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:

Posted by Shirley at 3:31 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)

We spent one more week practicing one point perspective and I think I'm finally gaining practical experience and some understanding of how to use these techniques.  Last week we sketched long halls, but the same technique would work for roads and train tracks disappearing in the distance.  The eyeline or horizon is a line at your eye level, and the vanishing point is directly in front of you on the eyeline.  Then your drawing lines all originate from the vanishing point and become your hallway etc.

This week I stayed in the classroom and sketched a table that was directly in front of me.  One point perspective is used with objects that have flat planes and are directly in front of you.  If you can see two sides of a box or table, then you need to use drawing techniques for two-point perspective. As before, the eyeline is at your eye level and the vanishing point is again right in front of you.  Same rules, but a new venue.

Here is my drawing done in class.  My vanishing point is the white dot on the arm of the black sweater.  You can start at the vanishing point and extend a line to both sides of the table, each side of the shelves, and the front of the desks on the right.

After drawing the table, I struggled while drawing the student desks along the side of the brown table.  But again, the lines in the front of these tables are also just lines from my vanishing point. Then I got bored and added the lamp in the room and the student who came in and sat across from me. 

I also sketched another table and one of our classroom chairs in my daily sketchbook to have a record of this class.  VP marks my vanishing point and I left my pencil lines from it to the table as a reminder.  Our professor confiscates all rulers - he says that if you don't practice drawing straight lines, you will never be able to draw them.  Fortunately, I've never relied on a ruler for any drawings.

Posted by Shirley at 7:34 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)

 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.

Posted by Shirley at 6:15 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)

This semester I am taking a Drawing I class at FIT.  It is my very first ever drawing class (except for Figure Drawing at FIT in the Fall of 2013) and I've always just "winged it" when perspective was needed in a drawing.  I usually start learning all new things on my own, from books, and then eventually find that a class provides me with some formal structure for my knowledge.  But by then I've experimented and broken many rules so I'm more comfortable playing. I knew that we were learning one-point perspective in our class, and by chance saw a good free ebook online by artist Paul Heaston about Drawing with Perspective. 

https://www.facebook.com/CraftsyDrawingClub

This is the link, but you need to scroll down to find Paul Heaston. The ebook can be downloaded as a 24 page PDF from Facebook Drawing Club.  You have to join Craftsy to download it, but there is no charge for joining and Craftsy is having a sale on their art classes right now so you may see something else you like too.  

I read pages 1-3 before class and last night sketched the hallway outside our classroom, sitting on the floor and standing, and from the right side, left side, and middle - 6 sketches in all.  Here is my sketch sitting on the left side of the hall.   I had trouble figuring out exactly where my "eyeline" was and it took all 6 sketches before I could figure out the errors I was making.  The black dot is my "vanishing point" on my eyeline (horizon).

At home I decided to reproduce one of my drawings in my sketchbook and paint it - and found it very easy once I established my eyeline and vanishing point.  Both were copied from my drawing last night while I was standing in the middle of the hall.  I made the box shape for the end of the hall, then added my "eyeline" and vanishing point, and just redrew the objects along both sides of the hall, using lines from my vanishing point. 

We have one more week on one point perspective and then move on to "two point perspective." 

Posted by Shirley at 10:47 AM | Permalink | Comments (5)

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. 

Posted by Shirley at 11:41 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)