Paper and Threads

My week was very unusual.  I spent a total of 8 hours in 3 figure drawing sessions - my FIT class, and the Battery Park afternoon session and an evening at the Society of Illustrators with my friend Pat and Jana Bouc, who was visiting from San Francisco.  In total I sketched 45 figures!

FIT Class Week 4:  We began shading our figures and here are my 2 twenty minute poses:

These are 1, 2, and 5 minute poses of our male model in Battery Park: I sketched with a soluble graphite pencil and "painted" the clothing with water

Finally, these are the two minute poses of our two models at Society of Illustrators.  One of the models had very red, very long, very curly hair and I then did a 10 and 20 minute sketch of her:

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Pat, Benedicte, and I visited two 57th St Galleries before our Figure Drawing session in Battery Park City. 

Pace Gallery:  There is a Dubuffet show of 52 of his drawings from 1975 to 1985 - and most of them are wonderful black and white doodles.  I sketched figures from two different drawings, a tree from a third - and then the red car from another.  The exhibit ends on October 26th.

Marlborough Gallery has over 80 Matisse Prints which were done between 1900 and 1950.  There were simple line figure drawings and more detailed prints of women in his classic clothes and settings.  I love the simplicity of his classic figure drawings and always hope that by drawing them, I am incorporating some of his skills into my drawings.  Wishful thinking!

We were in DC for a few days visiting our family and while everyone was at work or school, my husband and I spent several hours at the National Gallery of Art East Wing.  There was a small, but terrific Alexander Calder exhibit - with mobiles, wire sculptures, and 6 animobiles.  I sketched a bull - and then the wire cow.  The cow is only about 12 inches long and 6-8 inches high - perfect size for an apartment!  More wishful thinking!

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Between my Figure Drawing Class at FIT and our summer Figure Drawing in Battery Park City, I sketched 32 figures this past week.  And my friend Pat and I spent one morning gallery hopping in Chelsea, and a full day yesterday between the previews for the Contemporary Asian Art Auction at Christies and the preview of the Interglobal Woven exhibit at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.  I feel so enriched by all of it and wish that I could have my favorite moments going through my head in a slideshow for the next week.

These are my two 20 minute poses - done on 18 X 24" paper, at an easel, at FIT. 

The remainder of the drawings were from Battery Park City - where it was 96 degrees in the shade and a heat index of 103 degrees.  Did I capture the pouty, whining look of our model?  She just wanted to sit, and therefore I had more opportunities for these poses than ever before.

Multiple images were drawn on a large sheet of paper with a Derwent Medium Wash pencil and then "painted" with clear water.  These were all photographed - with difficulty!

1 Minute Poses:  I am most pleased with these.  When I first started drawing figures, I could barely get one line drawn in 60 seconds.

2 Minute Poses

5 Minute Poses

Two 10 and two 20 Minute Poses 

My Bookbinding Structure for September is suffering while I concentrate on figures - but it is Flexagons.  I had never heard of these books, and now that I'm reading about their history, I'm getting more excited.  I made a Square Flexagon and still have 3 more types to make: a Tetra tetra flexagon, a cross flexagon, and a hexa hexa flexagon.  Don't they sound interesting??

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The weather was perfect on Wednesday and Judy, Pat, and I all went to figure drawing!  Here are a few 5 and 10 minute sketches, and one 20 minute sketch, using a General Sketch and Wash pencil.

Three 5 Minute Sketches

Two 10 minute poses left - and one 5 minute pose right:

Twenty Minute Pose:

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I watched the Videos in Stephen Cephalo's Strathmore Workshop and then tried his techniques using 9B graphite and white charcoal on toned gray paper.  I used a photo reference for this very experimental drawing.

I am taking my very first art class since 10th grade in High School - and was very nervous about it.  Did I really want to "study" art in a classroom as opposed to learning on my own?  Did I want to have a 3 hour class every week from Aug through Dec?  Fashion Institute of Technology (FIT) has a senior scholar program, and unfilled classes can be audited for a nominal fee.  I finally decided to take Figure Drawing I and last Monday was my first class.  I used an easel for the very first time and sketched the model on 12 X 18 " paper - both totally out of my comfort zone.  But I think I'm going to enjoy it.

Here are two 20 minute drawings. Next week 18 X 24" paper - YIKES!

Thanks Vicki for suggestions on how I could get the background photograph blue tinge changed to white using Photoshop.

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