Paper and Threads

The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York has a wonderful new exhibit (through May 27th) entitled Impressionism, Fashion, and Modernity.  The exhibit explores how the fashion of the time influenced the impressionist painters, in both portrait paintings (where presumably the subjects were wearing these clothes) and in paintings set in different venues.  There are many dresses, men's jackets and pants, and accessories. 

I sketched accessories - loving the composition of the corsets lined up on forms and items enclosed in one long glass case.

Yesterday Pat, Benedicte, and I met Gwen and Phil Diehn for brunch and a visit to the Frick Collection.  They currently have 7 Piero Della Francesca paintings (through May 19th) and 3 rooms of drawings:  The Impressionist Line from Degas to Toulouse-Lautrec.  All of the drawings are on loan from the Clark Art Institute (through June 16th).

There were at least a dozen that I wanted to draw, but finally chose Degas After the Bath - 1891-2.  I used a 2B graphite pencil and tried to replicate the heavier lines in the original.

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We had one male and one female model at the Society of Illustrators Sketch Night the last time that I attended.  I rarely get to sketch male models, and sketched him as much as possible.  Here are some of my drawings.

I'm still working in an 8.5 x 11 inch Sketch Book with a 9B pencil.  My drawings keep getting bigger, meaning that I rarely capture anything below the knees.  But my scanner limits the size paper I can post.  A dilemma!

Three 2 Minute Sketches:

One 5 Minute Sketch:

Two Ten Minute Sketches

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My friend Kathy made this cute little leather book for me and for the first time I have a sketchbook with me at all times.  The pages are 4.5 in high by 3 in wide.  I carry one ballpoint pen with the sketchbook and try to do quick sketches on the subway or bus.  The stops in the City are very close together so each sketch needs to be done in 1-2 minutes - or your subject gets off or is obscured by the arrival of new passengers.

Here are 8 recent drawings:

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It is time to practice drawing men's hands and faces.  I have photos clipped from magazines and use these for practice drawings.  Here are my drawings from this week.

I also like drawing faces quickly when I pause the TV.  Here are 3 done during the news Tuesday evening.

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I missed live figure drawing this month, but did a little practice anyway during quiet evenings.  I set the timer on posemaniacs.com for 90 sec and then sketched quickly to get a basic shape drawn with a watercolor pencil during that time.  These are a few that I did.

Portraits are still difficult for me - so I practice quick sketches on the bus or subway and when desperate for a model I sketch half a face from a photo.  I cut a face photo in half and then draw exacty what I see in the photo to complete the face.  I don't remember where I read about this xercise, but it's fun. 

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