Skip to content

big math

This sketch is the seventy-ninth in a 365-day challenge to draw a picture a day, every day, for a year…

Day seventy-nine: Fraction homework. On the page are all the calculations I could not do in my head when adding 16 3/8 + 4 4/5 + 12 3/4 + 23 5/6. The nice thing is that I actually knew what to do, it just took awhile to work it out. Algebra is another story for me. I’m not even really sure what algebra is, except it often involves x and y. Math is very precise. Do it right, and there is one answer. This picture is not precise at all. The ladder is too short and too foreshortened, and the shadows are a touch off. But I still think it looks pretty cool. Plus, I like imagining myself doing math on a giant wall.

Tagged , , ,
2011 03 20 composition Comments (2) Permalink

ajax carrying achilles

This sketch is the seventy-eighth in a 365-day challenge to draw a picture a day, every day, for a year…

Day seventy-eight: After trying my hand at ancient Greek fresco painting yesterday, I thought it would be fun to play Athenian vase painter today. This drawing is designed after a detail of Ajax carrying the dead body of Achilles on a handle of the famous “François Vase,” an enormous volute-krater discovered in Chiusi, Italy, and now in the  Archeological museum in Florence. The black-figure vase, with a gorgeous red-orange background dates to c. 570 BCE, and is signed by the potter Ergotimos and the painter Kleitias. I love the stylized shapes and lines, which required a steady hand.

Tagged , , ,
2011 03 19 artist tribute
quick study Comments (0) Permalink

greek fresco

This sketch is the seventy-seventh in a 365-day challenge to draw a picture a day, every day, for a year…

Day seventy-seven: Today I enjoyed lunch with art history colleague and friend, Andrew H. Last summer we visited ancient ruins in Ercolano, Pompeii, and Paestum, and saw the “Tomb of the Diver,” the only well-preserved example of fifth-century Greek wall painting, now in the museum at Paestum, Italy. This drawing is based on a figure in one of the frescos. The spare, fluid lines are similar in style to those used by Athenian vase painters. This picture may look simple, but I must admit it took me much longer (and more use of an eraser) than I had hoped it would. And it’s not nearly as elegant as the original. The vase in the man’s hand is a kylix, a cup used for drinking wine.

Andrew and me with the Tomb of the Diver:

Tagged , , ,
2011 03 18 artist tribute
quick study Comments (1) Permalink

stairmaster mountains

This sketch is the seventy-sixth in a 365-day challenge to draw a picture a day, every day, for a year…

Day seventy-six: While repeatedly stepping and going no where on the Stairmaster at the gym, I began to wonder what I should draw today. I decided to adapt the Stairmaster display into an imaginary landscape, since the various levels of the workout I programmed looked a lot like mountains. This is 20 minutes of “calorie burn.” The remaining seconds and the heart rate monitor make good clouds, I think.

Tagged ,
2011 03 17 quick study Comments (0) Permalink

en masse

This sketch is the seventy-fifth in a 365-day challenge to draw a picture a day, every day, for a year…

Day seventy-five: Belgian avant-garde artist, James Ensor, is a favorite of mine. Especially his etchings. I made this drawing of a detail from one of his earliest (1886) and most famous prints, La Cathédrale, from memory. In his etching a mass of people, including rows and rows of soldiers with sashes and tall hats, disintegrates into a haze of tiny dashes and dots. The tonal effect is phenomenal. So was the cramp in my hand as I tried to discover what Ensor’s process of drawing the hundreds of figures might have been like. He must have liked repetitive, methodical activity; sometimes Ensor hand colored the uniforms of the all the soldiers – especially the sashes – after the image was printed.

Tagged , , ,
2011 03 16 artist tribute
quick study Comments (2) Permalink

burne-jones angel face

This sketch is the seventy-fourth in a 365-day challenge to draw a picture a day, every day, for a year…

Day seventy-four: I must admit I do love some good old-fashioned classicism. This quick sketch explores the classical through the lens of the 19th century, and is loosely based on an angel’s head from a study drawn by Edward Coley Burne-Jones. I decided to draw it because of the bold, wavy hair, which reminds me of Greek and Roman marble sculpture. The face in my version is a bit narrower than it should be, and thus detracts from the classical effect effectively captured by Burne-Jones.

Tagged , ,
2011 03 15 artist tribute
quick study Comments (0) Permalink

angel from “le fin de satan”

This sketch is the seventy-third in a 365-day challenge to draw a picture a day, every day, for a year…

Day seventy-three: This drawing emulates an etching and aquatint print made by Emil Bernard in 1935. It is one is a series of 50 images designed to illustrate Victor Hugo’s poem “Le Fin de Satan.” I ran across a photograph of the print this afternoon while working with the Thrivent Financial collection, and decided immediately that it should be the subject for the drawing of the day.

Tagged , , ,
2011 03 14 artist tribute
quick study Comments (0) Permalink

standing male: back

This sketch is the seventy-second in a 365-day challenge to draw a picture a day, every day, for a year…

Day seventy-two: My friend Christopher has been encouraging me to practice figure drawing at a local artists’ coop where one can sketch a live model all Sunday afternoon. I spent a couple of hours there today working with vine charcoal, white and gray conte crayon, and occasionally pencil. This sketch is the best of the dozen or so I walked away with. Aside from the fact that the man’s left arm looks more broken than foreshortened, I liked how it turned out. It was drawn in about 10 minutes. I have to admit that sketching a real person (fast) and not a figure in a book is a lot more challenging, but a lot more fun too.

Tagged , , ,
2011 03 13 quick study Comments (3) Permalink

bird clock cello

This sketch is the seventy-first in a 365-day challenge to draw a picture a day, every day, for a year…

Day seventy-one: I won’t go into detail about why I drew a bird, a cello, and a clock today. Suffice to say they were all on my mind for one dull reason or another. Still they were something to sketch and play around with on Corel Painter 11. After sketching these three subjects, I used the program to translate them into a woodcut. Then I worked the surface using layers (one of which was an abandoned blended-color background), a silver pencil, and an eraser.

Tagged , ,
2011 03 12 composition Comments (0) Permalink

apian gear and aerial fish

This sketch is the seventieth in a 365-day challenge to draw a picture a day, every day, for a year…

Day seventy: Bizarre as it may seem, this drawing was inspired by a highly influential  Netherlandish artist of the sixteenth century: Pieter Bruegel the Elder. It brings together details from two drawings by Bruegel. The flying fish creature is from “Big Fish Eat Little Fish” (1556) and the strange masked man one of “The Beekeepers” (c. 1567-68). I am repeatedly amazed at the masterful skill of historic artists like Bruegel as I try to emulate their drawing styles (and clumsily fail). Bruegel’s command of line and his steady hand produce remarkable, virtuosic results akin to another of my favorite draftsmen: his Venetian contemporary, Domenico Campagnola. Bruegel’s subject matter, however, is often much weirder!

Tagged , ,
2011 03 11 artist tribute
quick study Comments (0) Permalink