Paper and Threads

Joseph Cornell - detail from one of his 12 Boxes inspired by Juan Gris.  Not my favorite art, but I wanted to remember working in a series.

We wandered around trying to find a gallery that inspired all of us, and Pat suggested a random painting by Georges de la Tours, called the Fortune Teller.  We all picked one of the figures to draw. 

Here we are in front of the painting.  My sketchbook page is above.  On the photo below you can't see the sketches in Paula's or my sketchbook, so Pat just drew them in on her iPAD! 

Posted by Shirley at 8:07 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

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.

Posted by Shirley at 8:39 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

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.

Posted by Shirley at 7:15 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

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.

Posted by Shirley at 7:37 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

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.  

2

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. 

Posted by Shirley at 12:22 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)