Blogspot's captcha among the worst

Whenever I visit Ken's blog I feel like commenting in many posts because I love his work.

Unfortunately Blogspot changed it's "you're not a robot" verification and it is an ordeal to decipher what is written.

People think twice before clicking to comment and now another reason not to comment.

The fascinating art of Artmagenta

Due to the difficulty of choosing among so many great croquis I decided for the theme "girls dressed with hats" that is a category, a criteria like any other. Why not?

When I first did a tour at Artmagenta's blog I was enchanted by his croquis, sketches, caricatures, drawings and birds.

Ulf Andersson, is a Sweden illustrator who not only has the gift of mastering the techniques but created a style of his own in all the different works he does.
His croquis are not only exercises like for most artists and he creates amazing creatures that are unique and have their own lives. Each piece is a moment of their existence.

The witty captions he adds at each of his creations helps telling their story or help building the scene.

Take a look at his blog an make a tour around his universe.

Why do you draw nude models?

"Croquis is sketching or figure drawing from a live nude model. Also called life drawing. The purpose is exercise in how to draw the human body. Each pose lasts from 1 to 5 minutes. You are trying to get the correct proportions and balance of the human body. My total exercise will last for about 2-3 hours and most of the sketches are not worth saving/showing - but a small percent comes out as rather good drawings. These are some of those better drawings..."
Artmagenta

The dance of the cows in Spring by Erik van Elven

This is one of the great works of Erik van Elven. I was taking a look at his blog and felt like sharing some of his sketches. "Jump" is the first one:

"In Dutch, the translation for "Jump" is "Spring", the same as the season. For me, spring has not begun until the cows are back in the meadows, after they've stayed indoors all winter long.
The sheer joy, like little kids in a playground, of these massive animals is very inspirational and you can't help but smile when you witness the cows do their dance..."
Erik van Elven

I remember the first time I, a city-person, saw a cow. I stared into her eyes and... no words to describe that feeling.

An American in Paris2 by Ken Foster

Again? Yes. Ken Foster strikes again. I never thought that a honeymoon, this first post about Ken in Paris explains, could be so inspiring for an artist.

The more I stare the more I feel Paris's cafès, the Louvre that I visited so many times and Paris's atmosphere .

The bridge le Pont Neuf - the New Bridge - I had at my list of must-see in this lifetime since I read "Hopscotch" by Julio Cortázar.

How I wish I knew how to do sketches. Click at the images to enlarge.

Ken Foster great sketches

I just went to Ken Foster's blog to search for a match for the right picture and it is not online. I don't know what happened and as I have some of his works saved I decided to share the left one "Boy".

Remember that Ken's work is a journal so you have to click at the right picture if you want to read.

I hope his blog comes back soon for his work is amazing.

Update: 10/10/2011

Ken's blog is back.

Dad, why they kill people to solve quibblings?

I went to Ken Foster blog and found this post from the time he was in London.

He was sketching sat at this bench but didn't noticed what it was - sometimes artists are so concentrated in forms, colors and lines that there is no room to pay attention to anything else. He found the sketch today and discovered

"It is a memorial dedicated to the 202 people killed in Kuta, Bali in 2002, 28 of whom were Britons. There are 202 peace doves carved into this 5' round marble globe representing every person that died in that bombing."

At this post he starts making all of those questions sometimes we do to ourselves about killing people to solve conflicts. It's like going back to adolescence again and experiencing that strange feeling of total incomprehension and perplexity in face of some events. Just remembering that soldiers are sent to other countries to kill; terrorists action are the sole way to fight; bombing an entire city... I feel so ashamed of humankind and just like a five years old girl nothing makes sense for me. I feel like asking an adult: "what is it all about?" It last some minutes or hours depending on the day. Now I'm not in this state of mind but thinking with my reason: "Why on earth we still kill civilians to solve quibblings?" We still kill people because of land, to set boarders. This is shameful to say the least.

The technological advance we've been experiencing makes us believe that we are evolving but taking a good look at the world, all the wars, conflicts, lost of civil liberties, lost of human rights already conquered and all that is causing pain to human beings assure that we lost track of the way of a world where justice prevails.

Another evidence to the fact that things are changing another way is the lack of incentive for the study and research in humanities.

Can you imagine ancient Greek without philosophy?

Photography: Some rights reserved by Feggy Art. Flickr

A touch of divinity at The Sketching Life of Ken Foster

I visit Ken's blog frequently but usually to see his new work. I was searching at Google and end up at one of his 2009's pages and even thou I had already seen them I discovered new things.

It was not these two sketches I'm publishing today. I also rediscovered them and I will share with you what he wrote for the right sketch:

"This is the bell tower of the St. Feliu - a cathedral I visited in Girona last Summer. I visited three cathedrals while I was in Spain. The first one I visited was in the Barri Gotic of Barcelona - the Cathedral de Barcelona, which is undergoing a major renovation. I walked in and was instantly brought to tears. It was very unexpected and a bit embarassing.

The second was the Sagrada Familia - again tears welled up as I began to take in the space. It is a surprising thing when tears just well up for apparently no reason. But it was my experience in all three of the cathedrals I walked into that this welling up of tears took place. It must have been the intention of the people that built these cathedrals. There are several natural places that do this to me - grand and epic places, or even simple sunsets and sunrises. But there are very few man-made places that do this. Outside of cathedrals, the only one that comes to mind is a turkish carpet shop I once visited in Austin, TX. I'm not sure what it is exactly that evokes this feeling but I believe it has something to do with being in a place where the intention of the people who made it was to strengthen others in their feeling, or specifically in the case of these three cathedrals, to make a gift, or an offering, to God."

I'll publish the others this week. I'm touched as if I had the experience because it also happens to me, not at churches that I go in times nobody is there. I sit and listen to the silence, look at the sculptures and feel the peace. Sunsets and sunrises make me on the verge of tears.

I did a label for Ken Foster because I will surely keep posting his work.

Sketching life of Ken Foster 2: The Half-a-House

I have published two sketches by Ken Foster here. This is a project he is working and he tells the story of the house:

"The Half-a-House

This is an interesting little project I am working on in Rockport, Maine. This house use to be a full cape but about 30 years ago (so the story goes) two brothers inherited the house and decided to split it - literally. One brother took his half of the house across town and the other one lived here. It's less than 1000 SF and either needs to be torn down or completely renovated." (keep reading here)

"This sketch was done in about 2 hours and I hit the undo button a lot! Once I was happy with it, I brought it into Artrage for some final tweaks. I wish the renovation was going to be that easy!" Ken Foster

I like the sketch, the story and keep thinking about the brother caring half of the house across town.

The amazing sketching life of Ken Foster

It's been a long time I want to publish about Ken Foster's sketches but I always found it very difficult to chose one or two of his amazing works.

I'm just publishing these two because I want to share it with you but I'm thinking about all the others that I didn't publish.

You have to visit Ken's blog and experience his work. The only problem is that you will feel sorry for not being able to draw and having to use a digital camera to register your life.

Steven E. Gordon sketches

At Steven E. Gordon's blog I found amazing drawings and sketches I love sketches. They give us an idea of the process of artist's researches on the character and some studies of the body in movement. I'll be posting some others of Gordon's sketches.