Stylized Greek Mandala and sketches

Above is my latest finished mandala. Like all the others it is done with colored pencils and some ink work. I haven't quite settled on a name for this one yet, Slightly Greek, Stylized Greek, Not Quite Greek, any of the 3 would work, but I am also open to suggestions. The reason for the Greek reference is because most of the designs are based on Greek band or border designs I found in the Dover Handbook of Ornament. I have owned this book for more years then I want to admit to, having purchased it in NYC on one of my trips to the city when I lived in CT. The price at the time was 4.50, (it still has the sticker) which I felt was a lot of money and made me think twice about purchasing the book. Now it is less then a paperback novel. Anyway it is one of those classic design reference books that has been around since 1888 when it was first published. Dover first printed it in 1957 but I am not sure when my book was actually printed, probably sometime in the 60's. I have been consulting this book for years for design and pattern ideas. I was originally thinking I wanted to use Art Nouveau designs for this mandala, and even pulled out and reviewed my Dover books that have Nouveau designs, but in the end I went with the older Greek concepts finding them more attractive.

There were times when I was working on this piece that I wasn't very happy with it. But after finishing the two outer rings I decided that I really do like it. The center is a bit busy but since the outer bands aren't I think they counter the visual business of the inner ones successfully. The colors, esp. in the outer bands seem a bit oriental to me, which wasn't really my aim when I selected them. It is part of my design process to pre-select the colors/pencils that I will use in one of my mandalas, I may add or subtract a couple of pencils as I work on the designs but I try to limit the colors being used. Not sure that someone looking at the above image would think I had done that though. It appears that I included half the color wheel in this one. Still I think all the colors are working together, and I don't see how I could have left one out.  Good thing it isn't a fabric design though, the manufacturers would have a fit at the number of plates that would be needed to print this.

I have already started to think about the next mandala which I think will be smaller then the last two I have finished, probably the size of the Spring Mandala I completed in January.

I have 2 more images for you, yesterday being Monday I went out to the Monday long pose life modeling session. I finished 2 drawings during this session. The first one is pencil only, and not as finished as last weeks pencil drawing. Last night I decided to spend more time on the color pencil version and to that end I took along some pastel paper that I had purchased for my Illustration class but never used. The pastel paper has a bit more tooth then I usually use for my pencil work so I am not sure how I like it, but I think I need to use it again so that I can get used to how it works, and what I need to do to make it work for me.  Anyway here is the pencil drawing:

I am not sure how successful this is, the model was back lit so her back was in bright light while her front was in shadows. I was semi pleased with it when I was working on it, but now I am not so sure. Oh well, there is always next week. On to the colored pencil sketch:

The model is in a slightly different pose, as this was done after a break and she had repositioned herself. I didn't try for a lot of details so her face is a bit vauge, I probably should have darkened the background to make the profile stand out a bit more. That is something I can still do if I think the drawing worth the time and effort. which I am not sure about at this point. My fellow artists at the session were all painting with oils this week, some quite successfully. 

That is it for today. Per usual comments and suggestions are welcome.

Sketchbook Project Part 2, and drawings

Above is the finished title page for my Sketchbook giving the theme that I am using for my images. I wanted artwork that would visually represent the theme of the book. Maybe not the best design but I rather like it. I used various media to draw this, a technical pen for the black lines, a couple of colored markers for the green and yellow bits, and colored pencil for the blue letters inside the box.

The next image is my first page spread. Last Friday I stopped by the local farm stand to check on what they might have for sale. Because of all the hot weather we have been having I lucked out and they actually had strawberries. Locally grown strawberries, yummy and I quickly purchased a box to take home to enjoy. And enjoy I did, making some shortcake to have strawberry shortcake with cream. It was pretty much my dinner and I thoroughly enjoyed it. I saved the box the strawberries came in and used it for my first drawing in the sketchbook. Because I had already eaten the strawberries I downloaded reference photographs off the web. So the above image is a combination of a box drawn from life and photographed strawberries. Done with graphite and colored pencils. Because of bleed through I don't like drawing on the left page in sketchbooks, so I think I will be doing simple text images like what is above on my left side pages. In this case the text describes the drawing. I did it first with pen and ink only to realize that I had misspelled a word, so I went to the computer and redid the text in Photoshop, printed it out and glued it into the book. I am not totally pleased with this solution but it works so this is it.

This morning I spent time working on my pages at the Art House web site, uploading the scanned pages shown above, setting up my profile and adding a couple of portfolio images. I will be adding a link to my pages at the Art House site to the blog link list, but you can also find it here.

Last night I went to my first long pose drawing session. I have two drawings for you from that, the first is OK, done in pencil and took most of the evening. The second I did fairly quickly with colored pencils after sketching the models pose with pencil. I don't like it, but though you might like to see it anyway. All of the other artists there were painting, some with oil, others acrylic and one with watercolor. But they would rather have me then not so I will go again. 

Well that is it for this post. I have been doing some sewing and have finish a couple of pencil holders. Progress on the mandala is being made slowly. Comments per usual are welcome.

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.