More pocket sketches of people on the Metro

Steel Mill

This is a watercolor study of a steel mill on the Detroit River.  I learned something painting this.  I learned that I don't like watercolors.

Grumpy Dude on Metro

Well, this portrait of myself in a beret was completely unplanned. Some of you know that I like to do quick sketches of people on the metro on the way to work here in DC. This morning, I sat in a seat that had a glass partition in front of me. I was doing a rather uninspired sketch of a passenger, and looking for another subject when a man in a dark coat walked onto the car and leaned against the other side of the glass. To my surprise, there was my reflection! I only had a couple of stations to take a shot at it, and there was no telling when the man might move. This is the result... I would say it took about 10 minutes - Union Station to Farragut North. I'm not sure if people who know me would say that there is a likeness or not because it was done so quickly and it is a mirror image. But, it looks like what I see every morning before I've had my coffee.

Capitoline Venus - Final visit

Some studies of the Capitoline Venus

We're fortunate enough here in DC to have the Capitoline Venus at the National Gallery on loan from the Capitoline Museum in Rome. Here's a few of my studies of her.  http://www.nga.gov/press/2011/venus.shtm

"Why won't he just stay down?"

some figure sketches

These are a few sketches I did recently in my sketchbook in order to blow the cobwebs off of my drawing supplies and also to draw focusing on surface anatomy and underslying form, rather than rendering the light as it falls accross the forms.  Not that there'a anything wrong with fousing on light rather than form - you have to do both - just placing emphasis on one rather than the other.  Each on took about 30 minutes or so.

Lucian Freud

"The picture, in order to move us, must never merely remind us of life, but must acquire a life of its own, precisely in order to reflect life."

Japanese Girl

This is a sketch from a vintage photo that I did the other night on newsprint. Instead of using a pencil, I used what is basically a sponge on a stick to spread charcoal dust around, then removed some of it with an eraser. The idea is to focus on the big picture (no pun intended) rather that on tiny details.

"Fume'e d'Amber Gris"

Well its been awhile. Life has been getting in the way of drawing lately, but I finally finished this study based on a large oil painting by Sargent that he did in 1880 while he was in North Africa. The study is about 9x12, charcoal and white pastel on Canson toned paper. Unfortunately, I'm still limited to my cell phone camera, so its a tad blurry. 

The King in his Court

Today we were in our local shopping mall and I saw this group of older gentlemen playing cards.  They are there every week so it was time to draw them. 

Schmid study

This is a sketchbook study of a study by painter Richard Schmid.  Thanks for the encouragement, Sandra!

Augustus Caesar

From the Augustus of Prima Porta statue, 1st century A.D.  Vine and compressed charcoal in my sketch book.  Augustus is considered the first emperor of the Roman Empire, which he ruled alone from 27 BC until his death in AD 14.  Born Gaius Octavius Thurinus, he was adopted posthumously by his great-uncle Gaius Julius Caesar in 44 BC via his last will and testament, and between then and 27 BC was officially named Gaius Julius Caesar. In 27 BC the Senate awarded him the honorific Augustus ("the revered one"), and thus consequently he was Gaius Julius Caesar Augustus.

Winged Victory of Samothrace

Nike of Samothrace, discovered in 1863, is estimated to have been created around 190 BC.  It was created to not only honor the goddess, Nike, but to honor a sea battle. It conveys a sense of action and triumph as well as portraying artful flowing drapery through its features which the Greeks considered ideal beauty.

9x12 chalk and charcoal on toned illustration board.

Circa 1929

This is a chalk and charcoal sketch I did based on a vintage photograph from 1929.

Anniballe Carracci sketch

Well, I think its a Carracci and I think its a Madonna. There were three Carraccis, I think this is Annibale. But I don't know because I can't find the link for the reference. 

"Neither clean nor well-dressed, with his collar askew, his hat jammed on any old way and his unkempt beard, Annibale Carracci seemed to be like an ancient philosopher, absent-minded and alone," wrote an early biographer. A tailor's son, Carracci considered himself a craftsman, not a courtier, but the Romans buried him in the Pantheon beside Raphael. 

About 9x12 black and white charcoal on green tinted paper.

Parmigianino study

This is my version of Parmigianino's (Girolamo Francesco Maria Mazzola) Study of a Head. 

Here's a link to the original: http://www.wikigallery.org/wiki/pain...tudy-of-a-Head

Small, about 5x7 sanguine on pastel paper. What can I say, I like doing the old master studies. If that's how they learned, who am I to argue? 

Virtual Figure Drawing Class

This is from last weekend, vine charcoal on newsprint.

Friday AM commute

This morning: a long-time Metro employee who is probably reading a story about slashing public employee pensions, and a young girl with a much more care-free disposition.

On the way home from figure drawing class

At first there was nobody on the train to draw, so I just doodled, then a guy came in and conked out for a few stations.