nanke's stuff

Some of you may remember that I volunteer at our county health department one day a week.  For a variety of reasons (including a flood that did a lot of major damage), things have been a tad slow there at the reception desk.  I expected that yesterday could be a bit slow because I knew that several of the staff would be off-site at a conference.  So, I went prepared!

I took with me my little "I've been drawing in it for years" sketchbook along with a little box of pencils, a National Geographic Magazine (I decided I would draw some mouths to go with the eyes and noses I drew earlier), along with a couple of puzzles from the newspaper.  I also take the coupon inserts that come in the Sunday newspapers and spend part of my time clipping all the coupons out for the people to sort through while they wait with their children.   The clipping takes me quite awhile as I usually have 5 or more of the inserts to clip. 

Anyhow, when I finished clipping and filing, I got out my drawing things and got started.  (Mind you, I do the "playing" in between answering the phone, greeting and directing the visitors, and anything else they might want me to do, lest you think I sit there doing nothing most of the time!).  A gentleman came in wanting to go to the VA office that shares our building, but he had to wait as they were closed for lunch.  He sat in our tiny waiting area with his iPad, so I got out my "waiting room" sketch book and did a really quick sketch of him.  Usually I'm the one waiting when I use this book, so it was kind of fun to be on the other side of the waiting game!  So, here are the two things I did.   As you can see, the mouth in the lower left isn't finished ... I don't remember whose mouth it was, so it will just have to stay that way for now!

In an effort to draw something Almost every day (notice how I made no commitment to draw Every day in writing, though that's what I'd like to be doing), I took my smallest Micron pen, 005, and did quick sketches of wee things I found in the kitchen.  They aren't very good, as in I really screwed up the screw for example, but nevertheless, I did something.  Some days that's saying a lot!

So here is today's humble offering.

Shirley is a wonderful, multi-talented artist whose blog I love.  Recently she suggested that we send each other master portraits that we find interesting and/or challenging.  In that same email she added a drawing by Van Gogh.  I love this portrait!  It's done in charcoal, which I intended to use when I drew it, but today the weather didn't cooperate and I so wanted to draw it.  I thought maybe I could stay in my studio and do it with charcoal, but I really hate to use it inside because of the dust.  I have a few health issues that make it sort of stupid to use pastels or charcoal inside, if I can avoid it.

So, I used a No. 9B pencil and did the best I could.  Charcoal would have filled in the tooth of the paper much better, but aside from that, I'm fairly comfortable with the way it turned out.  So, here they are - the Van Gogh first, and then mine.





So, it's taken me 3 days (YES, 3) to upload these  pictures because our internet speed is so slow!!  Thank you, Verizon Wireless!!  
Thanks for dropping by, and as always, I love your comments! 

This is a little drawing I did in one of my small sketchbooks that I'm determined to fill up.  I've been dropping in on this book from time to time over the years (yes, Years), and I've decided that it's time to wrap it up.  I've never dated any of my sketchbooks .... I think because it would depress me to know for sure how long they've been languishing.  I actually have some that are over 30 years old that still aren't finished!  I can tell about how old they are by some of  the drawings in them.  They're of folks I haven't seen in many years.  I don't know if I'll go back to those oldies but goodies or not - I sort of like the history and may not want to add up-to-date things in them.  Maybe I'll just remove the blank pages and use them in a handmade sketchbook.

The model for this drawing came from a National Geographic Mag .... I think that magazine may be becoming a favorite source for models!

While the Tigers were busy losing to the Yankees (sob), I was busy copying another Sargent portrait.  This one is of Gabriel Faure, the composer.  I would dearly love to achieve the ease and looseness with which Sargent created these lovely portraits.  Maybe with about 100 years of practice I could come a bit closer.  But in the meantime, I must content myself with my humble approximations of his work.

So, without further adieu, here they are ... the Master first and then mine.

Well, while the Tigers were busy Beating the Yankees (yea!!), I sat with a National Geographic Magazine and drew some noses.  Noses are very hard for me to draw, as you can tell by this crop.  Speaking of cropping, since I lost Photoshop with the installation of the new software, I can't do all the things I used to do that makes my drawings show up better, such as adjust the values and contrast.   I did find a free on-line photo editing site, but it doesn't do the job that p.shop does.  There's probably other ones out there, and I would greatly appreciate any suggestions you may have for me.

Today while the Tigers play (and win again, I might add), I'm planning on starting another copy of a Sargent portrait.  I'll post it when I finish it, OK?

I decided to take a wee break from copying Sargent's portrait drawings and drew some eyes in one of my many, little, unfinished, sketchbooks.  I think I mentioned drawing eyes in a previous post, saying that my "models" came courtesy of Newsweek Magazine.  The models are perfect, they never complain, no matter how long it takes me, they remain very still, and they never even blink!  What could be better?

Today I just might draw some schnozzes to accompany them while I watch the Tigers play ball.... I sure hope they do better than they've been doing lately!