End of July

Of course I spent the evening drawing.
Here's maria, the 1 hour pose from tonight.

******
It is the end of July.
If I can get through July, I can get through August, right?

I have fallen into a probably-not-healthy week schedule of not really leaving my apartment at all on weekdays, unless something comes up.  I'm not even going out to the store that much.

I basically only ever see in-person human beings on Saturdays and Sundays.

Today I left for the first time since Tuesday, and that was just to get a package downstairs, and I realized I haven't gotten the mail since Tuesday, either.

I know this isn't good but I'm a bit stuck in it right now.
Tuesdays are my least favorite day because I don't have anything scheduled in the evenings.

One day is basically the same as the next, one week is basically the same as the next.
My brain is fried.

Also, I'm pretty sure I'm a bit depressed.

Guest Artist!

My friend Beth Lowell is teaching a pastels class for a couple of people who asked her to.
She asked me to be a guest artist! The Reuters group meets twice a month now, so I have some Thursdays open.

There are two students and they are very cool- unlike pretty much all artists I know, they are happy with everything they do!

Beth had them do a copy of this oil painting by Julian Merrow-Smith.

This is NOT my painting

This is the copy I did in pastel.
Because this is a painting by a living artist, I don't feel right posting it anywhere else but here.

Doing master copies of other artists' work is a great learning experience, but those artists must always be credited.  i personally would never sell a piece done after a currently living artist.  It is for study purposes only.

5x7 mostly Nupastel and some Senneliers on top, on Uart Dark 400.
About 2 hours.

Weds Drawings

More drawing.

Elya, 1 hour.

20 mins

Last Homework

This week we worked on toned Artagain paper with white chalk.
This is wonderful paper, by the way, one of my favorites.

Graphite is just as difficult to photograph as oil paint.
Also, I need more general's white charcoal pencils... i think the lead in mine is broken and I lost a lot of the pencil trying to sharpen it.

I need to order a whole box- I use them all the time.

Here's the final critique.

Kayla on Monday

Here are a couple of drawings of Kayla.

I suppose there are worse things than getting thru this covid year by drawing all the time.
But honestly the drawing sessions- I go three times a week now to Drawing America-- are really getting me through in a huge way.

It's weird because I feel so strained, and I haven't even been drawing well lately.
Kevin's class has been amazing but also super-intense.  It's a strange feeling to need a break and also want to keep going.


20

20

Lasst 10 mins or so

Conservatory Garden Again

I went back to Conservatory Garden with Jin.

We settled down to paint back at the statue from the other week.
Shortly afterwards, a wedding party came over.
I was standing at the side of the entrance, Jin was sitting on a bench.
They asked her to move.
She said no.

They weren't very nice about it.
The fact is- when you do stuff in public spaces there are hazards.  We were their hazards, they were our hazards.

They were not being nice to Jin, so I went over to inquire if they had a permit or not.
They did not.
So, they really could not make her move.

That makes the second Covid wedding I have attended!
It was a nice wedding but some of them were very, very pretentious people who either really were quite wealthy or were trying to act like it..

I did a painting, it's ok sort-of, I think it's too complex a scene for a 6x8 panel.
oil.

Week 5 Homework

One more class to go.
This kind of drawing requires a lot of focus and mental energy.... and that is what I have found to be challenging, because my head feels so strained.

But I'm glad I am getting these assignments done.

Second Chance Drawing

On Thursday in Leah's group I did a really bad drawing:

And then I went to drawing on Friday and the marvelous Tasha took the exact same pose!

This second one is much better.

It was like a second chance drawing!

Thursday

I have had a not-so-great drawing week.
It's a mental thing- my mind feels very strained. Drawing requires focus that my brain just can't seem to muster up energy for. My mental fatigue is pretty severe.

Work is very busy.

Daya was gone from Sunday to Weds visiting a friend which was nice and lonely at the same time.

***
Leah brought a model in for the Thursday Reuters Art session.
Here are some 1 minutes:

20 mins

20 mins, Leah's cat joined so I added her in.

This model is one Leah uses a lot and loves but oh man does she move around.  All the time. During the pose.

It's normal for models to shift (the really good ones don't move much at all) but this lady moved constantly.  She stood up during the pose, she stretched-- the end of the pose was significantly different than the start even on a 20 minute---hey look I know modeling is difficult (I did it in college), and you're never allowed to blame the model for crappy drawing, but I found her movement to be excessive.  So many times I was looking back at her for something, and she was completely out of the pose.

I'm also used to working from live models. So I know what to expect and how it goes.

This lady was cool but she can't hold a pose at all.

She was outdoors and the sun was glaring, so was difficult to see.

*****

I have been slowly transitioning to facing that my online home for the last 16 years, Wetcanvas, is really truly dead, another casualty of 2020.  It has been dying a slow and ugly death for years, due to an out-dated website.  The promised support and upgrades never happened.

Well, the company who owns the site finally "updated" it, and if this is even possible, the new site is worse than the old one.  They made the terrible decision to run a forum on Wordpress instead of vbulletin.  We lost almost all the history of the site in the process.  The new site doesn't work.  It lacks basic functionality. Everyone who hasn't already left is leaving.

I have met some amazing people on there and learned so much over the years.

It's taken me about 2 months to really face this in a concrete way because I'm so sad about it.

For the time being I'm still there, mostly just talking with fellow staff.

It's like Wetcanvas died, went to Pet Sematary, and came back all bad and wrong.

16 years is a long time to be part of a community.

Facebook and Instagram are not the same.  Nor are other art forums I have seen around.

I guess everything comes to an end at some point. 

Bethesda Fountain

I brought my oils to Central Park for the first time since March 1st.

Here is a painting of Bethesda Fountain.  8x10 oil

Conservatory Water at night.

Week 4 Homework

I banged this entire homework out on Thursday night when I was exhausted from the beach.
It is almost three hours of drawing. Focus this week was eyes and nose.

It's not ideal for submitting best work, and the areas that I knew were problems happened when my brain just quit. I'm happier with this week than last week though.

But homework has deadlines and I made it!

Kevin gave me a 27 minute critique which was amazing.
I'm getting so much out of this class.
Here's my drawing before and after critique.

Marvelous Madeline

Here is the 1 hour pose from tonight.
Graphite.

Gouache & Far Rockaway

Jin and I went to the beach.
Daya joined too!

We can swim at the beach now, and since we went to the surfer beach we rented boogie boards.
Daya needs to get out and I was so glad she agreed to come.

Here she is in the water, in the lower right.
The water was so warm!

I knew she would want to leave early on her own, and she did.
After I swam for a while, I painted.

I love the beach.

Beach Day Tonight

We drew Maria tonight.
The costume drawing theme was beach day!

This is good prep because I'm going to the beach tomorrow!

1 mins

7 mins

20 mins

1 hour.
I'm pretty happy with this drawing.