Day three hundred and twenty-two: Today I spent a couple of hours looking at small books made by the self taught artist, James Castle. This sketch imitates one of the figures that appears repeatedly on the tiny, brittle pages, and is often cloaked in a quilt-like pattern of checks and spots.
Also tagged art on art, figure study, oil, pastelDay three hundred and nineteen: Tonight I felt like playing with ink and wash in an old master style. So I found an 18th-century drawing in the Thrivent Financial Collection, and tried to imitate a small part of it. What you see here is the head and shoulders of Joseph, as drawn by the Venetian […]
Also tagged art on art, face, pen and inkDay two hundred and ninety-seven: A busy evening left me little time or energy for sketching, so I wanted to do something simple and brief. But I needed a subject… Gathering up the recycling, I was reminded of two drawings on view at the PMA by The Dufala Brothers, a pair of environmentally conscious contemporary […]
Also taggedDay 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 animal, oil, pastel, RembrandtDay two hundred and eighty-seven: I generally try to keep a positive attitude about my sketches, but I must admit I’m less than delighted with the last couple of figure studies. So I decided to take a little break from that, and dabble again with watercolor. I’m quite pleased with the sky in this landscape, […]
Also tagged landscapeDay two hundred and eighty-six: Quite simple: more drafting practice, playing with pen and wash to improve my draftsmanship. Like yesterday, sculpture seems to serves as a good model. This Roman woman hails from the archeological museum in Naples. I added pupils to the eyes, because while the sculpture looks fine with a blank stare, […]
Also tagged figure study, pen and inkDay two hundred and eighty-five: I decided today that with only 80 sketches left, I might want to do less copying of the work of master draftsmen, and more creating of my own. Early in the year, I toyed with the idea of learning how to draw human figures well, but I never really sorted […]
Also tagged chalk, figure study, pen and inkDay two hundred and eighty: After yesterday’s sketch, I thought about another way to approach create a snowy mountain. This time I used a dryer brush that wouldn’t diffuse much, and I left areas of white paper to be the snow. Then added detail with an even dryer camel. By the time I got to […]
Also tagged landscapeDay two hundred and seventy-nine: More experiments with watercolor. This time trying to recreate a series of mountains, with one tall snow-capped peak towering in the distance. I gave up on the puffy gray clouds I was trying to make, and deleted them altogether. I will probably continue playing with watercolor, but may need to […]
Also tagged landscapeDay two hundred and fifty-nine: My father’s comment about the sketch I made yesterday reminded me of an old family photo of my younger brother and me around the ages of two and five playing in an old row boat. It had been abandoned on the edge of a wild pond on my parent’s farm, […]
Also tagged landscape, self portrait, water