Sketches and a visit to the MFA

One day last week I went into Boston to visit the MFA (Museum of Fine Arts) because I hate driving in Boston I took public transportation. To entertain myself on the trip I made some sketches of people and a tree I could see at stations and on the trains. Above is a woman waiting. She is very sketchy but I am not totally displeased with how it came out.

At the Red Line stations while waiting for the trail to leave I could see a tree, not a totally successful sketch, but I was starting to get there. Below the tree is the face of a fellow passenger on the train, he had headsets on and was listening to music. Again very sketchy, but also a bit of a likeness.

Above is a photograph of the entrance of the MFA with banners for the Jamie Wyeth exhibit which was my reason for heading to the museum. Talk about a post card photograph, blue sky with just a few white clouds, not my usual style, but every now and then I manage one of these. As an aside they have to be watering the lawn as most places have very brown grass at this point in the summer as it has been fairly dry.

I must say I enjoyed the exhibit immensely. It is the first major retrospective of Jamie Wyeth's art and they certainly have a range, from some of his earliest works (drawings he made as a child) to some of his most recent, Sea Gulls representing the 7 deadly sins, in watercolor on archival cardboard. They had two of his wild sheep paintings some of his portraits (including the exchange portraits he did with Andy Warhol) and some of his drawings of Rudolf Nureyev. He was friends with both back in the 1960's. What I found interesting is that in his early portraits he was looking for total accuracy, even to using calipers to measure distances, while some of his most recent work has become quite impressionistic. All of his paintings have power, and I enjoyed viewing them all, but I admit that I am just as happy that he is no longer a slave to realism.

I gather that the exhibit received mixed reviews, but then Jamie like his father and grandfather before him have received mixed reviews from the art critics their entire lives. He doesn't care and I admit that I don't either, I enjoy looking at what all of them create despite the critics. So if you are in the Boston area while the exhibit is going on I urge you to stop by for a look.

A couple more of my from nature sketches above is a seed pod from a Sweetgum tree. The other items are the actual seeds and debris that came from inside the pod. I have drawn the seeds slightly larger than life in order to depict them in more detail.

MA is about as far north as the Sweetgum will grow, this tree was planted by the city to be a street shade tree.

The seed pod above is from a Copper Beech tree that is growing in my neighborhood. This is a huge old tree, the trunk is many feet around, and looks to be in need of a tree service to check out how healthy it actually is. Oh well Copper Beeches are not native North American trees but were planted as ornamental trees by our ancestors.

Each pod contains 2 seeds, though I have drawn only one of the seeds that was contained in this pod. Exterior of the pod is hairy and dark brown.

A couple of quick pen and ink sketches of a miniature rose blossom, side view on top, and a top view on the bottom.

In past years I have had lots of butterfly photographs to share, not this year. Mostly because I haven't been getting out to the MA Audubon Sanctuaries where I usually photograph them. My local neighborhood doesn't play host to many butterflies. I mostly see just the cabbage whites, and mostly from a distance only. The other day I finally had the opportunity to photograph one, so above is my best shot, cabbage white, male nectoring at a fall aster.

Nature Journal, a carving, and faces

Above is another of my catch up Nature Journal pages. This one is about a year old and is from a visit to Daniel Webster, Marshfield, MA on April 9, 2013. As I recall it was a good day for a visit, the water in the Panne was high, note how much of the tree truck is under water and there were several interesting duck visitors. On that day there were blue wing teal and this Northern Shoveler swimming also saw a pair of Mallard ducks mating and a pair of wood ducks.  Out in the fields there were blue birds and a hawk.

What the Shoveler was doing in MA I have no clue, they are mostly a Canadian and mid-western bird. This one must of gotten totally lost, and this poor male certainly wasn't going to find a mate in our local waters, hopefully he flew up to Canada and found more of his kind for company.

If you can make them out note how many turtles were hauled out on the tree stump (8) and there was one sitting on some floating reeds, that were part of the flotsam left after winter storms. How the one turtle got where it was on the tip of the stump I have no clue, I wouldn't have thought it possible for something that size (it was fairly large) to get itself in that position what with the stiff shell.

When I was in Chicago over Christmas, not this year but last year, I took a stroll around my sister's Chicago neighborhood photographing buildings of interest. One of the buildings had this carved panel next to one of its doorways. There is kind of a challenge in the WetCanvas Drawing forum to draw something architectural. While this isn't a building or a room it is architectural in that it is part of a building.

I don't recall which building it was on, obviously something that was built a long time ago as most modern buildings don't bother with carvings, hard to find the talent and even if you do the cost can get pretty steep. As I recall this building has been designated a Chicago Historical landmark so at least this carving is safe, though there was some damage (which I didn't show)

Done with graphite in my sketchbook, it deserves more time than I gave it, still I am relatively pleased with it.

Was out at the laundry-mat today and took my sketch book with me, above are some of the faces and sketches made while waiting for my clothes to wash. At least there were people in the laundry-mat, some days it is fairly empty.

Last photograph today is some more Daffodils, these are blooming in front of our Public Library. Made this the other day as today we had clouds and rain. Thankfully the hail and the thunder storms missed my area.

That is it for today, per usual comments are welcome.

Cabbages and barns

I finally finished this watercolor of a display of mostly cabbages at a local grocery store. I had walked to the store and per usual I had taken my camera along in case I saw something I wanted to photograph. In the store I was struck by the colors of the produce in their display cases so stealthily made some photographs.

This is the first of a pair that I am thinking about doing. There is a bit more color in the second photo. but I thought the greens and simpler shapes of the cabbages would be easier to paint. For something that looks fairly simple it took me way to long to do, and there are still some aspects that probably could have used more work. To be honest I was getting tired of working on it so decided to call it a day. Still I am not dissatisfied with the results, who knew there were so many different greens.

Size is fairly small, 5.5 x 7 inches on Canson 140lb watercolor paper. Painted with a combination of my pan watercolors and ones out of a tube.  I drew the outlines of the various cabbages first, inked those lines in and then added paint. I don't usually use white in my watercolors but for this one I made an exception. I wanted the chalky look that one gets with the Chinese White color.

Above is another of the WetCanvas Pen and Ink forum's month challenge images. I should have spent a bit more time getting the perspective correct when I did the initial pencil sketch. Ah well I promise I will do that on the next building I attempt. The reference photo had a few more items that I left out of the drawing, a truck, some placards leaning against the barn, and a stack of wood. Still shading isn't bad, and I rather like the trees to the right of the barn.

I was at the Library for a bit yesterday and while there did a couple of sketches of other patrons. Done with a Micron pen in my small sketchbook. I didn't spend very long on either of them, but then didn't want my fellow patrons to realize they were being drawn.

I have been spending most of my time this week working on a couple of works I started last year and abandoned. I have been making real progress on one and hope to have it ready for my next blog update. Won't tell you what it is, want it to be a surprise.

On my walk home from the Library I photographed this sky. I love how you can see the clouds and colors through the still bare branches of the trees.

Hope everyone here in the US who went through the time change (Spring forward) last weekend is adjusting to the lost hour. I admit I find it easier to adjust since I don't have to force myself to get up early on a Monday morning.

That is it for today, per usual comments are welcome.

Christmas Cactus, apples and figures

I have a lot of plants in my Apt. and several of them are Christmas Cactus, right now I have 2 different colors blooming, a couple of pinks and a couple of whites. I did have an old large pair of Christmas Cactus that would bloom a gold/yellow color, but over this past summer the plants started failing. I have had this happen before, the main stalk just seems to dry up and the plants die. I have tried to take cuttings from the plants and I think a few have them have taken but there will be no golden blossomed flowers for me this Christmas, maybe next year.

Anyway I decided it might be fun to try and draw one of the pink blooming plants. I used colored pencils to just lay in the colors based on the shape of the plant then I went back in with pen and ink to add some lines to give shape. The drawing is quite impressionistic not my usual style and almost looks more like a water color than a pencil drawing. Still I rather like the results. Next plant to tackle is my blooming miniature cyclamen.

As a challenge to myself I hauled out a bowl I particularly like added a couple of apples and set out to draw them. I am much happier with the results above than I was with the drawings I made on Thanksgiving. At least these look like apples in a bowl and the results aren't too lopsided.

Above are some drawings from a short pose figure drawing session a couple of weeks ago. Top 3 are short 2 minute poses, bottom grouping of 3 are longer poses, 5 to 10 minutes. Not totally happy with these drawings, faces could be a lot better on the longer poses, but I think with the short poses I caught the energy of the pose, always a goal.

The last image is another of the photographs I made during my visit to Houghton's pond. There was one seagull that day at the pond, I think it had found something to eat, but not sure just what, there are fish in the pond (it is stocked). Anyway I just like this photo of the flying gull and its reflection in the water. The green in the background are the white pines that grow so abundantly in this area.

Above is a photograph I made a couple of years ago of my golden blossomed Christmas Cactus. Made when the plants were healthy and blooming,  not a common color, and I won't be happy if I lose the plants entirely.

That is it for today, per usual comments are always welcome and I hope everyone's holiday shopping is going well.

November Flowers, Figures and Fall

Been playing around with another bookmark. The idea for this one sort of came from my checking out a feed on a flickr account that I just started following. The owner of the account is into Zentangles and has a lot of images of Zentangle textures. At this point I can't recall if the weave I used for the above background was one she used, but it doesn't really matter as it was looking at what she had done that inspired this drawing.

Not sure I went with the right colors for the flowers here, but it is what it is. Still needs to be finished off with a tassel and protective film but otherwise I consider it done. Done with technical pen and colored pencils on a heavyweight paper.

Above is a drawing where I was playing around with the concept of laying down color and then using a technical pen to add line over the color. Usually with colored pencils I work the other way around, laying in the ink and then adding the color but for this drawing I wanted to see what would happen if I reversed my usual method. Kind of fun, wish I had used a bit more variety of colors, but I am going to think about this and maybe play with it some more, impressionistic colored pencil work. Adding the ink after the pencil allows the ink to have more shine.

Back in October we had a short pose session with a couple. Scott calls them a Barbie and Ken duos even thought the models usually don't have much in common with the dolls. They are a challenge to draw as you can end up with a tangle of limbs, and trying to make sense of them can get tricky. I try really hard to draw what I see but... Not totally thrilled with these drawings. Sorry about the quality of the photographs, didn't really realize how the sun light would impact the final image until I had the photos in Photoshop. Then I didn't feel like re shooting them so I just went ahead and cropped them.

Top grouping are 5 minute poses, the bottom poses were from 10 to 15 minutes.

I missed the following two weeks of sessions. Tuesday nights seemed to become my night for not feeling well, not really sick but also not feeling well enough to spend three hours trying to draw and mingle with fellow artists.

What a difference a couple of weeks and a couple of rain storms can make with the amount of leaves on trees. The above photo was made the end of October, love that red. I was photographing trees surrounding a parking lot that afternoon. A stream runs next to the property and this tree was on the other bank of the stream. Had a cop in a patrol car stop to ask what I was doing, thankfully my Cannon is fairly large so when I lifted it and said making photographs of fall color he left me in peace.

This photograph was made this past weekend at Ames Nowell State Park. There are a couple of men in some sort of craft out in the middle of the lake fishing. They stock this lake but not sure how many fish are left after the summer season. It is a popular place for folks to come and fish. Anyway you can see that there are very few leaves left on the trees. Color is pretty much gone for this year, now to get through the next 4 months.

That is it for today, per usual comments are always welcome. I will make responses as allowed by Google.

Autumn has Arrived

Now that the weather is cooler I seem to be more in the mood to draw. I started this little guy earlier this summer and just lost interest. In the past week or two I have been getting back to a couple of these unfinished drawings and spending some time on them to if not exactly "polish" them up at least bring them to a level of completion I am happy with.

Above is a sparrow I photographed earlier this summer at the Trailside Museum in the Blue Hills in Milton, MA. While I am thinking about doing a more finished drawing of this little guy I am not totally displeased with how this one looks.

 

Above are more of my Christmas tag designs that I have been working on in Illustrator. The top one is relatively simple but I rather like the bow on the post. to me at least it looks like Christmas. The poinsettia tag below is a slightly modified version of what I had in my last post. I changed the size and position of one of the flowers in this three flower cluster and think I am happier with this version.

 

More short pose figure drawings from July, I am trying to play catch up so am posting 2 weeks worth this week. Above top are some 2 minute poses then in the 2nd panel some 5 to 10 minute poses of the same model.

A second set from another week in July. Again 2 minute poses in the top panel and longer poses in the lower one. Obviously quality varies, and for this session I think I prefer the short pose drawings, I think they have more energy if less detail.

With fall comes the fall asters and various types of goldenrod. Above is a combined photo of the two flowers. Photographed last week at the Trailside Museum in Milton MA.

Above is a Pickerel frog that I was lucky enough to find and photograph at Houghton's Pond in the Great Blue Hills Reservation. These guys aren't as green as the green frogs I have previously photographed, more copper and brown than green. Still they are 2nd most common frog here in MA so it was fun to actually get a photograph. Green frogs are our most common species.

That is it for today, per usual comments are welcome.

Figures and More Figures

The beginning of June was wet with a few lovely days tossed into the mix. Then it got hot and any desire to draw sort of evaporated along with my sweat. These past couple of days have been mostly cloudy with thunderstorms. The good news is that with the clouds it doesn't get too hot. However rain tends to discourage butterflies and the wet isn't good for cameras so I don't get out on my walks even though it is almost cool enough for them. Oh well, I just have to deal with the weather as I can't change it.

Since yesterday was fairly cool I was finally motivated last night to draw the above sketch. It is based on a photograph I made last summer of a young girl feeding the ducks at Trailside Museum in the Blue Hills Reservation. As I recall this duck actually took food out of her hand. I rather like the composition. The duck was the trickiest part of this drawing as the girl's face isn't in view.

I have been working on the colored pencil piece and have it at a point where I have to decide how to treat the background, as I feel there should be one. Maybe I will have it ready for my next update, we will see.

The rest of the drawings today are all from my figure sessions. I am so behind with posting them as even if I haven't been doing other drawings I am still getting out to one figure session a week.

The drawings above are 2 minute poses from the middle of May.

Above the same Model just longer poses, one 5 minute and one 10 minute.

Also from a May the above drawing was done at a long pose session. The model had a plastic garland over her shoulder which added complexity to the drawing. I am fairly pleased with it except for the one hand which looks too stiff. Ah well hands are tricky.

More drawings from a short pose session this one in the beginning of June. Above are the some short 2 minute poses.

More drawings from that June session, these were 5 minute poses though I think the last one was a 10 minute pose.

I was out and about earlier in June trying to photograph more butterflies, my best photo is of the Tiger Tail Swallowtail in the above photograph. Made at Oak Knoll in Attleboro, MA. I wasn't seeing many butterflies that day until this guy flew past. It didn't stay long, only long enough for 2 photographs, but since it came out I can't complain.

One last photograph

With all the rain we have been having the River that runs through Daniel Webster in Marshfield, MA is over its banks creating a marshy area. On this visit this Egret was busy fishing. They are a bit shy so it wouldn't let me get too close, though it didn't want to leave the area either so it just moved around keeping its distance; fishing must of been good that day.

That is it for today, I have more drawings from my figure sessions that need to be posted so hopefully it will stay cool enough for me to feel like doing more drawings. For those here in the US have a great 4th of July. Per usual comments are appreciated.