Artsy Book Club: Week 2 (Plus)

We are well into week 3 at this point, but I've been spending my time trying to catch up. 

I spent so much time, and was totally rejuvenated after drawing number 4 below. I was back in my comfort zone working with charcoal! But because I spent over an hour on this drawing and was pretty tired, it took me a couple of days to pick up again.

The next drawing, I think, was supposed to be some sort of garden. Its winter here in the north east, so I selected a photo of a piece of drift wood we found on Nantucket that I've always wanted to paint or draw. I wasn't supposed to erase, but I was in the zone of adding a tone and cutting into it after the charcoal drawing, so this is the same method, but with graphite.

Next was supposed to be a garden scene with pen and ink, but again, I'm in the  north east with more and more snow. (Three storms just this week!) This is what it looked like outside my classroom. Cat tails, practice field, street, followed by a hillside graveyard. Yuck.

Day 8 was a pencil, charcoal and ink drawing of family members. I think others did one portrait of the same person. I decided to do three... and timed myself to spend only thirty minutes, even though I could have definitely spent more...

pencil

charcoal

pen (I've given up on ink)

If I learned anything from these portraits, its that we are totally related. I did a quick portrait a couple of months ago... The older I get, the more I see how much my mom and I look alike.

Finally we broke into color.

Tracing our hand and adding symbols, letters, numbers, etc that represent the artist. I had fun with the crayons. Normally I don't like using them, but I think they worked well here.

The following day we were to do a portrait inspired by light and color. I totally do not have purple hair.... but how cool would that be? Instead, the bright morning light made think about what my hair could be. I was ready to abandon this drawing a couple of times, but even though its not done, I think it was a fun study in color. Lord knows I haven't opened my box of Prisma color pencils in ages.

Next challenge was an urban scene.
Its cold out.
I picked an internet photo of one of the prominent buildings in my city. Lots changing here with reconstruction, but I think this building will stay.

Next was a monument...
We have a granite ball right next to city hall. Its a little weird to me but I really wanted to paint/draw the cherry blossoms that will be here soon enough, while it was snowing outside. The granite sphere was a gift for the city's 300th anniversary. Granite can be found every where around here and the quarries hired many people. The ball actually made it into Ripley's Believe it or Not. Here I used water soluble Portfolio pastels.

Finally, I worked on a landscape using watercolor crayons. I think this is my favorite of the body of work I pushed out this week. I hope to get back to this beautiful marsh soon.

I have found a bunch of these exercises difficult because it is snowy outside. But at the same time, it has been great to get back in the habit of making something. I think it is important to remember that they are exercises and to not spend too much time with each piece.