Paper and Threads

Two Meet-up Groups are co-sponsoring Figure Drawing weekly during these cold weeks of Winter.  You must be a member of Meetup Draw New York or the Central Park Sketching and Art Meetup groups to attend, but it is really easy to join and both groups have drawing sessions in other indoor venues as well this month.  These are just 4 of the drawings I did on February 14th.

The drawings were done with a soluble graphite pencil and then shaded with clear water and a Niji waterbrush.  They were scanned, adjusted, and resized in Photoshop.

Five Minute Sketch: 

Five Minute Sketch of Each Pose Separately:

Ten Minute Pose:

Fifteen Minute Pose:

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 I did more figure drawing at the Toulouse-Lautrec exhibit education session.  We had a new Art Educator and two models who were employees in the MoMA Education Department.  They received more instruction about poses than usual, but were really great at holding the pose.  The drawings were done with a soluble graphite pencil and then shaded with clear water from a Niji waterbrush.  The images were scanned, adjusted and resized in Photoshop.  There are 3 more sessions before the exhibit closes at the end of March.  I just selected 3 of my drawings from the 90 minute session.

While I was waiting for the Figure Drawing session to begin I copied this drawing of my favorite Toulouse-Lautrec model from one of his prints. 

These two models posed together and were drawn together in 5 minutes. 

Another 5 minute pose:

I was getting tired after many poses, and decided to concentrate on a portrait during the last 10 minutes of the session.

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Art Adventures at the Met were wonderful this past month. 

Pat, Benedicte and I went to the opening of Reimagining Modernism, a special look at the holdings of the Met, as rearranged by themes by the curatorial staff.  There were paintings that I don't remember from before in the 9 galleries and one newly exhibited, gallery-sized sculpture of the Last Supper by Marisol which was amazing.  Benedicte took this picture of me taking a photo of the painted faces and exquisite sculptured  and painted wood hands.

I sketched a few of the simpler drawings from the galleries and added paint at home. 

Last Friday evening the Met had a program called Jazz and Colors, during which 15 jazz groups played the same two sets in 15 different galleries.  I sketched in the Art of Africa, Oceania, and the Americas while we listened.

 Then we sat in the Petrie European Sculpture Hall and listened to "Jennie Scheinman's in the Museum".

Followed by The Marvin Sewell Group in the Bloomberg Arms and Armor Court. 

 I think they are repeating this program from 6-8:30 on April 24th.  It was a wonderful event - I remarked to my husband that there were so many young people that it looked like date night. 

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The Central Part Sketching and Art Meetup Group is now meeting each Saturday during the winter for figure drawing, and yesterday was the first session.  The model looked like a runway model, probably 6 feet tall and all angles and boney prominences.  I really enjoyed drawing her and here are 5, 10, and 20 minute poses, all drawn with a soluble graphite pencil, on 12 X 15" watercolor paper, with added shading done with clear water and my flat Niji waterbrush.   The drawings were photographed, not scanned.

Two 5 Mintue Poses:

Two 10 minute Poses: 

Two 20 Minute Poses:

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It is Week 2 for me in the online course Studying Under the Masters.  The Master for this week is Pablo Picasso, and over the years I have copied many of his drawings, because I love the images he can capture drawing only a few lines or one continuous line.  So it was time to copy a painting!  The painting "Reading at a Table" is at the Met, and as soon as I saw it in the new Reinventing Modernism Galleries, I knew that I wanted to try to paint her!  As before, the Master is on the left, and my painting is on the right.  I used watercolor and black and white gouache instead of oil, and loved trying to achieve some of the spirit of Picasso. 

I debated a variety of portraits for my "painting inspired by Picasso" and finally realized that I could use one of my figure drawings from MoMA for the subject.  I made this sketch of the actress model in the Toulouse-Lautrec Drawing Session in 3 minutes, using only straight lines to draw her image.  I took a scan of that drawing as the basis for my painting and then experimented with backgrounds.  I loved the candle in Picasso's painting, so I added it to mine, and then needed to work out the rest of the setting and color palette. 

And here is my finished painting.  I usually draw and paint in watercolor sketchbooks and for this series of paintings I'm using Arches 140 lb cold press watercolor paper in a 9 X 12 block.

Next Week:  Max Beckmann, the German Expressionist Painting. 

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