Author: Jana Bouc

I am an artist who loves (and lives) to sketch and paint in watercolor, gouache, oils and digitally.

Categories
Animals Drawing Illustration Friday

Illustration Friday: Change (Diaper)

Diaper Change

Here’s my second Illustration Friday idea for the topic Change. This was fun to draw in Painter but I used my laptop so I could sit at my drawing table instead of standing at my desktop computer. But the desktop monitor is callibrated and the color stays the same regardless of the viewing angle. Unfortunately that’s not true for my laptop. So when everything was finished on the laptop and I transferred the file to my desktop computer to use Photoshop’s “save for web” feature before uploading, I discovered that the colors were horrible. Half of the picture was piss yellow and hideous.

An hour later, mucking around in Photoshop, and it’s sort of fixed. It’s all a learning experience but I’m going to have to figure out how to work comfortably and still have the color turn out right. Any tips greatly appreciated!

(Here’s my other Illo Friday submission this week.)

Categories
Illustration Friday

Illustration Friday: Change (Climate)

Climate Change

This is the first of a few ideas I want to play with for this week’s Illustration Friday topic: CHANGE. I’m trying to learn how to use Painter IX and each time I do I find another level I know nothing about. I’m starting to get some basic understanding but it’s really challenging. So here’s this post…now on to the next drawing. (And here’s a link to it if you’re interested.)

Categories
Drawing Life in general Sketchbook Pages

Slam

Boy from the movie Slam
Sanford Draughting Pencil in Raffine 6×9 sketchbook

I finished watching the 1998 movie “Slam” tonight and I loved it! It’s about the redemptive power of art (poetry) in the life of a young African American man living in the Washington DC projects. When the movie ended I wanted more and decided to draw the lead actor. But in scanning through the DVD, looking for an image to pause and draw, I spotted this sweet boy and decided to draw him first. Now I’m too tired to draw anymore tonight. Since I’ve already had the DVD for a couple of weeks, I guess keeping it a few more days to draw from it won’t matter.

I’m going to cancel my Netflix subscription since I never seem to get around to watching movies. When I’m home I always seem to be more interested in drawing, painting, writing, or learning from and being inspired by other artists in the international art blogging community that has so enriched my art life.

Categories
Drawing Life in general Sketchbook Pages Still Life Watercolor

More little tomatoes

Tomato-basket

Ink and watercolor in 6×9 Raffine sketchbook

Searching my house for something to draw tonight I had to resort to looking in the fridge. Everything in my house just seemed so man-made and dry. I needed something alive and bright to give me enough energy to draw since I’m recovering from a funky migraine and feeling a bit bedraggled. These little tomatoes were shining brightly in the light of my fridge and they were fun to draw and paint.

The highlight of my day today was listening to an interview with novelist and screenwriter Nora Ephron (who is also a blogger) on the NPR program Forum (where it’s available to listen or download). Her new book, “I Feel Bad About My Neck: And Other Thoughts On Being a Woman” is a funny take on the insults of aging. She is one of my favorite witty writers. Her book “Heartburn” (about a failed marriage) has one of the most hilarious passages I’ve ever read about picking the one person to end up with who’s going to drive you crazy. She is so brilliant and funny!

Categories
Colored pencil art Drawing Other Art Blogs I Read Sketchbook Pages Watercolor

Drawing Friends

Judith by Me 2

Judith by me, Ink and watercolor (Micron Pigma .08) in 9×12 Aquabee sketchbook.

Painting group tonight in my studio but only three of us could make it. Susie wanted to work on a still life so Judith and I decided to draw each other. We took turns posing for a 5 minute sketch (below) and then drew each other’s faces as we were drawing each other (above).

Judith by Me 1 (Click image to enlarge, pick “All Sizes”)

Above: Judith by me, 5 minute ink sketch in Aquabee 9×12 sketchbook.

Me by Judith 2 (Click image to enlarge)

Above: Judith’s 5 minute sketch of me (colored in afterwards).
Ink and watercolor pencil in 12 x 16 Aquabee.

Me by Judith 1 (Click image to enlarge)

Above: Judith’s longer sketch of me, slightly cropped (sorry Judith, I removed the “cocks comb” as Susie said it resembled, that you drew growing out of my head that was really a weird pillow behind me)
Ink and watercolor pencil in 12 x 16 Aquabee.

I find that drawing someone’s face is like caressing them, getting to know them on a deeper, more intimate level. My mother always told me it’s not polite to stare, but drawing gives you a chance to stare and really see, and among friends, it is a real gift!

Categories
Drawing Gardening Life in general Sketchbook Pages Watercolor

Little Green Tomatoes

Tomato plant

Haiku for my little tomato plants

Poor green tomatoes
Planted too late to grow red
Reach for fading sun

I guess I planted them a little too late. Everybody else has harvested theirs and removed the plants from the garden. Mine are still striving to grow up and become nice big juicy red tomatoes but summer is over. Unless we get a month of Indian Summer (fingers crossed) they will never grow up to become edible fruit.  Just sad little green tomato babies.

I drew this as a meditation after a frustrating day (more about that in a minute). I sat down outside and started drawing the middle of the plant, looking at it like a jigsaw puzzle, where each intersecting shape was a puzzle piece. Every time I reached another intersection I followed that line to the next. Eventually the puzzle started fitting together. But the sun went away and it was getting windy so after I did about 80% trying to accurately capture each little leaf and stem (amazing variety of charming leaf shapes on tomato plants!) I quickly sketched another 20% to fill it in so I could go inside. This Jigsaw Puzzle method of drawing I came up with is really helping me to understand better what I draw–especially when there are layers and layers of shapes. (Raffine 6×9 sketchbook, Lamy Safari pen, Noodlers Ink, watercolor)

My frustrating day involved typical contractor bad behavior– not finishing a job, not calling when they said they would, leaving holes that were supposed to be patched, making me stay home all day waiting for their return to finish which never happened, leaving a mess. Drawing helped me let it go, as did this quote I found in one of my old journals:

“Cheer up! Life isn’t everything.” (Mike Nichols)

Categories
Every Day Matters Outdoors/Landscape Watercolor

View from San Quentin Prison (EDM #83: Water)

Bay View from San Quentin Prison

When I was driving home from San Anselmo (Marin County) Friday I pulled into the entrance to San Quentin Prison to watch the sunset on the San Francisco Bay. I took some photos to use for this week’s Everyday Matter’s Challenge: draw a body of water.

This afternoon it was really nice to get back to watercolor after spending yesterday struggling with the Painter software. I did this on an Arches 12 x 9″ watercolor block without doing much drawing first. I’m not sure if I should have simplified more–maybe deleted the foreground fennel plants or the electrical tower (I think that’s what it is) in the background. I also discovered when I finished that the reflection in the water doesn’t line up with the sun in the sky. (Ooops!)

Here’s the reference photo and a picture of the sign in front of the prison. It’s so weird that there’s a funky old prison on some of the most beautiful and expensive land in the country, if not the world. (click photos to enlarge on Flickr).

Bay vew from San Quentin Prison San Quentin Prison

Categories
Animals Illustration Friday Life in general Sketchbook Pages

Illustration Friday: (Ant) FARM

Illustration Friday

Before this week’s theme (Farm) was posted Friday morning, I was trying to take close up photos of some ants that were carrying around a chunk of kitty kibble on the bathroom sink. I don’t think they carried it there–maybe the cats dropped it? So when I saw that the topic of the week was “Farm” I immediately thought of those Ant Farm kits that I always wondered about when I was a kid.

My whole house is really an ant farm. The bathroom ants are the stupidest since usually there’s nothing for them to eat but toothpaste. The living room ants are travelers. They come in through one crack between the wall and the floor and go out through another nearby. The ones in the yard travel around managing their herds of aphids on the roses and bushes. The kitchen ants stay away from food or trash and instead hang out by the sink which makes it quite convenient to wash them away. The ant problem is minimal these days, since I discovered Ortho Home Defense (doesn’t smell and safe for kids and pets). Before that I felt like I was living in an ant farm! You just spray the stuff around the perimeter of the house once a season and the ants are gone. I guess it’s the end of a season (sadly).

I did this in Painter, which I’m trying to learn. It’s taking some time to get used to drawing on a piece of plastic that you can’t turn to draw in different directions. And when I moved the file from my laptop to my desktop computer I discovered that the colors were appearing much lighter on the laptop than they really are. My desktop monitor is big and calibrated and the laptop isn’t, but I can use it on my drawing table.

Categories
Drawing Outdoors/Landscape Sketchbook Pages Watercolor

Monastery in San Anselmo, CA

Monastery in San Anselmo

Today was a much better day. I visited a friend in San Anselmo (Marin County) and have always been intrigued by seeing the top of this castle-like building peeking out over the trees in her neighborhood. So today on the way to my next stop (the gym) I parked at the bottom of the dirt road leading up to the monastery (or so I thought). And put my quick sketching kit in my backback and started climbing the road…which ended in a hillside covered in poison oak and weeds. I spotted a tree trunk halfway up, climbed up to it, dodging the poison oak, and used it as a little table to put my paints on.

While I was doing this quick watercolor sketch, two nursery school teachers and their brood were having an adventure, walking up the dirt road (but not climbing the hill). It was fun listening to the teachers calling out “Peanut butter!” and the kids shouting “Sandwich!” along with the whines, “It’s too hard…” and demands “Put down the stick!” and questions “What do we do when we cross a street?” (“Look for cars!”). It’s funny how the music, conversation or stories that are happening while painting somehow get embedded in the painting.

If I had taken just an extra minute before I started drawing, I wouldn’t have put that one tree centered right in front of the other, even though that’s how they were in real life. Ink, watercolor in small Moleskine watercolor notebook.

Categories
Drawing Life in general

Full Moon Blues

crane-1

I started feeling really blue this afternoon and was telling Michael I felt like I had nothing to say, no talent, no skill, nothing to offer, why bother, etc. I couldn’t figure out what was wrong with me since this morning I’d been in a great mood and looking forward to my weekend which starts this evening. Michael mentioned that tonight was a full moon. Yay! It’s not me it’s the moon and the blues will be gone with the morning sunshine!

See below for poem that inspired the heron in the moon.

Drawn using a “quill pen” in Painter (digital drawing/painting program). Since I’m not experienced with the program, it took much longer than if I just drew it with ink on paper. I’m still in the evaluation period, trying to decide if learning Painter will enhance my art life or just mean more time in front of the computer. I’d be interested to hear how or if others have found using digital painting/drawing tools to be an asset or a hindrance.
———-

Excerpt from the Sandokai (a favorite Zen poem)

The white snow falls upon the silver plate,
The snowy heron in the bright moon hides;
Resembles each the other yet these two are not the same;
Combining them we can distinguish one from the other.

Within all light is darkness
But explained it cannot be by darkness, that one-sided is alone.
In darkness there is light
But, here again, by light, one-sided it is not explained.

Light goes with darkness
As the sequence does of steps in walking;
All things herein have inherent, great potentiality,
Both function, rest, reside within.

With the ideal comes the actual,
Like a box all with its lid;
With the ideal comes the actual,
Like two arrows in mid-air that meet.

If, from your experience of the senses,
basic Truth you do not know,
How can you ever find the path that certain is,
no matter how far distant you may walk?

As you walk on, distinctions between
near and far are lost.
And, should you lost become,
there will arise obstructing mountains and great rivers.
This I offer to the seeker of great Truth,
Do not waste time.

* * *