Day one hundred and seventy-nine: The U-HAUL trailer is packed and ready for the long two-day trek to Philadelphia. Filling it efficiently is like a giant puzzle, and it seems like all I’ve done today is fit boxes next to each other. Why stop while sketching? Tonight’s simple drawing was inspired by the U-HAUL. The long red and gray shapes at top are rugs. I kept it simple since I need to get a good nights sleep!
Tagged abstract, oil
Day one hundred and seventy-eight: With less than 36 hours until my departure for Philadelphia, I needed a sketch that would only take a few minutes. This rapid pencil study is based on a masked dancer I photographed at a Buddhist religious festival in Paro, Bhutan in 2007.
Tagged animal, face, pencil
Day one hundred and seventy-seven: While looking for something to sketch today, I came across a photo that I took in Pompeii in June 2010. I don’t remember exactly where among the ruins I found these broken columns, but I liked the way they were framed against the blue Amalfi-coast sky in the snapshot. Impatient this evening, I slapped colors onto the canvas in bold strokes, opting for an impressionist rather than realist representation.
Tagged ancient, architecture, art on art, oil, stone
Day one hundred and seventy-six: I usually watch murder mysteries on TV when I make my sketch of the day. Last night there was an angel of death in one of the stories. Perhaps the idea planted itself in my subconscious only to be evoked by my pencil this afternoon. Or maybe it was more recollection of Emil Bernard’s La Fin de Satan imagery. It beats me. What I was thinking about while working on this picture was how to layer dark colors and create black on black forms. It was fun to create white shapes (the bones) and then stripe fine black lines over them so that the harbinger seems to emerge out of darkness.
Tagged pencil, skull
Day one hundred and seventy-five: Today I was studying a 1935 etching of a man falling in darkness by Emil Bernard . It’s from a series illustrating Victor Hugo’s Le Fin de Satan, but doesn’t look anything like my sketch. I was going to imitate Bernard’s figure, but then decided to simply sketch my own very different version. I added in what I imagined the air might be doing too.
Tagged figure study, pencil
Day one hundred and seventy-four: I’m not sure why I decided to paint an egg standing on end this evening. Perhaps because I thought it would be easy to shape and shade. With a little extra space in the lower left, I added the feather. The background evolved because I wanted the egg to sit against black, but I also wanted it to have a shadow. Hence the greenish plane. One thing led to another, and the mysterious composition spontaneously occurred. I don’t think there’s any particular meaning here, just a bird theme with no birds.
Tagged bird, nature, oil, still life
Day one hundred and seventy-three: When I sat down to draw this evening an image of Icarus was on the TV. Instead of a winged figure, I decided to keep it simple and sketch a single feather. I see long tail and wing feathers from my birds all the time, so I tried to draw this one from memory. It’s a perfect thing for me to sketch because it seems to require a series of repetitive pencil strokes, which is one of my favorite ways to draw.
Tagged nature, pencil, still life
Day one hundred and seventy-two: The broken bust in yesterday’s sketch gave me an idea for a megalithic stone hand, broken at the wrist. Tonight I sketched my own hand and its shadow in grayscale, and by chance it ended up stretched across a blank square. I went with it, colored in the square and the background, and found the hand appeared to float before a two-dimensional plane. My original idea included a tiny bird to give the hand scale, so on another whim, I made tiny sketches of my birds, Helo and Caprica. It’s sort of a surreal self portrait. It was fun to make, and I love it. Of course, I often say my favorite sketch is the most recent. 😉
Day one hundred and seventy-one: I drew today’s sketch out of my mind. A couple of days ago I saw a painting by contemporary German mannerist Michael Triegel that included the head from a broken sculpture. It seemed surreal to me, and reminded me of the work of Giorgio de Chirico. However, the rest of this nocturnal scene was spontaneously added, as if I was thinking through the pencil (though I suspect my subconscious probably stole all the elements from one picture or another). This manner of working is a good thing, since I need to be composing a drawing in an expressionist-surrealist style (specifically Edvard Munch and René Magritte) to complete a friendly challenge by August 1. I fear my artist-historian colleague, Mary S., will be easily trouncing me with her insight and talent!
Tagged abstract, art on art, face, pencil
Day one hundred and seventy: When I came to my computer to make today’s sketch, the garlic from yesterday’s still life was still sitting nearby. Tonight I worked on a “color” sketch of the bulb using oil pastel, although I ended up working in all whites and grays. After two days of studying garlic, I can honestly recommend it as a good subject for practicing the modeling of shapes and shadow. Plus no risk of vampires sneaking up from behind.
Tagged food, gray, oil, still life