Just Black & White 15 - Ballerina

I was in the mood to try a little drawing since it had been awhile so I pulled out the paper and pencils and worked on this drawing which I saw in a book.  It was a fun exercise for a change.

Ballerina
Graphite Drawing
9"X12"

The Most Amazing Treasure - J B Arnout

The final item we obtained from Louise came as quite a surprise to both Gary and I.  It was displayed on her wall along with the bidding form and we noticed that no one seemed to be interested in it.  Gary and I went our separate ways looking for items we might like to purchase and during this time Gary put a bid on it since he thought, if for no other reason, the frame would be worth having.  In the end no one else was interest and it was ours to take home at a very low price.  We gathered our treasures and in carrying them to the car we noticed a 3X5 card and another slip of paper, with information about the piece, was attached to the back.  It was after reading this information that we definitely knew we had a treasure.  Had this information been available to see while the picture was hanging I believe there would have been more interest in it.  One of the reasons, and probably the main one it was passed by, was because of the damage to the piece due to its age and the non-archival quality of the materials used at that time.  I guess at this point I should show you what this treasure is.  So here is the first of many pictures and the information I researched that I will share with you as I go along.  Keep in mind that I had to shoot photos through glass and you may need to enlarge them for the details.


An Amazing Treasure

As you can see from this photo there was a fair amount of damage to this piece mostly due to what is know as Foxing which is all the little reddish brown spots you see.  For more on this see here.  Another issue is where someone taped the piece to the mat board and it pulled away leaving the taped paper attached to the mat.  Fortunately the two top corners are still holding on.

Back to the information that was on the back of the piece.  It listed the artist as Jeanne Pierre Arnoult on one card and Jean Baptiste Arnout, which is the correct one, on the other.  The drawing is called a cartoon and was drawn in graphite in the year 1825.  The artist was born in Dijon, France in 1788 and was a student of Devosge.  He worked in Paris and he showed his work from 1819-1865.  Below are the cards that were attached to the back of the picture.  One was done by Louise and the other Artine Artinian who I will explain later.

Information Card - Louise

Information Card - Artine Artinian

In my research I found that this drawing is considered a Design for a Border with a Portrait of... (the name of the person in the drawing).  Since this work is unfinished it is not known who it might be but I would take a guess that royalty has some relevance to it as you can see by the photos below.

Royal Crown

Royalty at throne

Another Crown

I was able to find one other drawing of this type by Jeanne Baptiest Arnout that is of Baron Cuvier here.  This drawing is currently in The Collection at the National Gallery of Art in Washington DC here.  Believe me I was thrilled to find this information as it makes what I have come to life.

There are two portraits completed out of a possible eleven.  

Portrait of Women

Portrait of Man

Many of the other photos have a heavenly presence about them as you can see below.  They are rather detailed and quite beautiful.

Graphite Drawing Close-ups

Generally it is custom for an artist to sign their work when it is complete.  I thought it was interesting that this piece though incomplete was signed.

Signature of Artist

I mentioned earlier that I would explain who Artine Artinian was.  As you will see in the picture below his name has been stamped on the drawing. I find it interesting that someone would do that to such a piece as this and wonder if by doing so it would alter the value of it.   Anyway, Artine was a French Literature Scholar who I discovered also had a collection of various pieces of art which apparently included this one.  For an interesting read about him see here.

Artine Artinian Stamp

There are many other pictures I could post but I think I'll let you enlarge the first photo to view it in more detail if you'd like.  I'm still interested in learning as much about this piece as I can and would also like to have it restored eventually.  Hope you've enjoyed this excursion back in history.

Another Treasure - Silver Point

As I mentioned on one of my previous posts I acquired some treasures from Louise after her passing.  This one is very special and I think you will agree.  Most of the work Louise did in her latter years was graphite drawings.  This is one of her drawings in which she used a unique medium known as silverpoint.  For more on this see here.  She also used copper for this drawing in order to obtain a different shade.  Using a mechanical pencil she would insert either the silver or copper wire and use this to draw with.  The majority of the drawing was done with silver but she used the copper in the shirt to add another shade to the plaid.  She told us that when she was drawing the face she had to complete it in one setting since the metal, once on the paper, will tarnish and it would show as a different color if not done at the same time.  Over time the drawing continued to acquire a beautiful patina as the metals darkened some.  She was an amazing artist with the patience of a saint.


Silverpoint Drawing-By Louise

I feel very blessed to own this drawing and display it proudly at the entry of my art room.  Currently Gary is in the process of making a new wooden frame for it and we plan on replacing the old mat with new double mats to give it the honor it deserves.  I'll post a picture when we finish this process.

Just Black & White 14 - John & Wendy

Today, unfortunately, I will be adding another unfinished work for your viewing.  Prior to starting with watercolors, while I was still working with graphite drawings, I decided to start what I had planned on being a series of portrait drawings.  This series was the engagement pictures of the three oldest children.  I started with John and Wendy since John was the first son although they were actually the last to get married.  Here is their engagement picture that I worked from.


John & Wendy - Engagement Photo

First I needed to start making the cartoon that I would work from.  I used the grid system for this and drew each detail square by square.  For this process see June entry Just Black & White 11 .

Once the cartoon was finished I transferred it to the drawing paper.  I used Arches hot press watercolor paper because it has a very smooth surface to work on with a more professional finished look.  Here is the cartoon.

John & Wendy - Cartoon

I spent many months on the portion I completed with the most time being spent on getting Johns hair just right.  I should have waited until he had a buzz it would have been easier.  Anyway I did complete the most important and difficult areas and the rest of it should be a piece of cake in comparison.  I'm not sure at what point I will get back to it since I am finally feeling like I'm making good progress with watercolor and don't want to interrupt that process.  I do plan on completing it and also plan on doing the other two children as well.  I just hope I live so long.  Here is my unfinished drawing.

John & Wendy - Unfinished Drawing

I believe it was from this drawing that I received the comment from Louise that I was a photo realist.  I guess I'm inclined to agree.

Just Black & White 13 - Betty

It’s time to meet Betty.  Betty was my neighbor and became a good friend.  We first met when I was cleaning out the rain gutters at the condo we were living in while our home was being built.  She saw me and jokingly asked if I would do hers as well and was a bit surprised when I picked up the ladder and walked over to her yard.  From that day forward we became very good friends.  Betty was in her eighties and had a unique personality.  She was not afraid to speak her mind and most times you had to take her with a grain of salt.  I learned a lot from Betty during the time we spent together since she was very well read and enjoyed the cultural events that both Gary and I love.  This picture is one I took at her eighty-seventh birthday party and knew I had to put my pencils to it.

Betty Montrose

Betty was a very independent lady living on her own, driving her car, playing pinochle with a group of ladies weekly and doing all she could to keep active.  Unfortunately time caught up with her and her health started going down hill.  I was blessed to be there to help when she needed to go to the doctors office and hospital visits.  This picture is the black and white I worked from in my drawing.

Betty in Black & White

Betty’s family didn’t live here in Florida and she finally had to be moved to Minnesota to reside in an assisted living facility close to where her son lived.  We continued to keep in touch but Betty finally passed on to a better life.  I miss her still and want to dedicate this drawing to a very special lady.

My Friend Betty

Just Black & White 12 - St. Augustine Porch

I have avoided this posting for a while but have decided that postponing it will not change the outcome in any way.  I am starting a new category and in doing so I hope it will motivate me to get on the ball and do something about it.  What am I babbling about?  Unfinished works!!  I know I’m probably not the only one that has them but it goes against the grain of my personality.  I just hope this category doesn’t surpass the completed works at some point.

This drawing was started shortly after I finished the drawing of Gary and Grace so it gives you an idea of how old it is.  It’s not like I haven’t worked on it in all that time.  I get it out every now and then and work on it, I just don’t keep with it long enough to finish it before I’m back working on watercolors. 

The picture I’m working from was taken in the town of Saint Augustine on the coast of Florida at the Old St. Augustine Village Museum.   St. Augustine is known as the oldest city in the United States.  For more information about St. Augustine click here. This picture is a shot of the front porch of the house in the village.


St. Augustine Porch

Here is my unfinished drawing.

Just Black & White 11 - Value Chart

Before I could do a real portrait of real people Louise had a few more areas of instruction to cover.  The first was getting to know your pencils and using them correctly.  I started the class with ten graphite pencils and eventually added to that for a total of sixteen, ranging from 8B (soft) to 8H (hard) with B, HB, & F in between.  To become familiar with each pencil we made a value chart.  We started by filling in a small area of about ½ inch by 1½ inches by running a specific pencil back and forth making lines very close together.  Using the same pencil we then repeated this procedure on the same set of lines twice, moving down one third of the space each time.  Each third of the finished area would then have a different shade showing us how layering our work would change the value. 


Value Chart

Next we learned how to make a cartoon (line drawing) of the picture or person we wanted to draw.  For my first picture I chose a photo that I took of my husband Gary holding our granddaughter Grace.  She was only a few months old at the time and I was very fortunate to click the shutter at just the right moment and capture a priceless expression on their faces.

Gary & Grace

Since an enlargement would be necessary we were taught the grid method of doing this. Step one was to print a copy of the picture and place a small (1/4 inch) clear plastic grid over it. 

Small Grid on Picture

We would then place a piece of tracing paper over another larger (1/2 to 1 inch) grid that would give us the finished dimension or size desired.  Then working square by square draw the small picture onto the larger sized tracing paper using the line drawing method.

Grid Enlargement

Once this is done you have a cartoon which you then transfer over to your drawing paper.  One method is placing your cartoon over a piece of graphite paper which then is placed over your drawing paper and trace the cartoon lightly to leave an outline of your picture on the drawing paper.  The method Louise taught us was to flip the cartoon over and use a 2b (very soft) pencil to redraw your cartoon on the back of the sheet.  Before doing this we would sign and date the correct side for future reference.  When this step was finished you would place the cartoon directly on the drawing paper and trace the cartoon lightly to leave a graphite imprint that you would work from.  After all this was complete you could start your drawing.

Completed Cartoon

Here is my finished drawing using all of the procedures above.

Just Black & White 10 - Misc 5

With many of the basics behind us Louise went on to teach us how to do portraits.  As you have seen in prior posts I had already dabbled in portraits but now would get instruction from someone who really knew what she was talking about.  The first thing we learned was facial proportions, click here.  I was amazed since I didn't realize there was so much preciseness to it.  Here are the notes and drawings from that class.


Head Porportions - view 1

Head Porportions - view 2

Much to our surprise the first portrait she had us do was a self portrait.  The trick here was we had to do it from memory and we could not use a mirror.  It was interesting to see the results of each student and how we viewed ourselves.  Also the drawing was not very detailed, more like the line drawings we learned in the beginning.

Self Portrait from Memory

I went on that week and completed two additional drawings both from the Lee Ames book.  The first one was done correct except for the forehead which was slanted to the back more severe than the original but, I decided to leave it that way as a reminder to get my proportions correct in the future.

DWLA

DWLA

Just Black & White 9 - Class Lesson 2

Over the next few weeks Louise taught us several new ways to approach drawing.  I am not going to go into a lot of detail but will share a definition as well as the work I did in each of these areas.  


The first area we covered was Contour Drawing, click here.  Our subject was our hand.  In the first drawing we were asked to draw the outline of both the front and the back view of our hand.
In this drawing we were allowed to look at the drawing as we drew.  The end result is very much like a coloring book drawing.


Contour Drawing

For the second drawing we did the palm, the back and a side view of our hand.  This time we were not allowed to look at the paper at anytime and we were not allowed to lift the pencil off the paper until each drawing was complete.  This is called a blind contour drawing.  Needless to say the results are quite different.


Blind Contour Drawing

Contour Drawing Homework

The next method we learned was Foreshortening, click here.  This was another interesting lesson.  I had a little improvement in the second drawing.


Foreshortening - view 1

Foreshortening - view 2

Finally we learned Perspective, click here.  We were taught how to use the vanishing point to achieve proper perspective.  I have to admit that this is one area where I could learn a lot more.


Vanishing Point

Exercise in using Vanishing Point

Just Black & White 8 - Class Lesson 1

 At the end of the first class with Louise we were given a homework assignment to work on during the week.  She wanted us to do several of the R-mode upside down drawings of our choice to get a better feel for drawing using this method.  Below are pictures I found in our local newspaper to try with the exception of the first one which is actually a repeat of the handout I worked on in class but was not to happy with.  I was trying to follow the old rule of "If at first you don't succeed try, try again".  I feel like I did a little better especially in the area of the face.  Again each of these drawing was drawn upside down.

Just Black & White 7 - Misc 4

Since I'd done a little exploring on my own before I started classes with Louise I was surprised to find she taught the R-mode, L-mode method.  Much of her teaching comes from the book Drawing on the Right Side Of The Brain by Betty Edwards.   For more information on this subject click here.  Somehow it felt like I was starting all over again and in essence I was.  Louise started us out by doing an upside down drawing using a handout she gave all the students to follow.  It was very interesting to see each students interpretation and finished drawing.  Here is the handout we used and my drawing which was done upside down but you will view right side up.


Handout

My Drawing

Next she had us make a line drawing of our hand. 


My Hand

Then to our surprise she had each of us draw another student as they were drawing someone else.  That was an interesting exercise since we were all moving models.  I chose Del a sweet lady that I’m still good friends with. 


Del

All in all the first day was fun and I met a lot of wonderful people that are still part of my life in one way or another.