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...for a week, leaving tomorrow. Agay is between St. Tropez and Cannes. The house we'll be staying in has views of the Mediterranean from most rooms. I'm packing lots of shades of blue paint!
And then we'll be in Paris for a few days.
Sketches to come, if all goes well technically.
A bientôt, les amis!
Please scroll down for complete drawing.
With these two sketches of Regina, I've made 30 drawings of people for the month of April. I have so much more to explore on this topic ( a lifetime's worth!) that I've decided I'll do another month of people sketches later in the year. I'm leaving Friday for a fun trip and will be back May 10. I'll give more information about my itinerary tomorrow and will post sketches from the trip while I'm away.
In May the topic will be Exteriors/Landscapes.
These nice people are helping me make two new beds---king-sized beds---in my back yard. Gone is the lawn with the chemicals required to sustain it, chemicals I think caused the cancer that last year claimed our sweet 8 year old Golden retriever, Mollie.
To come are two huge parterre beds in which I will plant irises, peonies, poppies, agastache, salivas, rock roses and other wavy, fragrant, butterfly-attrapping delights. And that will just be the start. I favor four-seasons gardens with something lovely for every moment of the year.
... do it with all your might.*'
Certain events in my life of the past months have borne in on me the primary truth that... life ends. It could end tomorrow, or this afternoon. Knowing this, I decided I'm going to do the things I've long wanted to do, taking nothing, no day, no loved one, no dream or goal, for granted. To become more fluent as an artist, I promised I'd devote 2006 to intensive drawing---12 months of themed sketchbooks, one drawing, at least, for every day of each month. I'm doing it, too---though it sometimes, briefly, wears me down. There are other things I've resolved to do---the art-related ones are listed here. The year is almost one third over. I'm moving forward, I'm keeping my promise. I'm trying to live my life with all my might.
Speaking of hands---one of these hands belongs to my husband. I haven't taken, yet, to drawing while driving.
A pause for tea and a sketch at Borders.
When you draw in public a lot, you notice that, yes, ther
e are many overweight people in the world. Something about the women in this montage of cafe drawings seems lovely and right to me, though. They are substantial in the best sense of the word.
* Ecclesiastes 9:10
Today I went to our state art museum to see an exhibit of Rembrandt etchings. If you're studying and thinking about the human figure, a peek or two at how Rembrandt drew them is certainly a peek in the right direction. His use of hatching to create tone is, of course, masterful. I tried to follow his lines as best I could, though my pen nib was much wider than the tool he used. These etchings
were tiny, tiny--some as small as 1" x 2".
Looking at my People sketchbook for April (see Photo Album at left), I note a dearth of color. Will try to address that today and this weekend.
You probably knew this, but I didn't. A cardinal has made a nest in a rangy gardenia bush right outside our dining room, on the north side of the house. It has been delightful to watch her nesting behavior. She huffs, she puffs, she shimmies a little and shifts positions, she half-rises and peeks down at the eggs to make sure they're doing OK, she resettles, she cheeps plaintively or scoldingly. She naps. And she yawns. Here I've drawn her, from a safe distance, so as not to disturb her. Plus she's in shadow---the sketch is therefore pretty sketchy. No, I didn't draw her yawning. Use your imagination---that's what it's for, you know.
I drew from the live model---but I seem to do this every Tuesday night. Funny how these things happen. The model was very slight and I suppose I made my drawings more rough-hewn than usual to compensate for the relative lack of architecture in his body. I prob
ably shouldn't go as wild with lines as I do, but, oops, I did that again, too.
Well, not exactly. But if you draw people, you must learn to draw shoes. And baseball hats, but that is a story for another day.
And in a stunning display of non sequiturism, here are a few quick sketches of people I saw today, only one of whom wears shoes that are visible to your n
aked eye. That pair of sandals doesn't really count.
In the middle of a hectic week, I managed to do a sketchy sketch of my friend Patty. I can usually get a decent likeness in my portrait sketches. I don't HAVE to tell you that this isn't a good likeness, so I won't. (It isn't.) More drawings to come this weekend!
Please scroll down for full image.
So glad to have found a figure drawing group that really meets regularly. Hope it doesn't get too crowded---it has been wonderful to have the sense of serenity and ample space that have been 
present so far. I could wish for longer poses than 25 minute ones, but I'm grateful for what the sessions provide as is.
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