Blick & Artistic Head-space

Daya had a doctor appointment downtown today, right around the corner from Blick so I had to go.
I got one small pad of Stonehenge paper.

They sell Uart 400 now! Yay!! (like I really need more pastel paper...)

I was pretty amazing to be back in a physical store.... it was pretty empty though but I'm so glad they are open.

We did ink tonight in Leah's class.
My head wasn't in this but oh well.  I did use my Liquitex inks so that was ok.
But the reference wasn't my favorite, and even more than that, my head is not in a space of working loose. 

I'm in full Kevin Wueste Graphite Mode.  It's just a very different head-space.

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.)