Baby Artichokes

When I get stuck for subject matter, I ransack the kitchen - bunched carrots are great fun to draw, and onions are even better. These are some aging baby artichokes and they are very complex in shape - next time I'll find the onions. Cretacolor oil and pastel pencils on Kraft paper.

Another ink sketch...detail

Here is a detail from another sketchbook page.  Sharpie ink pen, watercolor pencil and white charcoal pencil on toned paper... I have a million of them! This is only about 3 x 2 from a 7 x 5 page.

Have you seen the web site in the UK -"Turning the Pages" with wonderful virtual books.
 http://www.bl.uk/onlinegallery/ttp/ttpbooks.html
It is a great online gallery where you may simply turn pages upon pages of sketches in their archive as well.  Enjoy!

From the Toned Sketchbook...

Hi, Everyone!  This is Luana writing. I hope that you are all working diligently on new work now that we are well into the new year.  Some of my students who recently visited the studio asked why I never display the sketches in my notebooks/workbooks.  We were discussing the wonderful Leonardo exhibition in Atlanta at the High Museum . This address should get you to the exhibit http://www.high.org/main.taf?p=3,1,1,15,1  or go directly to the home page at the High http://www.high.org/  The exhibit is there until the 21st ofr February. Quite lovely, inspiring.... when one walks in, each person receives a magnifying glass and invited to approach the artwork at very close range....how unusual!  So here is a page from one of my toned-paper, 14x11 sketchbooks. The work is in brown Sharpie ink, touched with green-grey watercolor pencil, and white charcoal pencil. Why ink? It is a little like those folks who do the NY Times crossword puzzles in ink... makes you think fast, stay on your toes, and build confidence with correct decisions!

Art of the Dance

This is a not-quite-finished sketch of a 19th century marble sculpture in the North Carolina Museum of Art, on translucent 'Yupo' with watercolor pencils. Yupo is a synthetic material which is great fun for drawing or watercolors; it is completely non-absorbent and it is like children's fingerpainting - the paint just slides around, and if you don't like the results, just wash it off in the sink. The photograph is deliberately sloppy to show the translucence of the material; the more familiar Yupo is opaque white.

sketches of my dog Re-run

I did these sketches quite a while ago whilst attempting to do a painting of this JRT - he doesn't sit still for long! I love sketching and haven't done it in a long time so maybe this blog will get me going again.

Graphite sketch...

I forgot that Martie is in Beijing where she has no access to the blogs.  So I will post another sketch...this one in graphite.  This was a preliminary to study placement and design for a large, luscious oil painting. This is 11 x 14 and done in 5 grades of graphite: 4H, 2H, HB, 2 B and 6B.

The Beauty of Silverpoint Drawings...

For those of you who are out there experimenting with drawing materials, I want to introduce you to an historic method.  Silverpoint drawings were done centuries before wood-encased graphite pencils came into use.  Any metal - gold, silver, brass, etc.- will make a mark on most any surface.  In Italy, they prepared wood and paper with a clay/gesso coating that "took" the mark particularly well. The trick to this type of drawing is to be bold, decisive...and make no mistakes because there is no going back to correct. The marks are made typically with the purest of silver wire held in a holder for ease of use. The marks will be very faint until they oxidize and "tarnish" as silver does in any form making the drawing appear slightly darker with age. Take a look at http://www.silverpointweb.com/  for more information about supplies..or where I buy my supplies when I am in Florence (Zecchi is about a block from the Duomo on Via Lo Studio) http://www.zecchi.it/ ....or visit my studio at Artspace where I always have some materials in stock.  This is a 4 x 4 inch silverpoint on claycoated Italian board. Framed 12 x 10 $350 + shipping and NCSTx