Day 287 "Village Sketches" - walking and sketching on Monhegan

 Today's goal on Monhegan was to walk farther than yesterday, to find a spot among the rocks to settle in and draw.  So, I walked down to "Swim Beach", interestingly named, because it is mostly too cold for swimming, found a way up onto the rocks and did some drawing.  My physical therapist and I have been practicing stepping up with balance onto a surface about a foot off the ground.  In fact, his parting words to me before vacation, after 30 of these step ups, were "Don't you think there are a LOT of rocks on Monhegan about 12 inches high?"  Hmmm.  Feeling listened to... So I drew for awhile, watched the visitors, then headed back to the local coffee shop for more sketching and people watching.  A family had a couple of dogs with them, who mostly hung out under the table, although the spaniel was on alert every time the door opened.. never confrontational, just watching.  You can see below how I began my drawing.  
This is my two hundred eighty-seventh daily drawing submission.  Thank you for looking.  

Day 282 "Humarock" pen&ink 8 x 9 - deserted beach, and a little history

If you walk our local beach, you may find this view familiar.  Our local beach is separated from the mainland by the South River which you can see below in the map.  The South River joins the North River and the ocean in a very turbulent mash of currents and tides.  A little history:  The Portland Gale of 1989 shifted the mouth of the North River, separating Humarock and Scituate's "Fourth Cliff" from the rest of Scituate, and eventually the mouth of the South River moved there as well.  This drawing is from the location of the "old mouth" of the South River, now beach.  You can see the old and new below, a familiar contour to those familiar with the local landscape.  The seawall and beachside homes come to an end at the old mouth.  I wonder if someday the old mouth will open again to the sea.  

  This is my two hundred eighty-second daily drawing.  Thank you for your continued interest.                                                               

Day 252 "Garden Contour" ink and pencils 8 x 9

These peonies and iris make beautiful shapes against the backdrop of warm and cool greens.  I love the negative spaces around and between the bloom, so many intricate shapes and angles.  
This is my two hundred fifty-second daily drawing.  Thank you for your continued interest in my view of the world.  

Blue and White Zones of Light

I teach art project at school along with my math classes.  This week we are looking at the five zones of light, and seeing them to create the illusion of rounded 3-D objects on the two-dimensional picture space.   Each student created a contour drawing of the subject, numbered the spaces according to a 5-value scale, then reproduced the drawing, filling in the spaces as assigned with a monochromatic rendering according to the observed values.   It's our first foray into painting, so some students struggled with the mechanics of using the brush.  But, a number of students produced great results, and were pleased to see the 3-dimensionality of the objects begin to reveal itself.  
This is my quick take on the idea so they could see their expected result.  

Painting with Tape - Jumping Math Man

Our wonderful high school art teacher, Marianne Buckley-Curran, had a terrific idea for her art workshop.  She wanted to decorate our K-12 school with silhouettes having to do with school life.  The project would be unveiled at the school open house.  She taught her students the proportions of the human figure, how to draw from their photo reference, and how to scale up when their instincts let them know something was off with the proportions.  So that the images didn't involve repainting any areas of the school, Marianne bought painters tape in inch and 4-inch widths, in blue and green.  I was happy to be asked to created one of the designs.  I wanted to show a student leaping, and as a math teacher, decided to come up with "Jumping Math Man".  I found a reference photo, and decided to paint with the tape on the column, adding a joyful splash of math symbols.  

reference photo

See images of "Jumping Math Man" in process below.  I'll take the panorama again, it came out a little mushed together.  Bottom line, this was a blast!  The students transformed the school Friday afternoon after everyone left so it was a complete surprise on Saturday when we greeted the public for our open house.  And, I loved painting with the tape, thinking about angles and proportions and the graphic possibilities with two colors. I tried to concentrate on the textures in his clothing, indicating where his pants ended and socks began. 

Initial Mapping

  
I added a little contrast to the bottoms of his shoes and added shadows on ground below him.  Then I used the green to convert him from "Jumping Man" to Jumping Math Man".  My classroom is just down the hall, so when the school had cleared out, I blasted my Pandora with some Motown, then Les Miserables.  We had such a good time, painting with tape.  I came home exhausted  but with that happy glow that intense creative thinking imparts. 

Getting a little round in the middle

Finished

Panorama

      

High School Debate sketches 9 x 12 pen & ink

 I spent most of yesterday with our high school debate team.  It's wonderful to see hundreds of exuberant teens being teens for the day; wearing business attire, and competing intellectually.  Lots of research, writing, and thinking on their feet.  This month's topic:


"Direct popular vote should replace electoral vote in presidential elections."

Of course,  the 2000 election and subsequent recount in Florida were a big part of the arguments.  Loved hearing the kids argue about this event which dominated our news coverage yet the oldest of these students was in 2nd grade. 

Teams prepare both pro and con positions and speeches; and it is determined via coin toss during each round which side they will argue.    

Here are some continuous line contour drawings  I made when our team was brand new and we observed some debate rounds. Captive audience, and thirty-three minutes to draw!