wagonized

Diesel love

The 1984 Volkswagen Rabbit.  This is the car I learned to drive on, the very first car I've ever owned, with which I drove to my first teaching job, then got rear-ended on some back road in Pennsylvania.  The diesel wouldn't start in the winter, and friends of mine were kind enough to lend me an old American sedan to get to work, but I still loved this car.  I loved that the shift knob proudly announced "E" -- for "Economic" -- instead of 4th gear.  The gas mileage was amazing but it suffered a complete lack of oomph.  It was light metallic blue, but I really wish it had been orange.  Pigma Micron 08 and watercolor in watercolor Moleskine.

Robinson

Second in my series of students' portraits is Robinson.  He is taking French 3 and sometimes enlightens the class with bits of Creole.  I was done with the drawing when I realized I failed to capture something in his left eye.  I hope, if Robinson ever sees this, that he will still recognize himself.  "Fat" Cretacolor 2B graphite on Canson paper.  

 

Ellipses

Darn ellipses.  Now I understand why James McMullan makes them the subject of one of his entries.  Ellipses are everywhere.  Learning to master them is pretty darn crucial.  Try as I may to conceal my lack of mastery of ellipses with implausible cross-hatching, I cannot lie: they are hell to draw.  Pilot V5 in my "babylogue" moleskine.  

 

The teachings of James McMullan

I have been following James McMullan's series on the basics of drawing in the New York Times.  McMullan posted a photograph of a pitcher to practice drawing volume, so I decided to do it for kicks.  See, even though I have been drawing for as long as I can remember -- though not quite as often and productively as I wish -- I have had no formal training, and technique eludes me.  2B "fat" graphite on sketch paper.

 

Parade and ashtrays

There was a big parade in my town today -- and we had front row seats on our front porch.  I don't draw fast enough to capture a fire truck go by, even at 5 mph.  But my husband's dad was sitting on the porch with us and he was pretty still.  I realized once I was done that I didn't draw his dog, who was lying right behind him.  And there was a star-shaped ashtray on the floor of the porch.  Pigma 08 in sketchbook.