June 14, 2011

     This is a quick - 15 minutes - sketch of my son watching the live feed of the lunar eclipse. From the right, the first band is still light, the next is greyed (shadowed), the third is blushing orange from passing through the light coming around the edge of the earth (our sunsets around the leading perimeter) and the last is the dark of deep shadow. It was fascinating how it became darker before it became lighter, then the orange took over as eventually the only light to hit the moon was light coming through all of the earth's simultaneous sunrises and sunsets for those parts of the world having sunrise/set during the eclipse. You can tell the commentary was informative, too...

April 7, 2011

     With about thirty minutes before we would have to leave, I stepped into a promising gallery room at the National Gallery and chose a painting to sketch as an exercise. It was a relatively easy choice; the 1786 Henry Fuseli oil of Oedipus Cursing his Son, Polynices has simple, strong dramatic shapes, and with four figures (that is a figure in the lower right weeping on one of Oedipus' knees) and a very dark background it's relatively uncomplicated. 
     This is as far as I got in the time available even though I whipped right into it; even skipping fundamental stages like measurement since I didn't plan on putting so much into it that being a bit off on the sketch would ruin a big time investment. I was more interested in practising my eye and hand, and within a time limit. The placement is surprisingly close (well, I was surprised), and maybe I'll go back to it for another 20 minutes or so when I'm there again... however most of the remainder is, as I said, very dark and just pressing graphite into the paper might not have much practice value. 
   

April 6, 2011

        
    These are a few quick sketches of people on the Metro (subway), mainly done while the train was running so there was some motion to contend with. The funny little line drawings to the left of middle are outlines of people standing on the platforms because in certain lighting you could see them only as dark silhouettes which made them interesting. I turned the pad sideways to fit them into spaces. 
     This is a very small pad I can carry around tucked into a purse... I noticed my friend was surprised to see how small this one is. It's only 5.5 x 8.5!   

April 2nd 2011

    This was a fairly quick sketch of my son fixing my kitchen light while my husband supervises. The son turned out okay... but by the time I'd gotten to my husband I had only managed to sketch his head before they needed another screw and left. I had to try to do the body off a later - and probably slightly different -  lean against the counter and it just didn't do right... mainly going wrong in the neck and shoulders, which translates down into the torso. On the bright side (!) the light works!