Paper and Threads

A new Matisse exhibit opened at MoMA on Sunday - entitled Radical Invention, 1913-1917.  The paintings were somber in color and he was definitely experimenting with the human form, culminating in his painting The Bathers.  I sketched faces from one of his paintings and several of his prints for the Prisoners of Bohain-en-Vermandois.

I then use3d one of the drawings to inspire my "Eyedropper Face" which is Lab 13 from the Carla Sonheim book Drawing Lab.  I used a small eye dropper and FW acrylic ink to draw the face, then painted it with watercolor. 

I'm really enjoying the "labs" in the Sonheim book - and will continue to work through them even though my art buddies returned home after our evening art sessions at our beach week.

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 There are two weekly figure drawing sessions at the Society of Illustrators in New York City - and in one of them models are partially or fully clothed.  Last week was the first time that I was there when two models were fully in costume - a Marie Antoinette type costume for one and a pirate costume for the other.  It was the hardest sketching I've done there - a huge challenge.

Here is one of my 2 minute sketches of the woman model - complete with an elaborate wig and full ruffly gown:

Here is one of my 2 minute sketches of the male - in pirate costume, but without all of the braid and other decoration on his jacket, belt, and hat which I just didn't have time to include.

They proceeded to disrobe before the longer poses at the end of the evening.  This is one of the 20 minute poses:

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Hand Drawing Practice:

I try to regularly draw hands because I'm so bad at them.  Last September I decided to also draw the American Sign Language alphabet from photos on an ASL website.  I use a watercolor pencil to sketch and then add water to get shading.  This is something that I do when I have nothing else to record visually from my life that day - so I'm only half way through the alphabet.  It isn't obvious to me that I'm getting any better with faced with hands during live figure drawing.  Maybe I need to sketch 10,000 to achieve competency.

Posted by Shirley at 9:17 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)

Our cousin (see last post) also has a wonderful sculpture collection, and while having my morning coffee, I chose this mother-and-child piece by Ruth Bloch to draw.  There were other mother and child sculptures, by different artists in his collection, but I remember being with him one time at Art Expo in New York City when he bought a piece from Ruth Bloch - so I felt a tiny connection with her.  The legs of this sculpted chair are as long as the mother - so it is a beautiful freestanding piece of art.

I guess I'm not done yet with my current focus on motherhood.

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We stayed with our favorite cousin last evening in Philadelphia and really enjoyed seeing his lovely art collection again.  I adore Picasso drawings and like to quickly copy them trying to learn how he captures so much in so few lines.  Here is a very quick sketch of one of Larry's Picasso drawings.

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