Things at The Met

I needed to get out this evening so I went over to The Met to float around, and also to see if my Memling is back up.  There is also a David exhibit I wanted to see.

First I floated around.

I actually brought my sketchbook with the intention to sketch a little, but.... I need a museum chair, since apparently we can do that now at The Met. Like this guy:

AND......... I think................. MY MEMLING IS BACK BUT THAT ROOM WAS CLOSED!!!!!

She's all the way there in that back corner!

I cannot believe that specific room, of all rooms, was closed.  The guard didn't know much but said it was probably just for tonight.

They really picked the wrong room to close!!

Well, after my Memling Disappointment (but at least she's back!!) I went to the David show, which was fantastic.

This painting is pretty small, maybe 11x14.  I was surprised at that.

Paris and Helen is also surprisingly small.  Amazing in person.

Now, Socrates is HUGE and this painting is AMAZING in person!!

And Pebbles, just because she looks cute here.

Stalker

I am a stalker.
I am stalking Derwent.
I have been stalking them for several months.

There is a new set (ok 2) that I want but they are not available in the US yet and it takes them wayyyy too long to get over here. Its not fair and it's stupid.

Today I stalked them again and found I can pre-order on Amazon! Release is March 22! SO CLOSE!!!

I REALLY want this shade and tone set! 
I also want the tinted charcoal pan set.

Here is Pebbles stalking me.

Fireballs and Chickens

 I got a text from Notify NYC that there was a film shoot in my neighborhood and there would be a fireball!

How cool is that! I wanted to go see the fireball.  So I called Janet and extracted her from work and her apartment so we could go for a walk and check it out.

We did not see the fireball.
There was a wide time range when it could happen.

There are chickens in my neighborhood! How cool is that!

They did not want to have their pictures taken, especially the pretty one I wanted to get a good shot of.
I think these chickens are wonderful.

MYB Winter Workshop

Daya was on stage all weekend and the show was fantastic.  I went three times.
She was in 4 out of 5 shows... she got a night off from dancing Friday evening but she was volunteering backstage at the show.

She has not had a day off in a long time--- not during winte break and this whole past week she was t dance rehearsals until 8:30pm.
"
Daya danced actual classical original Balanchine choreography- they danced Diamonds! That's quite a thing to have done- dancing original Balanchine on stage right here in NYC!

I'm extremely proud of her.

She also danced a student-choreographed piece, and they did the whole third act of Coppelia- which she had 2 roles but not ever in the same show.

Basically she had to know some pretty complex and intense choreography for 4 different dances- that's a lot! And they put this show together in 8 weeks!

I got some rare Daya pictures. (I did not get a picture of her in the Diamonds costume. These are both from Coppelia.)

I'm so tremendously proud of this kid.

We took the bus home and found some important information that I guess might stand the test of time....

Artist Brain, Graphite, and 8 Years

Last night I started a drawing in the Reuters Art group.
I still want to practice faces, so I pulled a few Netflix screenshots from shows I have been watching lately.

The plan was to do 2 1 hour poses.

I ended up spending all 2 hours on one drawing, didn't finish, and went to Reuters Art again this morning (They meet at different times most days of the week) to finish up.

So this drawing is a 4 hour drawing, graphite on Strathmore 400.

I think it maybe has some issues in a couple of places but I'm not exactly sure where... I measured and re-measured and even coming back the next day measuring again didn't see anything major to fix.  So I might have to analyze it more for learning. Or maybe it's ok and I'm just stuck in my head.

I have not done a lot of Asian faces so this was good learning. The angles are different.
I did not do the clothing patterning on purpose because I didn't want this to be a 10 hour drawing!

I also had to kind of fight against my own head......drawing does that sometimes.
I do a lot of studying and I attend Ken Goshen's Patreon classes and... just learning in general.  And when you listen to someone a lot they kind of get stuck in your head. Sometimes that's a really good thing, especially if they know what they are talking about.

But sometimes even if they really know what they are talking about and they get stuck in my head and what I'm doing differs from how they do it I get stuck in the trap of thinking "I'm doing it wrong" or other non-productive thoughts like "*insert admired teacher name here*" wouldn't like it. (Which for the record 1) doesn't matter and 2) probably isn't even true. I never study with people who think their way is the only way, and they do say so.)

This is artist-brain for you.
Of course I know better but it still happens.

Anyhow.

My biggest lesson on this one was simply to draw for the pleasure of drawing.
Just drawing because I love to draw and don't worry about anything else.

And also to enjoy using my wonderful Staedtler clutch pencils, which are my very favorite, and I just got three more so now I have the full range of hardness on the H 2H 4H side of the graphite spectrum. And I LOVE them and I wouldn't have done that if not for Ken's graphite workshop, I would have stuck with my (still-beloved and favorite) HB.  Sometimes it's good to listen to people and expand.

The color caps for each pencil come with the lead packs.

I do not really understand why there is no green, or why they are not in spectrum order.

************
I went to the Japanese market after work. (I LOVE the Japanese market!)
And... after 8 years I filled my card with all the stamps, 100 of them!
You get a stamp for every $10.

So the next time I go, I will get $20 off.

8 years, $20.
I need to get something good with this $20!!