Paper and Threads

I was very lazy about doing EDM Challenges last month and even worse about uploading them to my blog.  I finally decided to post them all at once - and catch up.  One of my annual art goals is to complete each weekly sketch because it:

1. Gives me a subject for one of my daily sketches each week.

2. Stretches my drawing and painting skills.  

 EDM Challenges #238 - Draw Your First Aid Kit - and #239 - Draw What Has Scared You

My husband and I are both physicians so we have First Aid items in random places in our apartment.  When thinking about this challenge, I immediately remembered my Aircasts - one for my right ankle and one for my left ankle.  I had two very serious ankle sprains due to mis-steps and the use of an aircast allowed me to walk within 24-48 hours and continue to heal during 3-4 months each time.  I live in a City where walking is really essential - my car is parked 3 blocks away from our apartment and the nearest bus and subway stop are both one long block away each.  I was really scared after my first serious ankle injury after moving back to Manhattan, because I realized how easily I could be apartment-bound.

EDM Challenge #240: My Favorite Pencils 

EDM Challenge #241:  Draw the View from Your Kitchen Window

This is my usual view - a beautiful stained glass window approximately 15 feet away, with lovely concerts that I can enjoy when both of our windows are open.

This is my current view.  There is work being done on our apartment building and there is a scaffold below the church window and a board protecting it.  I miss it!

EDM Challenge #242:  Draw a Favorite Tchatzkah 

I could find nothing around our apartment except my figure drawing mannequin.  I collect books and fabric and try to keep  tchatzkahs to a minimum.

EDM Challenge #243: Draw a Pillow

I love fabric and frequently bring back an interesting piece when we travel.  This is a pillow that I made with a piece of Fortuny fabric that I bought in Venice.  The fabric has an overall design of lions - only one of which I sketched.

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We visited our youngest grand daughter, Annabelle, this past weekend and I added more pages to the watercolor journal I dedicated to our visits with her.  Previous pages are visible by clicking on the Washington DC category.

I rarely sketch my grandchildren because it never looks like them.  Annabelle is much cuter than I made her in this drawing.  The small sketch shows her running around the Natural History Museum with us on Friday.

Saturday we had breakfast at Eastern Market and enjoyed the many flower vendors - everything was so bright and fresh.

We then went to Oktoberfest on Barrack's Row, the highlight of which was the childrens' petting zoo.  There were two very small goats there with their Mother that all of the children loved. 

The goat on the left was drawn with a Pilot Varsity Pen, but the watercolor paper in the Cachet Linen Journal was too absorbent and it was difficult to wet the ink to shade the goat.  The one on the right was painted with a neutral gray watercolor wash.

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I was invited to applique a square for the Empire Quilt Guild 2011 Raffle Quilt.  All of the eighteen 11 inch squares are based on New York City subway mosaics and I was thrilled to be assigned the Chambers Street IRT mosaic of Kings College.  We are a Columbia University family and Kings College was the original college which became Columbia University after the Revolution.

I was gvien an applique pattern that was drafted from a photo in a NYC subway book, but decided that I wanted to make my own.  I photographed many of the mosaics which run along both the uptown and downtown platform walls trying to find one that wasn't too damaged by age.

I drew and painted the mosaic in my daily sketchbook, to try to familiarize myself with the complex design before making a new pattern and selecting fabrics.

I just completed the applique square - which required more time than any single 11 inch square I ever made - mostly because I decided that I wanted to applique every stone of the building on individually! 

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I retired on July 1st and last night finally went to my first Figure Drawing session.  If you follow this blog, you know that I was practicing for this moment by sketching figures as 90 sec. sketches of posemaniac images, or 5 minute figures from one of two nude figure photo books for artists that I bought.  I'm very glad that I did the prep work over the last several years because I never felt overwhelmed last evening.

I met my dear friend Istar at the Society for Illustrators so I would be with someone who knew the location and process.  The setting is lovely - very open space, live music, a small bar for a glass of wine during the 20 minute break, and hundreds of inspiring illustations lining the walls on all floors.  We had two models - one short and full figured, the other tall, thin, and beautifully coifed.  I frequently couldn't see below their ankles, but on the short poses, I didn't even have time to worry about it.   

The 3 hours flew by - and I did all 19 sketches - 2, 5, 10, and 20 minutes in length.  I'm just so thrilled to finally sketch live models that I'm uploading a total of 7 to this page.  All of the sketches were done with a Koh-i-noor Progresso 6B pencil  on 8 x 11" paper in a Working Class Studio, bound, sketchbook that I bought for half-price at Barnes and Noble.  I have no idea where I got the pencil, but it was smooth and wonderful on the paper. 

Two of Ten 2 minute sketches:

Two of four 5 minute sketches:

Both 10 minute sketches:

Two of three 20 minute sketches: 

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Today the group met at John Lennon's Strawberry Fields Imagine Mosaic and then walked to a rocky promontory on the Lake.  I stayed for 2 hours and did the following sketches - in bright sunshine.  It was a glorious day after a gray rainy Saturday

There were two turtles on a rock in the green-brown water - and I could just see their silhouettes.  In front of me, at the edge of the rocks were purple flowers that I had never seen before.  I spent most of the first hour watching for more turtles.

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Aprroximately 5 minutes before we met to share our sketchbooks, I quickly sketched and painted the lovely woman sketching in front of me. 

During the second hour, I moved to the other side of the rocks, faced south, and sketched the Central Park South skyline.  I was very happy that I brought my watercolor pencils with me to quickly block in the trees.

I'm really enjoying the Meetup Sketching sessions.  Although you can work on one thing for the entire time, the goal of the session is to sketch quickly in several different locations - which both sets parameters for space and time.  And it is so much fun to see the work of others - who may have had different tools and paper sizes, but had the same scene to observe and document that you did.

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