Paper and Threads: Figure Drawing Archives

Art Goals for 2016

My main goal is to develop better drawing and painting skills on paper and with dye-painting and surface design on fabric. At the beginning of each year, I like to define new projects which will help me progress and then remain open to new opportunities.

1. Take Classes:

Studying Under the Masters 3: I really enjoy this online class and registered for it during 2015, even though I was saving the content for Winter 2016. In the weekly videos I learn more about specific artists I know and meet artists I don't know. And then I stretch my painting skills by copying a painting of the Master and subsequently using those techniques in an original painting! Since I convert my copies of masterworks from oil to watercolor for each artist studied, I also experiment and learn an enormous amount in the process. This is the last time this class series will be offered by Jeanne Oliver and the artists for this series include Horace Pippin, Joan Miro, Marie Laurencin, John Singer Sargent, Gustav Klimt, and Alisa Burke.

Sketchbook Skool Semester 5: I think Danny and Koosje have created a wonderful model for art education and a committed community of artists, new and old. I'm already registered for Semester 5 which is called "Expressing." And here's hoping there is a 6th Semester in 2016!

Craftsy: I just signed up for "Sketching the City in Pen, Ink, and Watercolor" by Shari Blaukopf.

Battery Park City Conservancy "Still Lifes and Figure Drawing" with Marla Lipkin a new 9 session class being offered this year locally in NYC from Feb. through March (9 sessions).

Fashion Institute of Technology (FIT): Registration for Spring isn't until the end of January, but I intend to continue taking classes there as long as their Senior Learner program is in existence.

2. Maintain a Community of Artist Friends:

It is impossible to attend all of the art activities scheduled in New York City, so my goal is to attend a minimum of one activity/week - Meetup, Urban Sketchers, Battery Park City (May-Oct), Society of Illustrators, and to add other museum and gallery visits with my friends into those days. I will also continue to post new entries to my blog twice each week to continue my interaction with and inspiration from artists online.

3. Bookbinding:

Continue to make my own sketchbooks - for daily drawings and for travel.

Create a tutorial for my pencil-pen pocket for sketchbooks.

Create another batch of paste paper for my stash.

4. Special Project: I also like to have one separate project each year. Several winters ago I sketched/elephants for a whole month using every medium I had. Another year I studied different methods for making books and made a different type of book each month for 8 months. This year I am trying to figure out how I can use some of the figure drawings I've accumulated during the last 5 years and transform them into an artist book. I already transferred images to fabric using a different method for each Quilt Journal Page (8.5 X 11") I created. Last year I made a small book of the Figures I drew in the Toulouse-Lautrec Café Society sessions at MoMA.

Here are the first 6 of the Quilt Journal Pages I made in 2012 using hand-dyed fabrics. I transferred drawings I made of a pregnant model at figure drawing in order to create this Mother and Child series in fabric.

Posted by Shirley at 6:30 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Reflections on Art in 2015

A Review of Art Experiences and Learning During 2015: A Progress Report

January 4th is the 10th anniversary of my blog and it is always a good time for reflection and planning.

Long Term Goals: Develop better drawing and painting skills on paper and with dye-painting and surface design on fabric.

1. Goal: To sketch and paint everyday, and to blog twice each week. These activities give my retirement life some structure and provide enormous inspiration within an artist community.

Progress: I no longer do quick sketches every day, but no week passes without me having several good drawing sessions. It was really important to me to sketch daily when I was beginning this journey as I prepared for retirement from medicine, but the habits were formed and now I can rarely pass a few days without some scribbles, if not a full sketchbook drawing/painting. My blog posts are important to me, and continue to give structure and meaning to my art adventure and posting twice each week is a great schedule.

2. Goal: Take more classes online and in person to remain inspired:

Progress: I participated in several online classes this year, just enough to be inspired on an almost weekly basis during some months: Studying Under the Masters 2, Sketchbook Skool Semester 4, and an assortment of Craftsy Classes. These included: Close-up Flowers in Watercolor (Nan Carey), Travel Sketching in Mixed Media and Sketching People in Motion (both Marc Taro Holmes), I also took a surface design class through Craftsy: Fabric Patterning with Wax Resist with Malka Dubrawsky.

Each semester, for 14 weeks, I took a class at Fashion Institute of Technology (FIT) and was lucky enough to register for Drawing and Watercolor classes in 2015. As with the other classes I've taken there on subjects about which I already have some knowledge and experience, I always learn something new. Our few drawing classes on perspective were excellent and our watercolor classes on different palettes and the use of Chinese White (with watercolor) and Black gesso (with gouache) as grounds were completely new to me.

3. Goal: Continue to draw and paint locally:

Progress: I belong to two Meetup groups and attend semi-regularly, schedule permitting: "Central Park Drawing and Art" and "Drawing New York." We have an NYC-Urban Sketchers Weekday Group, and that provides other opportunities for group inspiration and contact. Battery Park City Conservancy has weekly Nature Painting and Figure Drawing from May through October and I regularly participate in both the morning and afternoon sessions, weather permitting. This year I attended figure drawing at Society of Illustrators with two visitors, my dear friends Sara from Alabama and Casey from France, and a series of Toulouse-Lautrec Café Society Figure Drawing sessions at MoMA. And last, but not least, my very special days, spent with my artist friends Benedicte, Pat, and sometime Teri, means that we rarely miss the best museum and gallery shows in the City. I would feel very isolated without these special 3 friends and would have many fewer good laughs!

One of my favorite projects this year was participation in the 100 Day Challenge by Elle Luna and The Great Discontent. My goal, especially after taking Sketchbook Skool Semester 4, was to draw more from my imagination. I didn't upload my daily drawings to Instagram, or follow along with other people's projects, but once I committed to it, I was faithful to the project for all 100 days, and even created my little imaginary character Axel.

4. Goal: Make watercolor sketchbooks, for daily drawing and painting and travel:

Progress: I made cased-in watercolor books for my daily sketchbooks, accordion journals for our outdoor Urban Sketchers sessions, a travel sketchbook for our vacation in Spain from an old book of Spanish Drawings, and a summer travel sketchbook from a recycled book called Colors of the Sea. All of these are discussed and photographed in daily blog posts in my bookbinding category on the blog.

July was my big surface design month, during which I spent part of almost every day dying fabric, exploring new techniques, and creating dyed fabric for bookcloth. In the process I also made dye samples and created a unique sewing pattern for a pencil-pen pocket which goes around my sketchbook cover with Velcro. It is a wonderful convenience when I am sketching as I walk around museums and galleries.

Even Axel and his friend Alice made an appearance on fabric - using thick dye for the drawing and color.

This year I also planned to make another batch of paste paper to use for covering bookboards and/or as endpapers, but I didn't deplete as much of my stash as I thought I might.

I'd love to read what others are planning....

Posted by Shirley at 1:32 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Last FIT Watercolor Class

Last night was the final class of my Watercolor Class at Fashion Institute of Technology. My goal for this class was to finally spend time in a real class, instead of learning on my own, and to work bigger and looser. I have no interest in changing my main goal, which is to keep a watercolor sketchbook journal, but change and growth through a formal course can result in some changes to my pages. We learned about so many brushes, grounds, resists, and types of paint. We used Chinese White on white Illustration board and brown cardboard, and most recently gouache on black gesso, a fun technique which I still need to play with before posting my paintings. Our model last evening, the young man with the Mohawk, dressed crazy for Christmas! Here are two of my paintings and a drawing of Professor Martino as he was painting during our party.

From the other side of the room.

Posted by Shirley at 9:51 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Return to the Society of Illustrators

I love figure drawing sessions at the Society of Illustrators in New York City. It is a drop in program - 3 hours of drawing/painting two models who pose simultaneously. There is also live music and a bar to buy a glass of wine. From May through October I usually go to figure drawing weekly in Battery Park City - an outdoor venue that is hard to resist. But I used to go to Society of Illustrators faithfully once a month and this year my last visit was in June! On Tuesday night I went with my friend Casey who was visiting from France. I met Casey in 2007 through the Everyday Matters Yahoo Group and see her most often during NYC visits. The last time I saw her was a year ago in Paris.

One of the models was new to me and I found her short poses to be challenging and fun. Here are two of her two minute poses.

I sketched two 5 minute poses on the same large sheet of watercolor paper and then squeezed in another drawing. I love the challenge of trying to figure out the spacing and relationship among them. I used a sketch and wash pencil and shaded the figures with my waterbrush and clear water.

These are two of the 20 minute poses. I get bored easily, and probably finished these in 15 minutes and then looked over at the sketchpads of those sitting around me. We had a great evening and 19 sketches by the end! This page was too large for scanning, thus the gray-blue background from my camera.

Posted by Shirley at 9:47 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Deliberate Practice - Drawing Hands

I still clip photos from magazines and periodically select one for practice drawing hands. I've been doing this for a number of years. These are my last 3 sets of drawings. The last one has interlocking hands and that is my new focus. I keep hoping that this practice will make it easier to draw hands during longer poses at figure drawing, but it is a slow process.

These were all drawn with a watercolor pencil - but none of them were painted with water.