sargent copies

I recently took an online workshop with Susan Abbott, whose paintings I love, especially her watercolors, about Winslow Homer and J. S. Sargent.

Our final homework assignment was to copy three Sargent paintings and a detail from one of his paintings (above). It took me about a month to tackle this assignment, and I still have two more to do.

It's daunting, but I did learn a couple of things: put yellow in your purple; darken green with red; and be freer with brushwork.

1st attempt

2nd attempt

drawing is free

A couple of pencil sketches from a drawingisfree.org session.

drawing is free

First session of the new year with drawingisfree.org, and I hope to make it a regular practice. It's challenging, but also, I think, a good place/way to try different media and techniques.

This week i used a bamboo dip pen!

I am still struggling to get a somewhat "finished" drawing in the 3 or 4 minutes usually allotted.

But the work of the otber participants is very inspiring and I have hopes of getting better with practice. Even of using watercolor!