Bat drawing

My class on Bestiary drawing at the Observatory gallery in the Gowanus section of Brooklyn finished a few weeks ago. It was a great class, taught by Saul Chernick.
This is my completed drawing of a bat. One complication I had was that I worked on the drawing with the bat right side up but I really wanted to display her upside down. However, I just could not get the composition to work that way. So I changed her 'thumbs' to allow her to be hanging right side up. A little odd, since it means she is holding on by both hands and feet. But new mother's are often overly cautious.

Bestiary Class

I'm taking a class at  the art space called The Observatory Room in the Gowanus area of Brooklyn.  There you will find  the Morbid Anatomy Library which is a fun place to look at a lot of strange and interesting things. The class is called drawing from the bestiary and it's run by the artist Saul Chernick who does a lot of great paintings  in a fascinating style.  I chose to do a bat and the first assignment was to create the bat's skeleton using bristol board and these teeny tiny paper brads, so that the joints can actually move. Here it is. Now I'll be on to step 2, making an actual drawing of the bat.  Toying with some   ideas. 

 I accidently stumbled across the Sketchbook Project in Williamburg. Went in, got a 'library card', looked at some sketchbooks and decided to become part of 2013's Sketchbook project, which will travel around for a year and then settle down in the same sketchbook project library.
At first it seemed so simple! But then, for some reason, existential angst took over. People looking at my unadulterated sketchbooks seemed like strangers going thru my underwear.
I started off with a bang: A big serpanty critter in the style I often paint in. but then I realized I really didn't want to keep up all that sturm und drang  for a whole sketch-book.  It's all part of that inner/outer stuff. That public/private thingy that I found so boring to listen to but here I am, trying to sort it out. Because let's face it, a sketchbook IS underwear.

Sometimes You Have to Ride...part 1

A new painting I'm working on, maybe called: Sometimes you have to ride.

It's from a dream I had.

I've been wanting to work smaller, but the painting ended up being 4 feet long.