Autumn 2023 Teaser (Patreon)

Back in 2022 we asked all of you lovely lot what you'd like to see in future artists' reference photosets. Every one of your suggestions were put on a long list on my studio wall and we've been gradually working our way through them, planning in shoots which combine those initial ideas with our own ideas and throwing each new suggestion we receive into the mix. After a successful collaboration with Justyna Neryng this year we asked her to shoot some themed photosets that bring some of your ideas to life, with our own little twists thrown in. Special thanks to @something_temp for being particularly forthcoming with inspiration for us! Last week we gathered our reference images for the rest of the year in an intense week of photographing and editing at both the Draw studio in Brighton, Justyna's home studio and my studio here in Wales. The sets are organised into a themed series: Bubble-gum Bouguereau, a series of tonal portraits and a one-off Halloween special titled Somnambulist. You'll find a bit more about each set below, three preview images from each set to work from and a full release schedule with details of the tiers that they'll be released to. Thank you to our 9 brilliant models, to Lance for managing models, Tobias for taking care of the lighting and to Justyna for shooting and editing such inspiring material for us to work from! Here is a bit more information about the soon-to-be-released sets:

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Imagine imagine a teen high school movie directed by the French realist painter William-Adolphe Bouguereau with the classical/modern crossovers of Clare Partington’s ceramics and the dramatic multi-figure compositions of Pascal Möhlmann: that's our Bubble-gum Bouguereau photo-series. While Bouguereau often tackled grand mythological subjects, this series of art-reference presents an affectionate caricature of the small dramas of close friendship with stylised, tightly composed group poses, a soft palette of pale blues & pinks and a focus on hand gestures, gazes & facial expressions. Esme Anderson, Francesca Cluney & Priss Nash have posed for the solo, duo and trio photos, all set in front of skies shot by Justyna's in a recent trip to New Zealand - a subtle reference to the staged cloudscape backgrounds typical of our titular painter. (ps. I found THIS helpful for pronouncing Bouguereau)

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In this Halloween special we leant heavily into the clichés of camp vampire horror movies with the undeniably vampiric Ellie P. in the role of the fanged protagonist and Lilith in uncharacteristically swooning character.

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Released in-between our themed sets we have a series of tonal portraits portraits from stalwarts of the Draw studio like Jade, Lilith, Arthur and Tendai. We're also delighted to welcome musical and model Adam Kryon to the Draw Patreon - like all of our core model's he'll be joining the 50 other models who support their other creative work with a monthly royalty from your gratefully received Patreon support. These photo sets were designed to accompany the tonal section of our Portrait Drawing course which resumes in mid-September after a summer hiatus, using a single light source to provide clear tonal reference to draw from.

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How to use the photosets

For new Patreon supporters who might not be familiar with our previous thematic shoots you might want to have a look back at Laura Ryan's phenomenal Lemonade photosets and Jade Hylton's Drawversity reference image sets, both shot by Olly Hersey at The Brighton Studio. You can use these photos to create any work that you like - you don't have to stay try to the colour schemes or cropping of the images so let your imagination run wild!

Happy drawing,

Jake

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Autumn 2023 release dates:

Sept

• Bubble-gum Bouguereau: Bubblegum (Priss) - Fri 8th (Life/Student Tier)
• Portrait Photo-set: Arthur - Fri 15th  (Portrait/Life/Student Tier)
• Bubble-gum Bouguereau: Selfie (Esme & Frankie) - Fri 22nd (Life/Student Tier)
• Bubble-gum Bouguereau: Insta (Frankie) - Fri 29th (Portrait/Life/Student Tier)

Oct

• Portrait Photo-set: Adam - Fri 6th (All Tiers)
• Bubble-gum Bouguereau: Sing Along (Esme & Priss) - Fri 13th  (Life/Student Tier)
• Bubble-gum Bouguereau: OutFit (Esme) - Fri 20th (Life/Student Tier)
• Halloween Special: Somnambulist - Fri 27th (Portrait/Life/Student Tier)

Nov

• Bubble-gum Bouguereau: Clothes Swap (Priss & Frankie) - Fri 3rd (All Tiers)
• Portrait Photo-set: Lilith - Fri 10th (Portrait/Life/Student Tier)
• Portrait Photo-set: Jade - Fri 17th (Portrait/Life/Student Tier)
• Bubble-gum Bouguereau: Trio (Esme, Priss & Frankie) - Fri 24th (Life/Student Tier)

December

• Portrait Photo-set: Tendai - Fri 1st Dec (Portrait/Life/Student Tier)
• Winter '23 Teaser - Fri 8th (All Tiers)

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Use the Draw Patreon Navigator to find any of our past photosets and take a look at our blogs on how to gather, manipulate and translate photo reference.

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Guidelines for using the photographs

Please do:

• Download these pictures to your own computers and devices, downloading the Zip files for all images, or saving individual photos.
• Use the pictures to draw, paint, print and sculpt from, being as realistic or creative as you like
• Share the artwork you’ve made with us and the world - in books, in exhibitions, on social media, or on your fridge
• Tag us in work you make (@drawbrighton / #drawbrighton) – you don’t have to, but we love to see what you’ve made!
• Edit the photo files as reference for your own drawings - you can change the contrasts, colours and backgrounds to provide more tailored reference for yourself.

Please don't:

• Share these pictures with anybody else – they are between you and us
• Share the photos themselves online – thanks for respecting our models’ privacy
• Edit the photo files themselves for artwork – we want to see original work you’ve made

Thanks!