Paper and Threads

We love to go the Conservatory Water Café in Central Park on weekend mornings.  It is possible to linger over coffee while drawing, reading, and listening to nearby conversations.  And the view over the boat pond is terrific.  When we arrived last week there were ducks in the pond and a cormorant who was taking deep dives as he swam the length of the pond.

To us, it is always referred to as the Boat Pond, because of the remote control sailboats that can be rented.  Aficianados also race their boats on Saturday mornings, just as the Storytelling session across the pond at the Hans Christian Anderson sculpture begins.

Boat Rental:  Last weekend I sketched the lady in charge of boat rentals as she was checking her phone while waiting for customers for the rental boats and the T-shirts for sale.

There were lots of flowers blooming around the café, and lots of bees on all of them.  I sketched the day lily and then painted it back at our table, trying to capture the brilliant yellow and orange coloration. 

This week I also finally had time to paint the Beach Pickly Rose from photos I took at our June beach vacations.

Posted by Shirley at 7:49 PM | Permalink | Comments (5)

Only 8 more days in the online 100 Day Project (https://thegreatdiscontent.com/100days), and although I draw other things from my imagination for this Challenge", Axel is my favorite subject.  His character developed during a "drawing with a child" homework assignment in Jonathan Twingley's week of Sketchbook Skool, and I've surprised myself that I am enjoying this pure fantasy drawing so much.  There are days when I feel as if my imagination is totally empty and then I start thinking about Axel and a drawing emerges.  Here are the most recent 4.  My oldest son's 3 boys are spending the night with us this weekend, and I think Zach and I should begin to create Axel's story, since it was Zach who did the drawing I combined with mine when Axel first appeared. 

Where Did That Man Go?

Can She Be My Friend? 

A Taste of Coffee:  What Does It Taste Like?

Makes a Good Slide!

Posted by Shirley at 8:49 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

I am back to figure drawing and my last two models represent the extremes in body type.

Rebecca, a model at Battery Park outdoor drawing, is extremely thin and has very long arms and legs.  Tangerine, the model at Society of Illustrators, is massively obese.  I've drawn both of them before, but rarely so close together.

There are two 5 minute poses and a 20 minute pose of Rebecca and a 10 and 20 minute pose of Tangerine.  I sketched them with a General Sketch and Wash pencil and shading was done with my waterbrush and clear water.

Posted by Shirley at 5:45 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

We returned home yesterday from a very busy wedding weekend in Texas, and I only filled one page in my Summer Sketchbook.  Our friend Kathy is a wonderful gardener, and what I wanted to remember most from our visit with her is the variety of her calle lilies.

Posted by Shirley at 3:10 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)

When our friends are visiting us, and we are taking early morning beach walks, we see and find such interesting things.  We usually see skeletal parts of skates, and various fish skulls.  There are lots of empty helmet crab shells, and skate egg sacs.  This year we even saw one whelk egg case!  But this year we also found a bird skull!  My friend Jeff loves to do the research and using a bird skull identification site, he determined that it was from a "shearwater" bird that lives on the East coast.  I sketched dorsal, ventral, and lateral views, adding it to my painting of a feather that was different than all of the gull feathers lying on the beach.

At the end of our walk, 8 of us had coffee on the beach and Jeff's wife Sara and I sketched more scenes from the beach.  We had two pairs of birds right above us and next to us, and they definitely did not like the competition and squawked at each other the whole time.  The gulls love sitting there watching everyone eat.  The black birds (crows or grackles?) were newcomers.

Deliberate Practice:  I take pictures of the surf so I can practice with masking fluid when I'm home. 

Posted by Shirley at 12:10 PM | Permalink | Comments (6)