Drawing & Sketchbook Project

I have 4 sketches from last nights short pose drawing session for you today. Above is one of the 5 minute poses. I don't think any of the images this week are from the 2 minute poses, I had trouble getting into the groove last night for some reason. It might have been the model, who was new to me, last weeks model I had drawn before in my drawing classes, or maybe I just found her body type easier to render in charcoal. Who knows, still when I looked at the drawings this morning I discovered they weren't quite as bad as I thought they were last night. And when I compare them to what I was drawing last year in class, I am much happier with the results. Not that the current drawings are more perfect, they're not, I am still making lots of mistakes, but I am more relaxed, a bit more confident, and I think that shows in the type of marks I am putting on the paper. On to the rest of the images.

Next week I won't be doing so many drawings. The Artist who hosts the sessions is taking some summer classes and will be gone until August. However he is leasing his studio (and studio cat) out to another artist and one of the regular Models will be running the posing sessions, only just the Monday long pose session will be held. So if I want to continue drawing I need to switch to Monday night and do some long studies. After warming up with short sessions these past 3 weeks I think I am ready to try some longer studies.

On a totally different note, about a week ago I joined a project that I heard about on the Art Quilt List. It is called the Sketchbook Project and is being run by the Art House Co-op in Brooklyn, NY (click on the link to check it out). You pay to join the project, and you have to select a theme for your sketchbook, then they send out a small Moleskine Notebook that is to be filled with art. I received mine in the mail yesterday. My theme is Inside/Outside. You can see my starting efforts here. Since I have to send the book back to them in January 2011, I will be photographing my pages as I finish them. I hope that I will be able to actually finish this project, but whatever I get done should be fun and interesting.

I haven't started a quilt yet but I have been doing a bit of sewing, mostly on potholders but also on another pencil holder. But I hope to try to develop some ideas for a quilt later today, after working on the mandala a bit. That's it for this post, per usual comments are welcome.