Paper and Threads

I started drawing faces while doing the exercises in Carla Sonheim's book Drawing Lab.  The first 60+ were done on watercolor paper and painted with watercolor paints or pencils.  Then a friend gave me a small leather book with drawing paper and I now carry that with me all the time.  So the series changed from color to black and white.  

I try to sketch people when I'm on the bus or subway, but sometimes they leave too quickly, or the crowd blocks my sight-line.  These are ones during the last few months.  I just counted up my faces in the 2 groups and I am over 100!

Posted by Shirley at 8:12 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

Sydney finished her school term last Wednesday and on Thursday she and I went to the Metropolitan Museum of Art to see the new costume institute exhibit "Punk" and to sketch.  We went into the American Wing and Sydney sketched the standing bear from a statue of 3 bears.  She was very cute as she sketched in pencil, then added pen and erased her pencil lines. You can see her chosen bear behind her on the right. 

I sketched Diana, the Roman Goddess of the Hunt.  This sculpture, by Augustus Saint-Gaudens, is a half-size caste of the second statue that sat on the top of the tower on the old Madison Square Garden at Madison and 26th St. The original is 13 ft high and is at the top of the Great Stairs at the Philadelphia Museum of Art.   It was a weathervane that was illuminated at night and could even be seen from across the Hudson River.  Here is my photo of the statue in the Met and my painting. 

We stopped to talk to another artist as we walking out and she asked to see Sydney's drawing - and was very sweet and encouraging to her!

It was pouring outside so we came home for the afternoon, and I taught her how to make Gelli Arts Monoprints! 

And we still weren't finished playing. That Met bag she was carrying had a kit for wrapping ear bud earphones with multiple color threads and beads! 

Posted by Shirley at 6:31 PM | Permalink | Comments (10)

This was my first figure drawing session since April - and I really enjoyed it.  There were 2 good models, fun live music, a glass of pinot noir, and Sara, my friend from our beach vacation.  The format is always the same: 10X2 min, 4X5 min, 2x10 min, 3X20 min.  I uploaded a few of my drawings in each category.

I really like the short poses best.  The models are more adventurous and I am drawing without thinking.  Here are 2 0f the two-minute drawings and 2 of the 5 minute drawings:

 One 10 minute pose:

Two 20 minute Poses.  The final pose, with both models reclining, was way beyond my previous experience, but I walked to a space where I could see them best, did a contour drawing, and then threw watercolor paint on the sketches.  I'm glad I didn't wimp out - the challenge was good for me!

Posted by Shirley at 5:44 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

We are at the beach again for our annual visit with friends.  Each morning we take a 2 mile walk on the beach, collecting shells etc as we go.  Depending on our schedule, we may stay on the beach for coffee and by then there are other people arriving.  These are the sketchbook pages that I completed since our arrival.  They were photographed, not scanned, and I can't "whiten" the background of the background of the pages.

Posted by Shirley at 2:52 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

This year I am exploring a new book structure each month.  So far I've made coptic, long stitch, flag, and accordion books.  My May bookbinding structure was s portfolio.  I had some loose drawings/paintings that I wanted to put in a portfolio for safe keeping, so I chose to make it 8 X 10.5 " to fit these papers.  I used the basic instructions from Alisa Golden's book Making Handmade Books: 100+ Bindings Structures Forms.

The cover and end papers were made from paste papers originally made in a workshop at Center for Book Arts here in New York City.  The spine was made from Tex Libris book cloth.   

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