JcSparks.com

I know that last week I posted a picture of my self-portrait, patted myself on the back, and called it complete. Well, that was all before I showed it to Martha. Instantly she found about 15 things that need to be fixed in the painting. Actually, I don’t think there was any part of the painting that she didn’t have a suggestion to improve. As luck would have it, there was an equipment malfunction that required us to start a new day-long painting in Martha’s class. Instead I spent the day working on my self-portrait…

Well, here’s the updated, not to say newly completed, version.

(click for larger version)

I don’t know if I should enumerate the changes I’ve made. Actually, I’m pretty curious to know how much the differences are obvious to the average viewer. If you are completely bored, or earnestly curious, you could download the previous version and look at the two images side-by-side. This makes the changes pretty clear. If anyone actually does so, please post a comment or send me an email.

It has been my experience that it is far easier to spot problems with someone else’s work than with your own. That said, I am very fortunate to have been able to subject my portrait to the scrutiny of Martha Mayer Erlebacher. She is an extremely adept and experienced artist. I am quite saddened to learn that she is going to be moving to a part-time schedule next year at the Academy. No doubt this will allow her more time to spend on her own work, but it will be a great loss to incoming students.

All of this transpired before the Thanksgiving break. I had hoped to post pictures over the break, but alas, the pictures I took did not turn out well at all.

Today was another class with Steven Assael. We’re working on a multi-week painting. I’ll have a couple more weeks to work on this one, but it has reached a point that I’m willing to show an in-progress image.

– Jeremy

Think I’ve finally finished this one. It took a great deal of restraint to wait until now to paint in the hair. Once that was done there were a few small details to lock down and well… here’s the result.

(click for larger version)

– Jeremy

I’ve worked quite a bit on my Ecorche since the last update. I’ve added most of the trunk muscles and all of the upper-leg muscles, save the tensor fascia lata. Here’s an updated image. Such a great exercise, it really exercises your conceptual demons and illustrates where you know the musculature and where you do not. This won’t be the last time I make an Ecorche, I’m really looking forward to using what I’ve learned this time around to make a cleaner one next time.

This is an interesting exercise. In Martha’s History of Painting Techniques class we are concluding the semester with an open-form painting. Basically we’re supposed to be losing the contour of the figure, essentially democratizing the entire painting surface by treating everything as a patch of color. Obviously this isn’t something that I’ve done successfully. It was surprisingly hard for some of us in the class (me in particular) to give up the silhouette. My painting really just looks like I’m trying to paint a Renoir. We’ve got a few more weeks to work on it though, perhaps I’ll be able to build up the surface a bit and make a decent painting out of it even if I don’t completely lose the linear aspect of the form.

Here’s another picture of the continuing exercise from the Alyssa Monks class. I spent most the entire class working on the head this past week. Finally getting close with this layer, I need to finish the hands and feet.

– Jeremy

Now that Jeremy has posted a few more photos from the Halloween party, I should write a little more about our costumes, just to finish the subject for once and all.

Mr. Arnolfini

Jeremy’s houppelande was constructed from plum satin lined with black cotton cloth and trimmed with a nice low-pile brown faux-fur that we found a good deal on in the scraps bin of a fabric store. We used the rotated-point circle plan houp model to make it. Basically, the garment is composed of 4 quarter-circles with the top few inches cut off the point to make the shoulder seams; the sides were left open as in the painting, and there are seams up to the midpoint of the front and back and triangular gores to change it from a V-neck to a rounded neckline. The edging was all done by machine-sewing one edge of the faux-fur and then flipping it forward and folding it under to be hand-hemmed. When you consider the radius of the circle we created, the bottom hem alone ended up measuring about 50′, not to mention the sides and neck. Kept me busy for more than a few evenings. With all that material, it is also quite heavy, but Jeremy was a good sport about wearing it.

The other crucial part of Jeremy’s costume was that fabulous black hat. I decided to knit and felt it, using 4 skeins of doubled Cascade 220 yarn (black, of course!) and a #11 24″ circular needle. Here are the specs:

After swatching both single and double strands of yarn and felting them, I ended up using the latter for greater stability. Garter stitch both added to the thickness of the finished hat and gave the impression of ridges, which are visible in the painting (apparently it was a straw hat). I measured gauge before and after felting my swatches to give myself an inkling of what I would end up with, and chose 70 stitches for the part that would be snuggest around Jeremy’s head. Because that was my only set measurement, I started there with a crocheted cast-on and increased out for the brim, cast off, and picked up stitches in my cast-on to increase up to the crown, a technique that worked perfectly.

I felted it in my washing machine and let it dry over a container that had the right dimensions, not worrying too much about the ripply, floppy brim. I was able to solve that problem with some black craft wire of an appropriate gauge, shaped and whipstitched onto the underside of the brim; following the path of a slightly visible garter ridge made it easier to get my darning needle through the dense felt.

Being so far away from Jeremy, I was worried that it would come out the wrong size, but thanks in part to his thick hair, it fit just fine—and looks pretty good on, if I do say so myself.

Mrs. Arnolfini

I already wrote about the most complicated part of my costume, the dagged, bag-sleeved, fur-trimmed green houp. Under the houp, we made a simple 10-gore, slit-neck tunic in a lovely blue linen/tencel blend. The dress was finished off with a leather belt I found at Value Village; we trimmed it and punched holes for leather thong ties for a nice snug fit.

For my headgear, I made a ruffled veil and a set of felted cauls to attach it to. The veil is a very fine, transparent cotton, cut in a rectangle, with one long edge ruffled (that would be the front), and the two back corners rounded off. After a lot of frustrated searching, I was able to track down directions for sewing a narrow rolled hem for this very delicate material; and I was able to cheat a little on the ruffle. We found some simple (and very cheap) lace ribbon that was basically cotton with a row of lace holes down the center; ironed it in half, and then I threaded the holes, pulled them tight to make a doubled ruffle, and sewed it down to the front edge of the veil. I contemplated doubling it, as in the painting, but I think it would have been too heavy for the fabric; her veil may have been a doubled, or even quartered, piece of cloth.

My cauls were rather a quick project, made from less than one skein of single-stranded Cascade 220, in a light brown color that was the closest match we could find to my hair. I cast on 8 stitches, worked centered double increases until I had about 22 stitches, then basically worked a short row heel with about 8 stitches left in the center, double decreases down to 8 stitches; and repeat all of the above for the second caul. If I remember correctly, I used #10.5 needles for this after making a mock-up on #7s for size and technique. I then mostly concerned myself with getting the felted cauls shrunk to that same size, a simple enough prospect. Slightly more complicated was figuring out how to attach them to my head, as the felt was too thick for bobby pins to penetrate. I ended up working a single crochet edging through the felt (using a darning needle like an awl to poke holes for the hook to go through), and that worked well.

When it was time to assemble the veil and cauls, I pinned the veil to the cauls by poking a safety pin up from the underside of each caul. Then I braided my hair and got Jeremy’s help pinning it up under the cauls with bobby pins. The effect was pretty good, though not quite the same as the painting, and I might consider getting a piece of wide brown elastic and turning the cauls into a sort of modified headband next time for easier wear.

Yes, I hope there will be a next time. These costumes represent a lot of time, effort, and money, so hopefully we will have other opportunities to wear them. Jeremy’s costume at least is in no danger of ever being too small for him.

We’re rapidly approaching the end of the semester. It is difficult for me to think about the fact that there are only a few more months before I graduate. Anyhow, here’s a rare mid-week update with some images of recent work.

This one is from the Alyssa Monks continuing ed class I mentioned previously. We’ve moved on to a longer pose and this is after three sessions of three hours each. I’ve got a good start on most of the first layer. I need to work on the hands, feet and head still. It’s a good palette that she uses, very versatile, though it takes a good 75 minutes to mix it all up. Still, it’s well worth it to put in the effort ahead of time. We’ve got five classes left—I’m looking forward to see how she finishes a painting.

Completely different technique. As I had mentioned previously, this one is done using an India Ink underpainting. Color is then glazed on top of the ink wash… that’s really about as complicated as it gets. It is a great technique, and I think I’m going to try to do another painting like this over the Christmas break. The colors are much more jewel-like in person—I wish that the photograph was a bit better for showing that quality of the painting.

Here’s an update on my continuing self-portrait, also for Martha’s History of Painting Techniques class. It’s still coming along, though I’m not entirely happy with the accoutrements, so I’m going to work on those a bit more. The hair hasn’t been painted in at all yet; that’s one of the last things to be painted in. Though it’s difficult to wait…

Back to the grind. I’m going to be spending most of the next two days working on my Ecorche. I’ll post some more pictures of that, hopefully, this weekend.

– Jeremy

Sorry for the delay—I know that some of you have been waiting for pictures from the annual NYAA Halloween Party. The wait is over…

Here we have Gina sporting not only a parrot but a dashing smile to boot, and giving Mr. Depp a run for his pirate money.

Here’s Patrick: just don’t ask him what Brown can do for you…

Rachel in a mock-Paris Hilton getup. How you doin’?

Of course no New York soiree is complete without a visit by the Prince of Darkness himself. Here he is making time with the ladies.

Much dancing was had by all, even the pirates and indians…

Jee, aping the talented SNL’er Molly Shannon’s character, Mary Katherine Gallagher.

Daisy Duke made an appearance and posed for this beer ad, I mean photo op… thanks, Rachel.

Dana and Brooke, just another typical NYC copule.

Okay… too obvious, I know. Would you believe that these two came separately?

Here’s a group picture of many of the second year students. What a colorful bunch of people. Not to get all melodramatic on you, but I will surely miss them next year.

Of course you know by now that Julie has spent months working on our costumes. Life imitating art, as it were. From Van Eyck’s famous Arnolfini Marriage…

Julie’s effort was so impressive that we (notice how I inserted myself into that when she did all of the work) won the costume contest. Here’s one last shot of Julie’s costume…

– Jeremy

Acqua
We went to this restaurant on the way home from our 8-hr visit to the Met. We got off the subway without a particular dining destination in mind, and realized as we did that it was pouring down rain. Running past a number of restaurants, we settled on Acqua because it seemed reasonably-priced and welcoming.

It turned out to be a good choice. The service was friendly and the food was very good. I had the chicken marsala with mashed potatoes and sauteed spinach (I ate lots of spinach in NYC for some reason), and Jeremy had some sort of penne pasta dish (feel free to add to this meager description, sweetie). We also had chocolate cake and ice cream for dessert, which was very tasty, but apparently unmemorable, because I nearly forgot to add it to the review.

It was kind of noisy inside, but that is seemingly the case for pretty much any NYC restaurant, and the source of the noise that night was mostly the flamboyant birthday group seated next to us. I think we would both recommend this restaurant, and I’d happily eat there again if there weren’t so many other places to try out during a visit.

Good Enough to Eat
We ate brunch at this little restaurant on our way to visiting The Frick, thanks to a recommendation in “Gerry Frank’s Where to Find It, Buy It, Eat It in New York.” I think we must have arrived at a good time, because there were only a few other diners when we arrived, and the place was full when we left.

It has a cozy country atmosphere, complete with a little picket fence out front and country music playing in the background. We were a little put off by the latter, and also by the dozens of smallish objects hanging from the ceiling that resembled nothing so much as giant papier-mache fleas, but the food was very good. Jeremy had some waffles that were both studded and topped with nuts, and I had the Peter Paul Pancakes, which are studded with chocolate chips and topped with toasted coconut. The toppings were a tasty addition, but made it difficult to spread on the accompanying orange butter. If I were to make the pancakes at home (and I could, since the restaurant has put out a breakfast cookbook), I would be more liberal with the toasted coconut, and sprinkle it directly onto one side of the pancakes as they cook, to eliminate that problem.

At any rate, a very tasty brunch if a bit spendy. When Jeremy comes home for Christmas, I may well check out that cookbook from the library, and try out a few of their recipes myself.

City Grill
Another restaurant we found while running aimlessly in the pouring rain looking for a reasonably-priced meal, this time after our visit to The Frick. We discovered after the fact that this restaurant is on the “Don’t Bother” list in Gerry Frank’s book, but we thought it was good, comforting American food and thoroughly enjoyed our meals. Jeremy had a roast turkey dinner (sort of a Thanksgiving preview), and I had the Tuscan roast chicken. The bread was wonderful, and I could actually bring myself to eat the cooked carrots there because they were more crisp than mushy.

We ate a rather early dinner there (I think we arrived at 4:30pm), having skipped lunch after our big brunch at Good Enough to Eat, so it was very quiet there, and our food came quickly. Jeremy informs me that the furnishings—all lovely mahogany—were originally in a bar in Germany and later shipped over here. There were nice harvest decorations around the walls and in the chandeliers, and it was just an overall good dining experience.

Cucina Stagionale
After visiting The Cloisters, we made our way down toward Jeremy’s school because he had a critique to attend. He suggested we go have an early dinner at Camaje, a little bistro in the Village where he arranged a Labor Day introductory luncheon for NYAA students last fall. After wandering around for a bit and not finding the place, we ended up passing by Cucina Stagionale, a name we recalled from looking through Gerry Frank’s book earlier in the day. We couldn’t remember what he said about it, but they have a very reasonable early dinner special from 4:00-7:00pm, so we decided to give it a shot.

For a total of $25 for the both of us, we got a choice of soup or salad (we got Caesar salads), wine or soda (the latter, of course), a choice of entrees (we both chose fettuccine primavera), and coffee or hot tea with tiramisu. You could hardly find a deal that good here in Salem, and the food was all wonderful, authentic Italian. Not being coffee-drinkers, neither of us are particularly fans of tiramisu, but even that was very good. The service was relaxed, but it didn’t bother us, and because we were again eating on the early side, the restaurant was practically empty, which made us even happier.

Amy’s Bread
While wandering about looking for Camaje, we walked by a bakery called Amy’s Bread whose name I recognized from—yes—the Gerry Frank book. After dinner at Cucina Stagionale, we stopped in and bought a pair of Sourdough Chocolate Bread Twists and a Double Chocolate Pecan cookie for dessert. They were both very tasty, and apparently Jeremy has already gone back to get another cookie there since I left for Salem.

While looking up this bakery on Google to see if they had a website, I also discovered that Amy’s Bread put out a cookbook by the same name. One more book to get from the library this winter…

Golden Unicorn Dim Sum
Jeremy wanted me to experience dim sum for the first time while I was in NYC, so we picked one out in Chinatown (by an odd coincidence we chose one on the same page of the book as Good Enough to Eat), and went there for lunch on Friday. It was indeed an experience worth having, though steamed dumplings do not exactly have the ideal texture, in my opinion. Jeremy liked it, and said that the food there tasted slightly better than the dim sum place he usually goes to, but it was also a bit more expensive and hard to anticipate the final tab.

Camaje
Jeremy still wanted to take me to Camaje after we failed to find it on Thursday, so we looked at the map again and headed over there after our second trip to the Met last Saturday. No problems finding it this time, and we were seemingly lucky to get a table without making reservations, even though the place was at least half-empty for our entire meal. It is a cozy little bistro with very leisurely service: we never felt neglected, but the meal did take us a good two hours to finish.

After much agonizing over the menu, we decided to be a bit extravagant and order prie fixe meals: Jeremy got the autumn pumpkin soup, while I had the French onion soup gratinee; we both ordered the roasted hanger steak with crispy shallots and mashed potatoes; and then for dessert, Jeremy had the banoffi pie and I had creme brulee with lavender craqueline. It was all wonderful, and made a perfect conclusion to my visit to New York—Jeremy has good taste!

I spent most of Monday and Tuesday working on my History of Painting Techniques self portrait. So far so good. The underpainting of the flesh was all done using Indian Red, Ivory Black and Cremnitz White. Once I resolve all of the drawing issues, I’ll be putting on a couch of Transparent Gold Ochre with a little bit of Vermillion Red and putting back in some highlights with inverted compliments, which should make it look more fleshy. Just need to find the time to paint in the palette, the mahl stick and fix a couple of drawing issues in the wrists.

– Jeremy

#4: The Cloisters

We’re in the home stretch, at least as far as these museum visit posts are concerned. On Thursday, we went up to The Cloisters, an amazing branch of the Metropolitan Museum of Art focusing on the art and architecture of medieval Europe.

The two biggest highlights of this museum have to be the Merode Altarpiece and the The Unicorn Tapestries, but the whole building is a wonder of medieval art and architecture.

We’ll definitely have to come back here in the spring. Despite the chilly weather, I had a good time looking through the gardens, which contain a number of plants I had heard of, but never seen, like this quince tree:

By the way, I’m not sure why Jeremy only sent photos of the Cloisters that I was in, because we took a lot more than these. Here’s a link to some he took last spring, for a refresher.

#5: The Metropolitan Museum of Art (again)

Finally, we reprised our visit to the Met this past Saturday for a nice bookend effect to the trip—although we were both so tired from the Friday night Halloween party that it was a much shorter visit. Still, there were whole wings we missed before, and a new special exhibit to take in.

This time we got to the modern art wing, the Prague exhibition (which had a really neat medieval model book I don’t see on their website), an exhibit of Santiago Calatrava’s sculpture and architecture, and a quick pass through the Japanese armor and Asian art sections. We also went through the Fra Angelico show, which had opened earlier in the week. In the photo below, I am standing next to a Neo-Assyrian lamassu.

Still to come, restaurants and other NYC miscellany, plus a certain Halloween costume party (or at least our costumes for it)—stay tuned!

#2: The Frick Collection

After visiting the Met, I was a little museumed-out and needed a bit of a break. We spent Sunday and Monday visiting a few of Manhattan’s better-known areas: Times Square, Union Square, Columbus Circle, Wall Street and the Financial District, Battery Park, and Ground Zero. On Tuesday, we headed off to see The Frick—only to stand outside for something like an hour in the rain waiting for tickets. The Frick is currently housing a special exhibition of the portraiture of Hans Memling, a 15th-century Netherlandish painter, and New Yorkers seem to be far more excited about the show than we would have anticipated. Unfortunately, cameras are not allowed in The Frick, but here is a link to the Memling exhibit, and a photo of another Memling portrait from the Met.

I can see why Jeremy likes The Frick so well. It is a good-sized collection, but not overwhelmingly huge, and all very thoughtfully arranged. And they have some wonderful paintings:

Harmony in Pink and Grey, by Whistler
Sir Thomas More, by Hans Holbein the Younger
St. Francis in the Desert, by Bellini
Nicolaes Ruts, by Rembrandt
Mistress and Maid, and Officer and Laughing Girl, by Vermeer
The Wool Winder, by Greuze
and one of my all-time favorite paintings,
The Comtesse d’Haussonville, by Ingres

and many many others. Very cool!

#3: The American Museum of Natural History

On Wednesday, Jeremy had class all day, so I was on my own. He ran me through getting from I.House to the natural history museum to NYAA, and I took it from there. I got the big ticket, so my day was divided between planetarium and IMAX shows and visits to the special exhibitions, the butterfly conservatory and the dinosaur show, interspersed with rambles through whatever rooms happened to be near those. Jeremy took quite a few excellent photos of his trip to AMNH, but he missed the Hall of Ocean Life, so here’s a whale of a photo for you (sorry…):

According to the museum website, this blue whale model is 94-foot-long, and “one of the Museum’s most celebrated icons.” I also enjoyed the diorama of the sperm whale fighting a giant squid, which was too dark for me to photograph myself. At any rate, I barely scratched the surface of this museum, despite spending some 7 hours here. I don’t think I saw anything on the third floor at all, and I somehow missed the marine fossils, not to mention the meteorite hall and the gems and minerals hall, where I would like to have seen the Star of India sapphire.

Time for another break, then on to the conclusion of the museum series. Stick with me!