Sketches from Rome II

Guest Artist: Abby's Sketches from Piazza S. Pietro

Welcome to Abby's Korner! This is my dad drawing pictures at Saint Peter's. The next one up is my Mom messing with her camera. On the top, you can see my Mom, Sophie and I all together. I'm smiling in the front because Mom is taking a picture of Sophie and not me this time:)

Sketches from Rome I

A Sculpture

My last session of the summer, I decided to drop the pencil and paintbrush and get my hands dirty. I joined my other two colleagues in sculpting our gracious model. It's the first sculpture in clay I've done, I'm used to microwax. The silkiness and suppleness of the medium is great fun to work with. You can't get as fine as detail as you can with wax, but the building process is much more tactically enjoyable. With wax, you're working with heat, flame and tools more. Clay is kid's stuff--gettin' the hands all muddy. Unfortunately, the finished products don't stay together very well after they've dried--super fragile. This scultpure has since crumbled into a few different pieces. Oh, the evanescence of art...

Watercolors

I'm giving watercolors some more time lately. The painting up top is mixed media: a pencil sketch with a watercolor wash over top, later touched up with color pencil. It's hard to get used to the diffused nature of the medium (especially coming from oils), but I'm fascinated with all the different effects that can occur. The one-line sketch below was done during the last couple minutes of class.

Sophia

So, I've decided to turn my materials onto the family. I finally broke out this amazing set of colored pencils Jenny got me when we first got married. Sophia was my first victim. Man, she's a cutie.

Back in the Studio--Charcoals

I like the messiness and stark contrasts of charcoals. Today, I'm on hiatus from color and back to the basics of line, perspective and value. The model was so comfortable, we never even took a break in the whole two hours. Apparently reclining postures are good for all around. It's nice to be back in the Saturday studio.