Paper and Threads

Demon from the Hours of Catherine of Cleves

2010-03-16T17:21:49Z

I went to the Morgan Library and Museum last week to see the current exhibits - and sketched a demon from the illuminated manuscript called the Hours of Catherine of Cleves (15th C.). It has a very interesting history and the borders on each page are amazing and never repeated. I sketched one of the demons (which appeared on the corner of the border of page 94 and was enlarged in a photograph as part of the exhibit.)

It is worth looking at the facsimiles on the webpage in my link to the exhibit just to see the quality of the painting and the brilliance of the colors.

Donna posted drawings today that she did with her new Pentel Pocket Brush Pen. I agree with everything she says about the pen and ...

I decided to upload this drawing today in order to demonstrate that on my Fabriano Artistico 140 lb soft press paper, the ink that comes in the cartridges with the Pental Pocket Brush Pen is watersoluble. The gray color of my demon is just ink pulled into the drawing with plain water. I allowed the ink to dry for 15-30 minutes before "painting it" with the water. I know that others don't have this problem, so I assume it is paper-dependent, since we have compared pen product numbers, etc, etc.

Bronzino Drawings at the Met

2010-03-13T02:07:26Z

I love the drawings of Agnolo Bronzino (1503-1572) and today joined my friend Melly at the Metropolitan Museum of Art to draw some of them for the second time. My first drawings were posted here. The exhibit ends April 18th. so I will even have time to return for more. All of the drawings were done with a Caran d'Ache aquarelle pencil (Mahogany).

Study for his painting Jealousy - and for me More Hand Drawing Practice:

Head of a Young Woman - and for me the challenge was getting the correct angle for the head:

Study of Crossed Legs - and for me lots of crosshatching for shading

Figure Drawing at the Society of Illustrators

2010-03-11T01:30:37Z

Last night was my monthly session at figure drawing. Since they are held twice each week, I can usually find at least one night to go each month. The format remains the same - two models in ten 2 minute poses, four 5 minute poses, two 10 minute poses, and three 20 minute poses while sketching with wine and live jazz. I sat in a different area of the room last night and wrestled with the angle during most of the 2 minute poses. Here are a few from the 5, 10, and 20 minute poses. I'm still sketching with plain graphite.

5 minutes:

5 Minutes:

10 Minutes:

20 Minutes:

Drawing Hands

2010-03-08T15:59:46Z

We took our 6 year old grandson Henry to the 3rd Young People's Concert in this year's series at the New York Philharmonic and a fabulous Spanish guitarist was the soloist with the orchestra. We were sitting too far away for me to see his hands, so I sketched him from one of his website photos for my daily sketch. His hands really were in that position, but it reminded me that I need lots more practice drawing hands. I am slowly drawing each letter from photos on an American Sign Language website and I decided that it was time for J and K. Pablo Saenz Villegas was drawn with my water-soluble Pilot Varsity pen and then brushed with water.

American Sign Language letters - drawn with a watercolor pencil from photos on a website.

More Pentel Pocket Brush Pen Practice

2010-03-01T21:00:11Z

Even though I appear to have the same pen as other members of EDM, my pen ink runs when I add a watercolor wash. These two drawings dried for 15 and 30 minutes respectively and you can still see where my wet brush touched the ink. It might be due to the Fabriano soft press paper that I use, but since I don't plan to change paper, or the way I work with ink and watercolor, I will just have to accept this!

Drawn from a book of Picasso "One Liners"

Drawn by pausing the fantastic polar bear video that was shown during the Olympics.

Winter Olympics and Challenge 261

2010-02-27T14:01:43Z

I love watching the Winter Olympics and spent large blocks of time glued to the coverage. Probably because of my lifelong interest in dance, and specifically ballet, figure skating is one of my very favorite events. As I was getting ready to watch the Women's Short Program, I was surfing the NBC Olympic website and found this photo of Mirai Nagasu. I fell in love with this perky, skilled, 16 year old while watching her skate at Nationals several weeks before. Although she was being considered the US hope for the future, she appeared to be in a group with other world class skaters already. I loved the entire coverage of the Women's event and have never been so impressed as I was with Kim Yu-Na's free skate on Thursday evening. But I was even more thrilled that Mirai finished in 4th place!!

My Third Watercolor Journal with Dye Painted Book Cloth

2010-02-22T15:19:49Z

I made my 3rd watercolor journal with another piece of fabric that I dye-painted - this time striped using corn dextrin resist with procion MX dyes. This is a 6 X 8" watercolor journal containing Fabriano Artistico 140 lb Soft Press paper - 6 signatures with 2 folios each. The bookcloth was prepared by fusing my fabric to Thai mulberry paper using Wonder Under - see more about the method here.

I used color-coordinated MiTientes paper as end papers.

There is still one more piece of fabric that I made in this first batch, and since I'm now using a big roll of Fabriano Artistico paper, I will make a 4th book to gain more experience handling the big pieces of paper instead of the usual 22 X 30 inch sheets. There are 48 single pages in each book so will have enough watercolor journals on my shelf to last 5-6 months!

EDM Challenges #258-261

2010-02-20T14:00:06Z

I still enjoy completing the EDM Challenges because they take me out of my comfort zone and help me decide what I should draw/paint for at least one of my daily sketches each week. However, I regularly complete them 1-2 weeks after the challenge was published, as I try to settle on a specific image. This time it was Challenge # 259: Draw a view from your pet's perspective. We don't have a pet!

Challenge #258: Draw your closet

I sketched one half of my clothes closet. We live in an apartment building in New York City - with the types of closets that were popular in 1926, i.e. no walk-in closets. However, we are luckier than one of our sons who lives in a house from the late 1800s in Capitol Hill, Washington DC. They have only a single closet in the original house and rely on armoires as in the past. Here is my sliding door clothes closet (part of a post-1926 renovation), with only half exposed.

Challenge #259: Draw a view from your pet's perspective.

Although we don't have pets, I realized that my 5 month old grandson spends his days being moved from one place to another by the grown-ups in his life. And he has a limited view from some of these spots, much like a pet. It took me longest to decide how to answer this challenge. Here is 5 month old Zachary's aquarium view when he is in his bouncey seat.

Challenge #260: Draw your suitcase packed for a trip

This is my small suitcase that I take away for short train or car trips, but it is not yet packed for my March trip to Washington DC.

Challenge #261: Draw an Olympic Event

Although the ice skating events are my favorite, I really love the "soaring" ski jumpers, with their extremely clean lines.

The Drawings of Bronzino

2010-02-16T19:57:47Z

I just came back from a morning at the Metropolitan Museum of Art - wandering and drawing in the current exhibit of drawings by Agnolo Bronzino (1503-1572). The exhibit, which is believed to contain nearly all known drawings by or attributed to this Florentine artist, is wonderful for anyone who loves drawing figures. Since I have so much trouble drawing hands and feet, I sketched from those drawings to day - and imagine that I will return for two more days before April 18th, one for faces and one for nude figures.

Here are two pages - four sketches that I did with a watercolor pencil, although no water was added.

The last time that I was so excited by figure drawings was when I first saw drawings by Il Guercino (Giovan Francesco Barbieri called Guercino) at the Courtauld Gallery in London. I remembered that he was also an Italian artist, but when I looked him up he was born almost 20 years after Bronzino died - and was from the Bolognese school.

Sketches that I made from Guercino drawings can be seen here and here. You may need to scroll down since both previous blog entries contain several drawings.

More Bookbinding Adventures

2010-02-12T19:57:00Z

I just finished making my second watercolor journal using book cloth that I made from dye painted fabric (procion MX dyes and corn dextrin resist). The first one can be seen here. This 6 X 8"book is made using 140 lb Fabriano soft press watercolor paper and consists of 6 signatures with two folios in each. I'm thrilled to complete another one.

The Book Cover - made with blue and purple dyes.

The End Papers

Australian Reversed Piano Hinge Journal

I made a second watercolor journal this week - using Gwen Diehn's instructions for a sketchbook with removeable pages. EDM Members can access these instructions in a file on the message board. This looked like a fun technique to know - even though I like working in journals that can be numbered and stored on a shelf.

Exterior of 5 X 7.5" Book: Made with Fabriano Artistico (8 folios in 4 signatures) and TexLibris bookcloth.

Open Book - showing the spine: The watercolor paper was used as end papers to insert the page block into the cover, so only one of the folios in each of those two signatures are removeable.

The Concertina and Flat Hinge:

There is supposed to be a peper hinge which goes through the concertina tunnels to hold each folio in place. I just happened to be in the New York Garment District, and saw the perfect size "bones" to use instead. Here is a photo showing the bone passing through 3 concertina tunnels and fixing the folio. Each folio makes 4 pages in the book.

More Pentel Pocket Brush Pen Practice

2010-02-10T15:46:19Z

My opinion of this pen is still open, I find it impossible to draw with but easier to use after I have done a quick pencil sketch. So in my daily sketches, I'm trying to periodically use it instead of the Sakura Pigma Micron or Zig Millenium pens.

I copied another Rembrandt drawing, in pencil first, because he achieves so many line widths in his drawings. My biggest discovery was - this is watersoluble ink in the Pentel pen. So now I know it will never be my regular pen for pen, ink, and watercolor wash drawings.

I then decided to use it on one of my own sketches, instead of practicing from Rembrandt. While my baby grandson was asleep I sketched the top of the NYC Soldiers and Sailors monument - which can be seen out of my son's apartment window. Zachary is a master of 30 minute naps, so I knew that I had limited time to do the pencil sketch and then complete it with the Pentel pen. It was fast, loose, and fun. But I had to be very careful adding a little watercolor because the ink is not permanent.

Our Meetup Drawing Group - Feb 6th

2010-02-08T00:29:32Z

Although our monthly Meetup Group is for Drawing in Central Park, cold weather necessitates other venues - usually museums. Yesterday however, we had a figure drawing session, my second of the week. I'm just uploading the first 4 poses - three 5 minute poses and one 10 minute pose. I stayed for 3 hours and everyone was still drawing!

Two five minute poses - two models

One 5 minute and one 10 minute pose - two models, The mark in the middle of the second models back was a tatoo.

New York City missed the big snow storm on Saturday, but another one is coming midweek. This morning the wind chill was 0 in the City and I just wanted to stay in and sew and read.

Figure Drawing Night at the Society of Illustrators

2010-02-03T20:29:11Z

I thoroughly enjoy my monthly figure drawing sessions - and last evening one of the two models was the lovely pregnant woman from my last session. The fast, i.e. 2 minute and 5 minute sketches are the most fun for me, probably because I get bored during the 20 minute poses when I think I should add faces and hands. Feet are rarely an option because I can't see them from where I sit.

2 minute Pose

2 Minute Pose Left and 5 Minute Pose Right

5 Minute Pose

5 Minute Pose Left and 10 Minute Pose Right

I realized that I chose to upload only the drawings that I did of the pregnant model. (there are always 19 total) She is just glowing - with a beautiful calm face and lovely smile.

Practice Pages

2010-01-29T23:39:56Z

Several practice journal pages from this week:

I am having trouble getting used to the Pentel Pocket Brush Pen and decided that I should sketch a few Rembrandt drawings in pencil and then quickly draw them with the Pentel. I wish that I could control it better, but here they are for all to see. I tried to copy line for line from the Master from his very quick sketches.

I really liked the exercise described by Joanne last week on the EDM Message Board and finally found a full frontal magazine ad. My favorite drawing pencil is a Mahogany color watercolor pencil and unfortunately it doesn't scan very well. But I was pleased with the exercise and will continue to look for more photos.

EDM Challenges #255-257

2010-01-26T18:58:57Z

I haven't scanned the last 3 EDM challenges, yet.

EDM Challenge #255: Draw the Person Sitting Next to You on Bus, Train, Airplane

The best I could do was to draw the person sitting across from me, at the Society of Illustrators, waiting for the live figure drawing session to begin. He was reading and therefore didn't know I quickly sketched him.

EDM Challenge #256: Draw Something Bubbly

There was a huge Kandinsky exhibit at the Guggenheim, and I was inspired by one of his paintings to draw these bubbly-looking circles.

EDM Challenge # 257: Draw a Houseplant

This bamboo plant was a gift from students to my husband, and I'm amazed at how big these plants can grow from this tiny ceramic container and only water.