Paper and Threads

This week I decided that I finally had to try drawing figures with paint, instead of pencil. 

I go to figure drawing approximately once per month and I feel more comfortable drawing figures with 9B graphite pencils than I did several years ago.  But I watch some of the other artists using only brush and paint.  How was I ever going to develop this skill? 

 It is hard to start something new when I am doing timed poses - in a group setting, so I decided to begin practicing at home.   I used the large Niji waterbrush and my wood, articulated artist's model.  And when I finished, my figure looked like a wooden statue!  Not shown!!

The next day I switched to the small Niji waterbrush and sketched from photos in my Mark Edward Smith's book The Nude Figure: A Visual Reference for the Artist.   Here are practice figures 2-4 - one done each of the next 3 days.  Each one took approximately 10 minutes.

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I'm posting a few of the drawings I did at the Society of Illustrators on July 9th.  One of our models was Blaine - the same very tall man who I sketched two previous times.  He has extremely long arms, legs, and fingers and can get into the most challenging positions.  I sometimes can't keep his arms on the page - so these are a few of the easier poses.

Five Minute Poses:

Ten Minute Poses

Our woman model wore a Carnival Mask - which she then gave to Blaine for the next pose:

Twenty Minute Pose:

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This is a quiet week in New York City - as many people leave the city over the Holiday.  Last Friday my husband and I went to see the current Maurice Sendak exhibit at the Society of Illustrators.  WOW!!  My children grew up with his books, starting with Where the Wild Things Are and the Nutshell Library.  We then bought In The Night Kitchen and Outside over There when they were published.  I thought that I knew his illustrations, but I really never appreciated his drawing skills and draftsmanship until I saw the originals one week ago.  He is a master of pen drawing - crosshatching and lines. 

One of my favorite Sendak characters was Really Rosie and my children, and now grandchildren, love the video with Carole King.  So to commemorate this amazing exhibit in my sketchbook, I copied a sketch of her!

On Wednesday I went to Battery Park for their adult art programs - Nature in Wagner Park in the morning and Figure Drawing in the afternoon.  Thank goodness I had fun painting two flowers - because we were caught in a freak downpour at 2:30 and our outdoor figure drawing session was cancelled.

I'm taking another Mary Ann Moss online class.  My first introduction to her was with her "Remains of the Day (ROD)" class which I adored. 

This past Christmas I took her Ticket to Venice on-line class - and made a unique long stitch book and accompanied her to Venice through photos, postcards, and many videos.  I was in Venice 6 months before Mary Ann and relived my fabulous vacation!

Yesterday her "SEWN" class started - a summer fun class for making lots of patterns on papers which will then be sewn in other projects.  I signed up without knowing the details because I LOVE her classes.  She has a huge following and there was growing excitement about the start date for this class - although anyone can sign up for the class at anytime.  Yesterday several hundred class members made sheets and sheets of patterns - pure play - disengaging our brains and just painting.

I made several sheets of patterns using watercolors and then created one page in my sketchbook just to commemorate the new class.  Can't wait to do the same today, using acrylic inks. 

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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!

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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! 

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