Artist Study: Claire Wendling (Patreon)

In this new addition to the Gillian Gestures Patreon, we will be taking a deep dive into the work of master artists.

Artists have been doing artists studies for all of time. All the way back to the olden days, artists looked into each other's work not just for inspiration but for drawing gold!

Sure, we can just go on and on forever, only drawing our own thing without every really looking at other people's work or we can scroll through social media and consume lots of artwork at a glance, give it a like and keep on scrolling.

Or we can take an afternoon, sit down with a good art book and really look at what other artists are doing. There is a wealth of knowledge to be gained by doing this practise.

It is more that just copying their work, it’s taking the time to draw from and try to get into the head of the artist, as much as possible to see new ways of thinking.

This month, we will be looking at the fabulous work of Claire Wendling

I first came to learn of her work at Annecy. Every summer while I was a University, my whole animation program would book a trip to Annecy Animation Festival in France.

If you’ve ever been, you know what a wonderful festival it was. The best part, aside from the lake, the gelato, the paper airplanes and les LAPINS, was the book store. It held an amazing collection or European art books that you just didn't see anywhere else at that time.

This was where I first discovered Wendling's work.

Recently, I had to give away A LOT of art books that I had in storage in the UK that I just couldn’t bring back to Canada. I gave away 3 or 4 of her books but I did keep one, called Daisies.

It's a massive book, with just the most breathtaking figurative and animals sketches inside. I've been using it mostly as a decoration in my basement for the last few years, but I recently took if off the shelf and began to really look at her artwork.

In the video I am using Claire's work as an example of how to really look at an artist's work, analyse it and play with some of the ideas you find along the way.

What artists would be good to do an artist study of? Comment below!

- GG

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Below: a gesture influenced by my Claire Wendling Study.

• Boxy Hips
• More line variation
• Hatching
• Softer forms
• An attempt at hands - need more practise!

I drew every big hand I could in the book! I feel more informed now, looking forward to doing my next gesture drawings.

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Claire Wendling:

Instagram

Books