Day three hundred and thirty-nine: I so thoroughly enjoyed sketching Ganesha yesterday, that I quickly turned to another ancient sculpture for today’s sketch. This study is based on a 1st-century Roman puteale, or round well-head, decorated with twelve deities. The original stone well can be seen today at the archeological museum in Naples, Italy.
Tagged ancient, art on art, pencil
Day three hundred and thirty-eight: A visit to the Philadelphia Museum of Art’s Asian galleries this afternoon led to my encounter with “Dancing Ganesha,” a sandstone sculpture made circa 750 in Gwalior, Madhya Pradesh, India. Today’s sketch focuses on a detail of the Hindu deity’s elephant head. I was quite pleased to find myself able to sketch and shade the forms with hatch marks that are somewhat systematic. That’s not to say that many of my decisions to make the shading lines move in one direction or another were a bit arbitrary, but I felt like a real artist for a flickering moment. Mostly, I enjoyed imagining myself scratching away on a copper plate with an etching needle.
Tagged art on art, pencil
Day 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 imperfect representation of Earth. Hawking says there’s no such thing as perfection in the universe, so I’m not going to worry about weather this really looks like our planet. If you prefer something alien, please use this sketch to feed your imagination!
Tagged landscape, nature, oil, pastel
Day three hundred and thirty-six: Ever since I studied 16th-century Italian woodcuts intensely about a year ago, I’ve been enchanted by the bark-crusted trunks of twisting trees and stumps. I have a theory that every great artist has made one or two during the course of their career. This evening I visited the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Art’s annual student print fair, and encountered a new woodcut based on old styles (sort of a cross between 16th-century Italian Renaissance and 20th-century German Expressionist). At only $8.00, I simply couldn’t pass it up. The sketch you see here, based on a detail of the tree in my new print, is a tribute to the role prints have played for centuries: a cheap way to distribute fine art, and for artists to promote themselves and exchange visual ideas.
Tagged landscape, nature, pen and ink, woodcut
Day three hundred and thirty-five: Here’s a silly sketch. I began with no idea, but started trying to draw a woman’s face. Then I had extra space above, so I gave her a crown, which reminded me of fairy tale princesses. Adding a little goofy frog seemed like the perfect thing to do. She was entirely too serious.
Tagged pencil
Day three hundred and thirty-four: A discussion among students visiting the study room this afternoon about self-portraiture in prints reminded me that I haven’t sketched a proper self-portrait yet this year. At least not that I remember being any sort of serious attempt at a realistic representation of myself. This self-portrait was made in brown pencil for those of my artistic friends more fond of brown than black. I think it looks mostly of like me, but is still a bit off. I had to work and rework the ears and nose a few times to get even this close. Even so, since I haven’t really practiced portraiture at all, I’m generally pleased with the result. When I have more time some day in the future, I may try again, and see if I can improve myself.
Tagged pencil, self portrait
Day 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 on an amphora at the Met (for any vase geeks out there: NY 41.162.155). Happy day 333!
Tagged ancient, oil, pastel, pencil
Day 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 hills and valleys and playing with all the colors.
Tagged landscape, nature, oil, pastel
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 across the trunk. I guess nearly a year of intermittent attempts to create believable trees is starting to pay off. At least where arboreal forms are concerned. Now, human figures? Another matter all together!
Tagged landscape, pencil, tree
Day three hundred and thirty: Last night of finger painting on the iPad before I’m back in Philly with my computer and the digital drawing pad. I started by playing with a strange brush setting in Sketchbook Pro that made the background look like granite. I thought about trying to make a face carved in stone, but ended up with this sketch that looks more like a charcoal doodle.
Tagged face, iPad