Skip to main content

Harlem Meer, 09.22.12

By September 22, 2012November 3rd, 2021Sketches

Enjoying the final hours of warmth as Autumn comes rolling in.  The leaves in the park only only threatening to change but in the moments and days to follow it will quickly flame up with color and then so suddenly be done with its dance for the year.

Today, I did three studies of the island.  The first, a failed experiment as ink wash on watercolor paper.  Barely larger than a postage stamp.  I tried to scrub the wash out of the dense blacks but the paper was exceptionally absorbant and its questionable to how water soluble the black was to begin with.  I’m still greatly wrestling with materials at this stage.  Amusing if it weren’t so damned infuriating…

The second was the largest of the three.  At approximately 5×7 inches it eats up much of the horizontal space on the page.  I tried for a lightness here amongst the volume.  The extant shading is sloppy and not charming.

Final study is this lovely, cross hatched little dirge.  It’s the first time I’ve included the foliage from the rest of the park as backdrop.  The a-symmetry of it is nice from this angle.  At this point, it serves to make the island smaller but without context it could as easily be clouds.  This is just me doing my sketchbook thing.  Not breaking out of the mold here.  You do see here the algae bloom in the foreground of the island.  The bloom has exploded since last week.  Interesting turn of events.

I guess at some point i’m going to have to do something with these.  Right?  Or, you know… get better.

After the island studies, i went and did a terrible floral from the neighboring Conservatory Garden.

Latest posts by E. Tage Larsen (see all)