More Sketches

The first two drawings are master copies I did on another visit to the TMA. Lately, I have been trying to work more quickly and simply. My goal has been to represent the subject accurately while using the fewest marks necessary in order to avoid overworking the drawing or painting. Unfortunately, accuracy was sacrificed for speed somewhat and the poor girl in the first drawing ended up with a sour expression that was not present in the original, The Artist's Daughter by Frank Von Stuck.


The next drawing is of a terra cotta bust titled The Painter Noel Nicolas Coypel, by Jean-Baptiste Lemoyne.


These last two were done from live models with my Thursday night figure drawing group.

The Purple Man and His Fish

Yesterday morning, I decided at the last minute to sign up for the First Annual Chalk-A-Walk competition downtown. Some fellow artists organized the event as a fundraiser for a gallery they are planning on opening.
Thankfully my sister and a friend agreed to be my teammates on short notice. Since we had a late start, we spent a few minutes trying to make some sort of plan for our square but eventually just decided to start drawing. This is what we came up with.


By the end of the day, we had a few other people help out with the fish so I was able to spend most of my time on the man's face. I had so much fun spending all day outside coloring and being a part of our small town community. And my fingertips are only a little bit purple today.

Sketches from the TMA

Did you know that the Toledo Museum of Art was recently voted America's Favorite Art Museum? I have been up there a couple times this month to do some sketching.
In other news, I am very excited to get back to my figure drawing group next week. Working from live models is such a treat.

Unfortunately, I have not made anything worth posting in the past few weeks so I have decided to share some old artwork. I did this first one when I was five.


This next one is a watercolor of the creek by my grandparents' house that I painted when I was eleven.

Peas and Onions

This is one more from the trip to Chicago. I hardly ever use acrylic. The transition from oil to acrylic was very frustrating when starting this painting but I think it came together in the end.

In other news, I did a quick mural for the local theater. They are doing Once Upon A Mattress, which is the story of the princess and the pea. The rest of the set looks like a castle. Painting on such a large scale was a fun challenge.

Do you like science?

This weekend I visited some friends in Evanston, IL. Hannah and I went to a market with all sorts of interesting produce and picked a few things for a still life. Sorry for the blurry photo.
One of my favorite things about the city is the architecture. Every single building seems to be thoughtfully designed and carefully constructed. This is a sketch of St. Nicholas Roman Catholic Church, playing with my new pens.

Finally, I have a little watercolor I did sitting on the side of the road while I was temporarily stranded in Amish country.

Early Morning

If only I had the will power to wake up at 5 am every day. I had been wanting to paint the reservoir for a while and today I finally made it out. I love how isolated it feels in the very center of the water, especially in the early hours.

With the sky changing so quickly, I had to apply the color in big, thick smears. This intuition-driven rush often produces some of my favorite pieces. The little speck above the horizon on the far right is a bug who got trapped in all the sticky paint. I think I will leave him there.