Laura Jeanne Grimes, artist
  • Home
  • Various Subjects
  • Mask Series
  • Cellphie Series
  • Fathers
  • Digital Photography
  • Blog
  • Women and Dogs
  • Hijab series
  • Field Sketches
  • Drawings
  • Paintings
  • Books

Drawing Casey

6/2/2014

0 Comments

 
It's been quite awhile since I've had the opportunity to draw Casey.  My drawing of him appears at the bottom of this blog, if you want to just cut to the chase.

It was great to see him again.  Casey has a very different body type from what we usually see in the life drawing studio.  Most of the models here in Austin, TX are young, thin, fit white women (not that there's anything wrong with that, as Seinfield might say).  I get asked all the time to book models who don't fit that mold, whether in terms of age, ethnicity, gender, body type.

This is what most non-artists don't get.  They think drawing the nude model is all about sex.  Actually, that's the last thing it's about.  We could have a model who looks like she walked straight out of a Playboy centerfold, and, during the break, you'd hear male artists saying things like, "Man, I just can't get her nose right!" or "The foreshortening on this pose is such a challenge!"  No, life drawing is about the artistic exploration of the human body, in all its wonderful varieties.

Here in 21st Century America, young, thin, white, fit and conventionally beautiful/handsome -- ah, to have all those qualities if to be elevated to the highest level of worth. To be old is to be obsolete.  To be overweight implies moral weakness.  To be 'out of shape" means laziness.  I was amazed and appalled one day to hear one black high school girl scornfully call another girl "Big Nose."  Wh-a-a-a-at????  A black friend told me she herself did not have "good hair" and she hoped her baby would take after her husband instead.  He had "good hair," which, being translated, means straight, not kinky.  A Hispanic friend told me she doesn't like outdoor swimming pools because spending time in the sun makes her skin darker.  Aren't we past this?  Apparently, we are not.  The message of the dominant culture is loud, clear and deafening.

In the book of Genesis (accepted as God's word in all three of the Abrahamic faiths), we read: "So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them." (Genesis 1:27)  Does God have a physical appearance and made us to took like Him?  We read the lines in a spiritual sense -- that God put within us a spirit, a soul, and that therefore we are, all of us, endowed with inherent worth and dignity.  For me, life drawing is one way to express this truth.

And, as promised, here is Casey.  Great guy.  He's been married 30 years, rides a Harley, and gets Santa gigs at Christmas.  Salt of the earth.

Picture
0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    Archives

    November 2022
    July 2022
    April 2022
    January 2022
    September 2021
    October 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    September 2019
    June 2019
    February 2019
    November 2018
    July 2018
    March 2018
    August 2017
    April 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    June 2016
    November 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    April 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    June 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    January 2014
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    April 2013
    March 2013
    February 2013
    December 2012
    November 2012
    September 2012
    August 2012
    July 2012
    June 2012
    May 2012
    April 2012
    March 2012
    February 2012
    January 2012
    December 2011
    November 2011
    October 2011
    August 2011
    July 2011
    June 2011
    May 2011
    April 2011
    March 2011
    February 2011
    January 2011
    December 2010
    November 2010
    October 2010
    September 2010

    Categories

    All
    9th Grade Art
    Abbey Road Illustrations
    Aldo Giorgini
    Angels
    Animoto
    App
    Art
    Art Apps
    Artist
    Artrage
    Art Rage
    Bert Monroy
    Birth Of Venus
    Botero
    Botticelli
    Bronzino
    Byzantine
    Catacombs
    Christian Art
    Christo
    Coal Mining
    Collaboration
    Comics App
    Daily Draw
    Daily Drawing
    David
    David Hockney
    Da Vinci
    Destruction Of Shalom
    Digital Art
    Drawing
    Drawing A Portrait
    Eduardo Gutekunst
    Ethel Caution-davis
    Figure
    Figure Drawing
    Fra Angelico
    Ghent Altarpiece
    Giotto
    Grunewald
    Half Tone
    Human Figure
    Ipad
    Ipad Art
    James Janknegt
    Lazarus
    Leon Golub
    Lifedrawing
    Life Drawing
    Lifedrawing. Figure Drawing
    Masks
    Maus
    Michelangelo
    Mona Lisa
    Museums
    Nativity
    Nicholas Evans
    Nina Mae McKinney
    Painting
    Parable
    Photography
    Photography Apps
    Pieta
    Plein Air
    Poetry
    Poor Man
    Portraits
    Ps Express
    Quantel Paintbox
    Ravenna
    Renaissance
    Rich Man
    Rogier Van Der Weyden
    Sculpture
    Self Portrait
    Self-portrait
    Simply HDR-HD
    Sketch Club
    Snoopy
    Spirits
    Stephen Spender
    Still Life
    Sunflower
    Texas
    Torture
    Underwater
    Vandalism Of Shalom
    Vann Nath
    Vasari
    Virgin Of The Rocks
    Wales
    Yeats
    Yellow Rose

    RSS Feed

Proudly powered by Weebly