Day 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, oil, pastelDay three hundred and fourteen: I came up with the idea for this simple study early this morning, when I was rowing on the Schuylkill River. It was very misty, and the water was very dark. Sometimes when I looked toward the shore, all I could see were subtle shades of gray upon gray upon […]
Also tagged landscapeDay three hundred and eleven: Turning the clocks back for Daylight Savings meant biking home along the Schuylkill River path after dark. The nighttime view was fresh and new, and I was mesmerized by the dark shapes of bridges beyond bridges, and lines of lights shimmering in black, still water. In this simplified study, I […]
Also tagged architecture, oil, pastelDay two hundred and seventy-seven: I must have doodled half a dozen scribbles before I started looking for a photo I could sketch. As I picked through files, a snapshot of a landscape I took from a train accidentally opened, and finally gave my pencil focus. I started to enjoy playing with lines of light […]
Also tagged landscape, pencilDay two hundred and seventy-five: Keeping it simple on my last night in Minneapolis, I finger painted the Lake Street Bridge. This iPad doodle is the view that I could see from my seat on a giant rock during the Head of the Mississippi regatta today, where I reconnected with many rowing friends, and listened […]
Also tagged architecture, landscapeDay two hundred and sixty-one: I joined the Undine Barge Club this week, so I can row regularly. This very rapid sketch is Undine’s boathouse, based on a very old photo I saw hanging in the stairway. The building was designed by notable modern architect, Frank Furness, and was built in 1882. It looks about […]
Also tagged architecture, pencilDay two hundred and fifty-nine: My father’s comment about the sketch I made yesterday reminded me of an old family photo of my younger brother and me around the ages of two and five playing in an old row boat. It had been abandoned on the edge of a wild pond on my parent’s farm, […]
Also tagged landscape, self portrait, watercolorDay two hundred and fifty-eight: Today I was helping a curator from another museum who was studying 18th-century French etchings, and we both appreciated a charming landscape with an empty boat by Claude-Henri Watelet (1718-1786). Shortly after we were browsing a book of Rembrandt (1606-1669) etchings, and came across one of the same boat in […]
Also tagged landscape, Rembrandt, Watelet, watercolorDay two hundred and fifty-six: As I suspected, picking a concrete subject to paint with watercolor rather than scratching it out from my imagination certainly made today’s sketch more relaxing. I don’t know that it’s fundamentally any better than the landscape study I painted yesterday, but I like it despite its tourist picture qualities. This […]
Also tagged landscape, watercolorDay two hundred and nineteen: After I painted my favorite beach in Costa Rica the other day, my dad sent me a couple photos of his favorite beach in Tonga, where he and my mom are stationed as Peace Corps volunteers. This is a study of one of them. I particularly liked the deep grays […]
Also tagged landscape, oil, pastel