Trip to Chicago, 3

A TRIP TO CHICAGO, PART 3

As you can see at a glance, this drawing has nothing directly to do with Chicago. The drawing is a detail of the bronze statue of a mermaid that sits in the harbor in Copenhagen. This sculpture is well known because for years it has been used as an image on those papers that people glue into books and sign there name on.

After doing the other two Chicago drawings from my memory, that I posted on Thursday, I went to the library this morning to see if I couldn't find some pictures of Chicago that would give me an idea for a third drawing. As always happens when you search for images, the books I wanted were out, or missing and so I started to look through unrelated material. In a book of famous Landmarks I came across the image of the mermaid and decided to do a drawing from it.

So the drawing has nothing to do with Chicago, except that that end paper with the mermaid on it belonged to someone who once lived in Chicago, and I’ll just leave it at that.

Often when I post drawings, in the descriptions I say that the paper was soaked and stretched. This is done by soaking the paper for about fifteen minutes in a pan of water, and then stapling it around the edges to a board. The paper then dries and stretches and it is possible to paint or draw on it without the paper bending or buckling. Usually when a drawing is finished the edge and the staples are cut off, but after I finished this drawing I decided to leave the staple marks and the deckel edge, and I am going to post a detail of the papers edge because I think that such things make us aware of the drawing as a physical, three dimensional object, which is a part of it’s beauty.

This drawing measures 11.25” x 7.25”. It is drawn on tinted and painted cold press watercolor paper with black graphite pencil. It is signed with an R on the front and full signature and date on the back Richard Britell July 28, 2001.