Amtrak Drawing

I enjoy drawing other passengers on Amtrak without their knowledge. This makes me feel slightly bad, but I do make them look very nice.. make them look prettier or better than the look while sleeping or reading.. etc.

Self Portrait as Housebound Lunatic

The Way We Work

Listening to the Puppini Sisters and Rufus Wainwright with some Keely Smith thrown in, classy. Loving the week off to work!

Johann Gottfried von Herder

Copied from the Portrait of Johann Gottfried von Herder created by Johann Friedrich Bierlein, graphite on parchment covered by a white ground. It resides in the Rosenwald Collection of the National Gallery. Johann Gottfried von Herder was a famed writer residing in Weimar at the time of the portrait. My version is 5x7 inches, orginal is 8x5inches. If you are wondering why all the portraits, I'm trying to assemble a cast to put in a larger drawing.. wait and see!

Empress Maria Amalia

Copy of a section of Johann Wolfgang Baumgartner's "Empress Maria Amalia," from the Busch Reisinger Museum at Harvard. Original made on blue-green paper with a pen and black ink with gray wash, my copy is just pencil on 5x7 inch Stonehenge paper.. perfect for portrait!

Thomas Sutton

Thomas Sutton was the Master and Surveyor of the Ordnance in the North of England from 1570-1594. I think I made him look too young.. the engraving I had made him look older.. I'm erring on the side of youth and beauty.. sigh.

Coral in an Oval Matte

Blue Bonnet

Spring is almost here. Huzzah.

Beads

I'm going to start beading some of the drawings. There is something so joyful about gathering your colors to you.

Kaunitz Sister

I scoured used bookstores on Saturday to come up with some new drawing books, as seen below. After this ham-fisted Ingres copy I have a bunch of great images of Tudor dress!

Mary I

Mary had kind of a rough life as Henry VIII's daughter, falling in and out of favor depending on which wife he had until she fell back into favor when her half-sister gained power and standing. She also kind of looked like a man in the engraving I was copying, however I was a bit kinder to her than the engraver. The engraving comes from this great used book I just got titled "Likeness in Line" published by the Victoria and Albert museum. I love the Victoria and Albert! Hooray for Tudor dress studies and the wild and wacky British crown.

Madame Hayard Wonky Copy

Copying Ingres is silly when I do it. I don't do it well, nor do I try to do it well. I'm interested in making his wackier subjects more attractive, but more off-balance. Perhaps I am successful, perhaps this is just another dumb thing I'm doing in my notebooks. Some of his pencil flourishes get so outlandishly wrong in my copy that the drawings make me laugh. I think I will revisit Mme. Hayard a few more times as she is delightfully funny-looking. She will fit nicely in with some of my pinups and invented statuary.

Underdrawings

Rushed little under-drawings I just wanted to record here. It seems like I haven't done a thing until I record it here.

Absolutely Gorgeous!

Wendy Edward's and Jerry Mischak's new firehouse renovation got featured in the New York Times! You've got to see this! Two of my favorite people in their incredible space. I saw it when it was in process and I must say the results are incredible!

Darling in a Corner, the Blahs

Coming down with the same illness everyone else is and the drawing again begins to look anemic. I find this funny. This is the best of a run of wonky drawings, I just miss posting and find that I'm much less likely to be ashamed of awkward work later than I am of too-finished work.

Starlet Fancies her Necklace