Shelf

I'm re-organizing my studio and as part of that I got a huge new shelving unit.
Daya put it together and it took her 7 hours!

The cats love it!!

(There is a cat sleeping on the shelf.)

I was going through some old studio stuff and I found homework from Pratt.

This is an illustration assignent- we had to illustrate our worst vice.

Mine was procrastination.

Pastel on paper.

Daya also had a hair appointment in Harlem today.
We were there for 4 hours.
Her curls look fantastic!!

Friday Drawing

Here is Elya from tonight.
Graphite.

Repurposed Vintage

I took AP Art twice in high school.
That was when I got my first set of "real" artist pencils, the Derwent Graphic set.
This tin is from 1993-4.

This tin got extremely banged up in my locker.
And I still use it.

Until tonight, it even had Derwent pencils in it.

I got some Tombow graphite pencils because Kevin Wueste recommends them, and some General's charcoal pencils because they are cool.  I added in the General's white charcoal (best white chalk pencil ever, forever a classic) and a sanguine conte pencil.

There are 2 erasers in the far left slots... my Tombow pencils came with a 2.3mm detail eraser, how cool is that?

This is how I keep the tin next to me during drawing, now with switched out pencils.

Charcoal on Wednesday

Taking a break from graphite... switched to charcoal tonight.

Until this evening I did not think white Mi-Tientes paper should even exist but it is pretty ok on the smooth side with charcoal.

Mi-Tientes is pastel paper and I don't know anyone who works with pastels on white.
(Uart or other sanded papers do not count, and they are more of a buff color anyhow.)

I don't know why there is a rough side to MT, everyone hates it.
But the smooth side is wonderful.

Maria, 20 mins

1 hour

Monday Quote & Drawings

Simon says: "Some of the worst people I know are people."

Madeline

7 mins, graphitint pencil

20 mins

20 mins

Saturday

Today I went to pick up my painting that has been in a restaurant in the East Village for... I think a couple of years now.

It was time for it to come home.
I asked Daya to come with me and she did.

We got off the train at 8th st.  We could have walked east on 8th, but I had a very strong urge to turn on Broadway and walk down Astor place.

Right at the corner of Bway and Astor, a woman with 4 very small children was sitting on some steps.  She called me over.

I don't give people cash. Partly because I don't do that and partly because I never have any.
But she said she didn't want cash, her children were hungry and she was asking if we could go get them food at McDonalds.

That I will do, so I told her ok.

Daya was very concerned about the woman. She's really sensitive to homeless etc.
She wanted to help.

Now, I don't know if the woman was homeless, I sure hope not, and a lot of people do run scams with asking people for help.  But she did seem to be having a tough time. I think she really did need help.
You don't have to be homeless to be hungry, as the people giving out sandwiches on the trains say.

Whatever, it felt right and combined with that urge I had to walk over to where she was before I saw her, doing it was the right thing.

Also, anyone wrangling 4 small kids deserves a break.
The rest is not my business.

So anyhow, we fed 5 people (of course I got mom something) for $32.

Earlier in the day Daya and I went to Costco. We got whatever we wanted and didn't worry about it. That is abundance and I told her so. It's not always about fancy material stuff.

Daya remained concerned about the woman after we left, but I told her- legit or not, our sentiment is right and the rest is not for us to know.  And I'm never going to feel conflicted about feeding children.

**********
After I got my painting, Daya asked if we could go to Roosevelt Island.
My kid asked me to do something with her! Of course I'm going to say yes!

The train there is on the west side, so we walked over to the west village.

Washington Square Park was in a very happy mood.
It was a beautiful evening and people were out enjoying themselves and being friendly.

*****
I have been to Roosevelt Island within the last year, but haven't walked around too much since I was pregnant.  There is an old insane asylum there, as well as the old smallpox hospital, which has been made into a park. The horror movie Dark Water (2005) is about Roosevelt Island.

Daya wants to live on Roosevelt Island, and she wants me to live in the same building with her there.
There has been a lot of work done on the island, it is nice residential and really nice park areas.
Definitely different from not-too-long-ago.

Until very recently Roosevelt Island was definitely NOT fancy.... now apparently the buildings have pools in them.

It is my lifelong dream to live with a pool. I would be in the water every single day.

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.