Day two hundred and sixty-four: Unsure what to draw, I found a photo I took in Maine of a sunset over pine trees on Burnt Coat Island at Phippsburg. I thought that pastels might be a good way to capture the phenomenal play of color and light in the wispy puff and streaks of clouds, […]
Tagged landscape, pastelDay two hundred and sixty-three: I wasn’t satisfied with Adam’s head in yesterday’s sketch, and so I tried a closer study of the profile from Dürer’s masterpiece. One of my favorite things about the entire engraving is how much Adam and Eve look like statues of Greek deities, perhaps Apollo and Venus. Of course, the […]
Tagged classicism, Dürer, face, pencilDay two hundred and sixty-two: Some of my favorites themes that have emerged over the course of the last 261 drawings include parrots, original prints, and classicism. This sketch incorporates a little of all three. It was inspired by a 1504 engraving of Adam and Eve made by German printmaker, Albrecht Dürer. Made between Dürer’s […]
Tagged art on art, bird, Dürer, face, figure study, parrot, pencilDay two hundred and sixty-one: I joined the Undine Barge Club this week, so I can row regularly. This very rapid sketch is Undine’s boathouse, based on a very old photo I saw hanging in the stairway. The building was designed by notable modern architect, Frank Furness, and was built in 1882. It looks about […]
Tagged architecture, pencil, waterDay two hundred and sixty: I found myself in a pastel mood today, and wanting to play with the rich chalky layers that I began experimenting with a couple of weeks ago. Turning to my photographs to find a suitable subject, I expected to choose a colorful sunset or ocean scene. Instead I was drawn […]
Tagged landscape, pastelDay 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, […]
Tagged landscape, self portrait, water, watercolorDay two hundred and fifty-eight: Today I was helping a curator from another museum who was studying 18th-century French etchings, and we both appreciated a charming landscape with an empty boat by Claude-Henri Watelet (1718-1786). Shortly after we were browsing a book of Rembrandt (1606-1669) etchings, and came across one of the same boat in […]
Tagged landscape, Rembrandt, Watelet, water, watercolorDay two hundred and fifty-seven: An extraordinarily long day left me with little time (or brain power) to sketch a composition, but I wanted to continue exploring watercolor. Playing with the layers of color necessary to emulate pine trees seemed like a good thing to practice. These firs were created by dabbing deep, dark greens […]
Tagged nature, watercolorDay two hundred and fifty-six: As I suspected, picking a concrete subject to paint with watercolor rather than scratching it out from my imagination certainly made today’s sketch more relaxing. I don’t know that it’s fundamentally any better than the landscape study I painted yesterday, but I like it despite its tourist picture qualities. This […]
Tagged landscape, water, watercolorDay two hundred and fifty-five: Continuing to explore watercolor, I opted to play around with the medium in an imaginary landscape. I’m still wresting with all the variables in the Corel program, and often forget which brush I used for certain effects. Yet, somehow I managed to tease my way into what looks something like […]
Tagged landscape, watercolor