Paper and Threads

There are so many wonderful new exhibits in NYC that we are going to see at least one every Wednesday morning for the next few months.

Last week we went to see Balthus Girls and Cats at the Met.  My Figure Drawing Professor encouraged everyone in our class to see it because of the importance of Balthus as a 20th C. figure painter.  I sketched Therese, his 16 year old model in pencil, and then painted her at home.  The next sketch was from the show catalogue and was fun for a quick sketch in pen.

This week we went to the Morgan to see Tiepolo, Guardi, and Their World: 18th C. Venetian Drawings.   Their lines were so wonderful!  I just wish that I had a single pen to draw such a variety of lively lines.  I used a brown Tombow marker for this drawing and the ink wash.

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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.

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I love watching the sea gulls during our beach walks, and take lots of photos to document their size, coloration, and movements during take-off and landing.  This sea gull was drawn on the first page of my summer beach sketchbook.  Wish I knew why some birds have that red spot on their beak.

These are gulls photographed during our last visit to the beach for this year, and all were drawn and painted from photos that I took during takeoff and landing.  I love to watch them run on the sand for a few feet before lifting off - and then gliding in after one big circular path over the surf.

Good bye sea gulls until next summer!

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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!

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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.

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