Moleskine Sketchbook 6, Part 5

Welcome to the second half of my sketchbook, and it is at this point where things start to get juicy!  Flipping through the pages of my book I can see the growth that happened during this period, and frankly I am quite happy with what I see.  At this point I'm beginning to work from observation a little more, or I take inspiration from Corot.  The drawing above was begun from observation by looking out my friend's window of his home in the Catskills.   

Central Park has been an important part of my life here in NYC.  This is the place where I learned how to paint in plein air.  This is also the pace where I spent a lot of time in the last two years as I completed multiple races to qualify for the NYC Marathon in 2019 and 2020.  This year's marathon has been cancelled though, but I still get to keep my qualification and registration for next year's marathon.  Sometimes when time permits I get to take a stroll in the park and if something catches my eye the sketchbook and pen come out.  That was the case one sunny afternoon when I stumbled on Delehead Arch. 

This drawing is not from observation but it is inspired by Central Park and some of its rocky areas.  My sketches, like the one above, are not done with any purpose in mind.  I work out ideas and compositions in hopes that in the future I can make something more complete out of them.  Months after creating this drawing I chose it as a study for my first etching at the beginning of this year.

I love making thumbnail sketches, these allow me to work a little faster because the space I need to cover is smaller and also they don't need to be as detailed as the larger drawings.  Again, I'm putting ideas onto paper and collecting them for future reference. 

These two drawings were begun from observation and finished from memory/imagination.  I am very proud of these two pages, here I can see that I'm taking more command of the pen and creating a tonal range that I did not know I could get with a ballpoint.  These drawings also bring nice memories to mind since they were begun at Hyland Park, a place very familiar to the younger me.  This park is also located a few feet from my parents home, which currently I miss a great deal.  Hope I can visit soon!

With the two pages above I enter my blue period!  Ok maybe I'm joking a little, but from this point I begin to use and enjoy blue ink.  The drawing on the right page is based from a section of a Corot painting at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.  One Friday evening after work I made the trip uptown for an overdue museum visit.  It had been so long since I had been there, and that night was magical.  The Corot gallery was empty, and it was just myself and his work face to face.  Something triggered me to start a drawing based on of one of his paintings.  I must be crazy to take on him that way, but I went with my impulse.  The drawing on the left is from imagination, but very influenced by the facing page.  I'm still trying to figure out what drives me to make these drawings of landscapes, most of them from imagination.  Why am I executing them in such a private way?  Why do these places exist in my head?  I'm not sure if I'll ever be able to answer these questions, but I will not fight it, I will keep working my pen on the pages of my sketchbook.