1. BREADTH
Headless
Character Study
Scale
Space
Proportion

2. Looking at these paintings is like staring through a foggy window on a rainy day. Soft emotion in blurry form pours out of these feminine portraits by artist Mark Demsteader.

3. The Manchester-based contemporary figurative artist is a self-taught master of the human form. His oil on canvas pieces feature pale figures set against a dark background. The dramatic contrast produces an elegant beauty that has captivated his audience in recent years. According to his bio, "His powerful depictions of the female form in clean assured lines of charcoal and gouache have sparked a renaissance of interest in traditional life drawing."

4. For her 21st birthday, Emma Watson contacted Demsteader to purchase some of his work. To continue developing his extensive collection, the artist took advantage of the opportunity and asked Watson to pose for him. He created 34 portraits, a series simply titled Emma. When speaking about the collaboration, Demsteader said, "In some way I hope these works celebrate Emma in what she has achieved already, and in all the many possibilities to come.”

5. Gregory Eltringham (b. Hartford, Connecticut, and resides in Savannah, Georgia) graduated from the Art Institute of Boston, received a BA from Northeastern University, and an MFA in Painting from the Savannah College of Art & Design. He taught in Florida and Missouri for fifteen years before moving back to Savannah in 2005, where he is currently Professor of Painting at the Savannah College of Art and Design.

6. Over the past two decades the figure has served as a vehicle of continuous investigation in Eltringham’s studio practice, and the work has always been closely tied to personal experiences. His current production is organized around a variety of motifs addressing specific conceptual concerns including issues of gender, location, identity, and transformation. The work comments and reflects on social dynamics, questionable behavior, habitation, and the limits of personal comfort.

7. The overall practice continues to engage with the legacy and relevance of painting, positioning in relation to historic models with awareness of the current time and circumstances. Eltringham continues to question the current dialog regarding painting not being able to express the moment. He states, “I understand the argument, but I don’t buy it.”

8. Which body part will serve as a metaphor for you?
Begin by filling a page of your sketchbook with an inventory of every possible body part you can think of – from legs to perspiration to, yes, even the soul.
Expand this list by looking through anatomy books, fashion magazines, printouts, etc. and finding images of the human body.
Choose a body part that you think will be the best metaphor for you.
Begin to draw a self portrait that does not show your head but tells something significant about yourself through the depiction of another part of the body.

9. Requirements Use a full sheet of drawing paper.
Use a drawing media of your choice.
Pencil
Charcoal
Colored Pencil
Pastels
Oil Pastels
Etc.
Fill the entire space of the drawing paper.
Don’t draw something tiny with a lot of white space around it.
Allow your drawing to go off the edges of the paper.
Finish the drawing.
Make sure the drawing LOOKS complete and neatly done.

10. Discussion: