Draw lines, young man, draw lines; whether from memory or after nature. Then you will be a good artist. J.A.D.Ingres” No longer a young man or as good an artist as I would wish, it is how I started the year. Yesterday, when my son visited with his daughter I took the opportunity to do [...]
This comes from an email I wrote to a student of mine in first semester who's greatest difficulty is not knowing where and how to start a drawing. There are many approaches and this is but one, but it is one I have used with students for many years now. I use it myself in [...]
Yesterday at the AGO my fascination once again with Bernini's crucifixion. It's not the religiousness of it, rather the poetry of his form.
Spent the day with sculpture but took a bit of time for some sketching of Katrina, daughter of some friends.While I sketched she watched 'UP' with our cat in her lap. I have to admit, even though I was thoroughly enjoying the sketching, it was hard not to watch too. UP is such an amazing [...]
Went with a few of my Seneca Digital Animation students to Body Worlds at the Ontario Science Centre in Toronto today. This is my first visit to this show and probably won't be my last given there is so much to learn despite the spectacle feel of the place and my disgust at the way [...]
the other day in Toronto I saw an old woman in a door way. She was bent over, held up by two canes and looking like she was afraid to come out into the light for fear of being blown over by a breeze. It was sad. I never got to sketch her, being once [...]
I've been commissioned this summer to sculpt two children, life size, to be cast into bronze. It will be an interesting challenge given I haven't done any serious sculpting in a long while. Most of my work has been in clay for myself, never cast, always remushed and reworked. I've often worked out problems of [...]
Went the other night to hear The Toronto Consort, an ensemble that plays medieval and early rennaisance music. On Friday it was the music of St. Marks in Venice....Monteverdi being one. It was beautiful, but unfortunately either I am getting hard of hearing or we were too far away to really enjoy the nuances. Much [...]
Birthday party for Seneca student Diana at Tequila Bookworm. A few sketches from the evening.