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looking up

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Day one hundred and forty-nine: Today’s little sketch is a study of part of a sculpture titled “Paradox” by Kate Christopher. In the sculpture there is a second figure looking down. Tomorrow I’m starting a 10-day trip to Peru, and I’m trying to decide whether I should take my computer and digital drawing pad, or just go with Doodle Buddy on the iPhone. This post is an attempt to add to my daily sketches from my mobile phone. If it works, I’ll be traveling light, and painting bits of Peru with my fingers!

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2011 05 29 artist tribute
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night church

Day one hundred and forty-eight: This last-minute sketch was inspired by a church spire I noticed on my way home from a dinner party. I used pastels and started playing with color because my friend Mary and I are starting a challenge that marries the styles of Munch and Magritte. This isn’t a particularly thoughtful study, but you can expect to see some surreal and expressionist sketches over the next few weeks, as I start sorting out what my final project will be.

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2011 05 28 quick study Comments (0) Permalink

thunder and lightning

Day one hundred and forty-seven: Every time I finish a sketch it feels like a miracle has just occurred. Today’s drawing is a study of a sculpture titled “Thunder and Lightning” by Minnesota artist Paul Granlund. I love the balance of the intertwining male and female figures. The style I used doesn’t quite capture the foreshortening necessary to give the duo the three dimensionality they deserve, and as a result the legs seems short. They probably are a little shorter than they should be, as my skills with proportion are not well honed. Still, I’m thrilled to have been able to easily sketch the complex overlapping forms of Granlund’s sculpture.

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2011 05 27 artist tribute
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study of a pale iris

Day one hundred and forty-six: I think Spring into early summer might be my favorite time of year. The flowers are just stupendous. This study of an iris gave me a little trouble though: sometimes the Corel program seems to go mad, and my layers don’t work they way I think they should. I’m sure I just bumped some setting. Anyway, aside from the messy outline of black around the green leaves, I think the flower itself turned out pretty well. It’s too bad we can’t smell its beautiful scent!

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2011 05 26 composition
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parking ramp

Day one hundred and forty-five: Occasionally, as I go though my day, I see something and immediately decide it should be the daily sketch. Today I was walking to my car after work, and encountered the orange cones and yellow paint you see here. I really enjoyed sketching in the forms with oil pastel, and playing with shadow and light to recreate the scene in the parking ramp.

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2011 05 25 composition
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face #2

Day one hundred and forty-four: Many days I’m copying the art or style of another artist, but I’ve been thinking lately that I’d like to find my own style. This spontaneous sketch works the surface of the sheet, which is a theme that I find very compelling. I also like using apparently sporadic lines in a variety of directions, and layering straight lines over portions of the picture plane. None of these tactics is particularly new, and is drawn directly from printmakers like Emil Nolde, George Bellows, and even Rembrandt. Still, this drawing is entirely mine, especially the really scratchy parts!


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2011 05 24 quick study Comments (0) Permalink

lily of the valley, color study

Day one hundred and forty-three: Yesterday when I started my lily of the valley drawing, I had intended it to be in color. But once I started sketching with pencil, I decided to stick with the graphite. Tonight I started with oil pastel because I still wanted to try and capture the colors, and more importantly the shape of the flowers and the shadows cast by the stem. The black background reminds me of certain floral motifs rendered in pietra dura, a form of mosiac in which carefully selected and cut semi-precious stones are pieced together to look like a painting.

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2011 05 23 quick study Comments (2) Permalink

lily of the valley

Day one hundred and forty-two: It’s great to be back in Minneapolis, and enjoy all the Spring flowers. The lily of the valley smelled especially lovely after the rain storms today. This incomplete study could have used a little more time to blacken the background and sculpt the most important part: the flowers! Still this is the best attempt at water in a glass vase I’ve made so far.

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2011 05 22 quick study Comments (2) Permalink

my st. michael

Day one hundred and forty-one: All the chatter about rapture this weekend led me to sketch an apocalyptic figure: St. Michael. I’ve toyed with angelic subjects a couple times in the last month or so, always copying versions by other artists. Before the world ends, I thought I should try my hand at one from my own imagination, and decided on a detail in which Michael is about engage in battle. It’s quite sophomoric, but I didn’t have much time to fix errors. The use of Conte crayon is something new, and is a medium I’d like to explore more.

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2011 05 21 quick study Comments (0) Permalink

Rittenhouse Square

Day one hundred and forty: When I move to Philadelphia, I’ll be living about three blocks from Rittenhouse Square. It’s an utterly charming park, and a perfect place to sit and enjoy a cup of coffee. Today’s sketch is a study for an etching depicting the little glass gazebo that stands in the center of the wooded plaza. It’s not an absolutely accurate representation of the view, but captures a sense of what I saw there this morning. The composition started as a simple study, but I just kept filling in more and more details, and this is as far as I got. I’m quite happy with it. This is a drawing style that seems to work for me, and I think I’ll continue to explore sketching in this manner.

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2011 05 20 composition Comments (2) Permalink