Paper and Threads

I am still really enjoying my FIT Illustration Class called Fashion Applications.  Last night we started to talk about elongating the figure, and I learned that was a convention that began in the late 1800s when women were wearing long dresses.  Instead of the normal body length, which is 8 heads long, the fashion figure is 9-10 heads long.  It will take me awhile to achieve those proportions for our drawings, but I wanted to record some progress here since mid-semester.

1.  I am still using Nu-Pastel chalk to draw the 2 minute warm-up poses.  They are fun for loosening up, and I'm glad I finally tried them!

2.  I can draw a figure and even add detail from a costume with 7 minute poses. The model had on red leather boots to go with her red and black Spanish costume.

3.  At the end of a 3 hour class, with many single and double figure poses, I was loose enough to draw 3 figures together in 10 minutes.

For anyone interested in figure drawing, this is a very structured learning experience.  I missed the class on Mapping the Figure, where you begin drawing the whole figure in a limited number of big separate shapes, and then fill in the internal details.  I will need to try this on my own to see if I can do it! 

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 I love making sketchbooks and devoted several accordion books, with 140 lb watercolor paper, to my days with the NYC Urban Sketchers.  This book took a little more than a year to fill, partly because I didn't always use it when I was sketching with the group.  This is the front of the book.

This is the back of the book.

We met at the Hans Christian Anderson Statue for the Saturday morning Storytelling Program when one of our members was performing.  I sketched the Boat Rental Building at Conservatory Water in Central Park and never posted it.

Recently our weekday USK group went to the Hamilton Grange in Manhattan, the Summer Home that Alexander Hamilton built and lived in for several years at the end of his life.  It is beautiful, and easy to access from midtown Manhattan, at 414 W 141st St.

Posted by Shirley at 8:31 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Today, while I'm in Houston Texas for the annual International Quilt Festival, I wanted to share two links for quick drawing inspiration.

Link #1  Draw Tip Tuesday:  Koosje Koene, one of the co-founders of Sketchbook Skool, presents quick tips for artists on her You Tube channel every Tuesday. 

https://www.youtube.com/user/koosjeko1975 

I watched her draw a crowd, showed my 8 year old Grandson Zach the video, and then sketched my crowd, with him watching, on a page in my "imagination" sketchbook. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zkGSzb5-og4

Zach gave me suggestions for the animals!  And hopefully will draw his own crowd in his Sketchbook.

Link #2:  Art Projects for Kids

On the same day, I did a black cat project with Charlie (age 5) and Zach (age 8), to make for Halloween decorations.  This idea came from a blog I follow called Art Projects for Kids. 

https://artprojectsforkids.org/blog/ 

Here is the blog entry I saw:  https://artprojectsforkids.org/black-cat-collage/

I sketched the outline of the cat and cut it out.  They traced my cat and cut theirs out, and all 3 of us made the collage with a black Sharpie drawn  scene behind it. 

Here is a photo of our 3 collages. 

From Left to Right:  Charlie, Grandma, Zachary. 

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These paintings of David were done on October 18th, my last Wednesday afternoon for 2017 at Battery Park City.  The program runs from May 1st through October 31st, but I couldn't attend this week.  These poses are for sketches ranging from 5-15 minutes.  I am drawing using more of the techniques I'm learning at FIT, and can finish a sketch and also paint it in the allotted time.

This week at FIT our models posed in front of and next to props so we could sketch them and "attach" them to the background.  The woman is wearing a real Gibson Girl costume on loan from The Society of Illustrators.

For our final drawing for the evening we sketched all 3 models simultaneously - in 12 minutes.  I was surprised that I made it all the way down to their feet in the allotted time and could even add color behind them.

These large sheets of paper were photographed, not scanned, accounting for the background color. 

Posted by Shirley at 5:08 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Nina Johansson was the artist for our final week of the Sketchbook Skool Imagination Course, and we saw her One Year Imagination Project, and a demo of how she approached each day.  She used a Moleskin Datebook Planner and did an original drawing, with ink, on every single page.  Each one of the drawings is a little masterpiece, and she demonstrated how she approached the drawing, which was also awesome.

I'm still trying to generate ideas and art for my imaginary character Axel.  If I can accumulate enough drawings, maybe I can make a book for my grandchildren.  In these drawings, I was inspired by a star, and sketched a child's bedroom with glass stars hanging from the ceiling, a star-making workshop, and an advertisement for stars for sale.

Our homework was to draw from our imagination every day for 7 days to establish a habit.  She believes that we need to develop muscles for our imagination.  Two summers ago I sketched from my imagination for 100 days, and I believe she is correct.  I am only posting 3 drawings, and hoping that I can finish some others this very busy week. 

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