Our homework after Class 6 was to draw a self-portrait on 18 X 24" toned gray paper. I have an easel which was used once in the past, and my husband has a painter's light that he set up for me. And I sketched what I thought I saw. Of course, now I only see where the major problems are....
I did the drawing with 9B graphite and white charcoal pencils.
Last night was my 6th figure drawing I class at FIT. I was very apprehensive about taking a class, but I'm really enjoying the structure and challenges. We spent the first 3 weeks doing contour drawings of models - with anatomical review and examples of figures drawn by Egon Schiele, Gustav Klimt. I've posted some of those drawings in the last month.
In classes 4-6 we began shading. My two drawings of the young female model from Class 4 were also posted previously. At the end of the 4th class our homework was to draw 5 hands (with #5 holding something) and 2 feet. As much as I was enjoying taking this class for fun, I was also thrilled with my grade of A on this assignment!
These are my husband's hands and my feet.
In Class 5 we did a portrait on toned paper (which was handed in at the end of the class). But I do have the warm up exercise in which the model changed head direction every 5 minutes. We looked at Holbein portraits as wonderful examples.
Last night was my 6th class, and we continued shading - reviewing the beautiful drawings of Kathe Kollwitz and Peter Paul Rubens. This is one of the long poses (20 min) that I did.
I'm still using a 9B graphite pencil on 18 X 24" paper and only flirting with charcoal in a few fast sketches. Still hate the mess!! Our homework assignment for next week is a self-portrait on 18 x 24" gray-toned paper. Yikes!
We were at the beach for the last few days, and I have nothing to show for it yet except lots of photos of sea gulls. However, Pat, Jana Bouc, and I went to MoMA during Jana's NYC visit, and while wandering around the permanent collection, I sketched a Matisse sculpture.
I stopped and looked at this sculpture for much longer than usual because I was watching 3 women in plastic gloves feeling the small statue. The woman wearing a black suit (museum personnel?) was specifically having them feel every part of the statue and even explaining the shapes of the negative spaces. Then it became apparent to me that one of the other women was blind and the remaining one was guiding her around the museum. What a wonderful program.
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:
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!
