Paper and Threads

We are going to London this Fall and I just recycled a London 1960s Photography book to use as my watercolor travel sketchbook.  My daughter and her family lived there for 14 months a decade ago, and I'm finally ready to go back.  But we will miss living in their house with our very young grandchildren on multiple visits. 

I bought a half-price photography book at the Strand Book Store in NYC, removed the original page block, and made a new page block with 140 lb Fabriano Artistico Soft Press paper.  Interspersed with watercolor pages, are photo folios from the original book.  

Front Cover

I posted a 4 part Tutorial about recycling a book to use as a watercolor travel sketchbook in 2012.  This is the link to the process and the book I recycled for a 2012 Venice vacation. 

http://www.paperandthreads.com/2012/02/watercolor_sketchbook_tutorial.php 

Front End Paper: I was able to use two of the original folios as end papers, and just glued a decorative strip over the original fold to strength it.

Title Page:  This will be my title page, with a Big Ben collage I made previously using a photo of Henry the VIII.  I will add a title for the sketchbook and my contact information.  I once received a phone call from a museum hours after I left my sketchbook by mistake.

There are 4 signatures each with two folios of watercolor paper and one folio of the original photographs.  Two of the signatures had one folio that is narrower than full size and I will use these for 2X2 square daily drawings, and grid of my daily notes.  

This is the example of the short sheets, I didn't want to use only a portion of another full sheet of watercolor paper and actually like having these random narrower pages.   You are seeing the narrower page on the right with part of a London bus photo behind it.

There are 24 full pages and 8 narrower ones for a 10 day vacation. 

I made similar books for trips to Paris, Berlin/Prague/Budapest, Madrid/Seville/Barcelona, Barcelona, and a second one for Venice 2017.   

Posted by Shirley at 6:07 AM | Permalink | Comments (4)

Miriam Bos is an illustrator and her paintings are used for books, magazines, fabric, ceramics, and greeting cards, etc.  It was fun learning about her creative process, and for our homework we were asked to create a book character and draw at least 3 emotions. 

I have fun watching squirrels trying to sneak the seeds from the bird feeders at our friends' home in Martha's Vineyard.  There were two who climbed the nearby tree, took flying leaps to the conical top of the iron pole holding multiple bird feeders, and almost never were successful.  I called a squirrel with an orange tail "Spas" because he would try to climb down the pole, lose his footing, scramble trying to hold on, and then fall to the ground. 

What I Learned About Character Development in WHIMSICAL:  In Miriam's demo video she showed us her method for creating characters.  She obtains photo images of real animals from the internet, and then traces them to start the process.  After she learns about their structure and characteristics from tracing, she sets them aside and begins to draw many versions of the animals in different poses, and with different emotions.  She, like several of the other illustrators, said that they draw many before they find the character they like.  Mike Lowery said he drew almost a hundred before he found the "Carl the Duck" character he wanted. 

I started with tracings, and then drew at least 20 before I found these characters.  I had to paint one with an orange tail to remind me of the spastic squirrel I loved at the bird feeder. 

Vanessa Brantley-Newton is an illustrator of Children's Books, and her homework for us was to create a collage inspired by one of 3 words: Joyous, Dangerous, and Ridiculous. 

For my collage I decided to go back to the first moment that my characters Axel and Alice saw the characters in the hooded long coat.   The title of this collage is DANGEROUS?

Axel was created during a Sketchbook Skool homework assignment by Fabio Consoli.  We had to intereract and draw with a child, and I created Axel, and then later Alice.  The top painting is the original homework painting. The character on the right was created by my Grandson Zach, and then I reacted to the robot creating the rest of the painting.  The bottom watercolor was done as a final project for a watercolor illustration class at FIT. 

If I hadn't fractured my wrist on my dominant hand in March, I would have finished the comic book project about Axel and Alice for my FIT Spring semester class on Comic Book Illustration.  Someday....

Posted by Shirley at 6:58 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

There is a Chaim Soutine exhibit at the Jewish Museum until September 16th.  My husband and I really like him and look forward to seeing his paintings in museums and auctions.  But this exhibit, entitled Flesh, is of his paintings of dead animals.  These are my least favorite paintings, with animals usually hanging in his studio, during the painting. 

My first painting of the Museum in years:

Here is a photo of Soutine from the exhibit. 

And here are 3 paintings that I sort of liked, but not well enough to draw/paint them as I frequently do at local exhibits.

Posted by Shirley at 6:53 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

My favorite flowers of the season are the Dinner Plate Hibiscus at Battery Park City Wagner Gardens.  I hadn't been to the Art Programs for several weeks because of the weather, and was thrilled that they were still blooming everywhere at my next visit. 

After drawing the flowers, I walked to South Cove for Figure al Fresco - our outdoor figure drawing session is close to NY Harbor and the Hudson River as it reaches the Harbor.  Our model was Regina, an old favorite of mine because I've been drawing her, at several different venues, since 2012.

2 Minute Poses:  I'm still playing with the line of action method - drawing quick lines to establish the pose, and then "fleshing out the body."  I think this helps me with the short poses, and the complicated positions.  Drawings were done with a General Sketch and Wash pencil and then spread with clear water and a waterbrush.

5 Minute Poses:

10 Minute Pose:   

Posted by Shirley at 6:10 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City has a Delacroix Drawing Exhibit this summer.  He is one of my favorite draftsmen and this exhibit was wonderful.  These are two patrons at the exhibit.

I took many photos so I could do a few ink drawings at home.  Here is one head, from a big sheet of head drawings.  I used a dip pen and walnut ink.

This was one of my favorite drawings because I love his drawings with a loose style.  It isn't one that I would attempt to copy as drawing practice.

The Morgan Library and Museum has a Wayne Thiebaud exhibit this summer.  I regularly see his oil paintings at auction previews, but never previously saw his drawings.  I did several sketches from his graphite drawings and then painted them at home.  I'm also including photos of several of his works on paper that were a surprise to me.

Thiebaud's watercolor of his famous candy apples theme.

Thiebauds beautiful graphite drawing of an Ice Cream Cone

Posted by Shirley at 6:12 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)