Paper and Threads

Yesterday I went shopping with a very nice Mother's Day gift card.  I replenished some supplies, extended colors in some watercolor paints, and bought one new toy.  Since I have a lovely set of Albrecht Durer watercolor pencils that I bought from open stock over several years, I'm not sure how I will use these - but it is fun to play.  And I'm sure my grand daughter Sydney will help me.  I'd love to hear how others, who use both watercolor paint and pencils, use the crayons....

Posted by Shirley at 7:58 PM | Permalink | Comments (9)

I had a leisurely Mother's Day yesterday and then joined my NYC children and their spouses for dinner!  It was wonderful relaxing in my PJs all day.  When we returned from dinner, I decided to draw my art mannequin in pencil (look closely) and then dress her in my PJs to remember this lovely day.  

Posted by Shirley at 7:38 PM | Permalink | Comments (6)

Yesterday was our monthly Saturday Meet-up Central Park Drawing and Art Group - and we met at Columbus Circle.  It was a beautiful day but very windy.  My eye immediately went to these purple flowers.  I'll add several photos so I can get help identifying them.  The entire circle was surrounded by these long stem beauties.

We then moved into Central Park to the area around the childrens' playground and the big climbing rock.  It was much less windy and more pleasant for 30 minutes of sketching.  I chose to do a painting of the top of the GM building over the park trees. 

Finally we moved further into Central Park and climbed to the Chess and Checker House.  There were only a few people playing, I was sitting too close to this couple, so I have a semi-caricature because I couldn't really stare at them long enough to sketch anything accurately.

Posted by Shirley at 3:18 PM | Permalink | Comments (11)

This is a preliminary drawing that I did of an apartment building on the Upper Westside of Manhattan.  I promised a larger painting and just wanted to play with the angles and perspective in my sketch book.

I'd love some suggestions for mixing a really good dirty brick color.

Posted by Shirley at 7:55 PM | Permalink | Comments (8)

Some nights I am too tired and can't think of anything that I want to draw.  But I still want to make sure I do one quick sketch everyday, so I carefully draw a rubber band.  It is great for eye hand coordination and everyone is different!

We spent our usual 12 hours with 2 of our grandchildren yesterday - and our 8 month old is crawling and pulling himself up on all edges.  He's adorable, but the day is long.  We feel very fortunate to be able to be part of my son and daughter-in-law's childcare arrangements for one day each week and love being with the boys.  That is clearly a real benefit of living in the same town.

Posted by Shirley at 7:30 PM | Permalink | Comments (6)