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| Model: Amy · Painted in Extreme Haste! |
Yes, it's a bit rubbish – I know!
As it was the last week of school, I could only really look forward to attending the first of the three sessions of this pose before having to hang up my brushes for the Summer holidays. I wasn't really sure whether it was worth it. I mean – if you subtract the short poses, breaks, sandwich eating and drying time, all that was left was maybe two hours or less...
Two hours? I had to slap myself. What was I thinking? Only ten months ago I was wondering how I could possibly stretch out any piece of work beyond two hours! Time to put on my Crisis Designer head, get my shit together and see what I can pull off in the available time.
The Gentlemen
It was the hottest day of the year. The strap on my heavy bag of paints bit into my shoulder greasily, as I tramped through the haze on the mile long hike to the stuffy Scout Hut.
Upon arrival the hut was already full, easels crowding the floor space like angry pylons.
Heather (SoundArticle) was all set up and ready to go:
"Y'know, I was in two minds about coming today" she said, busily sorting her paints.
"How so?" I replied, slipping my hefty bag to the floor.
"Well... for one thing, he's back..." she said, cocking an arched eyebrow in the direction of the seventy-something former society-portrait-painter who sat to her left. He was a regular Nudie Doodle Club fixture and legend – a shambling mixture of pomposity and senility, topped off with a retro Van Dyck 'tache and beard combo. Somehow he always reminded me of the Major from Faulty Towers. On this occasion he was wearing a wide brimmed straw hat.
His fondness for holding forth on how things should be done had him at loggerheads with Heather from the start. Her style was a lot more free and irreverent and had earned his scorn and dismissal. She had long-ago won my respect by painting Y-Fronts and thigh-high boots on a previous nude...
"...and this hot weather always brings them out" she said, jerking a thumb over her shoulder. I looked and saw four men that I had never seen before. Their ages ranged from fifty to sixty-something and each of them were bearded and wore a wide brimmed straw hat – just like the Major!
Unlike the Major their facial hair was more Gary Bushel than Van Dyck. Unlike the Major they wore too-tight T-Shirts and testicular peek-a-boo shorts rather than top-to-toe chunky tweed. Unlike the Major they were impossibly fat – their groaning stools threatening to disappear between their buttery buttocks at any moment.
I found their presence slightly creepy and unnerving. Almost all of them eschewed the head, hands and feet of their subject, and chose instead to zoom-in and focus entirely on the "Meat and Potatoes"...
Lost in my reverie I caught sight of my reflection in my paint brush jar: Am I not the same as them? I'm 50+, have facial hair (well sort of), own a straw hat, and carry considerably more bulk than the Major. Am I just one of these creepy pervy straw hat wearing doodlers???
Summer Holidays
Well, that's me done for this year (my clock moves with my children's school rota).
I've done a year of Nudie Doodle and have seen some progress in my eye to page rendition and a greater subtlety in my use of acrylic paint. I still feel/know that this is entirely the wrong medium for me, but I am enjoying the messy, unpredictabilty of it all...
Two hours? I had to slap myself. What was I thinking? Only ten months ago I was wondering how I could possibly stretch out any piece of work beyond two hours! Time to put on my Crisis Designer head, get my shit together and see what I can pull off in the available time.
The Gentlemen
It was the hottest day of the year. The strap on my heavy bag of paints bit into my shoulder greasily, as I tramped through the haze on the mile long hike to the stuffy Scout Hut.
Upon arrival the hut was already full, easels crowding the floor space like angry pylons.
Heather (SoundArticle) was all set up and ready to go:
"Y'know, I was in two minds about coming today" she said, busily sorting her paints.
"How so?" I replied, slipping my hefty bag to the floor.
"Well... for one thing, he's back..." she said, cocking an arched eyebrow in the direction of the seventy-something former society-portrait-painter who sat to her left. He was a regular Nudie Doodle Club fixture and legend – a shambling mixture of pomposity and senility, topped off with a retro Van Dyck 'tache and beard combo. Somehow he always reminded me of the Major from Faulty Towers. On this occasion he was wearing a wide brimmed straw hat.
His fondness for holding forth on how things should be done had him at loggerheads with Heather from the start. Her style was a lot more free and irreverent and had earned his scorn and dismissal. She had long-ago won my respect by painting Y-Fronts and thigh-high boots on a previous nude...
"...and this hot weather always brings them out" she said, jerking a thumb over her shoulder. I looked and saw four men that I had never seen before. Their ages ranged from fifty to sixty-something and each of them were bearded and wore a wide brimmed straw hat – just like the Major!
Unlike the Major their facial hair was more Gary Bushel than Van Dyck. Unlike the Major they wore too-tight T-Shirts and testicular peek-a-boo shorts rather than top-to-toe chunky tweed. Unlike the Major they were impossibly fat – their groaning stools threatening to disappear between their buttery buttocks at any moment.
I found their presence slightly creepy and unnerving. Almost all of them eschewed the head, hands and feet of their subject, and chose instead to zoom-in and focus entirely on the "Meat and Potatoes"...
Lost in my reverie I caught sight of my reflection in my paint brush jar: Am I not the same as them? I'm 50+, have facial hair (well sort of), own a straw hat, and carry considerably more bulk than the Major. Am I just one of these creepy pervy straw hat wearing doodlers???
Summer Holidays
Well, that's me done for this year (my clock moves with my children's school rota).
I've done a year of Nudie Doodle and have seen some progress in my eye to page rendition and a greater subtlety in my use of acrylic paint. I still feel/know that this is entirely the wrong medium for me, but I am enjoying the messy, unpredictabilty of it all...
See you in the Autumn!
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