Drawing Class - Week One, more of the same

the photos might look better uncropped. I like the colors peeking through at the top.

Drawing Class - Week One, cont.

from my digital camera. I'm having big trouble taking pictures without a tripod. the edges are a little wonky in every shot I take.

Sept 2007 - Drawing Class

my teacher laughed, "what happened here?" I said, "I don't know. I just kept going!"



This was the first day of John Ruggeri's drawing class. We were supposed to draw portraits without lifting our pencils from the paper. It took me a while to get the hang of it.

Beginning Painting - a red hot mess

This is the story of an abstract painting. It's drying on my wall (an oil painting takes almost a year to dry completely). I don't like looking at it, but making it was interesting.

collage (canvas, glue-stick, magazine paper):

you're looking at a blue umbrella, lots of drapery, tan bulletin boards, a tea towel with a blue center, and a table corner at the very bottom.

The painting (way below) began as a magazine collage from life. The tableau was at least 15 feet wide. The model was a weird clown. He irritated me. That's a giant red wig on his head, and . . . I don't feel like cataloging the rest of his outfit. You get the general idea. We quickly sketched him on newsprint, drew the best one on a large canvas board, and then colored it by filling in the shapes with cut-up magazines to match the real textures and colors. We had several days with the model, but my collage is unfinished because it took me forever to find the exact colors. Our teacher wouldn't let me slide by on the colored swatches I first thought might be close enough. I thought I would go nuts and I did, a little, trying to match the tinted shadows of the main white drapery, and matching the reds? I hate matching up reds! A very, very tiny part of me enjoys matching up reds.

I wouldn't have been so careful had I realized: 1) it didn't really matter 2) I wouldn't finish before the tableau was disassembled and the model went home 3) just because the colors and shapes are accurate doesn't mean the collage will look good 4) sometime very soon I will strip the canvas board clean, recycle the paper and re-use the canvas.

When that was finished, we cropped out a section of the collage to use as the object or beginning sketch for a painting.
I really liked the tea towel section on the far right and was trying to work out a crop there, but my teacher didn't think my sample crops over there were really working. I can now admit it's possible I was drawn more to "blue!" than by other considerations. She saved me from ending up with a big oil painting of beige and blue triangles--geez.

Here's the little crop, followed by the painted version:

They were supposed to turn out non-representational/abstract, but mine leans toward a more literal representation. daaaang it.

On the final crit day where I had it hanging 'landscape orientation' (sideways?), as I had painted it, Ms Meyer said it still looked like a portrait, or a sideways or upside-down portrait. I'd rather not own a portrait of a red-wigged, orange-egg-headed clown without facial features, much less advertise myself as its creator, but here I am.
One painting free to a good home.
Once it dries, I'll probably paint it white and recycle the canvas. The canvas had been whitewashed once already--I reused an somebody else's orphan painting from the back of the art closet.

Beginning Painting - Bonnard naked lady postcard

The entire canvas, courtesy of my trusty Canon PS400 SureShot.
(The dumb thing refuses to wear out or break. )Below: from my crappy scanner. Most accurate color with best detail [click on it to see what I mean], but I couldn't fit it all & I didn't know yet how to "merge" on Photoshop.

This is copied from a tiny postcard version of Bonnard's La Toilette 1914 (a.k.a. Toilette Rose). (the postcard I worked from had slightly different colors than the original--click thumbnail at link to zoom) My attempt is unfinished, as you can see--I had to return the postcard to my teacher. She picked it out for me when she saw I was headed toward copying a nice, simple painting of a bowl of fruit.

July/Aug 2007 - Beginning Painting - Warm and Cool Grays Still Life

camera:scanner:
I took a second SVA art class, Beginning Painting, as soon as the drawing class finished. The teacher, Melissa Meyer, pushed me a lot. I liked it.

this is our first painting. The can in front is a can of tomatoes.

Drawing at the Met - Central Park

These are from the last day of class.
The tree is near the east end of the little Turtle Pond. I like this tree drawing. I never could draw a tree before. The building is Belvedere Castle from across the Pond. It was a hot day and I sat in the shade of a willow tree for both sketches.

Drawing at the Met - the yearning cow

This is a drawing from a painting is called Young Herdsman With Cows by Aelbert Cuyp. Obvs, I didn't quite get to the young herdsman. No time, no time.

Drawing at the Met - big black vases from the Greek galleries

I was trying to practice that composition stuff. I remember that I wasted most of my drawing time trying to decide what to draw.

This one was more difficult than I thought it would be. My sad small motor skills don't yet let me draw the lines where I want them to go, and I can't hide that problem when I'm trying to represent smooth, curved, perfectly symmetrical objects. It makes it too easy to see where I went wrong. There's a lesson in that somewhere for me. Also, what's up with that single super-dark handle?

The part of the drawing I like is the top of the vase in the extreme foreground, top right corner of the page. It was also the easiest, quickest, and most fun part to draw. Sometimes painstaking effort doesn't pay off after all--another life lesson for me.

Drawing at the Met - knights in armor hall

I think we were supposed to draw the negative space or something. I can't figure out why else I would draw the silhouette. I like drawing horse's hooves but that's about all I like here. Okay--I hate it!

Drawing at the Met - armor hall from above

Arms and Armor Court. or here. You'd never guess from my scribbley lines, but I was drawing sooo slow and carefully (hard to believe, I know) and couldn't do any more than this in the time allotted.

Drawing at the Met - Rosa Bonheur painting

This is from a painting is called The Horse Fair. It's gigantic. I included my notes and practice sketch on the first page. The second drawing is unfinished, obviously. I kind of like the horse's hooves on that second sketch--by the time I got there I'd finally loosened up.

These drawings elicited a lot of unsolicited advice from passing tourists. I guess they thought I looked confused and squinty-eyed (well, I may have been), and wanted to help. I met a lot of people that morning.

Drawing at the Met - little head from Sri Lanka, 5th - 6th c.

it was only a few inches tall--I liked it, I liked drawing it, and I even liked the drawing

Drawing at the Met - Scholar's Garden

This is one of the drawings that I sort of like. I'm sitting under the porch and drawing the roof-line above me.

Drawing at the Met - Gigantic Bodhisattva from Asian Wing

Flickr is great!
This is the giant statue from the Sackler Gallery in the Asian Wing.

Drawing at the Met - Babylonian room

This is one (of many drawings) that didn't bend to my will. We were supposed to make a deliberate composition from the room but I was already at wits' end just trying to control my fingers. Even when I'm trying to be careful, I scribble and wobble. You can't tell from looking at this, but I did learn a little more about composing that morning. I think this was the morning of the third class.

Drawing at the Met - a little mummy

Egyptian sarcophagus--yet another missing nose.
We were supposed to vary our lines. It was/is hard for me. Obviously I have no idea what I'm doing here.

Drawing at the Met - scary lady statue

I'm sitting underneath her (poor thing) so I'm not representing the most flattering angle. It wasn't looking too bad until I added those ill-considered dark lines. She's somewhere in the American Wing to the left of the painting of Washington crossing the Delaware.

Drawing at the Met - Sargent paintings

v. quick sketch of the values from the balcony above

Drawing at the Met - Temple of Dendur

I'm seated on the northern wall of the raised courtyard. I'm not sure if this was the second day of class or not. There were only about 5 classes, so I guess it doesn't matter. I'll try to post the pictures in chronological order as best I can recall.
[photograph 19th c]