Blue boots
Posted: December 7, 2022 Filed under: Uncategorized 27 CommentsBoots and shoes are so hard to draw, but on these rainy, snowless Montreal days, they make for a good drawing challenge when I can’t get outside. When I’m done sketching footwear, I often realize that there’s always one that looks bigger than the other, or sometimes both look like they might be owned by someone with two left feet. But I love drawing them. They have personality, complexity and texture. I sketched these in my Hahnemuhle 100% cotton sketchbook, which continues to meet all my sketching needs: great with watercolour, beautiful with pencil, and perfect for ballpoint pens (in this case both the one that ran out of ink as well as the one that blobbed).
Alice on Alice
Posted: December 4, 2022 Filed under: Uncategorized 22 CommentsIt’s been a busy week, with no time to draw at all. Lots of family stuff (it’s that time of year) plus a quick trip to New York City to see the Edward Hopper show at the Whitney Museum. (I will write more about the show in my upcoming newsletter — the December issue of The Wheelbarrow.) After a week like this, I realize how much I miss drawing when I haven’t done it for a few days. I went to New York with a sketchbook in my bag, and plenty of good intentions, but the weather was cold and rainy and not at all conducive to sketching. So this morning, after our walk, I sketched Alice in my studio, with the simplest of tools — just a pencil and my Hahnemuhle 100% cotton sketchbook. It took several changes of position for Alice to settle down, but that gave me a chance to warm up my rusty drawing hand with a few pencil lines of her head and paws, and then take my time on a longer drawing.
