Getting ready for Italy

Some supplies I'm taking with me on my 6 month stay in Italy.


- R

Leaving soon

I apologize for not posting much artwork recently. I'm preparing for my trip to Italy. Bare with me, I'll post some stuff before I leave and after Saturday I will be posting stuff from Italia!!!! Thanks for your patience.

- R

At the Met

This is a photo of me standing in front of one of my favorite Roman sculptures (Aphrodite) at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Photo courtesy of Justin Coto.

-R

New camera

I love shooting film and I have several film cameras including a medium format Mamiya c220 which is a TLR ( twin lens reflex). I also have several older early 80's nikon and cannon cameras. This K-1000 is my new favorite 35mm camera, it's nice and sturdy.
I've been looking for this camera for a while now. This is a Pentax fully manual 35mm SLR (single lens reflex) camera.The camera has a nice 1:2 50mm lens and is east to load and shoot. I am definitely taking this camera with me to Italy.


- R

Watercolor portrait

Watercolor portrait.

-R

Drawing at Sbux again.

My friend Chris and I are in Nutley, NJ. We're waiting for Justin to get out of work, so we decided to stop into a starbucks have some coffee and sketch for a little.
I did a couple of drawings mostly with just a brown alcohol marker.
I'll post more drawings from our small session later on.

-R

ps: That's Chris drawing and that's a self portrait I did.

Back of a house

I was waiting for the train near my brother's house and as usual I was drawing to kill time. I was on the platform of the LIRR Centre St station.


-R

Sketching at starbucks in Nutley NJ

Drawing at a Starbucks in Nutley NJ with my friend and fellow sketcher.

I did a portrait of my Girlfriend's nephew Jordan (smaller sketchbook)

-R

Chairs !!!

Chairs ! I love drawing chairs, I draw them pretty often.Two of these are my mom's chairs and the other four are from a design show at the Museum of Modern Art. I had a good day today I got some good news about my trip, I visited the MoMA, and bumped into some friends. It was an unplanned visit and the museum had a lot of interesting shows including an Andy Warhol video exhibit, an abstract expressionist show.I wasn't at the museum long enough to see all the exhibits. To quote Ice Cube "today was a good day."


Fountain pen with water-proof ink in Muji sketchbook.

-R

Figure drawing from last year

I wanted to post something other than the quick sketches that I execute on my short travels. I do a lot of drawing and painting (watercolor) as well as sketching. I want to start posting some of that stuff up as well. It just isn't as easy for me to sit in my small home studio and do long drawings and paintings, there's always other work to be done (specially paperwork for my trip). I should stop making excuses, but this semester gave me little time for personal artwork (other than my sketchbook that is glued to me). My new year's resolution is to paint more (watercolor, and oil). I don't think that'll be too tough because I don't paint that much to begin with, but it's an honest resolution. Here is a figure drawing I did about a year ago. I used brown india ink on toned paper with white gouache for highlights. I used to draw from life regularly at a couple of different studios, but It's been a while and this drawing made me realize how much I miss life model drawing. Hopefully I can squeeze one or two more sessions before i leave.

-R

Freezing cold bus stop drawing.

I was waiting for the 195 NJ transit bus to head back to NY this morning. I just missed the bus and I had an hour wait before the next one. I walked around and got some coffee, then headed back to the bus stop. I sat and drew the building across the street. I've drawn it before (while it was raining) but never in such freezing cold. My hands were numb, but drawing made time go by much much faster. I definitely couldn't completely finish since my hands felt like they were frozen. I took a five minute break to warm my hands up in my pockets, then I continued. I didn't get to draw much more after my short break because thankfully the bus finally came.

Once again Sailor fountain pen with water-proof ink in a Muji sketchbook.

-R

One more Bloomfield home

I didn't get to spend as much time on this one.

-R

Bloomfield NJ

I was in Bloomfield NJ earlier this morning dropping my lady off at work. I was sitting in the car and I looked up and saw this house. I actually was more interested in drawing the big tree with the snow on it, but the tree looked lonely on my page so the house was added. The trees were the most time consuming, but also the most rewarding. I had a lot of fun and I figured out a lot of things from this drawing. I'm going to try to do a couple of more of these today, time and schedule permitting. I'm pretty happy with this drawing even though I wish I dedicated a little more time to it.

It was done with water-proof ink (sailor fountain pen) in a Muji sketchbook.


-R

Quick sketches while I was waiting for the train.

I haven't had much time to sketch. I usually never do, that's probably one of the most reoccurring themes in this blog. Today I did get to draw a little bit. I was at the LIRR station waiting for my train and I decided to draw some of the other passengers who were waiting.
Hopefully I'll eventually get back in gear and I'll fall back into my old routine of sketching everyday and dedicating more time to drawing.


-R

Jefferson Hall

Today I had to stop by my school campus to pick up some papers for my study abroad. It took me less than five minutes, so I decided to take a little time to draw the building that I had to visit. This is Jefferson Hall aka the welcome center for Queens College. The bursar, registrar and admissions offices are in this building.
I used a new pen I bought from NY art supply, a Pilot pure liquid ink V-ball o.5. It's pretty smooth and doesn't skip. It's not replacing my Rapidograph any time soon, but I will carry it with my from now on for sketching purposes ( of course ).

-R

The Clenched Hand

I thought I might start off the year by posting art that I look at often. This is a bronze sculpture by the great French sculptor Auguste Rodin (1840-1917). This piece was conceived in 1885 and finally cast in 1925. This bronze cast is at the Rodin Museum in Philadelphia, PA.
The museum is beautiful, it has a classic Greek temple front and contains many of Rodin's most famous and important works ( including the Gates of Hell, the Thinker, the Kiss...etc). The museum also has many of Rodin's studies for these important works, which for me was very interesting to look at.
The Clenched Hand was immediately one of my favorites. It was amazing to me how this one sculpture of a body part could have so much emotion and feeling. I love Rodin's work and perhaps later on I'll post some more of his beautiful work.

-R

PS: Here's an earlier post on Rodin !

Happy new year !

Happy new year to all of you ! I hope this year is full of inspiration, art, family, friends and prosperity for everyone !

-R