Day three hundred and forty-eight: Today’s sketch of an eagle is based on a detail from an early 16th-century etching by Daniel Hopfer. I’d write more, but I got a late start because I attended my first book arts class after work! 2011 has been the year of the sketch, and it’s looking like 2012 […]
Also tagged pencilDay three hundred and fifteen: On Friday afternoons we’ve been hosting a printmaking class in the study room. Today we were looking at some prints by Mauricio Lasansky, and one in particular caught my attention. This sketch is a study of a small detail from one of his intaglio prints, for which the copper plate […]
Also tagged abstract, conte crayon, oil, pastel, pencilDay three hundred and ten: While cleaning the apartment today I was listening to inspirational music, and began contemplating themes of fear and faith and despair and hope. The lyrics to one song caught my ear, and remembering the expressionist woodcut I liked yesterday, I thought I would try making up a new picture. After […]
Also tagged bird, face, pastel, pencilDay two hundred and ninety-one: This afternoon I looked at the Rembrandt print from which I made yesterday’s sketch under a microscope. With the help of a few terrific paper conservators, we confirmed what I suspected: the print shows the effects of drypoint burr. Drypoint uses a sharp point to scratch the lines directly into […]
Also tagged oil, pastel, Rembrandt, watercolorDay two hundred and seventy-eight: We were studying several drawings by self-taught artists at work today. If I remember correctly, one was called “Man Talking to Fish in a Chefs Hat and Frogs.” Another was “Pink Man, Pink Bird, and Green Fish” (the fish was actually neon yellow). Many of the drawings used less traditional […]
Also tagged marker, pencilDay two hundred and fifty-three: Weekends are a great time to give my green-cheeked conure some extra attention. He loves being held in the palm of my hand, and to be given little scritches around his beak and eyes. While he enjoys little bird bliss, it gives me the opportunity to look closely at his […]
Also tagged bird, oil, pastelDay two hundred and fifty: When I was a kid, around fifth grade or so, watercolors were my favorite way to paint. When I started this blog, and began using the Corel Painter 11, it was one of the first “brush categories” I tested. And I hated it. The colors diffused all over in a […]
Also tagged art on art, watercolorDay two hundred and twenty-eight: Continuing to catalog Picasso prints, I was working all day on a portfolio of animals he made in aquatint and drypoint in 1936. The series was made to illustrate an edition of the 18th-century French classic, L’Histoire Naturelle (Natural History) by Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon, and published in Paris […]
Also tagged art on art, oil, pencilDay two hundred and twenty-four: Just as I sat down for lunch today on the patio at work, an extraordinary and wonderful thing happened: a praying mantis landed on my back and crawled up onto my shoulder. You should have seen the face of my friend, Samantha, when it happened! Next it flew about and […]
Also tagged insect, nature, oilDay two hundred and twenty-three: August 11th is my birthday, and I had a wonderful time. No big party or special dinner, but I certainly didn’t mind. I got to do everything I love to do: work at my awesome job, eat my favorite lunch, bike around Philadelphia, and enjoy dinner and a TV show […]
Also tagged allegory, bird, food, oil