Watts Atelier – Chris Beaven

Daily Art Struggle

Some days are easier than others when it comes to a daily art routine. The last couple days were a challenge to get in enough

John Asaro Planes of the Head Portrait Study

This exercise, which was suggested and taught by Jeff Watts in the Watts Atelier, centers around a mannequin head created by John Asaro called The Planes

Working on Fundamentals

It may seem tedious but these exercises have really done a lot to increase my dexterity with a charcoal pencil. It’s also quite sobering to

Robo Bean and Loomis Head Drawings

Things are starting to make since now. The repetition of these lessons are starting to stick in my head, and I must say they are

Gesture and Head Abstraction

These are not the most interesting work, most will be recycled as soon as I have a stack too big to deal with. Their purpose

Figure Study and Anatomy in Charcoal

All kinds of figure study drawing today. The female gestures went well, but the male gestures fell apart quickly. I need to do more work

Asaro, Gesture and Bean

Tonight I worked on the Asaro head in 3/4, from the Watts Atelier course. Then gesture and bean from the Proko course. Then I began

Asaro Head Study

Some days are better than others… But, I am not discouraged, I will be here tomorrow giving it my best.

Head Study: Asaro and Skull Anatomy

More study on the head. I started with the Asaro head then moved onto a skull drawing then working from reference to match the skull

Head Study: Asaro 3/4

Still working daily with the Watts Atelier course and I’m exposing tons of weaknesses daily, and it’s awesome. I think a lot of people would

Head Study

For today I did some review of fundamentals and worked on head studies.

Skulls and More Skulls 6

This was the last of the sheet of 9 skulls from Watts Atelier. I haven’t memorized any position of a skull yet, but this is

Skulls and More Skulls 5

I almost finished with the plate of 9 skulls today but it hit midnight before I finished the second one so I decided to work

Skulls and More Skulls 4

I’m almost through the page of nine skulls on the workbook and these last two were much easier. The views are from the back so

Skulls and More Skulls 3

I worked really hard tonight to try and commit this skull position to memory. I took me two hours just to work on these few

Skulls and More Skulls 2

Not much to say, I’m just trying to put in as much time as I can every day to memorize the skull in every position.

Skulls and More Skulls

Drawing skulls are much harder than I thought they would be, especially from memory. I really have to work 3 or more hours a day on

Skull 3/4

Strange that I find the 3/4 view of the skull harder than the frontal. I only worked an hour tonight, we had a bike ride

Skull Front

More work tonight with the skull and the Watts Atelier.

Flowers, China and Skull

Back to painting a bit today. I wanted to keep it mixed up a bit so I don’t get burnt out on drawing all the

More Skull Work

Working more on the skull tonight. I was very tired early on so I only worked for an hour.

Skull Work

Working hard with the Watts Atelier again tonight and it’s proving to be more challenging than I thought, again. Tonight is all about human skulls,

Fundamentals Review

Sometimes you just need someone knowledgeable in your field to tell you honestly that you will never achieve your goals if you continue on your current