Paper and Threads

We arrived in London on Tuesday and the only interesting yellow object to sketch was my grandson's toy tractor.  It gave me lots of practice with perspective and he always remembers pages in my sketchbook that relate to him.  Even my 2 1/2 year old grand daughter asked to see a page of her toys that I did last October - that are in a London travel sketchbook that is back in New York.  I photographed my journal page and then resized it with Photoshop Elements. 

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We lived in San Antonio for 18 years - and I never considered sketching the Alamo.  While there on a business trip this week I sat on a curb in Alamo Plaza under the hot Texas sun and sketched this picture of the original front of the mission.  Then, to capture more of the flavor of the city, I sketched Lucchese boots the next day.

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EDM Challenge #122:  Drawing shade was really difficult for me because it required me to paint a landscape.  I took a photo walking through Central Park last Friday, with my husband and grandson, because I wasn't able to stop to sketch it.  Then I procrastinated and did 4 journal pages since then - including the next challenge.  The area of the Park is so beautiful that I will also include my photo.

I simplified this scene and structure considerably from the photo (or I would never have done it).  Here is the photo:

EDM Challenge #123: Draw a Bell

I have no bells in our apartment except for Christmas ornaments which are packed away.  Then my husband remembered my bear - complete with his own bell.  I was a frantic mother when my two sons went on a camping trip in Alaska and there were so many bear/bear bell stories that my boys brought me this really cute, plush bear.  I sketched it for the first time on a journal page that I prepared with a brown wash - right after I developed my blog at the beginning of 2006.  And I sketched and painted it again for this challenge.  Here are both versions.

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Another visit to the Greek and Roman Galleries at the Metropolitan Museum of Art with fellow EDMer Paula.  She is returning to Brazil at the end of the month, so this was our last time to sketch together for awhile.  We're both hoping that she will come back to NYC for work - regularly.

There are cases and cases of artifacts that are wonderful for sketching.  The ewer on the left was so beautiful because of the colors.  The funny head on the right is one end of the yoke for a real Roman Chariot - an amazingly beautiful piece.

These are two small terracotta horse heads - even though one of them looks more like a moose without horns.  I love using a colored pencil for these sketches.

I could spend many days in these galleries before even finishing all of the types of artifacts.  

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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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