EDM Challenge #38[2] Draw at a museum. Today's challenge did not go as expected, which was not a bad thing! We went to the Roy Lichtenstein exhibit at the Art Institute of Chicago -- it's closing on Monday and I love his stuff and wanted to get in to see it. It was an amazing exhibit. Very well curated, as always, and I learned a lot and got to see some of his paintings up close. I went through the whole exhibit and then went back to the one I had chosen to draw. It had a "do not photograph" sign on it, but I thought that was to do with the camera, not with copying it. There was a bench right in front of it, too. Anyway, I got my stuff out and the guard came over and told me that I wasn't allowed to sketch that painting. Did she really think I was that good? And it's not as though there aren't photographs of it in the world. Here's the link to the wikipedia file: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Little_Big_Painting.jpg
Well, I'm a shy person and I hate being yelled at by guards, even gently, so I apologized and basically ran away from the exhibit. Then I went into the modern wing and sat down to draw a sculpture I like. I had just gotten my book and pencils out when I was approached by someone. At first I thought, "what is this, a moratorium on sketching at the Art Institute today?" But no, it was a student at the Art Institute whose project was to draw his own portrait, and then be drawn by a few different people. I guess with a blank sketchpad in front of me, I looked like an artist! I said sure, and did a little 10-minute line drawing for him. My hands were shaking! It was so cool to be asked, though, and to be a part of this kid's project. It was such a unique experience. This drawing in public thing has really opened my eyes. There's a plein-air painting group in Chicago -- maybe I'll look into joining them!
So I didn't get to keep the drawing, of course, but I asked if I could take a photo of it. I'm incredibly pleased with the fact that in ten minutes, with shaking hands, I managed to do a drawing that kind of actually looks like the kid! I think drawing every day for 38 days has started to sharpen my eye. I need to do a few more portraits and see how they feel.
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