sketches from the mia

i did something new today.  went over the mia and did a few sketches!

i recently brought my old sketchbook to work for something i did with a group, so i had to be resourceful.  i looooove to be resourceful (that’s the backing of a square picture frame, paper cut-to-fit, and fasteners):

i did a couple warm ups that i didn’t like so much but then i found this beautiful photograph taken in 1904 by Edward S. Curtis, called “Navajo Woman.”  Here’s my sketch:

this was an awesome painting that i’d never seen before, it must be in a new exhibit.  Reginald Marsh’s “Star Burlesque” – I just did a small detail.

This last sketch is of a statue i’ve been looking at since i was a kid going to the mia on field trips!  “The Algerian,” by Charles-Henri-Joseph Cordier.  I really enjoyed smudging the pencil lines for shading in the skin.

super fun!  i like drawing and i always forget that.  i like looking for the shapes and not being intimidated by taking all of it in at once.  i had one drawing class in high school and then this sculpture class in college that changed my life.  they used lots assignments about doing a fast and crude sculpture of a model for like one minute and then they would change to a new position and you do it again.  just to get over yourself and your own perfectionism.  i was really good at that fast and crude business.   what i liked about sketching today was not worrying that it was a duplication of the work.  my lines are always a little exaggerated and curvier than the originals but i like that.  this is fun!  i would like to try live model drawing, too.

good God i can’t wait until i have more time on my hands after i graduate!  however, i will continue to take small opportunities like today in the meantime.