Sometimes I need a change, sometimes I get tired of hitting up on my limitations over and over again and I need a shift in scenery, a new direction. I have for the immediate future left studying at the Neoteric, though I will always consider it my art home. Lisa and Matthew are my good friends and said they would continue to come by for the informal crit and coffee. I enjoy that time a lot. They are the first really close artist friends I have made in many years.
That being said, I am now studying remotely/via an online program at Sadie Valerie’s Atelier. It better meets my requirements at this time and the direction is more geared towards still life drawing and painting. The work I have done with Lisa and Matthew has prepared me tremendously for this, though Sadie’s curriculum and methods are QUITE different. I can really see how the Florence Academy of Art informs Lisa’s teaching methods.
The first thing Sadie has me doing is drawing a sphere. I thought that would be easy peasy but she had me redraw it three times. In addition to the sphere beginners in her program start with ellipses, 2D sphere light direction and shadow studies and a variety of value strips using a variety of pencils. After jumping right into figures at the Neoteric this seemed to be going backwards, even basic. I was quite happy though with both the level of personal critique from Sadie and what I learned in the assignments. I am happy to say she let me move on to drawing the steps of a block in and doing one full block in in a simple still life. She did this with the addition that I continue to work on my third sphere and my pencil work on the strips. My pencil work is still a little rough. I blame my camera – heh.This all is preparation for painting in the indirect method that she teaches. It is very much in harmony with how I tend to paint naturally.
So below are my Spheres and misc. work from Sadie’s program. I will post these along the way, and also my own personal work which I am always working on. I want this blog be more about my total art journey and not just the work I do related to an atelier. A little different than the in the past. Cheers!
SW 
Interesting