Paper and Threads

This is a drawing of my tote/book bag that I use for work.  It is made of a heavy canvas and has one zipper pocket and two mesh side pockets - one of which always contains my umbrella.  It is black and I decided to draw it with a Pilot Varsity pen and then brush water over the non-permanent ink.  I just felt like playing!

Tuesday was my birthday.  I spent the day in New Jersey with my 90 year old mother and then returned to Manhattan to have dinner with my husband and oldest grandchild.  Henry graduated from kindergarten last Friday - and came to stay with us -across the Park - for a few days because his siblings were still in pre-school each day.  We had a wonderful dinner at Naples 45 and then as we were walking back to the entrance at Grand Central Station, I took a photo of Henry and my husband carrying the left over pizza.

After getting Henry into bed, I only had enough energy to sketch some 90 second pose maniac figures - this time in different colored pencils,

The next evening I sketched from the photo.

I am currently doing a countdown until I retire - 40 years after I started my first full time job!  I have only 7 more work days - scattered over the next 2+ weeks!

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As a Grandmother of 5, ages 1-5, sticky to me means lollipops or melting ice pops.  This was one  just waiting for Callum to want/need it.  I'm told that Dylan's Candy Bar in Manhattan is amazing!

My husband is a Do-It-Yourself guy who can fix anything.  It was really easy for him to produce screws of almost any type or length for me to draw.

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We are off this morning for a mini beach vacation.  When we return, I will post my last two sketchbook pages from Every Day in May, and hopefully lots of travel sketches in my new recycled book.

At the end of a long day, with two hats out next to my bag on the bed, I decided that I was only capable of getting these two hats sketched and painted.  The colors really also clash in real life.

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Real life schedules got in the way of daily posting again this week, so I have 3 days of journal pages being uploaded this morning.

I made lemon squares for dessert on Tuesday right before bed and was too tired to draw anything except the small, very fine strainer that I used to add the powdered sugar on top of the squares. 

No time to even consider something more than a 5 minute figure drawing sketch at bedtime.  When will I learn how to guage the size of the paper, or scale down my drawing even more?  It is really hard to make ballet "turnout" convincing in this position unless you can see the position of the back foot!!  Another lesson learned.  This was sketched with a watercolor pencil and then "painted" quickly with a waterbrush when my timer rang at 5 minutes.

A full day at work yesterday and then to the theater to see Jeffrey Rush and Susan Sarandon to see "Exit the King."  I planned ahead for my daily journal page and doodled during a 90 minute morning meeting.  I usually don't leave drawings unpainted, but it was fun to sketch in pen (without a quick pencil sketch) and I wanted to remember my graphite-free page.

Posted by Shirley at 7:25 AM | Permalink | Comments (4)

My husband and I planned a quiet holiday weekend exploring Central Park.  On Saturday we walked uo to the Harlem Meer on the Northeast corner of the park.  Today we walked up to the Northwest corner of the Park, called the North Woods.  I have never been more surprised.  Even the woods that we visit in New Hampshire each summer aren't this dense. 

Anyone who has followed my blog over time, knows by now that landscapes definitely do not excite me when I'm looking for something wonderful to draw or paint.  But I thought I should at least post photos from the walk today for anyone who has never been northeast of the Central Park reservoir.  These specific photos were selected because they show the wildness and density of the trees and foliage.  I don't know the person who happens to be standing at the waterfall. 

Since I didn't even pull out my sketchbook on our walk, tonight I used the Virtual Sketch Date photo for June as inspiration.  I needed some figure drawing practice anyway this week - and note that in 2009, I am brave enough to put faces on my figures.

Posted by Shirley at 9:48 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)