"Selfie"

Today's suggestion at PAM was to do a 'selfie'.  That is, to find and draw some piece of art that looked like you.  So I went wandering through the exhibits, and finally decided on a painting of a peasant woman gathering firewood.

Then I wandered off to see how everyone else saw themselves (Robin did himself as the Minotaur).  And stopped to copy a painting of a huge oak tree, as therapy.

Portland Art Museum

Today's challenge was to do a sketch in the style of the day of the dead.

I started with the giant hair pick in the lobby

and then, later, did one inspired by a print in the basement.  That print had been faces, covered with stripes of muted hues.  I turned the faces into skulls, and striped them with bold primary colors.

PAM

The challenge this time was to do cubism.  (The original suggestion, from a painter, was to not use lines at all, but only swaths of color.  But that won't work in the museum, since we can't use wet media.  So Mary changed it.)  I tried applying it to figures, in various ways, and never with much success.

PAM

Regular sketching day at the art museum.  But it was a free day, in conjunction with Sunday Parkways, and we were going to avoid the crowds by meeting outside.

I got there a bit early, and did a sketch of a sculpture that was the meeting place while waiting for people to arrive.

Today's challenge was to incorporate water into our sketch.  Not literal water, which left off walking down to one of the fountains, but virtual water.  Making something that wasn't water into water, or adding water where it really wasn't.

So I decided to redo the sketch that I'd already done as mer-people.  As a continuous line drawing.  But while in the middle of that, forgot that I was going to give them fish tails.

So I did a third sketch, with tails.

And then just one of the giant flowers in the courtyard, with a waterfall issuing from it.

Then I walked around the museum and did one more quick one, of the tree in front of the old Y building.

Sketching at PAM

Today's challenge was to deviate from reality far enough to insert some of our own personality into our sketches.  The example given was that if you particularly like dogs, then you should add something doggish in.

I wandered about the museum, and quickly stumbled upon a portrait of an Elizabethan lady.  And since a cone of shame is properly called an e-collar, or even more properly, an Elizabethan collar, after the Elizabethan ruff, it seemed utterly fitting to turn her into a cat.  With a mouse dangling from her hand, rather than the original handkerchief.

Then I wandered back into the Paris exhibition, and did a straight rendition of the bust in black and white marble, so I could alternate between sketching in the shadows and sketching in the highlights.

And finally, I copied the chat from a Chat Noir poster.

Paris in Portland

Paris 1900, City of Entertainment

Today's challenge was to do a sketch of some sculpture, using only straight lines.  OK, this is a repeat.  But I can do it again.

The new Paris exhibit had just opened, and they had installed a 'garden cafe' on the main floor. So I started there, with a croissant and a cup of tea.

Then I worked my way through the exhibit, stopping to make sketches a couple more times.

PAM

Mary had brought pieces cut from a topo map, as she wanted to see what we'd do with them as a backgrounds.  I was the only one using a tablet today, so we went out in the sun so I could snap a picture of the map with my tablet.







Portland Art Museum

Today's challenge was to browse the new exhibit of b&w prints in the basement, then do a sketch elsewhere in the museum in the style of one of those prints.

I picked out this one:




And then did this:

Portland Art Museum

Mary couldn't make it today, but sent an assignment by way of Linda - to do a selfie, using bits of art for the bits of our faces or bodies.  Sure, ya betcha.

I didn't get far before I stopped, caught by the ikebana tucked into a corner of the tea house set up in the Japanese exhibit.  I did it twice, once in (virtual) ink, and then again in (virtual) paint.

And then did do the assignment, after finding a face on a serving vat in the Native American section.  I shifted the features a wee bit, to make them look more like me, and then added hair.

And then, on my way out of the restroom, found the shiny metallic sculpture in the basement.  And a spot on it where I could see multiple mini-mes.

Portland Art Museum

A bunch of new exhibits had opened since the last time I was here, so I ran around at first, trying to get a glimpse of them all.  And then figured that I'd better sit down and sketch something, and did the tea house set up in the entrance of the exhibit of Japanese art and calligraphy.

Then upstairs, to see the exhibit on modern realism.  And decided that 'realism' is a relative word.  All of the works were representative, but none of them pretended to be photo-realistic.  I just had time for a quickie of one of the sculptures before meeting for the throw-down.

St Christopher

Fourth Sunday at PAM

Today's challenge was to use shading to highlight the focus of the our sketch, leaving the unimportant bits to fade off into the background.  Or something like that.  There were supposed to be thick outlines in the unimportant parts as well.

We all met in the cafe afterwards, to pass sketchbooks and gossip, and then trooped out to have a look at Chris' new retiremobile - a big van with all the amenities of home.  Plus a table with sketching supplies within easy reach.  He's planning a trip this winter to visit the southeast.

PAM

The prompt today was to sketch, not the art work, but the people looking at the art work.


I wandered around for a bit, and was struck by a cutie walking by.  I tried to memorize her face, then sat down and called it back up.




After that I broke from the assignment to do the orange fishmobile, to make sure that I'd sketched it before the exhibition closed.

Then I joined a couple other sketchers on a bench tucked into an alcove, and did whoever walked in front of me.  Quickly, because they never stood still for more than a minute.  Even the guards kept on the move, pacing here and there, and into the next room and back.

Portland Art Museum

Today's assignment was to do shading with some pattern that we've never used.  In other words, not your usual crosshatching.  (Or in my case, no virtual paint.)  I picked out a brush that I seldom use and used it to do the shading in short parallel lines for the head of a Buddha.  The line as well, as well as I could.

Used a different brush to do a detail of one of the roadsters.  These lines were short of necessity, because that brush held only a small amount of pigment.

Monster Drawing Rally IV

This is the yearly party at the art museum, where scores of artists sit down in the courtyard and create artworks that are sold to support the museum's youth programs.

I started out just sketching the crowd, which means doing whichever person happened to be in my line of sight.

I noticed that many of the women were wearing little black dresses.  In fact, at least three of them were wearing the exact same little black dress, with a halter top tied in the back and a flouncy skirt.

There was also a Darth Vader-ish person.

He was actually much more intricate than I was able to get down.  Cause he got up and left, going out into the crowd.

The first shift was ending just about then.  I walked past the tables of adult artists, and found, in the sculpture garden, a model posing for a bunch of kids.

Portland Art Museum

Today's assignment was to start out with a thumbnail (on little post-it notes that Mary handed out).  I sort of did that, but using my initial sketches, and, instead of clearing them once the final drawing was done, simply shrank them and moved them to the side.

PAM

The challenge was to not faithfully reproduce what we saw (as cameras can now do that much better than we can), but to instill some sort of artist license.  I headed upstairs, and found myself drawn to a statue in the mesoamerican room.  So I did him twice, once as I saw him, and again richly colored, and with a coiffure.

PAM

Yet another sketching group.  (Which might fold into the local chapter of urban sketchers)  We met at the art museum.  We were going to meet outside, and then switched to meeting inside, in the face of the predicted monster storm.

But the day started out sunny and warm, so I started out outside, doing one of the sculptures in front of the museum.  But from the back, so it was difficult to make out exactly what the shapes were.

It was still dry when I finished that, but the wind had picked up, so I shifted to the sculpture garden.  I bought a coffee and a scone and then sat down at one of the outside tables and sketched a couple of flower pots, playing around with different brushes to add splotches of color.

Then, from the same spot,  I started a study in shading.  That quickly turned into a study on reflections, and how rain runs down a vertical surface.

Portland Art Museum

Our assignment was to draw one of the large sculptures in the modern art building, portraying it as being assembled from smaller objects.  Oh, and paying attention to composition.



I walked into the second building and wandered about, settling on one sculpture, to do straight.



















And then I circled around to a different side and attempted to draw that, using the people and signs from yesterday's march.  A bit of a mess actually.  I'm thinking that I ought to have started with a rough sketch that blocked out the shadows and the shading, and then inserted my figures to fit into those forms.









I did the same view again, using straight pigment, to show what I was actually seeing.