Studies

final_project_value study, originally uploaded by mmvgonzales.

A little change in this study. I've included a 2nd mirror behind me. I still need to play around more with the set up and lighting.

Final Project ideas

Final Project: idea #1, originally uploaded by mmvgonzales.

I have to do a final project for my Figure Drawing class. We have several options but I think I'm going to go with the easiest which is a self portrait. There needs to be a few things included which tell something about me, who I am. Obviously it's not going to be my clothes. It has to be in media with which we worked on in class such as conte, ink or grahpite.
These are done with diluted Noodler's ink in my Niji waterbrush.

Tornado in Riverside, CA

Yesterday it was a strange day, and no Dorthy, we are not in Kansas.  A few days ago we were sweltering in triple digits and yesterday after a nice sweaterless morning the day grew colder and stormy.

I was at work all day and even there the events of the day were very unusual.  Several 'dramas'  played through; one being that I caught my 17 year old patient smoking in the bathroom with mama's approval.  Yes, I've seen it all!  

Outside it was a different story.  As the television warning came on in the patient rooms the parents and kids began to tell us of a tornado hitting in Riverside (where I live ).  We quickly all became glued to a television and my manager and I realized quickly that it was right in the area where we live.  Both of us had difficulty reaching our families via cell phone or land line.  But eventually I got through to Aaron who slept through it all.  Fortunately, Rudy was not hitting golf balls at the course just a mile from where the tornado hit but out at the mall, oblivious to what was happening.  Everyone safe.

In  a short span of time yesterday evening we had a tornado, hail storms, rain at 1 inch/hr and snow!  The tornado turned over a big rig truck and flipped a cargo train off it's tracks!  The footage above I found on youtube and was filmed about a mile from my home.  

Yes indeed, it was a very unusual day.

Sin Nombre

Sin Nombre, originally uploaded by mmvgonzales.

A potter...from a photo from the book Sin Nombre. c 1947 Cienega, New Mexico

The Bishop Wears Red

This is sort of an experimental art piece. Saturday was my niece's confirmation into the Catholic Church. I had a leather-bound journal I bought while out shopping with my friend Robyn in Florence. I haven't used the sketchbook much because I don't like the paper for art work. But this blind contour turned out nice so today I scanned it and then colored it in photoshop. Now I want an art tablet because I think I could have a lot of fun with this!

The end of school is just weeks away.  I feel as if I am taking steps backward because every time I put something on paper, it's awful.  I should have progressed by now.   I have to go through all my school work and pick my best for a final critique and presentation of a final project.  I'm looking forward to the slower pace of lazy summer days.

A quick update on what's going on in my life.  The menopause symptoms have subsided but for 2 weeks now I have been on my period (with a 4 day break mid way).  I think there is still some adjusting my body has to do with the hormone therapy.  This of course has left me feeling "drained" and the running is suffering. 

 This morning I went for a nice run but had a stray puppy join me.  Of course I had to cut it short because the pup kept going into the street and almost got hit a few times.  People were giving me dirty looks and one woman stopped her car to yell at me to put my dog on a leash!!!  With all that bad karma I just came home; the pup following someone else.  Two hours later a knock on the door asking if it was our dog (she looks just like my Dottie). I didn't have the heart to leave her out and possibly get hit by a car.  So now she's in the back yard and I guess I have flyers to make and post in the neighborhood.  I don't want another dog!!!

On a sad note; Brittanee died Sunday morning.  The little girl who defied death till the end is now in heaven.  She touched so many lives while battling her disease for the past 8 years.  I have to believe she is whole again and laughing and playing with angeles.

And the rest of my day with Aaron....

The bells at Mission San Juan Capistrano; south Orange County.

Olive grinding stone at the mission.

All sketches were done in my handmade sketchbook with noodler's ink and watercolor washes.

Click on photo to see the rest of the photos from my day with Aaron.

A day with Aaron

I haven't done any sketching in my handmade sketchbook in such a long time!  Today my Aaron and I spent the day together going first to the Bower's Museum in Santa Ana, California and then to Mission San Juan Capistrano; with a stop in between to Sterling Art for supplies and a nice lunch.  

I had time this evening to watercolor the sketches from the Bower's but my eyes tired before getting to the ones of the mission.  I am not pleased with my painting; I think my lack of has suffered past couple of months.  I overworked the african figure as well as the other two.

It was nice to relax and spend time with my boy.  This was an assignment for his World Religion class, but I think he enjoyed the day with his mom.

Mother's Day 2008

Miss Gracie c. late 1990s

half sheet Arches watercolour 140lb. cp

This is an email I received from my niece Grace who lives in Albuquerque, New Mexico:

Nina.I want to know the price of that painting of me on your website posted under nieces because I really want it!
Love gracie

And part of my response:

I love the watercolor of you I painted when you were a baby. You were only 1 year old; almost 2. You were sitting at my studio table painting a picture! I took a photo of you and then I painted the portrait from it. I am not going to ever sell it to you. I would like it if one day we can put it in a mat and frame and then it will be yours. But framing is a little expensive so that's why I haven't done it yet. But that painting has ALWAYS belonged to YOU!

All of us mommies, grandmas, aunties and daughters......wishing all a very ...

Happy Mother's Day

Woo Hoo!

marker and conte, originally uploaded by mmvgonzales.

Preentation went well, got all my drawings done and turned it....now I can relax for a few days! Hope to spend some r & r time browsing my favorite blogs and stopping to say hello!

My Feet Really Aren't This Big or....

Master Study no. 5 complete.  And....I'm not this big either but in a baggie T-shirt and capris while lounging at home.....I look big! LOL

After Rembrandt

The minutes are flying by me........must finish up all my assignments as the presentation on German Expressionism and all drawings are due tomorrow!!!!!!  

Menopause and other such tidbits

I began this blog with the idea that it would be nice to have a visual record of my creative side. Slowly it found it's own course to follow with occasional drifts into other areas of my life. I like it like that; you get to see several facets of who I am.

I thought I should share the things in my life that have kept me so occupied.  At times the stress of it all gets to me, but all is falling into place now and I'm feeling myself again.  Thank you to many of you who expressed concern.

Nothing really earth shattering, but enough going on to frazzle me for a time. The most significant has been a sudden onset of menopause. It didn't come on gradually and I had no idea it was coming. One day two weeks after my last very regular and normal period I woke to a cycle of hot flashes and night sweats around the clock. A couple of weeks into it I counted the hot flashes.....over 30 during waking hours! On my weekend to San Francisco to see my BFF Tricia we both had to laugh over my situation! But this cycle quickly got old and none of the herbal remedies eased symptoms. One day at work I just lost it; from non stop hot flashes, sleep deprivation, etc....and just sobbed for 1/2 an hour. A few days later I saw my PA who said, "let's discuss HRT (hormone replacement therapy)” I said, "no discussion needed, I'll do anything to stop this!" So, now I wear the Combi-patch and am proud of it! I'll show my patch on my lower belly to anyone who asks!  A week later I was feeling so much better!!!!  (my co-workers are also very happy I am on HRT)

Next major development was I finally had my appointment with a cornea specialist out of UCLA. A bit of medical history: I was born with congenital glaucoma, it was diagnosed at 6 mo. of age but by then I had already lost the vision in my left eye. With surgery the disease was halted and I was left with good eyesight in my right eye. 50 years later the disease came back and I had surgery once again and responded well. But for several years now my eyesight has gotten worse and I no longer can read newspapers, magazines or books unless it's early in the day and I have good light.
The news from the specialist was disheartening. My corneas are basically healthy, just really damaged from previous surgeries. He said no one would be willing to operate on my eye because if things didn't go well I would be left possibly blind in that eye as well. He gave me referrals to the Braile institute and the Low Vision Center in Santa Monica.  Oh well!  He did say that the progression of my poor eyesight would be gradual and over several years. I was alone and when I got in the car to come home I couldn't see as all the eye drops had left my eyes quite dilated.
I was 70 miles from home. So glad I have membership to the Auto Club! They towed my car home and I rode in the tow truck!   I'm sure the tow truck driver thought I must be drunk or on drugs!  Go ahead and laugh, I did!

The next big ticket item in my basket is school. I sometimes feel like I took on too much here. Attending a college class involves homework, research papers and projects!!! I am learning so much even if I do feel overwhelmed. I have one week to complete 3 master studies,  a group research project on German Expressionism....go ahead, ask me anything about it, I have it all up here (pointing to head), and a paper on an artist of my choice: Kathe Kollwitz.  Learning is fun and I know once all is complete I will be very proud of my accomplishments.

This week in figure class we are doing portraits. I so loved this! I am happy with the three portraits done this week. The young lady liked it so much she asked if I would sell her the portrait I did of her. It pleased me that she liked it and wanted it. It was so much fun to do them all from life!

The onset of menopause came hand in hand with the start of my running program. I quickly began to see a drop in a few pounds but since the beginning of HRT I’ve gained a few pounds. But the running has been good for me and I’m enjoying my progress, although slow.

This past weekend I ran my first 5k in many years. My friend Dr. Karen De La Cruz, along with two other pediatric nurses, joined me for this event in Century City for the benefit of Children’s Cancer Research. The day was sizzling hot with temperature in the 90’s and quite humid. I had a difficult time because of it and my pace suffered. But after the race Karen and I headed to the Farmer’s Market in the Fairfax district for a nice celebration lunch. Now, to continue training for the next one!!!

Last weekend I also took a quick trip to San Diego to spend some time with my Amy. She had invited me to join her for the SELF Magazine Workout in the Park event in Mission Bay. We had so much fun! They handed out lots of free stuff….like towels, water bottles, make-up, lotions, healthy snacks, etc. Then we worked out in the park doing an abs session ‘Absolution’ and ‘Latin Grooves.’ I mostly watched her!

I drove home from San Diego to get ready for my Brittanee’s Celebration of Life party. Brittanee has been battling cancer since she was 9 years old; she is 16 now. A few months ago she came up with her ‘bucket list’ and among the things listed was this party. She thought it sad that people die and at the funeral everyone talks about how wonderful they were. She thought you should hear those things while you are still alive. This was ‘her farewell’ to all of us. It was held at the local country club and formal dress code was requested.   She was much too ill to enjoy her party but nonetheless; she WAS the belle of the ball!

Bless my friend Clara who lent me one her beautiful gowns. (Dianne offered hers too but she's much taller than I so hers didn't fit) I was among only a handful that were invited to this event. I was so honored and touched to be invited.  I get back so much love in caring for these children.  God knew what he was doing when he led me into this profession. Thank you God.

Bless you if you have taken the time to read all these post. I have not stopped looking at all the blogs that I admire so much. I regret that I haven’t made the time to send you comments, as all of you have been so generous with me. I’m hoping once this art class is done and things (like hormones) in my life settle a bit; I can once again stop by to say hello. In the meantime I will stop by often to see new works posted there.

Landscapes and Portraiture

I have had a difficult time this past week, so art has taken a back seat; at least as much as I have allowed it to.  But my art brings me comfort so my creative spirit survives.  We had the large model back today and I finally have a conte on toned paper that I am pleased with.  Admist angste about this type of drawing, the model and other things going on; I approached it as a landscape, with all her hills, valleys and mountains...and I think it worked.  I still don't care for working in this way, but I am beginning to understand it.

On Monday she gave us an excellent portrait demo.  Then we were to try it ourselves.  I had a good start here although she said I was rushing in too quickly with features and needed to add more 'structure' before moving onto features.  I don't think I'll finish it, but think I have a better understanding of how to approach portraits.

Reading the paper on the beach

Reading the paper on the beach, originally uploaded by mmvgonzales.

Sent from me and my cool iPhone

Last week we spent a few wonderful days in our little "casita" (trailer) on the beach.  I took this photos after I had done the watercolor as I really do love working from life.  Rudy complained about making his nose too large and his hat not sitting right on his head.  So I tried to fix up those items to please him!  I like this so much because this IS how Rudy relaxes when we get away from it all....just being a beach bum!

Margarita's at the beach: post golf

Margarita's at the beach: post golf, originally uploaded by mmvgonzales.

Sent from me and my cool iPhone

You got to look cute

You got to look cute, originally uploaded by mmvgonzales.

Sent from me and my cool iPhone

Self portrait in nupastel

Self portrait in nupastel, originally uploaded by mmvgonzales.

a little less mean, old or tired. Lots of things wrong with this: muddy color (I haven't played with pastels in over 10 years...forgot how to apply them!), my eyes are bit too 'bug eyed' (but I really do have large eyes), proportions are a bit offf (I sat on a balance ball while drawing this...too much movement!) and a bunch of other stuff. But what I do like is that it's more like the 'real me.'

All sizes

Another week has come and gone.  This week we had a very large model.   Contrary to what you'd think would be the perfect opportunity to draw voluptuous forms, I found it hard to do.  There was just so much mass that it was difficult to try and locate key structures such as hip bones.   We actually had two models last Monday.  The second was a young black girl with lovely forms.  Our instructor also gave us a portrait drawing demo which was very good.  We worked on portraits several times this week.  We really had a challenging week in figure drawing class!   You can click on the above photo to see the rest of the weeks drawings.

Mi Casa EDM #165

Mi Casa, originally uploaded by mmvgonzales.

I have had so much fun looking at all the EDMr's homes with this challenge that I just had to drop the black conte and figure studies for a bit to do this watercolor and pencil of my "casita".

I live in Riverside, California in a community that is only about 20 years old: Orangecrest.  Our home is 18 years old.  My studio is in the bedroom above the garage.  From there I have a great view of what's going on in the neighborhood.  So if you are ever in my neck of the woods, come on by for a visit or bring a suitcase and stay awhile! 

Yesterday my head, today my foot!

my foot, originally uploaded by mmvgonzales.

Isn't it pretty?  This footsie along with it's partner have logged 74 miles in the past few weeks.  And they still look pretty!!!

self portrait_white conte on toned paper

self portrait_white conte on toned paper, originally uploaded by mmvgonzales.

I gave it another go tonight...using me as the model. Gosh, I look so old, mean and tired!

Two weeks worth of figure drawing!

black conte on newsprint, 18x24 inches.   Click on image to see entire set.

For two weeks now we have been working on massing in the form.  Aside from all we have learned so far, she continues to push us to really see the body, it's form and the tonal values. We are working with white conte on toned paper to help us see the forms or doing erasure drawings.  I really struggle with these!   We are being pushed a little harder to get the spirit line right at the beginning and  to get our proportions right.  She stops us often to look and see if we have it right....."don't go drawing nipples if you haven't gotten the body all drawn in"  or  "folks, you are drawing the whole body, I don't want to see headless bodies or those missing hands and feet!"  Okay, I love this class!

I got my portfolio back today.  I earned brownie points for having the neatest most professional looking one.  (We had to make them.  I guess bookbinding skills came in handy).  We got 10 grades today: 2 for the master studies and 8 for the required drawings.   She scores: 4/A, 3/B, 2/C, 1/D, 0/F.  Mine averaged to 3.4 (B).  I had one she gave me a C on but I got 4's on both my master studies.

I have a long work weekend coming up so won't have much drawing time.  And I must make time to come visit all of you and see what you are all doing.  Thank you for being so supportive and the encouragement is a big boost for my ego as well!  

"oh, if only this kind of drawing made sense to me"

Rudy in the kitchen

Rudy in the kitchen, originally uploaded by mmvgonzales.

I am struggling with white conte on toned charcoal paper. We are doing this in figure class and so far mine are awful. I really don't like the look of this type of art nor the concept. But it's class and I have to do it. I tried this at home this evening but it still looks and feels awkward.

Lunch at Citronee

Lunch at Citronee, originally uploaded by mmvgonzales.

I had a wonderfully long weekend with my BFF in San Francisco shopping and eating, in Nevada City shopping and eating and at her beautiful home in Penn Valley, Ca....shopping and eating!!!! I love you gf!

Me and my BFF in SF

Me and my BFF in SF, originally uploaded by mmvgonzales.

San Francisco cablecar

SFcablecar, originally uploaded by mmvgonzales.

Very, very quick sketch done in less than 2 minutes!  The cable car was loading people at the turnaround so it wasn't moving.  I added the color at home.

Inflight Sketch

Inflight Sketch , originally uploaded by mmvgonzales.

So where am I now?

So where am I now?, originally uploaded by mmvgonzales.

a few hundred miles from home, with my bff, a bottle of wine, bread and a happy reunion. This was lunch at the top of the Macy,a building in.....,,,,?

charcoal on sketch paper 18x24

charcoal on sketch paper 18x24, originally uploaded by mmvgonzales.

This was done last week at the March Figure Drawing session at the Riverside Art Museum.

Bunnies

Bunnies, originally uploaded by mmvgonzales.

Sent from me and my cool iPhone

I'm at work today and tomorrow. We are trying to send as many kids as we can home for Easter. I had about an hour between medications and care so I painted the bunnies on one of the doors to a patient room. So, Happy Easter everyone!!!!

Mile Grazie Michelangelo!

I had said I wasn't going to post all my class drawings every week.  But this week was an especially frustrating and insightful.  Apart from getting a start to the master study assignment, there were new concepts to learn and employ.

On Monday she had us begin looking at the figures basic geometric shape and even though we aren't drawing it every time, we should be seeing those shapes when we approach a figure drawing.  If you look closely at the long pose of the seated girl you can see the fine box shape around the head.

Today after our warm up gesture sketches we did 3 erasure drawings.  I didn't like this exercise at all!  You cover the paper with conte, smear it with a chamois and then with a kneaded erasure you begin to lift out the lights to bring the figure out of the paper.  Some students really liked this, I wanted desperately to pick up my conte!

*I had a very insightful dream last night.  I was in the studio at school all by myself.  I had just finished a drawing on a grey sheet of paper and was unhappy with it.   While pondering what was wrong with it I heard a male voice tell me to "pick up the head."  

"What?" I said

"Pick up the head"

I looked around to see a pleasant young man dressed in robes talking to me.  I knew instantly it was Michelangelo.

I asked again, " Pick up the head?"  I wasn't sure what he meant so I reached for the drawing.  As soon as I touched it the head of the drawn figure was in my hands in 3 dimensional form.  I gaped in astonishment!

He handed me a wooden dowel and told me to drive it through the top of the head; and told me that should help solve some of my problems.  

Speechless........I woke up.

If you notice on some of the gestures from today.....I have a fine line (dowel) drawn through the top of the head.  It did help!

Mile Grazie Michelangelo!!!!!! Baci!!!

ps: the crease in the drawings is from a stack of books that fell on the roll of drawings.  Dammmmm.  I might have to iron them out because I have to turn in some of these drawings.

Marter Study no. 1

First of eight is complete.  This was hard work!  I had to pick a figure drawing done by one of the masters.  I choose Michelangelo.  Then after obtaining  a good photocopy I was to trace the drawing's tonal values.  Next I had to copy the drawing using the materials the artist used and take observational notes about what I was obseving and learning by doing this.  Lastly I was to do my own drawing using what I learned from the master and in the media used by the master artist.  M poor Rudy agreed to posing nude for me but I told him I wanted to do some sketching first.  So, he could keep his underpants on while i sketched.  But I liked this seated pose so well (at least in conte) that I decided to use it for my study.  Whee...he narrowly escaped this time!

Now, off to get ready for the theater!  Rudy and I are going into Los Angeles to see Sweeny Todd at the Ahmenson.

Personal Best!!!

Today I hit a milestone with a personal best for a 5km run, 32min & 33sec.  After recovering from my respiratory infection I am back to my good state of health and have begun to kick up the pace a bit on my training runs.  It's been really cold out so I have opted for the treadmill at the gym this week.  I'm still slow but for a 52 year old just getting started, I'm proud of myself!  6 weeks to go for the 5k in Century City to support Children's Cancer Research.  

I am on campus an hour before my class starts which gives me time to check out the stacks in the library and/or do some quick sketching.  This morning was beautiful and sunny but very cold and wind