Paper and Threads

I love Spring flowers growing along the sidewalks of NYC - most are in planters around the trees, in big urns, or on the medians of wide avenues.  The day I walked to Aquavella Gallery to see the Joaquin Torres-Garcia exhibit I saw my first daffodils in front of our building and beautiful red tulips in the next block.  Like the next two sketchbook pages, I drew the flowers with my non-dominant hand, and painted them this weekend with my dominant hand.  It felt good to have color back in my sketchbook. 

Wagner Park May 2nd:  I arrive for the weekly Figure Al Fresco session while the Wednesday Battery Park City morning program is still in progress, and walk through the Park to find the most recent blooming flowers.  Most of the artists are painting the beautiful landscapes, but I prefer drawing and painting individual flowers. 

Wagner Park May 9:

Although my cast is off, and I'm getting PT twice each week, I still have some limited movement and pain.  Since this is my first fracture, every day I learn something new about how the body heals. 

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This was our 2nd Battery Park City Figure Al Fresco session for 2018, and I had one more page left in my Non-Dominant Hand Sketchbook.  My plan was to draw with my non-dominant right hand, scan and resize the image, and collage it onto that last page.  I had 2 Sketch and Wash Pencils and my waterbrush in my left hand, when the model began his 2 minute warm up poses, and without realizing it, I sketched him with my dominant left hand without even realizing it!  I was both happy and sad - happy that I could comfortably use my injured wrist for drawing, and sorry that my enforced challenge with my other hand could be ending. 

Five Minute Pose

Ten Minute Poses:

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My cast is off, and my "Non-Dominant Hand Drawing Sketchbook" only has one more empty page.  But I definitely need physical therapy to use my dominant hand without pain.  Yesterday was my first session of 6.  These were "line of action" drawings done over 3 days, after my breakfast.  I will probably continue these, but really need to try to capture people in action, not just still photo images, now that the weather is nicer.  I also miss painting with colors, and need to paint several spring flower drawings that are in my watercolor sketchbook.

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Koosje Koene:  It was great watching Koosje do a session in Sketchbook Revival.  I used an 05 graphite mechanical pencil to draw her while she talking and a Sketch and Wash pencil without water to add graphite to her blouse.  This sketch and the one of Danny Gregory were my greatest challenges while drawing with my non-dominant hand.  I am a regular student in Sketchbook Skool, and love them both.  My cast will probably be removed on Thursday, and then I'll need some PT.

New York City Ballet Dancer and Coppelia doll drawn from Programs when we went to 2 wonderful dress rehearsals last Thursday.  The company dancers and the choreography was so fast that a quick sketch from observation was impossible, especially in the dark!

Silver Elephant Bank, a baby gift for our first child many, many years ago: I'm surprised that it escaped my attention for the many years that I've been drawing household items.

Two bottles from our kitchen for my after-breakfast sketching:  And I needed practice drawing straight lines.

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Sketchbook Revival Video from Session 3.  I signed up for this free online course because I need inspiration as I enter the last few weeks of my dominant hand wrist fracture with cast.  Danny Gregory, who I first discovered in the Fall of 2005, with his Yahoo Group Everyday Matters, made me realize how much I wanted to draw and paint in sketchbooks.  I was partially retiring from Medicine that summer, and couldn't think of any skills I wanted to develop more.

While watching his video in Session 3 of Sketchbook Revival, I sketched him - while he was talking.  This was a new way of challenging me with my non-dominant hand and I used a simple 2B mechanical pencil, and a Sketch and Wash pencil without water for his sweater.

More "line of action" figure drawings from after breakfast:  These are perfect little opportunities for me to sketch in pen on quarter sheets of copy paper after breakfast - using a Pilot G-2 10 pen.  Before breakfast I haven't had enough coffee!

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