass of lines going in the direction of the speed and simply suggest the background .

Drawing in masses
Always remember that when the light on your subject is bright, the contrast of your shading must be emphasized. The shadows must be darker and the parts facing the light must be lighter specially indoor.
In general, shading has to be regular. There are quite a few ways to put lines together in order to obtain different effects. The thickness, the spaces between the lines, the curving of the lines and the ending as well as different effects can be used. The first step would be to practice lining up series of parallel lines and then you can practice adding up new series of lines crossing each other. It’s better not to make the second set of lines at a right angle so you avoid having that checked effect.
If you cross the lines in smaller angle, you end up having a much better effect.
Most the time, as the angle from the light changes, the shaded part gradually lets the light cover the surfaces. So if you want to show that progression, you can use broken lines with bigger gaps as the light appears. Those gaps shouldn’t be opposite to each other though.
The thickness of the strokes and the distance between them can also be used for showing a certain variety in the tones.
Another well-known technique is to use a big amount of dots, just like in newspaper printing. Sometimes, it’s hard to cover a big surface with parallel lines so you can use the small blocks of parallel lines.

Of course, those techniques (Fig. 6 to 12) are a small example of what can be done and after mastering in what you see, then sky is the limit when it comes to the tricks you can use to express your vision of our beautiful world…