Paper and Threads

Homework:  Our Professor emailed us a copy of the Titian Painting "Danae" and asked us to draw and shade the figure using the painted image as reference.  We had to preserve the proportions of the painting, but could choose to leave out the background.  I'm beginning to be more comfortable using General's Extra Soft Charcoal Pencils. 

This past week we had two male models, clothed.  Class began with a demo of the approach to portrait drawing, and then we had a choice of drawing some or all of each figure.  The model with the hat broke his pose about every two minutes, with slight shifts in position.  It is rare to see such bad models at FIT. 

This is part of a 20 minute pose and class ended before we finished.   

Posted by Shirley at 11:17 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I bought tubes of Winsor Newton Artist Grade Gouache in September 2012 - and squeezed out paint into a new palette.  I quickly learned that they flaked, and came out of the wells easily when they dried making them not portable. 

This week our Sketchbook Skool artist Jennifer Orkin Lewis ("August Wren"), an illustrator, showed us how she used gouache and watercolor paints interchangeably and together, adding other layers to either a wet or dry layer.  My 2012 tubes of gouache were dried out, but several months ago I bought myself a 12 color set of Pelikan pan gouache.  Here are my color mixing studies that I did for homework. 

Pelikan Set of 12 Gouache:  Samples of the 12 colors on the top left.  An opacity test on the bottom left.  Mixing studies on the right, from top to bottom: 1 and 2: yellow and yellow ochre in the center, with progressive addition of 2 blues; 3 and 4:vermillion red  and magenta red in the center with the addition of two blues, and finally 5 and 6: yellow and yellow ochre in the center with the addition of the two reds. 

Testing combinations of paints:  Watercolor and gouache over samples of dry gouache or watercolor; watercolor and gouache mixed on palette;  gouache over dry gouache; and gouache mixed with Chinese white to increase the opacity. 

Posted by Shirley at 12:11 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

My companion for my London Sketchbook:  This is Mickey in his bread airplane, taken from Maurice Sendak's book In the Night kitchen.  I painted him on the first "notes page" in my travel sketchbook for my upcoming Fall trip to London.  This is one of my rituals for European travel.

I loved reading this book to my children and grandchildren, and enjoyed Mickey flying in the bread airplane he shaped from a large lump of dough.

I first painted him in the grid of small daily 2 X 2" paintings in my travel Sketchbook for Venice in 2012.

Mickey also appears on a 2 X 2" grid page of my Paris travel sketchbook

But he most often appears on the first page of my travel sketchbooks - on the top of the page with my contact information, in case I misplace my sketchbook on the trip.  Here he is from our vacation last year in Venice.

Posted by Shirley at 6:28 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Last week a very good friend from San Antonio came for her annual weeklong vacation with me, and as in the past we divided our time among the Garment District, Talas Bookingbinding in Brooklyn, Museum and Gallery exhibits, and making things.  The Cooper Hewitt Smithsonian Design Museum in Manhattan has an exhibit about color - various historical methods of classifying color and some wonderful examples of the use of color in the world around us. 

Some objects I liked from the Cooper Hewitt exhibit SATURATED, and a link to the website.  The visit is worth it just to see the Carnegie Mansion on 5th Avenue, home to the Cooper Hewitt.

https://www.cooperhewitt.org/channel/saturated/ 

Delacroix at the Met:  There are two big Delacroix exhibits at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.  One contains a large number of his paintings, with a few drawings.  The other is a 3 gallery exhibit of his drawings, some with watercolor.  Both are really worth seeing - the painting exhibit is here from the Louvre in Paris.

https://www.metmuseum.org/exhibitions/listings/2018/delacroix 

https://metmuseum.org/exhibitions/listings/2018/devotion-to-drawing-eugene-delacroix 

Will Barnet Exhibit Love Letters at the Alexandre Gallery:  I fell in love with Will Barnet's paintings when the National Academy of Art had a big Barnet exhibit on his 100th birthday.  His lines and his forms are so clean, and in the earlier exhibit it said that he traced his images and simplified them in several steps.  The current Gallery exhibit is small, but lovely.  The drawings and paintings are all "love letters" to his second wife. 

http://www.alexandregallery.com/current-exhibition-/ 

Posted by Shirley at 6:52 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I DEDICATE THESE DRAWINGS TO THE STRONG WOMEN WHO STEPPED FORWARD TO TRY TO LEVEL THE PLAYING FIELD FOR ALL OF US.  I'M OUTRAGED AT THE REPUBLICAN REFUSAL TO HAVE THE WHITE HOUSE REOPEN THE FBI BACKGROUND CHECK!  WE NEED TO VOTE ALL OF THEM OUT IN NOVEMBER.

I'm still enjoying drawing active figures after breakfast - a commitment to fast drawings as many days as possible (<15 minutes to draw and paint).  I love life drawing and adore dancers and ballet.  This project allows me to continue my sketchbook drawing habit on days when I have nothing else planned.  It helps that I have paper, pencil, pen, sharp scissors, and my reference book waiting for me and ready to go.    

Collaged Line of Action Figures 1

Collaged Line of Action Drawings 2

Posted by Shirley at 6:25 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)