These monthly art dumps I’ve offered here have helped encourage me to finish whatever I’m working on.
6 1/4 x 10 inches. Sepia-colored ink marker in my sketchbook.
The last sketchbook I filled was actually a spiral-bound book of watercolor paper pages: paper that has a “tooth” or rough surface, which isn’t great for doing drawings with this kind of line detail. Now that I used up the space in that book, I’ve started into one with smoother paper. I’m glad because I missed the satisfaction of doing this type of drawing.
Above is my version of another photo from the book about “Catskills Architecture 1750–1920” The caption in the book for this one is: “Doorway, 1801-03, Town of Delhi, Delaware County”.
I drew this without the aid of a ruler, which can explain the crookedness of it I suppose. I also added the apparent slate roof in the background, which I believe would more likely be a Victorian feature. I worked gradually on this (like I do with almost everything) and dated it when I felt it was done.
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Below is another sketch drawn after a photo in that same book. I exaggerated this cluster of connected boxy shapes (“building blocks”) even more than the reality of it is in the photo:
6 1/4 x 10 inches. Ink markers and Watercolor wash in my sketchbook.
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The painting below I’d call: “Tulips brought to a dinner party”. It’s based on another photo (of just the unopened flowers) taken by Malu:
7 3/8 x 9 7/8 inches. Watercolor and Gouache (mixed with egg tempera medium) on 300 lb. hot-press paper.
The “egg tempera medium” in the caption means egg yolk, water and a drop of vinegar (which I mixed myself). It was supposed to make the paint go on smoother and dry with more brilliant color; an old method that my teacher Diane Steele suggested we try. I will testify that it really works!
I like my final layout for this painting too:
8 x 11 inches. Pencil, then marker on tracing paper.
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Here’s my interpretation of another of the house portrait photos in that Catskills Architecture book. For this one the caption in the book is “Residence, c. 1895, Fleischmans, Delaware County”:
6 1/4 x 10 inches. Ink markers and watercolor wash in my sketchbook.
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This next project is a painting done on paper that’s been coated with gesso, which is like a thinned out white acrylic paint. It’s usually used to prime raw stretched canvases. The surface becomes smooth, but non-absorbent. Watercolor can’t soak into the gesso but sits on top of it. “Permanent” markers are not even permanent on it. It takes a lot of patience and caution to paint on, and the effect is somehow different than with untreated paper.
The image is based on a photo taken by my friend Malu at the N.Y.C. Library. I have a title for this. I call it “Doorway to Knowledge”:
8 x 11 inches. Watercolor, Gouache and Ink on 140 lb. paper primed with gesso.
I like my original layout for this piece also:
4 x 11 inches. Ink on tracing paper.
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The last artwork I worked on in March is this view of a vase full of forsythia cuttings. Each one of those little buds is potentially another of the pretty little yellow blossoms, so I call this “Early Forsythia”:
7 1/2 x 11 inches. Watercolor and gouache on 140 lb. cold-press paper.
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Thanks again for looking this far my friends!
George
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