Paper and Threads

We began taking our Grandchildren to the Young People's Concerts 8 years ago.  There are 4 concerts per year, and before the 1 hour concert, they have a 30 minute presentation called the Young Composers Concert.  Three children from this city-wide music program are selected to have members of the Philharmonic play their short compositions.  Here is a quick drawing of the head of the program, John Deake, and the trumpet player.

I debate about adding this type of sketchbook page to the Urban Sketchers Facebook Page, but thought this was a good advertisement for an amazing opportunity for kids in our urban city.

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My daughter had a baby in London in 2006  Several months later we saw a Courtauld Gallery exhibit called "Mind to Paper."  I fell in love with this Baroque Italian artist called IL Guercino, the "squinter" because he had a crossed eye.   I loved his drawings and to remember Callum's birth, I sketched Guercino's drawing called "Mother and Child" in my London sketchbook. 

I paired it in my sketchbook with Cal's birth announcement and photo and those pages always make me smile.  

During Master Drawing Week this year I found 6-8 Guercino drawings spread among several exhibits.  I copied the drawing at W.M. Brady and Co gallery, which was my favorite.  The gallery staff told me that it seems to be preparatory drawing for his painting of "Joseph and Potiphar's wife" at the National Gallery in Washington DC.  Maybe if I continue to copy his drawings when I see them, I can develop a little of his style.

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Dance is my one lifelong physical activity, and loving to take ballet class also means loving to watch ballet.  For the last 3 years my husband and I go to working rehearsals, orchestra rehearsals, lecture demos, and occasional dress rehearsals of the New York City Ballet.  Last week we went 3 days - and these are the 2 sketchbook pages that I created from scribbles before the lights went down.  The dancers move so fast that is almost impossible to capture their movements, but I try to remember at least one pose at a time.

2.

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I love figure drawing and look for any opportunities to practice drawing hands and feet.  Deliberate Practice is one way for me to do that - saving images whenever possible just to draw both, and hope that this practice will carry over to times when I'm drawing live figures from observation.  This month I decided that I need to search my reference photos, clipped usually from ads in magazines, to draw some more feet.

If anyone has a good photo source for feet photographs, I'd love to get the link.  Here are feet from the only two ads I had, and one drawing of two hands together - another one of my goals.  

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Two Hands Together - one in an ongoing series of my practice drawings - moving from single hands to two.

More about Deliberate Practice:

In his best-selling book “Talent is Overrated,” author Geoff Colvin writes about the concept of deliberate practice and how by adhering to this principle, the practitioner can attain expertise far more rapidly than they could through repetitive methods of practice that focus on already sharpened skills.  From Huffington Post The Blog 05/24/2016

Here is another link discussing the definition - and since I don't have someone critique my efforts, I may or may not be using the concept correctly.  https://3starlearningexperiences.wordpress.com/2016/06/21/370/ 

But it works for me - VERY slow progress has been made. 

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The NYC Urban Sketchers met on Wednesday this past week in order to draw the Christmas Tree in the Medieval Hall  at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.  The ornaments were made in Italy and are ceramic and fabric, with lush silks for garments.  We listened to wonderful choral music while we sketched.  Unfortunately you can't get close enough to the tree for detailed drawings of the angels, but can see all of the sculptures around the base of the tree slightly better. 

This sketchbook page is a painting of one angel and a few of the figures around the base. 

Photo of the Tree

Some of the Urban Sketchers at the back of the tree - busy drawing. 

After drawing at the Tree, I went upstairs to the Auguste Rodin exhibit and painted a sculpture by his mistress and muse, Camille Claudel.  There are so many small Rodin scultures in this exhibit, that I hope that I have time to sketch more before it closes on January 15th.

Rodin Exhibit:  "The Implorer" by Camille Claudel  Cast in 1905

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