Paper and Threads

I wanted to take an online class in January, when I spend more time at home and more time inside.  Since I am still working through Carla Sonheims 100 Faces project, and I'd love to be more comfortable with Mixed Media/Collage, I signed up for Jane Davies Self-Portrait class.

Today I finished four 9X12 journal pages (90 lb watercolor paper in a Strathmore Visual Journal).  The basis of each were grayscale enlarged photos of me - taken randomly with hair up and hair down.  The goal for this week was to start us working with images of our faces, loosely, in ways that force us to abstract some of the lines and  experiment with paint, ink, color, and collage.

The first 3 images were drawn and then painted +/- collage on top.

The blue paper used for collage in the above self-portrait was made with soy wax on paper and acrylic paint.

The 4th image was traced on artist tissue paper and then collaged over a painted/collaged background.

Looking forward to our week 2 lesson tomorrow! 

Posted by Shirley at 3:23 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

I sketched today during a Gallery Talk on Rembrandt and Vermeer at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. 

Last January I outlined my art goals for 2011 - just to have a map to guide me through the days.  I maintain a sketchbook for pleasure and get joy from recording the little things in my current life.   No one is monitoring my progress, but I still like to reflect on how I spent my time, so I can make plans for 2012.  Here is my progress on 5 goals.

 1.  Continue to work on drawing skills with daily drawings and monthly live figure drawing. 

I averaged more than one sketch per day for the full year, and went to figure drawing monthly at the Society of Illustrators.  I also went to figure drawing at the Battery Park City summer program for the first time.  Although I want to eventually try using just a brush and watercolor to "draw" figures, I stretched a little and sketched figures, during the 20 minute poses, with a watercolor pencil and then water to shade the figures. 

I'm working on a 100 Faces project from Carla Sonheim's Drawing Lab book and added 33 portraits - drawing from live people who usually didn't know they were being sketched.  I now have almost 70 done.  And I even tried sketching portraits of my mother and a few grandchildren, although I still struggle trying to schieve a likeness of their faces.

2.  Continue to work on watercolor painting skills.

I'm not sure that I'm making progress although I am trying to increase my range of values.   And I'm using watercolor pencils more in my daily sketches, especially when I'm sketching faces on subways and buses.

3.  Continue making my daily watercolor sketchbooks and expand my bookbinding skills.

I made and used 7 watercolor sketchbooks and one recycled watercolor book during the year and now I'm working on an artist's book -  collaging, drawing, and painting Christmas ornaments that I made over the last 30+ years to document my collection. 

4.  Continue education through on line classes, workshops, and directed reading.

Participated in the three 2011 Strathmore online workshops.

Took an online mini-class with Kate Johnson on watercolor pencils

Took an online class with Mary Ann Moss to make a "Remains of the Day" journal and then slowly filled it over the entire year.

Took a class with Judy Coates Perez at Quilt Festival, painting and drawing on fabric with Tsukineko inks.

Worked through several DVDs on Art Journals, Read Cathy Johnson's Artist's Journal Workshop twice, Reread Twyla Tharp's The Creative Habit, Read Eric Maisel's Coaching the Artist Within and Peter Steinhart's The Undressed Art or Why We Draw.

5.  Enjoy and nurture connections to the art community. 

I blogged 8-9 times per month (2X/wk), met regularly with members of my Journal Study Group to visit museum exhibits, go on sketchcrawls, and "make art" together, attended 8 Central Park Sketching and Art Meetup Group sessions, and followed Everyday Matters (Yahoo Group) and many art blogs for inspiration and contact with the broader community.

I'm am thoroughly enjoying my retirement and I'm thrilled that I found another passion to add to my other lifelong interests.  My blog will be 6 years old next week and hopefully I will make some plans for 2012 by then. 

Posted by Shirley at 4:13 PM | Permalink | Comments (5)

 I'm still not brave enough to "draw" a figure with my paintbrush.  Oh well!  This can be one of my goals for 2012.

Here are 6 drawings from the 18 I did last evening.  I don't like the specific male model who posed last night, so all of my drawings were done of the woman model. 

Two minute pose:  9B graphite

Five minute pose: 9B graphite

Two 10 minute poses: 9B graphite

Two 20 minute poses:  Albrecht Durer watercolor pencils and a blue watercolor wash

Posted by Shirley at 12:41 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

My husband and I went to an open rehearsal of the NY Philharmonic to hear Mahler's 10th Symphony - and I sketched the lady who was in front of me on line (reading her NY Times which was hung over the glass partition) and the cellist who was warming up on stage.  Lovely concert which is scheduled for more performances tonight and tomorrow night. 

Posted by Shirley at 6:37 PM | Permalink | Comments (6)

There are two parts of my deliberate practice program - architecture and figure drawing.  I posted Big Ben last week after I painted it without any pre-drawing.  Today I am posting my first figure drawn directly with my brush and watercolor. I used a photo in the book The Nude Figure by Mark Edward Smith.

Will I be brave enough to draw with my paintbrush when I'm sketching live models?

Posted by Shirley at 9:18 PM | Permalink | Comments (6)