Parent Observation Paintings, Again

Tonight I painted during the partnering class then the pointe class at Manhattan Youth Ballet.

I decided to go simple, beause I had absolutely no time.  Each class is only 1 hour and I had to switch studios.

Because of that I decided to try a different approach... I'm not sure if it worked or not but it was interesting.

Instead of gouache I used my small set (small meaning 24) of inktense blocks... you can use them kind of like watercolor pans.... combined with inktense pencils and white gouache. The reason I did this was so I didn't have to set anything up. There is just no time.

My biggest problem was time. And at the end I was really struggling with wet paint.

I might touch these paintings up if I decide to post them on social media, but I want to document the work on-location after 1 hour.

Mr George's partnering class, 5x7

The pointe class was even less than an hour, and with the studio switch I decided to drop color all together and use pencils plus one of my Derwent paint pan sets... this one. And then I added the blue because it needed it.

I wanted to zoom out a bit more and put more figures in.  I had to choose a warm-up pose early on because of time....

This isn't the greatest painting but who cares, it isn't always about the end result.

And I know how difficult this is to do, so with that considered it's pretty successful for what it is.

It does need studio touch-up for social media posting though.... if I choose to do it.

Gouache and Bolshoi

Yesterday Daya had an audition for the Bolshoi summer program.
I had to wait for about an hour and a half, so I painted the waiting area.

I didn't finish, and since we had to be at school for a 2pm show (the audition ended at 1) I was on a real time limit.

I got this far on-location...... painting makes time go by so fast!

And I did the final layer today at home, I needed another 30 mins or so.

Daya forgot ONE pointe shoe for the audition.
Sigh.

30 Faces- Done

I completely and suddenly lost steam with 30 Faces in 30 Days after Will Weston.

But I wanted to see it through, so I did. Even if I am a day late. I just didn't have the energy last night, between the dishwasher and battling a stuffy-cold.

It felt a lot like homework.

But it was worthwhile and good practice.

I'm glad I finished,

Now I am going to continue with Will Weston stuff.

*******
DISHWASHER UPDATE:
Someone is coming on Sunday to look at it.
I had to wash all the dishes that were in there.

30 Faces in 30 Days- Half Point

I mentioned once buried in a post somewhere that I'm doing 30 Faces in 30 days thru Sktchy Art School this month which is an online thing.
I found it on Instagram.

The Sktchy app has been around for several years now, it's where people upload their selfies which can be used as art reference.

I don't really use it but I saw this challenge on Instagram and felt very pulled to do it.
There are (I think) 5 teachers who share a video with a portrait tip every day along with a reference photo.

For the most part this has been worthwhile.
I'm finding it very difficult to do time-wise, as the time I can usually do it is at night at the end of the day and I'm pretty tired.  This in addition to all the other art stuff I have been doing.

But I am keeping up with it.

Some of the lessons are good reminders, good review, or just taking a different approach and trying something new, no risk.
Some days are just stuff I already know.
Only 2 of them I have found to be essentially worthless and not well-taught.
(I outright disagree with one of them.)
Mostly they are pretty good. Nothing new, just different perspectives and working in ways I normally don't.

Everything is done in one small watercolor sketchbook, it's a 5x7 or thereabouts.
It is getting me to do stuff I wouldn't mess with otherwise.
None of them are long, time spent ranges from 5 minutes to about an hour.
None of this is meant to be "finished" work.

I like a couple of them, most are ok enough, and a few I really don't like and that's ok.
There is value in all of it.

Day 1: Blind Contour Drawing- I haven't done this since college? high school even? And it really is super-valuable.

Day 2: Proportions I like this lesson too, but it only works for a straight-on view.

Day 3: Mapping Light and Shadow

Day 4: Shading in One Direction

Day 5 Vanishing Point (this is the one I disagree with)

Day 6: Finding Motivation in a Word

Day 7: Set a Time Limit

Day 8: Creating a Natural Black

Day 9: Leaving your Drawing Unfinished

Day 10: Negative Space

Day 11: Sculpting with White Space

Day 12: Drawing Teeth (and Loving it)

Day 13: Marking off Proportions

Day 14: Crosshatching with a Limited Palette

Day 15: Creating Contrast with Warm and Cool Colors

Most of the photo references are ones I would never choose.
So actually it's good that I'm working with them.

Almost none of them would be good for painting.

But they are ok enough for drawing.

Gouache and Turtle Bay Gardens

I took an art workshop for writing and sketching which was located in the stunning Turtle Bay Gardens.  The woman who ran the workshop has a friend who lives in a garden-access house there. (!!!)

(Yes the house is amazing)

Turtle Bay Gardens is the largest private garden space in Manhattan. Think of gorgeous houses around a back courtyard, with private gardens around a central garden space. 

It has historically been home to people like Greta Garbo, Katharine Hepburn, Paul Newman, E.B. White, and Kurt Vonnegut.

(!!!)

So anyhow I got to paint there.

(!!!)

The workshop was about incorporating writing into sketching, which is up my alley as I still can easily veer back into an almost-unhealthy obsession with the Speedball Textbook.
It was a very good workshop and the main thing I got from it, aside from the astounding location, is yet another example of combining stuff that has been sitting around in my studio mostly-unused for years.

Black gesso and white gel pens.

Oh. My. Gosh.
My sketching life is forever altered.
I never thought of doing this because I assumed the gesso would be too rough but it isn't, it is a perfect gel pen surface!
Regular acrylic paint would be too slick.
It feels sooooo nice to write with the gel pen on the black gesso.

We had pre-work on which we added writing in the workshop, and we also did a full sketch in the garden and added writing from pre-selected quotes.

Here is my garden sketch, I only had about 20 mins to do it.
Gouache..

And here is my pre-work with the writing added:

*******
Here are some garden pictures.
(Lisa you would love it.)