Day three hundred and fifty-five: For those who have studied Surrealist photography, this image may be familiar. It’s a photograph made around 1930 by Man Ray of the movement’s leader André Breton. I’ve known about it for several years now, and have always found it strange and delightful. When I started sketching it this evening, […]
Also tagged abstract, art on art, face, pastelDay three hundred and fifty-two: A day filled with the usual chores along with additional holiday tasks and planning left me little time or energy for a complex drawing. This very rapid sketch is based on a view from a hill overlooking the rooftop of the Golden Pavilion in Kyoto Japan.
Also tagged landscape, pastelDay three hundred and fifty-one: Nearly every Saturday since I moved to Philadelphia, I have a visited a particular orchard’s stand at the Rittenhouse Square market. First, Caprica and I enjoyed a variety of delicious peaches, followed in the Fall by several kinds of apples. This morning, the farmer who now recognizes me as “a […]
Also tagged bird, food, pastelDay three hundred and fifty: Some days I guess I’m just in the mood to draw. I’ve always liked a particular photograph I took of a juvenile great blue heron at the mouth of the Madrigal River in Costa Rica, but I’ve never managed to sketch it. I’ve considered it several times, but abandoned the […]
Also tagged bird, nature, pastelDay three hundred and forty-nine: In 2004, I was snapping pictures of Tokyo from a tower near the center of the city. I’ve always been particularly fond of one distant view of Tokyo Bay that I photographed near sunset. Tonight’s sketch is based on a detail from that snapshot, and includes a giant Ferris wheel […]
Also tagged architecture, landscape, pastel, waterDay three hundred and forty-seven: One image that has come up a few times this year, rather spontaneously, is that of a face emerging from darkness. I don’t think any prior attempts at creating the image have been particularly effective. But now, near the end of the year, I think I’ve finally drawn enough faces […]
Also tagged face, pastelDay three hundred and thirty-seven: I’ve been watching Stephen Hawking’s “Into the Universe” series on Netflix, which gave me the idea of sketching something galactic and fascinating. Nebulas the size of several light years seemed too complicated to begin with, so I decided to start closer to home. Today’s drawing using oil pastel is an […]
Also tagged landscape, nature, pastelDay three hundred and thirty-three: For the last few days leading up to this seemingly momentous number, I’ve been thinking that I would create some special picture to commemorate the 333rd drawing this year. But I forgot all about it until I logged in to post this quick sketch of an Athenian vase. It’s based […]
Also tagged ancient, pastel, pencilDay three hundred and thirty-two: It occurred to me the other day that although I’ve sketched many landscapes this year, I hadn’t made one of Colorado mountains. Tonight’s quick study, in oil pastel, is based on a photo I took of a sunset near Vail in late June, 2005. I loved sorting out layers of […]
Also tagged landscape, nature, pastelDay 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 landscape, pastel