Figure Friday -

Costume model day....

Our model today is actually a costumer, and revels in historical couture.

She based today's ensemble on this portrait of the Baroness of Crussols -

It was a fun drawing day!

And she was a lovely gal.

Figure Friday -

 Fun, costumed model today - 

 I think I'd rather draw long flowy dresses than just about anything else - 

Fun day. :-)

Figure Friday -

 Costume week - this time we had a full-fledged martial artist. :-)

 1-2 minute gestures....

 10 minutes.

40 minutes. Charcoal on paper.

Figure Friday -

 Life drawing - costume day -

 Today was 'medieval serving wench' day. :-)

 (serving wench - in her goat-hair-collar overcoat. :-) 

Focus on the drapery, rather than the spinning wheel....

Figure Friday

Very chilly life drawing today!

This was compounded by us being locked out of our studio (batteries dead in the number-pad combo lock). There were at least a dozen of us milling around waiting for the master key to arrive...

We finally got in and got to draw our layered costume model.

Fun, albeit abbreviated session.....

Star Wars Exhibit - Part III

They had a number of costumes on display - especially from the original three movies -

Han Solo, in all his glory. It was fun to see all the detailing - there were metal boxes on his belt - what they heck were they supposed to be for? they don't open. Lots of pockets (also not used) in the vest. Riding gloves, scuffed boots, embroidered stripe down the side of the pants - fun.

The Princess Leia mannikin and outfit was *tiny* (as I'm sure Carrie Fisher was at that point). It was also amazingly simple - so credos to Fisher for how well she wore it! R2 was awesome.

The iconic Vader outfit! There were pictures of Samurai warrior outfits, which were the inspiration for the flared helmet and cape and some of the detailing. (There were also inexplicable parts - they look cool on screen I guess...?)

Yoda and Obi Wan (and the testing droid). The incredible details on Yoda were lifelike and convincing.

Probably my favorite costumes though were from these nearly incidental characters from the very first movie. At the time, they were so incredibly novel (shadowed monk hoods? glowy eyes??)-

-and reading about the decision making behind the Sand People outfits (they couldn't decide what they should actually look like, and in covering them completely, your imagination can come up with something way better than they could really show on screen) was fun. All those metal thingys on their head-pieces - eerie and memorable for sure!

Figure Friday -

 1 minute gestures...

 5 minute poses -

 10 minutes -

20 minutes and 40  minutes....

Halloween Saturday -

Today seemed a day full
of costumed people -

A friend of mine stopped by this afternoon to show me her fancy-schmancy new corset on the way to trick-or-treating -

Fairy niece #1 (shown next to fairy niece #2) had an Alice-in-Wonderland birthday-tea party of awesome (I hope to see more pictures!)

And the son - who is normally clean-cut and fairly conservative - decided to try the Emo-route for dressing-up for a party tonight...

(here with his Blue Man Group buddy....)

...until he had to dress up even *more* for a Day-of-the-Dead dance number later on in the evening... So many sides and faces...!

Where-ever you are, I hope you have some awesome dressing-up in your weekend. :-)

Figure Friday - "Cinderella"

It was draped-model week and our model brought a fabulously frothy costume ball-gown to wear..

Never mind drawing bodies! Just let me draw fru-fru-drapey-dresses!

5 minutes...

10 minutes....

20 minutes...

20 minutes...

40 minutes...

Ren Fair-ing - Part IV (Fairies)

Besides the medievally garbed, the pirates and the belly dancers, there always seems to be the inevitable contingent of winged-folk... (Most of which I had to photograph from behind - to get the best views of the winged-ness):

This elaborately appareled blue-fairy spent the bulk of the day making a trilling purring sound while handing people invisible fairy treasure and hoping for tips in return...??

OK - we now need the collective term for fairies - a swarm? flock? flight? glittering? dusting? - whatever it is, this was my favorite group of them - gingerly picking their barefoot way across the parking lot...

And these two little darlings - with matching dress, wings and hoodies! :-)

New to me this year were the morning-glory hats that many a little fairy was adorned with.

Of course there were the cortege of the darker, more goth variety...

...or the redder....more...redder? variety....

And yes, these would look totally smokin' on my dog!