Paper and Threads

The Battery Park Conservancy outdoor free drop-in art sessions will begin again the first Wednesday in May, and that always inspires me to work on my hand drawings.  I attend on Wednesdays, weather permitting.  In the morning the group and artist administrators are in Wagner Park from 11-1 and the gardens, NY Harbor, and the Lower Manhattan skyline are all wonderful subjects.  In the afternoon they reassemble in the South Cove for clothed figure drawing. 

These 3 drawings were done with a watercolor pencil, without water, using hands from magazine advertisements. 

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I love figure drawing and I'd love to be able to capture the hand positions of the models.  If I succeed at all, it is only in the 20 minute poses.  These hands were all drawn from photos I collect from fashion catalogues or the New York Times Magazine sections.  My drawing was done with a watercolor pencil, without adding water.  I love how easily it erases and can convert it to paint at any time with a watercolor brush. 

I found a great watch advertisement with 4 hand photos and was inspired to keep drawing this week.  Here are the two that I finished.  

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This was the last of our 9 Art Sessions at Battery Park City until the drop-in program begins in the South Cove from May - Oct.  Our model was Claudia, and there were many challenging poses this week.  

Two Minute Poses:  Three chosen from 10 drawn.  I'm beginning to feel as if these are easier for me.  I draw with a 4B graphite pencil on Newsprint.

Five Minute Poses: Three of four that I sketched with General Sketch and Wash pencil and shaded with a NiJi waterbrush.

Ten (Left) and Twenty (Right) Minute Poses:  The watercolor was added during the 10 minutes pose time, and the soluble graphite was spread with a waterbrush during the 20 minute pose. 

Twenty Minute Pose:  I shuddered as our Art Instructor kept rotating the head of the table away from me and my view had increasing foreshortening.  It is hard to remember to draw only what you see in this instance, but I did it and now feel more confident about these challenging poses.

Today I went to Neue Gallerie with friends and saw so many inspiring figure drawings/paintings by Munch and the other Expressionists.  After lunch we went to Galerie St. Etienne and saw "quick" Ludwig Kirchner figure sketches.  I recommend both exhibits, but especially Neue.   

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I first want to send condolences to the people of Brussels for the horrible terrorist bombings this morning.  A good friend of ours was in the airport, close to the bomb blast, but is uninjured.  Wednesdays are my day to go past the World Trade Center Memorial as I cross Lower Manhattan to go to figure drawing, and these random bombings reawaken many of the feelings I had living in Manhattan in 2001.   

I love going to Lower Manhattan for Figure Drawing on Wednesdays.  When I was looking up at the Freedom Tower (WTC1) last Wednesday and posting photos to my blog, I had no idea that we would be reflecting on yet another terrorist attack in Europe this Wednesday. 

We had a model that I've drawn before, and this week she had her Very Curly Hair au naturelle, and stayed in the same clothes for most of the session.

These are my first two minute poses - always used for warmup.  I sketched her with a 4B graphite pencil on newsprint - which is hard to flatten out for photographing.

These are three 5 minute sketches done with a General Sketch and Wash pencil - with paint added in the final seconds before the end of the pose, or in one case during her 5 minute break. 

One 10 minute pose:

The final pose - done in 15 minutes - and not painted because I was too tired.

On Wednesday May 4th, the Figure Drawing sessions will move to the South Cove of Battery Park City - through October 26th, weather permitting. 

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Yesterdaty was our Figure Drawing Day at Battery Park City.  I brought some small pieces of watercolor paper (6 X 10") that had watercolor on them from other projects, and used them for my drawings.  My mindset for these Wednesday afternoon sessions is to "play and loosen up." Yesterday I decided to draw the figures in pencil over the paint and then to paint the figures with more watercolor.  Here are 3 five minute poses and 1 ten minute pose.

My other 10 minute pose was drawn over a dark brown block of watercolor and I decided to draw in pen and not add any other paint. 

I also used a General Sketch and Wash pencil for our final 20 minute pose - drawing with the pencil and then adding only water to pull the graphite to shade the figure.

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