Paper and Threads

We visited our youngest grand daughter, Annabelle, this past weekend and I added more pages to the watercolor journal I dedicated to our visits with her.  Previous pages are visible by clicking on the Washington DC category.

I rarely sketch my grandchildren because it never looks like them.  Annabelle is much cuter than I made her in this drawing.  The small sketch shows her running around the Natural History Museum with us on Friday.

Saturday we had breakfast at Eastern Market and enjoyed the many flower vendors - everything was so bright and fresh.

We then went to Oktoberfest on Barrack's Row, the highlight of which was the childrens' petting zoo.  There were two very small goats there with their Mother that all of the children loved. 

The goat on the left was drawn with a Pilot Varsity Pen, but the watercolor paper in the Cachet Linen Journal was too absorbent and it was difficult to wet the ink to shade the goat.  The one on the right was painted with a neutral gray watercolor wash.

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I was invited to applique a square for the Empire Quilt Guild 2011 Raffle Quilt.  All of the eighteen 11 inch squares are based on New York City subway mosaics and I was thrilled to be assigned the Chambers Street IRT mosaic of Kings College.  We are a Columbia University family and Kings College was the original college which became Columbia University after the Revolution.

I was gvien an applique pattern that was drafted from a photo in a NYC subway book, but decided that I wanted to make my own.  I photographed many of the mosaics which run along both the uptown and downtown platform walls trying to find one that wasn't too damaged by age.

I drew and painted the mosaic in my daily sketchbook, to try to familiarize myself with the complex design before making a new pattern and selecting fabrics.

I just completed the applique square - which required more time than any single 11 inch square I ever made - mostly because I decided that I wanted to applique every stone of the building on individually! 

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Three more journal pages to upload for this week:

On Saturday my husband and I took a wonderful long walk from Washington Square, through the West Village to Hudson River Park and then back again.  We stopped for a lovely, early dinner at Po's Restaurant on Cornelia Street.  The weather was so wonderful and the inspiration came from my new favorite NYC blog - Walking Off The Big Apple.  I could see this table and bouquet of flowers from my seat - just enough to sketch and paint it during dinner.

Monday we visited the Museum of Modern Art with friends and at the end of the afternoon I sat in the room with the new Monet Water Lily paintings and sketched a few of the people as they stopped in front of the paintings.  I had just enough time to make a quick sketch, so I decided to leave them unpainted and put the paint colors from some of Monet's paintings as the background. 

I stopped at Bryant Park yesterday to draw/paint the carousel horse that our grandson Callum rode on several weeks ago.  I had time before the New York Public Library opened and the carousel was not yet open for business.  Perfect timing!

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 I spend lots of time thinking about how to maintain a visual journal and some days my life is just too boring!  However, I was inspired yesterday to fill two sketchbook pages.  In the morning I returned to ballet class at Steps Boradway (Manhattan) for the first time in months.  Before I retired, I found it difficult to take class once each week, but now hope to have more flexibility in my schedule and MOTIVATION!  After class, while waiting to pick up our grandson from Nursery School, I sketched several dancers from the NYC Ballet Fall Season brochure.

We walked our grandson back from the Upper Westside to the Upper Eastside through Central Park and watched 9 huge turtles sunning themselve on rocks at the edge of the water at Turtle Pond.  During the remainder of the walk we collected leaves that we wanted to identify and two types of acorns and then had a painting session at home. 

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I retired on July 1st and last night finally went to my first Figure Drawing session.  If you follow this blog, you know that I was practicing for this moment by sketching figures as 90 sec. sketches of posemaniac images, or 5 minute figures from one of two nude figure photo books for artists that I bought.  I'm very glad that I did the prep work over the last several years because I never felt overwhelmed last evening.

I met my dear friend Istar at the Society for Illustrators so I would be with someone who knew the location and process.  The setting is lovely - very open space, live music, a small bar for a glass of wine during the 20 minute break, and hundreds of inspiring illustations lining the walls on all floors.  We had two models - one short and full figured, the other tall, thin, and beautifully coifed.  I frequently couldn't see below their ankles, but on the short poses, I didn't even have time to worry about it.   

The 3 hours flew by - and I did all 19 sketches - 2, 5, 10, and 20 minutes in length.  I'm just so thrilled to finally sketch live models that I'm uploading a total of 7 to this page.  All of the sketches were done with a Koh-i-noor Progresso 6B pencil  on 8 x 11" paper in a Working Class Studio, bound, sketchbook that I bought for half-price at Barnes and Noble.  I have no idea where I got the pencil, but it was smooth and wonderful on the paper. 

Two of Ten 2 minute sketches:

Two of four 5 minute sketches:

Both 10 minute sketches:

Two of three 20 minute sketches: 

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Today the group met at John Lennon's Strawberry Fields Imagine Mosaic and then walked to a rocky promontory on the Lake.  I stayed for 2 hours and did the following sketches - in bright sunshine.  It was a glorious day after a gray rainy Saturday

There were two turtles on a rock in the green-brown water - and I could just see their silhouettes.  In front of me, at the edge of the rocks were purple flowers that I had never seen before.  I spent most of the first hour watching for more turtles.

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Aprroximately 5 minutes before we met to share our sketchbooks, I quickly sketched and painted the lovely woman sketching in front of me. 

During the second hour, I moved to the other side of the rocks, faced south, and sketched the Central Park South skyline.  I was very happy that I brought my watercolor pencils with me to quickly block in the trees.

I'm really enjoying the Meetup Sketching sessions.  Although you can work on one thing for the entire time, the goal of the session is to sketch quickly in several different locations - which both sets parameters for space and time.  And it is so much fun to see the work of others - who may have had different tools and paper sizes, but had the same scene to observe and document that you did.

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National Academy Museum:  I visited the National Academy Museum for the first time this week to see the current exhibit "Reconfiguring the Body in American Art."  The Museum and School of Art are in a wonderful building on Museum Mile in New York City, just north of the Met and Guggenheim.  I loved this bronze sculpture and sketched it with a watercolor pencil. 

Cricket in Times Square:  Our oldest grandchild came for an overnight visit before starting school this week and we finished reading The Cricket in Times Square, by George Selden, a book from our library from his mother's childhood.  We read 1-2 chapters right before bed each time he stayed overnight and he remembered the characters and plot better than I did.  After he went to bed, I sketched the main characters, based on the illustrations by Garth Williams.  Henry loved seeing the journal page in the morning and suggested that I do another page inspired by the Goodby Party that ends the book!

Statue of Liberty:  We told Henry that he could choose what he wanted to do the following day and he requested a trip to the Statue of Liberty.  Like many New Yorkers, my husband and I had never been there.  We passed it on boats many times, but never landed on Liberty Island to see the Statue up close.   We had a fabulous time (in spite of long security check lines) - great boat rides to and from on the top deck, a visit to the Museum, a walk up 156 steps to the observation deck on the top of the pedestal, and a walk around the base.  We had 10 minutes before we caught the return boat and I sketched Lady Liberty very quickly and painted her at home.

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I continue to practice figure drawing even though I have yet to go to a Figure Drawing class.  There are many drop-in places in New York City, so I have no excuse now that I'm retired and have more time to just play!

In these two journal pages I sketched hands from ads in the New York Times Fashion Magazine and then started to work my way through photos showing American sign language letters.  The drawing was done with a watercolor pencil and then water was applied.

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