Paper and Threads

Zach is in Pre-K and had his Winter Break several weeks ago.  We scheduled a playdate and when I asked him where he wanted to go, he said the Museum so we could sketch.  As soon as we got off the phone he packed up his sketchbook and pencils so he wouldn't forget anything. 

Here is my picture of him sketching in the American Wing at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.  There is a Bear Sculpture of 3 Bears, but he was ready to move on after sketching the bear in the middle.

And here is his sketch of the Bear!   He was very pleased with it.

We eventually did two more sketches, learned lots about mummies in the Egyptian Galleries and went to visit William the Blue Hippopotamus, the Met's several thousand year old mascot that is also in the Egyptian Gallery.   

Several of my other grandchildren like to draw and paint and I'm hoping that we can keep this interest alive.   

Posted by Shirley at 5:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (8)

We learned a few simple rules about 2-point perspective in our Drawing I class last week.  As I've said before, I never had drawing lessons so I used to wing it!  Now at least I can intellectually know the rules and maybe even follow them when I choose.  You use 2-point perspective when you can see two sides, two planes of an object.

Drawing Boxes:   

1.  Establish your eyeline directly in front of your eyes and put the line on your paper. 

2.  Draw your vertical line for the corner of the box facing you. 

3.  Examine the two sides of the box to establish where your vanishing point (VP) will be for each side and mark them on your eyeline.  I find it difficult to figure out how far away the VP should be from my vertical and finally just played with this to see the kinds of boxes I could draw.  

4.  Draw a line from  the top and bottom of your first vertical line to your vanishing point - and then add another vertical between these lines to establish the size of each side of the box.

5.  Finally, add lines from the VP to the tops of the two new verticals. 

Here are examples of many boxes I drew in class.

We then learned how to draw a corner inside a box - for example the corner of a room. 

1. Draw a horizontal line for your eyeline. 

2. Draw the vertical line from ceiling to floor. 

3.  Then put two vanishing points on your eyeline.

4.  But this time connect a line from the top and bottom of your vertical to the VP on the opposite side of the vertical.   This was hard for me to "see" at first, but here is my drawing for the corner of a room.  The green color is on the walls on both sides of the corner.

Putting it all together:  In order to try to cement these concepts in my brain I drew a box on a rectangular table, looking toward the corner of our classroom.   I had to concentrate a great deal to make sure I just wasn't winging it!

I look forward to warm days on the streets of Manhattan, playing with these new ideas.  Looking down a street of skyscrapers in Manhattan should be great fun to draw.  But not when it is 26 degrees at 3PM like today.  

Posted by Shirley at 2:11 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)

Two Meet-up Groups are co-sponsoring Figure Drawing weekly during these cold weeks of Winter.  You must be a member of Meetup Draw New York or the Central Park Sketching and Art Meetup groups to attend, but it is really easy to join and both groups have drawing sessions in other indoor venues as well this month.  These are just 4 of the drawings I did on February 14th.

The drawings were done with a soluble graphite pencil and then shaded with clear water and a Niji waterbrush.  They were scanned, adjusted, and resized in Photoshop.

Five Minute Sketch: 

Five Minute Sketch of Each Pose Separately:

Ten Minute Pose:

Fifteen Minute Pose:

Posted by Shirley at 3:31 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)

We spent one more week practicing one point perspective and I think I'm finally gaining practical experience and some understanding of how to use these techniques.  Last week we sketched long halls, but the same technique would work for roads and train tracks disappearing in the distance.  The eyeline or horizon is a line at your eye level, and the vanishing point is directly in front of you on the eyeline.  Then your drawing lines all originate from the vanishing point and become your hallway etc.

This week I stayed in the classroom and sketched a table that was directly in front of me.  One point perspective is used with objects that have flat planes and are directly in front of you.  If you can see two sides of a box or table, then you need to use drawing techniques for two-point perspective. As before, the eyeline is at your eye level and the vanishing point is again right in front of you.  Same rules, but a new venue.

Here is my drawing done in class.  My vanishing point is the white dot on the arm of the black sweater.  You can start at the vanishing point and extend a line to both sides of the table, each side of the shelves, and the front of the desks on the right.

After drawing the table, I struggled while drawing the student desks along the side of the brown table.  But again, the lines in the front of these tables are also just lines from my vanishing point. Then I got bored and added the lamp in the room and the student who came in and sat across from me. 

I also sketched another table and one of our classroom chairs in my daily sketchbook to have a record of this class.  VP marks my vanishing point and I left my pencil lines from it to the table as a reminder.  Our professor confiscates all rulers - he says that if you don't practice drawing straight lines, you will never be able to draw them.  Fortunately, I've never relied on a ruler for any drawings.

Posted by Shirley at 7:34 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

 I did more figure drawing at the Toulouse-Lautrec exhibit education session.  We had a new Art Educator and two models who were employees in the MoMA Education Department.  They received more instruction about poses than usual, but were really great at holding the pose.  The drawings were done with a soluble graphite pencil and then shaded with clear water from a Niji waterbrush.  The images were scanned, adjusted and resized in Photoshop.  There are 3 more sessions before the exhibit closes at the end of March.  I just selected 3 of my drawings from the 90 minute session.

While I was waiting for the Figure Drawing session to begin I copied this drawing of my favorite Toulouse-Lautrec model from one of his prints. 

These two models posed together and were drawn together in 5 minutes. 

Another 5 minute pose:

I was getting tired after many poses, and decided to concentrate on a portrait during the last 10 minutes of the session.

Posted by Shirley at 6:15 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)