Paper and Threads

After weeks away from Figure Drawing, I returned to Figure Al Fresco at Battery Park City, and we had a wonderful, new young model.  These are my 4 five minute drawings - drawn with a General Sketch and Wash pencil which I spread with a waterbrush to obtain the gray color.

During a break after this 10 minute pose, our model told us that she teaches figure drawing, and likes to throw in a few poses requiring us to draw with foreshortening.

These drawings were bigger than my scanner and were photographed. 

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Direct Painting for 30 X 30 Urban Sketchers June Challenge:  Last summer I took a 3 hour workshop from Urban Sketcher Anne Watkins.  I love her style of painting random people, especially those that she does onsite at Weddings.  https://annewatkins.com/about.html

This image seemed perfect for the day after we left Martha's Vineyard.  It was painted from an image that I previously sketched from a photo, and the only pen work was the tie on the sun hat.  I'm not sure that I will ever acquire the skills to do paintings like this live.

Sketchbook Page:  In order to do every day of the challenge I had to sometimes do 2,3, or 4 direct paintings on one page of my Teesha Moore 16 page watercolor sketchbook.  I marked off the areas with 1/4" artists tape before I painted.  The flower and razor clam were painted from direct observation.  The blue jay was painted from a photo I took of a wooden sculpture.

I still need to do a painting for June 30th to finish my book and the challenge, but we arrived home from vacation to a full schedule of grandchildren and it takes me longer to do a direct painting, than with pen, ink, and watercolor washes.  

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I love to draw figures, and gravitate to drawings and paintings of Masters to practice my skills when I'm at museum and gallery exhibits.  I saw a huge sumi ink and collage painting on paper by Kara Walker at MoMA this week.  It measured approximately 12 X 18 feet in size, and contained 80 heads and figures.  It is called Christ's Entry into Journalism (2017), and was inspired by slavery and misogyny, chronicling American racial history.  I sketched her Confederate soldier.  Exhibit ends June 22nd.

There is a new, exhausting exhibit of Giacometti's sculptures and paintings at the Guggenheim Museum NYC.  Unlike a previous sculpture exhibit by David Smith at the Guggenheim, and Picasso at MoMA, there is enormous repetition of similar pieces in this exhibit.  But I like Giacometti's art and specifically liked this table top sculpture of 3 figures.  I would find a place for it if someone wanted to give it to us!

Line of Action Drawings:  I watched a free Craftsy Class by Suhita Shirodkar called "Figure Drawing Made Simple" last Labor Day, and started to draw figures on 1/4th sheets of used copy paper to practice the technique.  It has now become a habit for me  to draw figures from magazines/catalogues after breakfast each morning.   I did them with my non-dominant hand while my cast was on - and now continue.  The following drawings were done after my cast was removed, with my dominant drawing hand.

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We were shocked to find a shark on the beach during our morning walk.  I still need to use the shark identification algorithm to figure out what type of shark it was.  The week we arrived we saw a big seal on the same beach, and we found out very quickly that it wasn't dead!  But the beach had very few shells or other interesting marine life.   

The one shell I did find was the gorgeous deep sea scallop shell - my 6th in 11 years. 

I am participating in the Urban Sketchers 30 X 30 challenge and painted this sea gull by its shapes - no lines.  I have a separate sketchbook for those daily paintings, and I will post some as the month progresses.  I think in lines, and not shapes, so this is a good learning experience for me.  

I'm still also doing really fast line of action figure drawings - pencil to make the line of action and pen for the drawing.  These were the beach type ads in the magazines I saw, love these quick sketches for figure drawing practice.  I sketched them on scrap paper and collaged them on one of my sketchbook pages.

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This was our 2nd Battery Park City Figure Al Fresco session for 2018, and I had one more page left in my Non-Dominant Hand Sketchbook.  My plan was to draw with my non-dominant right hand, scan and resize the image, and collage it onto that last page.  I had 2 Sketch and Wash Pencils and my waterbrush in my left hand, when the model began his 2 minute warm up poses, and without realizing it, I sketched him with my dominant left hand without even realizing it!  I was both happy and sad - happy that I could comfortably use my injured wrist for drawing, and sorry that my enforced challenge with my other hand could be ending. 

Five Minute Pose

Ten Minute Poses:

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