Paper and Threads

We finished our week with Koosje Koene in Sketchbook Skool and I did most, but not all of my homework.  Today I'm posting another selfie from a mirror, and one from a photo.  The first ones from a mirror and photo were in my last post.

We also were supposed to do two continuous line contour drawings from a mirror and here are those 2.

I didn't do #7 - which is a selfie from my imagination.  Since all of these could have been from my imagination, since the resemblance is questionable, I declared myself done with my homework.

Here is a picture of my daughter and I for comparison....

I think I will persist with these selfie drawings and paintings.  I was so inspired by see Koosje's Selfie sketchbook and seeing how creative she was - both with changes in facial expressions and props.  And as she says, "you always have a model" - and just need to think of it as play!  And I hope I will slowly get better at "seeing."

Posted by Shirley at 3:30 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

We went to the Conservatory Water again this weekend for morning coffee and I did 3 watercolor journal pages.  The first is a line drawing of the home we visited on Martha's Vineyard last month (from photo).  I still haven't decided whether I will paint this. 

It started to rain, but we were nicely protected by the big umbrellas on the tables on the Snack Shop Patio.  We invited someone without an umbrella to join us in our extra seat and she stayed and talked for awhile after the rain shower ended.  Meanwhile I sketched a partially opened umbrella at an adjacent table.  She arrived Saturday night from London and was here to work on a West End play that is moving to New York City. 

When the sun came out, I sketched two of the many types of flowers that are in bloom around the patio.

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My husband and I love to go to the Conservatory Water early in the morning for coffee and some quiet time in Central Park.  This is the Conservatory Water, which is on the East side of the Park just north of 72nd St.  We call it the "Toy Boat Pond" because there are privately owned and rented remote control boats sailing the pond.

There is a patio with tables, chairs, and umbrellas, and a full Snack Bar and we sit with our coffee while my husband does the NY Times crossword puzzle and I sketch. 

This morning we even had soft live music from a keyboard and bass.

I worked on my homework for Sketchbook Skool - this week Koosje Koene is the teacher and the focus is "Selfies."  I took a photo from the beach this week and sketched my self-portrait in graphite from the photo. 

Yesterday I did my first self-portrait of this class - sitting in front of a mirror.  I look sad, forlorn, and worried - probably because I was waiting for the results of medical tests (which were fine).  I didn't intend to post it, but my dear friend, a wonderful art historian, said "I think if your self-portraits show those emotions, it's a testament to your skills and honesty as an artist.  So there!"  What a good friend!  So here it is -  

I also did a quick sketch of tourists who were eating at the table next to ours. 

Posted by Shirley at 1:29 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

We finally came back to New York City yesterday, after a wonderful weekend with our family at the beach.  The beach was sunny and cool with wonderful breezes and NYC was humid and in the 90s.

The first class of Sketchbook Skool Semester 2 was downloaded on July 4th and our whole family was housebound most of the day by torrential rains.  This is my homework assignment #2, which Danny Gregory calls "Fast and Slow."  You choose a complex object to draw and quickly paint the main shapes.  Then you study the object and slowly make a pen drawing - with all of the complexities - over the painted shapes. 

I wanted to paint a hydrangea bloom because they were blooming all around the house, so I quickly painted the cup shape with blue, the leaf shapes with a medium green, and the hydrangea bloom wet-in-wet by first brushing the area with clear water and then dropping in alizarin crimson and ultramarine blue.

I was actually pleased with the painting of the big shapes, so when I slowly drew the cup, leaves, and hydrangea petals, I didn't deviate much at all from the painted shapes.  I did however need to darken the leaves and add the dots in the center of each petal (Signo white pen).  I then painted the background. 

We always take 2 mile early morning walks on the beach and one morning the sea gulls continued to sit in a line as I slowly walked up with my camera.  I've read that the brown speckled birds are the young Herring gulls - and there was a great assortment in this line-up. I loved painting all of the colorations 

If anyone would like to paint these gulls from a hi-res photo, just leave me a request in the comments and I'll email you a copy.   Your email address is automatically seen only by me when you leave a comment, so it will be on its way to you quickly.

Posted by Shirley at 1:13 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

We are at the beach with our children and grandchildren - except for the 3 who are at sleep-away camp.  I spent more time organizing drawing and painting for them than I did working in my own sketchbook.  This is Zachary and Annabelle who were painting shells that Annabelle found on the beach with me in the early morning.

I finished painting the group of birds that we saw at our friends' birdfeeder in Martha's Vineyard at the end of June.

And I painted one very long sea gull feather that we found on a beach walk in the mist and fog. 

We are going home tomorrow and then I need to do some catching up! 

Posted by Shirley at 1:33 PM | Permalink | Comments (5)