Society of Illustrators, Wednesday, July 24

Part One:  Copying Some Sendak
The other day, Wednesday the 24th, I joined Shirley, Benedicte, Teri and Liam at the Society of Illustrators to view the Maurice Sendak exhibition.

I found a few things I thought I might be able to copy.

There were literally only a few other people in the gallery. One lady asked me about the app I was using. Turns out she is a quilter so I pointed out Shirley and told her about Benedicte being famous and all that. Sketching on the iPad starts conversations or maybe it could be that I was planted smack dab in front of one of the illustrations. Nah. I’m considerate. When I sense someone coming near I unblock their view.

Shirley sketched a lot of figures and details. Benedicte took notes and “drew dogs, a plane, a bird and two moons making faces, one of them with horns sticking its tongue out”. Teri and Liam stuck together, carefully studied and discussed the illustrations.

The drawing below, truth be told (and I ALWAYS tell you all the truth), was the first sketch I attempted to copy while in the gallery but I abandoned it and went on to copy the first one above. I buried this sketch in the bottom layer and told Benedicte that “I haven’t any Mojo yet” or something about my mojo along those lines. I didn’t make any color notes and I can’t remember what animal Rosie was straddling. I didn’t note what was on the card next to the illustration. Sigh. Very Observant Artist is my middle name. I had to email Shirley and Benedicte for info on who the girl was. I don’t remember (observant me) her having a boa but it seems this is part of her trademark outfit so I added it.

Anyway. When I was tweaking the other drawing (Oliver and his horn) I looked at the abandoned sketch living underneath, decided it wasn’t so very terrible and decided to resurrect it my way. That means any resemblance to the original is only the line drawing. You don’t mind, right?

Then we had a loud, chaotic lunch in a Very Very Friendly and Efficient diner/coffee shop on Lexington a block away from the Society.

Afterwards, Benedicte headed off to the nearby Frick and Teri/Liam jumped in a cab and whizzed off.

Shirley and I had our own plans but you all will have to wait for Part Two. I probably can even stretch it out into a Part Three also. Hmm. I’ll have to think about that.

iPad drawings:  Sketch Club app, New Trent Arcadia stylus. Sketches and color were done in the gallery but tweaking things went on at home. Everything was too “same value” and needed perking up at leisure.