Carracci? Which one?

So I'm taking this figure drawing class that is taught by a guy that has been studying the 15th - 18th century masters.  I think that I will learn quite a bit.  The first assignment was to copy an old master using a grid, which raised my eyebrows a bit, but it was a very useful exercise.  The point of the grid was not to enable me to make an exact copy, it was to slow me down, get me to focus on the tiny details, and starting asking why they did what they did.  Here's my first drawing, a copy of a sketch by Annibale Carracci (1560–1609) a vital force in the creation of the Baroque style. Together with his cousin Ludovico (1555–1619) and his older brother Agostino (1557–1602)—each an outstanding artist—Annibale set out to transform Italian painting. The Carracci rejected the artificiality of Mannerist painting, championing a return to nature coupled with the study of the great northern Italian painters of the Renaissance, especially Correggio,Titian, and Veronese.

Original:

My copy:

Next week is a Raphael sketch.  

On the way home I did a few sketches on the Metro which I'll post next.  

Friday Night Metro Sketch

I think this guy knew that I was drawing him and couldn't figure out why.

Poseur

I did a self-portrait this weekend, 9x12 vine charcoal and white pastel pencil.

TGIF

Hand

What more can you say about a drawing of your hand other than "this is a drawing of my hand"?  Nothing that I can think of.

Alexandra Ansanelli - NYC Ballet

Based on a photograph by Stefan Ruiz

"Next and final stop..."

"All passengers must exit the train..."

Greetings from the Metro

Two from my trip downtown this morning.

60 and 90 second gesture sketches

The point of these is to quickly capture movement or flow within a figure.  I do them on newsprint with china marker, limiting myself to 10, 30, 60 or 90 seconds per figure.  No erasing, no thinking really, and usually the only person who ever sees them is me.

Metro - Conversation about Contemporary Chinese Portrait Artists

"Silence is so Accurate"

I skipped out of work this afternoon to check out the Rothko exhibit "In the Tower," which ends tomorrow.  http://www.nga.gov/exhibitions/rothkotowerinfo.shtm
I went at around 3:30pm in the hopes that as few people would be there as possible, and it worked out pretty well.  For a few brief minutes I was the only one in the room with nine of his canvases that he did in 1964. 

Civil War Nurses Memorial

This is a sketch I was working on this summer of one of the statues on the Civil War Nurses Memorial, which is in DC near my office.  It was "Erected by the Ladies Auxiliary to the Ancient Order of  Hibernians of America" in "A.D. 1924," so there you have it.  I worked on this at around noon over the course of a couple of lunch hours, but never finished it.  Now the sun is in a different place, so the shadows are too, so I'll have to wait until next summer when the sun is back in the correct place to finish it.  On second thought, its done.

Words to Live By

I don't want to sell anything, buy anything, or process anything as a career. I don't want to sell anything bought or processed, or buy anything sold or processed, or process anything sold, bought, or processed, or repair anything sold, bought, or processed. You know, as a career, I don't want to do that.

- Lloyd Dobler

Leonidas

The King with half the East at heel is marched from land of morning;
Their fighters drink the rivers up, their shafts benight the air.
And he that stands will die for nought, and home there's no returning.
The Spartans on the sea-wet rock sat down and combed their hair.