Paper and Threads

I went to the airport very early in the morning because of road closures for the New York Marathon and another one of the early arrivals took a long nap - and I had time to both draw and paint him. 

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Home from Quilt Festival - tired, but happy - and I'm posting a drawing inspired by my visit to the Delacroix exhibit several weeks ago. 

I sketched Delacroix's Tanner with graphite pencil when I was at the Metropolitan Museum of Art several weeks ago. His Morocco watercolors are among my favorites, and I finally painted it using the colors he used for the clothing and the background.  Below is the first drawing and the painted version.

Delacroix Tanner painted.

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This week in our figure drawing class we used toned paper and black and white media- my pencils were Conte.  We had two models and two poses, each about 40 minutes to draw the two models together.  This was one of my goals, so I'm glad we did it, and I think I learned about how to add dark and light tones - with the paper representing the mid-value.  I actually made myself a sketchbook of toned paper last year and had picked out various types of black and white pencils, and tested them all in preparation for my project.  Then I fractured my wrist and that was a project I deferred.

It was Halloween and the older male model had on devil horns and the younger one had his real Mohawk hair gelled into position.  

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I'm slowly finishing more of the sketchbook pages in my London Sketchbook   All of the pages were drawn quickly in pencil, then inked with a Sakura Pigma Micron pen.  I was then able to paint them later, using a photograph taken when I was drawing if I needed more information.  Occasionally I can find a place to sit, draw, and paint at one time. 

Oxford Day:  We took the train from London for a visit to University Oxford and visited Blackwell's AMAZING Book Shop when we arrived, to avoid the rain and winds.  But the sun peaked through the clouds just as our University tour began and we finally saw the gorgeous campus and learned more about the history of their 38 colleges.

Evensong at Westminster Abbey with the Westminster Choir:  It is a beautiful way to see the Abbey during a wonderful choral program.  This was a small area of the choir that I could see from our seats. 

St.Martins of the Fields Church:  It was a beautiful London Day and fun to sketch the spire from Trafalgar Square after a walk over from Westminster Abbey.  It brought back memories of Christmas Carols in front of the Church on Christmas Eve with our family many years ago.

Elgin Marble at the British Museum:  This horse sculpture is wonderful, and I just realized that I already painted it in 2006!  I am frequently attracted to the same subjects again....

Posted by Shirley at 6:44 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

I love to draw, and I frequently copy the Masters in order to improve my ability to "see."  My FIT Professor sent an email attachment of Raphael's painting of Magdalena for us to draw in on graphite, charcoal or Conte as homework.  I was at the Met Delacroix painting exhibit at the Metropolitan Museum of Art again yesterday and sketched another watercolor from his Morocco series.  Here are both of my drawings.  I will add a little watercolor to the Delacroix drawing, but in the museum can only work in pencil.

Raphael: Portrait of Magdalena Strozzi Doni (oil on panel circa 1506)  Drawn by me with Wolff's Carbon Pencil.

Delacroix:  Portrait of Schmareck, Tanner at Tangier (Watercolor with red and black chalk on paper 1832).  Drawn by me with graphite. 

Posted by Shirley at 11:02 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)