Drawing NYC - One: Chelsea Market

Some tourists from California told me what they thought I should draw, so I complied. Good thing, too, because they came back later to make sure I was drawing what they said I should.

I asked them why they were tourist-ing--'touring' doesn't feel right either--through Chelsea Market of all places and they said they saw it mentioned on the Food Channel. Maybe the Food Channel should be more responsible abt where they're steering hapless tourists? And they didn't realize that the Food Channel studios were located at the end of this hallway--score. Right? Rachel?

Everyone talked to me tonight. Eight people? Holding a blank sketchboard is like walking a dog--immediately all of New York is your talking buddy.

I HAVE A SERIOUS PROBLEM CONTROLLING THE VEERING 'STRAIGHT' LINE!

Look at anything I've drawn that has a floor, a straight wall, or any attempt at perspective. I always bend away.
It's not like I'm just realizing this just now, but I've never been more annoyed about it. I thought it would work itself out as I got more motor control, but, if anything, it's getting worse. What makes it even dumber is that in every drawing, I'm actually trying to be tidier and to draw straighter lines. This is me trying! And watching, and deliberating. And thinking, "this drawing is a mess, but at least I totally nailed that one straight line in that one segment of the wall!" That's the easy part of drawing that I think I can do. It's not until 20 mins after I'm finished that I realize, "oh no the floor is curling/the wall creeping/the post doesn't line up with itself."

I think that this is one of my problems: I have trouble seeing the drawing as an entity apart from whatever I'm drawing. I'm thinking, "is this what I'm seeing?" instead of "does this picture look cool and are the big lines all squared and straight?" I think I'm stopping to look at the whole picture-in-progress, but I'm not--I'm still seeing the separate segments and then glancing up to check them against life. Segments of it, actually, because I can't see the big picture out of the corner of my eyes, and I'm shifting to take it in. That's the main problem--I, like everybody, move my head when I look at the world. It's the same viewing pattern as for the page--I look at in pieces of the setting around me and focus on the parts until I can assemble some mental patchwork event for what I think I'm seeing. When I start to scan things further from or closer to me, I shift my head, maybe turn my shoulders, and--oops I just shifted the perspective lines again and don't realize it. But it's exactly what I see! Kind of. If you add 'time' to space. But the spatial relationships I'm paying attention to for measurements and proportions actually do match up! And for the dumbest reason! Because, unlike a camera, my version of the seeing involves stupidly torquing myself around to better see whatever's around. Good effort measuring and double-checking, but you forgot something. Surprise, I drew another torqued roof lifting off.

If I were doing this on purpose, I'd say that I'm drawing a montage of sequential moments. It's filmic! Too bad it's not on purpose. And, despite my multi-paragraph apologia for bent lines, I'd still rather be able to draw a straight line, and I'm noticing that nobody else seems to have this problem, so everybody else handles the situation fine.

Am I going to have to carry around a straight edge? [but that would be cumbersome, although, yes, I'm already hauling around the giant sketchboard and the bag of pencils and charcoal and a few extra books to read in case I get trapped somewhere...]
Or would it make more sense to get an iPhone for the camera and take a few seconds now and then to compare the progression of my drawing against my iPhotos and, when nec., deploy the side of the iPhone as a straight edge

Also: we are supposed to always draw a frame around the page before we start drawing, and I can't draw those straight either. It looks like I do them with my eyes closed, but I give my best effort to not wobble. How do sign painters do it?! Can this be learned?

Second drawing, 20 mins, looking the other direction.
The two security guards along the back wall are 10 feet tall because I started drawing from their heads down, and when I finished, they were floating. Unfortunately, I'd already drawn in the floor. I had to stretch them into giants so that their feet would touch ground. If it mattered more, I'd erase them completely. I don't like them. I prefer the guy on the far left drinking a juicebox.

My favorite part in both drawings is the unsullied white space.

Sighted! Non-celebrity NY1 anchor Lewis Dodley, leaving elevator! This is one of the finest sightings evurr, inclu Gossip Girl Jenny this summer. I love NY1. If it were Pat K, I might've made a pest of myself to thank him. For the news.


Love those shiny industrial floors. They make me want to move in. Is there anything more appealing than sealed concrete? I esp like the old lumber and the cracks showing through.

Drawing Class - Bonus Track: St. Patrick's Cathedral

Top, top quality camera phone again. I'm starting to like the greenish cast of the phone's pictures--good thing, too, because my the toy camera on my phone is turning into my primary photo supplier. Pathetic laziness.

It takes the very crummiest photos, but I'm using it almost non-stop. The ease outweighs the picture quality, until I look at the pictures. An iPhone would fix so much of my life. I'd settle for a better camera tucked inside my current phone [which I'm still fond of], or a small, light camera that always stayed charged in my bag.

I remember this night was freezing cold, so sharp and empty when you tried to breathe that the night seemed nearly airless. It was the best night for walking through the new year. Finally, a vacant hour and the expectation of a thousand like it! It seemed like the bare atmosphere barred regrets, like the accumulated weight of the past years couldn't chase me here through the dark thin nothing. Forward! Hope! That's the part I love about brutal January, esp at nighttime.

That came out florid and purple-y. I was shooting for technical-sounding. Oh who cares happy new year.

* * *

Two best memories from tonight:
1. There's a deli just north of St Pat's where I bought a grilled cheese sandwich during a break. The man who made it for me said, "It turned out PERFECT!"

2. My teacher said that what he liked about my drawing is it makes you wonder, "Am I in Heaven? or HELL?"
That's funny. Admit it. I thought it was so funny that I've pinned this drawing up on my bedroom wall for a reminder. I didn't even like this drawing before then.

Drawing New York - Rockefeller Ctr, lower level (still impossible)

First, some junky photos of the night from my crummy camera-phone. You're welcome!

* * *

Bonus Monday night class again. We met at the GE Bldg and went to the courtyard below where you can watch the ice skating from inside, behind glass doors. I'd never been there. It was pleasant and warm. The tree wasn't up yet and the crowds weren't overwhelming.

We were supposed to draw out our panels and add oil pastel to one of the four. I ran out of time, natch, so there's no color. Too busy going hog wild on all those little windows, I guess. I have a difficult time deciding which details to leave out. This surprises none of you who know me at all. It surprises me every time! It's hard for me to simplify a big picture without stripping the heart away. It's a lot easier for me, a beginner, to approximate a scene with masses of overlapping information and hope that some of it turns out right than to isolate and then precisely delineate the few perfect, elegant shapes capable of representing the same thing.

When my teacher came by, he cried, "Good Lord--the data in that thing!" I had been thinking the same thing, but about the world. I'm not used to paying so much attention with my eyes.

Enjoy the wonky 'straight' lines. Charming, aren't they? Every single one goes off track even more perfectly than if I'd planned it.
It's like having a student driver for a right hand.

Long, long ago I had some children's books with wobbly ink illustrations very similar to these--I think a few were set in New York!--and I remember thinking, "why do adults always think kids like messy drawings just because we [kids] can't draw very well yet?" I don't know why I imagined that adults were conspiring to deprive young readers. The pictures were probably great. I remember that the back pages and dust jackets proudly declared the inclusion of original work by artists who were "award winning" (imagine my total disgust).

I'm supposed to be concentrating here on representing the figures as shapes with stylized straight or round lines--no fluid, curvy stuff. I'm trying to do that here but it's a lot harder for me to stylize than to copy what my eyes are telling me and I forgot sometimes to STOP trying to make the pictures look like the real people and to just draw shapes without worrying if they're accurate. The top panel, my first of the night, is my favorite because the people were far enough away that it was easy to turn them into little shapes.

The top panel is looking up to street level, from the rink facing 5th Ave.
The second panel is the ice rink, looking east, below street level.
The third panel looks south toward the cafe tables around me.
The fourth panel looks southwest, same tables. The girl to the far right of the third panel is the same girl centered in the fourth.

I like to draw the other art students because I imagine they're less frightened by my drawing board and my unblinking, unwavering stare.

Drawing New York (is impossible) - Barnes & Noble, Union Sq

I went to a Monday night drawing class with my same teacher. They meet at different sites around town and draw from life. The idea is to be clever and quick enough that you can make a good drawing even when the people move or leave. I did everything wrong! It made me crazy.

We're at the 3rd fl cafe, B&N Un Sq.
(gawker stalker: Aaron Eckhart walked by me as I was getting off the escalator.)




First, here are 2 pictures by my teacher. He did them for me on separate visits around the class when he could see that I was floundering. I include them here so you can see where I was aiming. Can you believe how gorgeous they are? Each panel took him about a minute. It seems so simple when someone else's brains & arm performs the work.

my notes--I made them abt half-way through class to remind myself what I was supposed to be doing. They're kind of funny directions to myself.

aaah! they kept walking away!
I gave up and started again.

it's not working.
and that poor lady in the bottom right corner--she should sue me for visual libel

trying . . .trying . . .really, I was! Drawing sucks.
Not sure why there's a gremlin in the top right quadrant.

I think I know where I'm going wrong, but it doesn't make it easier to do it right.
The guy in the Yankees hat (lower right) was asleep and therefore motionless.

I didn't plan to post these drawings because I wanted to pretend that this night's failures never happened. I've had some--okay, a lot of--candy & now the episode seems funny instead of frustrating.