Day two hundred and thirty-six: This afternoon I went to the Philadelphia Academy of Fine Arts (PAFA) with a few curatorial staff members from the museum. In an exhibition of abstract expressionist paintings and drawings, we encountered a small painting by Mark Rothko (1903-1970) titled Maroon on Red. Due to its diminutive stature (compared with […]
Day two hundred and thirty-four: I’ve been listening to CDs since I moved to Philadelphia, and trying to explore the ones that I’ve been given over the years, but never really listened to. When I first put in a compilation titled “Chicago Blues: The Golden Age” I thought I might make it through all the […]
Tagged art on art, blues, figure studyDay two hundred and thirty-one: If Picasso has a “blue period” and a “rose period” then I must be in a “Picasso period.” I guess this is the result of looking at nothing but Picasso prints all day. I noticed the figure on the left in an etching by Picasso titled La Danse (The Dance), […]
Tagged ancient, art on art, face, figure study, oil, picassoDay two hundred and thirty: Today’s sketch is based on a lithography by Picasso that I admired this morning, but I’m afraid that aside from general areas of light and dark, my version doesn’t look much like the original. Picasso’s is beautifully printed and looks like a rich soft pencil drawing with thick, carefully placed […]
Tagged art on art, face, pencil, picassoDay 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 […]
Tagged animal, art on art, oil, pencilDay two hundred and twenty-one: The general rules of those making daily drawings, state that the they can be anything, even just a scribble or line, as long as it gets done. I usually do much more than that, but tonight I got a later start than usual. More ready for bed than a drawing […]
Tagged animal, art on art, pencilDay two hundred and fourteen: I’ve encountered a couple of impressions from Katsushika Hokusai’s color woodcut series “36 Views of Mount Fuji” (circa 1820s) at work the last few weeks. When I poke about my computer for travel photos of things to draw, I usually run across one I took in 2004 of Mount Fuji […]
Tagged cameron, landscape, mountain, pencilDay two hundred and eleven: In some ways it doesn’t really matter what the subject of the daily sketch may be: it’s can be very peaceful and relaxing to simply figure out how to represent something with line, light, dark, or color, as it flows spontaneously. Tonight I found a photo that I took a […]
Tagged art on art, oil, pencil, sculpture, woodcutDay two hundred and seven: A colleague at work showed me a book with pictures mimicking heads designed by the 17th-century French academy artist Charles le Brun. The original illustrations were made to demonstrate “Heads Representing the Various Passions of the Soul as They are Expressed in the Human Countenance.” I couldn’t resist making snapshots […]
Tagged art on art, face, pencilDay two hundred and six: This afternoon I was glancing through a few works by the German Expressionist artist, Franz Marc. A detail of a bird flying through the woods caught my eye, and I decided to sketch it. Marc often depicted animals, and I love the way his painting style incorporates his personal belief […]