Day three hundred and thirty-one: I liked the way the trees I finger sketched the other day turned out, and so I thought I would try a more complex tree with the digital drawing pad. I was delighted to find myself able to make a branch that didn’t split out to the side, but rather […]
Also tagged pencil, treeDay three hundred and twenty-nine: Late November in Minnesota can be so delightfully melancholy, especially when it hasn’t yet snowed. Bare trees, the last rake-missed leaves scattered and rustling beneath a low, overcast sky. Honking geese have left behind cawing black crows. Damp grays and browns settle and wait to be cloaked in a sparkling […]
Also tagged iPad, pencilDay three hundred and twenty-three: A couple of days ago, I imitated a color woodcut of Mount Fuji in Japan. This afternoon, while browsing through travel photos, I came across a couple shots of the mountain as seen from Tokyo at sunset. Very different from the 19th-century version, with the sprawling, modern city laid out […]
Also tagged oil, pastelDay three hundred and twenty-one: This afternoon I had the pleasure of spending a little time with an expert on Japanese prints who was visiting from Washington D.C. We looked at an example of “Red Fuji” in the PMA’s collection, which turns out to be a very fine, early impression of the classic color woodcut […]
Also tagged art on art, nature, woodcutDay three hundred and seventeen: With no plan to draw any particular subject, I started to doodle a bit of what was sitting right in front of me. This is the typical view I see while making the daily sketch. Lately, Caprica has decided to be involved (entangled?) in the process, and either pokes around […]
Also tagged pencil, self portraitDay three hundred and sixteen: This is where the sketches all began. Last December I was in an airplane leaving Minneapolis at the break of day, and found myself thinking about my friend Sara’s daily sketches. I started doodling what I could see out the window with a pencil, and made a note of the […]
Also tagged pastelDay three hundred and fourteen: I came up with the idea for this simple study early this morning, when I was rowing on the Schuylkill River. It was very misty, and the water was very dark. Sometimes when I looked toward the shore, all I could see were subtle shades of gray upon gray upon […]
Also tagged waterDay three hundred and thirteen: Back to the beach. I think I’ve made a couple of sunrise sketches from the Corcovado beach in southwest Costa Rica, but not a sunset. This impressionistic view of the Pacific was inspired by a photo I took years ago. I’ve always liked the interplay of orange and blue between […]
Also tagged nature, oil, pastelDay three hundred and nine: A very quick day trip back to the NY print fair brought me face to face with what might be my favorite German Expressionist woodcut. I’d never seen it before, but when I was going through a box of prints I immediately liked. By Erich Heckel, and titled “Wolken” (meaning […]
Also tagged abstract, art on art, Heckel, pastelDay three hundred and two: Encouraged by the response I received for yesterday’s sketch, I decided to try the same scene in pastel. Ha! It took seemingly forever. Of course, since much of the complicated architecture is mirrored in the water, I had to make everything twice. And upside down. So in the end I […]
Also tagged architecture, pastel