Paper and Threads

It was a beuatiful cool, sunny morning last Sat and I went to the Metropolitan Museum of Art rooftop sculpture garden to read for 2 hours(needed to work on the 500+ page book I have for Book Group tonight).  While reading I took approximately 20 minutes to sketch these towers on the building at 74-75th St and used watercolor pencils to add color.  The 4 pencils I used are listed in the paint samples.   It was liberating not to worry about all of the windows - and not to really try to capture all of the architectural detail.  When I enlarged my digital photo on the computer screen at home, I could really see how complex the towers are.

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I have lots of trouble staying loose.  Even though I sketch quite quickly, it is too tight and I can become obsessed with detail.  Not that I put too much detail into a sketch, just that I can't seem to sketch it if I can't see it.  I envy those in the EDM group who can stay really loose and capture images of something - this week Casey in Hong Kong, Hashi on her LA city walks, and Gabi on the bus. 

I want to be able to do both - depending on the project.  So this morning I brought my sketchbook and watercolor pencils with me when my husband and I took our grandson to Bethesda Fountain and I forced myself to do just a really loose sketch, add color, and then water - all in < 30 minutes.

I definitely need to have more of these sketching sessions.   Need more practice!!

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My husband had these earrings made for me for our 25th wedding anniversary because I liked  black roman coins in gold jewelry that I saw somewhere with him.  He then gave them to me at a lovely dinner in a villa in Padua, Italy - so the roman coins returned home!  The coins are more black than painted here.  As I was sketching the front and back of one earring last night, I also "googled" Roman coins and was able to identify my coins as Gordian III - from approximately 240 AD.  There are many, many images of Gordian III coins and I would need to better see the images on the reverse side of my coin to be more specific.  Both earrings use the same image on the front of the coins. 

I used gold gouache for the gold casing and back of the earring.

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May 30th: There is a wonderful wall display of amphoras in the new Greek and Roman Galleries at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.  I was really attracted to the composition, the colors, and the shadows.

May 31st:  Big Ben has such an intricate guilded structure around the clock face and I could see the details when I zoomed in on my photo.  I used W and N gold gouache for all of the gold.  This is the second sketch in my Big Ben series in my recycled Elizabeth I book.

This is the final sketch in my "Every Day in May" series.  For me this project was an exercise in uploading my daily sketch rather than doing a daily sketch.  It was time consuming on work days when I was tired.  I also didn't like the slight change in my attitude toward my daily sketch, i.e. I actually had to upload whatever I produced each day.  The major advantage is to have a full months body of work saved on my blog - and it really is eclectic: figure drawing including yoga poses and nudes; museum sketches as I repeatedly visited the Metropolitan Museum of Art; several pages in my recycled books: the 10 blocks series of NYC and Big Ben; and of course the EDM Challenges!

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May 28th: I really like my new book - Nude Figures for Artists - and can probably spend the next year sketching these models without running out of inspiration.  This was a quick sketch done with colored pencil - no faces yet and pretty poor hands.  But those are challenges that I will work on!  Michaelangelo on the left and me on the right.  Again having problems with the rough paper - the model didn't have hairy legs!

May 29th:  I went downtown early this morning to buy a gift for my daughter-in-law who will graduate from Medical School this afternoon!  She will begin her Pediatric Residency in June and we will still babysit their son Robbie on Fridays!  I then continued to walk downtown, through Washington Square, in the direction of Dick Blick.  I stopped for a cup of coffee and did this quick sketch at the SE corner of the park.  The proprietor cleaned and polished his cart the entire time I watched!

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