Arboretum

Well since it was such a nice summer day today I decided to stop vegetating at my usual haunts and go to the Seattle Arboretum with intent to do some watercolors. Unfortunately in my rush to get out of the house I forgot my water bottle so the initial plan was scrapped. I did get some nice photos and a sketch of some really cool broadleaf maples though.

Friday Museum Sketches

Okay, today we have a little quickie I knocked off last weekend almost on a whim. This is a D'mba headdress, A monument to motherhood of the Baga people from the coast of Guinea-Conakry in West Africa. I still have trouble imagining anyone wearing it for more than ten minutes at a time since it looks as if it ways at least fifty pounds and you can only see out of tiny eye-holes around the figures collarbone which I had to have pointed out to me.

Friday Museum Sketches

Okay back from a too long hiatus sketches from the Seattle Art Museum, or in this case the Asian Art Museum up in Volunteer Park. Today's sketch is from their permanent collection of Indian sculpture. One thing I really like about this exhibit is that they've opened up a little bistro there so along with the overpriced sandwiches you have a table and chair to draw at. Because of this I've come out of this room with much better drawings than the usual affair where you have to work standing up with your sketchbook balanced as well as you can manage as you draw...

Anyway, today's sketch is from a stone relief of Siva and Parvati, from Khajvraho done in sandstone in the 11th century. You can see the original here.

Folklife: Day Four

Well this is the end. I think I was getting just a little burnt out in the end so I didn't crank out quite as many as the last few days but heres what we got... Peruvian Dancers from the AFrican ConXion Project 09, Hank Veensta and Friends playing old time fiddle music, some young jugglers out in the Fiddler Green, and finally the Rum Rebellion, punk folk from Portland and all of their fans.

Folklife: Day Three

Okay here's today's batch. First Papa String and Brien “Bobo” McMullen from Eugene based Conjugal Visitors. Then a girl playing guitar outside of Key arena. After this I have some dancers. First a trio of step dancers who were performing with the McKassons, a contemporary scottish fiddle band, and some women dancing to a cumbia piece performed by the Michael Carlos Band. Finally a few sketches from a capoeira demonstration. I confess there were a lot of liberties taken here. As there is so much movement going on here all of the figures are combinations of several different poses.

Folklife: Day Two

Okay, other then a braving the crowds and sun, it was a very good day. I created a lot less duds which either means I'm getting better or I took less chances. Anyway the line up today consists of Albira dze Muningia a west african percussion group. Liddy Voetberg a fiddler, who normally performs with her family group, The Galway Ramblers, a celtic group from Galway Ireland, and the Bobs a very funny a cappella group.
I also did some sketching of various tango dancers. The sketches of the dancers you see here are sort of a fusion of different people. They were just moving too fast. By the time I had worked out the pose the models were halfway across the dance floor.

Folklife: Day One

Okay got a good start with the first day of Northwest Folklife. Lots of good music lot's of good people watching and of course lots of good material to sketch. I think I'll consider today as warm up. There were a few duds in the mix which I think I'll keep to myself, but otherwise I think I did okay.
Today's line up include Christopher of the Wolves, a sort of Didgeridoo one man band, members of Unkle Nancy and the Family Jewels, musicians from Ockham's Razor a really kick ass celtic band, and some girls dancing to Ockham's Razor.

Extreme Sketching in the U-District

This weekend was the first of the Seattle street fairs. It was pretty good summer weather so it consisted as the first salvo in my on going seasonal battle with sun burn. Anyway one thing I like to do during these public events is something I like to call "Extreme Sketching" that is to say drawing moving targets. The trick here is to get the basic pose down as quickly as possible, work in the details as you go along, and pray that your memory fills in the gaps. These are hardly ever any good for obvious reasons. But it's a very good exercise (kind of like running with weights on) and often yields material for much better drawings. ANyway, I didn't get as many done as I would have liked, these events are getting much too crowded. But I think these three came out quite well. Unfortunately the only ones I got the info for this time was a duo called Raw Corn who I enjoyed very much (You've got to respect anyone who plays John Wayne and Pink Floyd back to back.)

Friday Museum Sketches

Okay this ones an old one. From Seattle Art Museum's permanent collection; A wooden statue of a seated Guan Yin from the Song Dynasty (12th-13th Century) You can see the original here.

Drinking Liberally "Debate"

A little visual reporting of the events at the Seattle Drinking Liberally this evening. Recording a rather heated debate between Chris Mitchell and Stephen Schwartz the topic was the viability of charter schools in the Seattle School System. Feel free to critique but keep in mind that it is a little tricky drawing moving targets.

Friday Museum Sketches

Alright for this week's sketch we have a statue of Saint Luke the Evangelist at the Seattle Art Museum done in fifteenth century Brussels. This one of my favorite pieces at the museum. It has a forced perspective that makes it very difficult to get right despite several attempts at sketching it. This one is probably as close as I've gotten to a decent representation.

Drinking Liberally Regulars

I'm a regular at the Seattle Drinking Liberally It's lots of fun banging heads with fellow policy wonks. For fellow Seattleites it's at the Montlake Ale House on 24th Ave E. Anyway back on the topic... A couple of weeks ago, when I had nothing to contribute to the conversation at hand, I started to sketching some of the regulars. Anyway I thought I'd share. The line up here consists of David Goldstein AKA Goldy of Horses Ass, Darryl Holman of Hominid Views, Joel Connelly of the Seattle Post Intelligencer, and Stephen Schwartz of Seattle Jew.

Friday Museum Sketches

Okay, today we're back to the roman with two details from a first century frieze, "Relief Showing the Reading of Auguries and Declaration of Sacred Vows" from the Louvre. You can see a photograph of the original here.

Friday Museum Sketches

Okay, for todays sketch we have a detail from Ghiberti's Adam and Eve Panel from his Gates of Paradise in the Florence Baptistry. As a cartoonist, I'm very fond of this piece. By the positioning of figures and angels, the sculptor does a masterful job steering our eyes accross four scenes from the story of Eden; the creation of Adam, Eve, the temptation and finally the expulsion from Eden. One could almost consider the Gates of Paradise as a renaissance comic books

Friday Museum Sketches

Okay, today's sketch is a detail of one of the centerpieces of the Seattle Art Museum's collection; a Thunderbird mask by Kwakwaka’wakw artist Calvin Hunt

Friday Museum Sketches

Okay we're back I've been very lazy lately, sorry. This week's sketch comes from the RISD Art Museum in Providence Rhode Island. I always enjoy spending a couple of hours there whenever I'm visiting my parents. It is a small collection but has a very general and very good selection. This is one of my favorite paintings there; The Salon d'Or, Hamburg by William Powell Frith. This one was a fun challenge as it's one of the first times I'd tried to copy a crowd scene and I'm afraid I was more than a little rushed doing it. But all in all it was a rewarding exercise.

Friday Museum Sketches

Hello Everybody back from hiatus it's the friday museum sketches!

Today's Entry is from the Seattle Art Museum's excellent collection of African Masks. These are from Afikpo, Nigeria, and are used in public performances where hundreds of masked individuals interact with the crowds. When wearing the masks prayers turn into a mma, a type of spirit which allows the wearer to speak the truth.

In the display, the masks are put on costumed models to present the context of their use.

Friday Museum Sketches

Okay everybody. Todays sketch is from Ghiberti's Gate's of Paradise from the Florence Baptistery. Specifically it is a detail from the David and Goliath panel (bottom left corner) Which was one of the three panels on tour at the Seattle Art Museum. I had seen them once before in Florence but back then I was still in my "Michelangelo is God" "and all other Florentine Sculptors were just progressional steps towards the master's art. Now some time later I am happy to say I am fully able to appreciate these pieces on their own merits and appreciate Ghiberti's genius.

Friday Museum Sketches

Okay for todays installment we have "The Triumph of Neptune" By Luca Giordano at the Seattle Art Museum. The original can be seen here.

Friday Museum Sketches

Okay today it's back to the Louvre's Roman Collection, or at least the part of it that was visiting the Seattle Art Museum. This was one of my favorites. I really wanted to take another crack at it because I don't think this sketch really does it justice. Any way what we have here is a fragment of a third century roman sarcophagus featuring a Poet surrounded by three muses (Couldn't find a photo for comparison, sorry) I like it because how abstract quality (all the standing figures seem to be about five heads high. This is probably due to, one, Fitting the figures into the limited format the sarcophagus allowed and, two, as we got to the third century roman sculptors began to drift away from the near photorealism of the republican and Julio-Claudian period.