American Museum of Natural History - Triceratops

American Museum of Natural History - Tyranosaurus

So I have some bad news.  The Amathyst Paint

American Museum of Natural History - Ursus Spelaeus

American Museum of Natural History - Styracosaurus

I'm having so much fun doing these.

Having flashbacks of Smithsonian collection dinosaur models that I would feverishly horde.

The blue background is painted with an Azurite watercolor. There is a slight patterning to the surface that is fascinating me. Although its actually pretty mild.

This fossil within a foam or plaster mold. You can see it here at the museums official site.  So it made me wonder how to resolve the surrounding areas of the painting.

I like what I did although it leads me so question the white boarders of the page.  I actually am thinking of really defining the boarders so they look like a comic boarder.  Its a debating I'm activating thinking about currently.   I may have to try and experiment or two.

American Museum of Natural History - Stegosaurus

Stegosaurus, Watercolor on Paper, 9"x12"

So I realized something as I was doing copies of things at the MET. I could be doing the skeletons over at the American Museum of Natural History. The Next day I was there. Throughout the week I have been working on these watercolors.

Daniel Smith makes a line of watercolors that use semiprecious stones as pigments. I have been fascinated by them as they dry with an uneven/semi patterned finish to them.  So I have been slowly collecting and using various tubes of them. It kind of scratched that itch of a dorky kid who grew up with a rock collection.

The dark purple in this painting is an Amathyst pigment. I was surprised that when it dried it had a sparkly finish to it; like I sprinkled glitter on the painting as it was drying.  I was doing this with a two color complement in mind so the amethyst paint was in the entirety of the stegosaurus, almost all the yellows were darkened with the purple amethyst paint.

I was actually kind of horrified looking at it on my wall.  It looked really silly but as I looked at it a bit more it began to grow on me.  So I decided to do a few more in this purple/yellow method Making a series of sparkly dinosaurs.

I'm kind of on a roll with these paintings my end goal is to do 10 of these dinosaur watercolors before I head back to Hawaii for the summer.

Drawing at the Metropolitan Museum of Art -

2016-05-19 Apkallu, Ink on Paper, 9"x12"

 So the school's commencement ceremony is today, and I decided to spend the morning drawing at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. I wanted to do a couple copies of the relief sculptures in the Ancient Near Eastern Art section.

This is an Eagle-Headed Apkallu. I just spent a few minutes on wikipedia looking up information about them. They seem to be analogous to angels or demigods.

My interest in the relief was completely Aethetic. Despite the stylization of the figure: the very strong definition of the muscles and the rigid pose of the figure. There is a lot of movement and life in the figure.  Personally I think it has a lot to do with the repeated shapes and the organic lines that create the figure.  Spending the a few hours working on this has given me a lot of respect for the form creation.

There were also and number of details that just fascinated me.  The Apkallu has wristbands with what looks like wristwatches on them. The compass/sundial pattern mirrors some of the other patterns found throughout the relief.

I had to bolt out of the museum to get to the commencement ceremony for the class of 2016. It was a good trip to the MET.

Graphic Novels classwork - The Hunt

So this is a one page comic from a graphic novels class. This is my first experiment in taking something from drawing to completed page and I'm pretty happy with it.

Artistic Anatomy - Observation Drawings

Artistic Anatomy - Front View - 04-30-16,  9"x12", Ink on Paper

The New York Academy of Art offered an Artistic Anatomy class over the weekend. The class included drawing from actual cadavers at a medical school. There was a brief lecture by David Klass (His sculptures are amazing BTW.)

At the onset, I had these romantic ideas of Leonardo Da Vinci sneaking around the streets of Florence, risking imprisonment and punishment to dissect corpses in a Aristotelian pursuit of understanding human anatomy. Those notions were dramatically crushed by the brutal reality of the flayed lifeless body in front of me.

I managed to get a few really great drawings done.  A number of them were done from this corpse that was suspended so that is was standing. There were a number of other corpses that were open around the room.

On this post I have the more observational drawings. I also did a series of drawings that were more diagrams of the muscles structures.

Artistic Anatomy - Back View - 04-30-16,  9"x12", Ink on Paper

This was the first of the drawings I did at the lecture. There is not a lot of information from the back view. David explained that because the bodies are stored laying down, the backs of the body are severely damaged just by the storage.

Artistic Anatomy - Interior Arm - 04-30-16,  9"x 12", Ink on Paper

 I did a pair of drawings just exploring specific views of the bodies. There was some really fascinating things happening in the limbs.

This drawing is after another student moved the arm to reveal the intricate network of veins under the arm of the body.

Artistic Anatomy - Leg Interior - 04-30-16,  9"x 12", Ink on Paper

The transition from muscle to tendon was really neat to actually see. The body's tendons are often buried under other muscles and fat. To see them on display was really fascinating. The texture and color of the muscle visibly changes as it transforms into tendon.

I was kind of overwhelmed after this class. The chemical smell, the coldness of the room and the general brutality of it all eventually got to me. While this was an invaluable experience, it was also difficult and emotionally draining.

Tomorrow I will have the more diagram like drawings.

Man and Beasts - Bones

Camel Skull - 04/16/16, Ink on Paper, 9"x12"

Wade Schuman opened up his collection and there were 5 boxes of animal bones, taxidermy heads and other animal talismans. It was like an odd buffet of animal parts, visually interesting and fascinating.

I was kind of enthralled by the skulls and bones; and yes I sort of felt creepy writing that last sentence.

"What would you like from Texas?" my father asked me, while preparing for a conference.  I remembering pondering for a moment before asking my dad to bring home a cow skull. I guess I was a weird kid.

So working with two color ink,  Burnt Sienna and Cobalt Blue i began to draw the bones that caught my attention

Above is a Camel skull it was the first of these I did. I was kind of surprised how large it was, but then again Camels are very large animals. 

Moose Jaws - 04/16/16, Ink on Paper, 9"x12"

This was the second bone I drew, a moose Jaw.

I put the objects on the floor to give a more intense and shadow to the object. I think it adds a lot giving the form almost an outline. I also like how the edge of the paper crops the shadow.

The croping of the shadow is something i have been thinking about looking back on these drawings after the fact. The Camel skull drawing reads a complete study and object. where as the other two drawings feel a little disjointed because of the cropped shadow. I may have to play with this a little more in the future.

I remember debating how to much of a wash to cover the drawing with. 

Bison Bone - 04/16/16, Ink on Paper, 9"x12"

Above is a petrified Bison bone and the last drawing I did in the morning before heading for lunch.  The petrified bone was very textured and remarkably hefty. It did not feel delicate at least initially, It felt very sturdy especially in comparison to the other bones on the table.

Despite the petrified bone being very dark, I focused the wash nearly exclusively on the shadow of the bone. I was debating going back into it but decided that this drawing works.

I had a good morning.

Painting around the House

Staircase 03/03/16, watercolor on paper, 9"x12"

So the day before Tribeca Ball, the school is undergoing a radical transformation to get ready for the event and I want to be nowhere near the chaos. I have been wanting to do watercolors around the place I'm living. I am happy with how this came out.

I hope this will be one of a few of these I am able to complete.