My hydrangea plant lives just outside my kitchen window and each year I enjoy painting it. This time I was going for a more abstracted feel with soft, soothing beautiful colors and just the tease of a bent post-it note.
I hope all the rain we’ve had this winter will help it continue to produce fabulous blooms! This painting is available in my DPW gallery.
I love the way the petals range from pink to blue to lavender from the soft yellow when they first sprout. Below is a photo of the setup.
Sketching before breakfast again. This time with peaches, bananas and a favorite wonky ceramic cup full of stuff, just as they were found on table. Looking to simplify with abstract shapes and happy colors.
And more random stuff on the table on another morning during the kitchen remodel, always a notepad on the table to keep track of everything going on.
I was attracted to draw Fasyali (above), by the photo he posted on the Sktchy App because he just looked like such a nice person and I loved his bow tie and ears. I drew it first in one of the pencils on Procreate and then added a layer of color beneath the pencil so it colorize the sketch.
Below is another sketch from a fun photo of Paolo in the Sktchy app.
I love the way digital selfies make noses and ears so prominent. They’re so fun to draw.
I drew Ernest from his photo on the Sketchy App with Procreate’s “Ink Brush” on my iPad and then superimposed it on a photo of the package of lox I had for my breakfast. I was inspired by how pretty the smoked salmon looked on it’s gold packaging and thought it would look nice under his rough hewn face.
Below is the original drawing before I added the salmon layer.
Above is my lovely plastic skull replica I named Morton Skullman with a bouquet of hydrangeas from my garden in my grannie’s milk glass vase. I’m continuing to experiment with simplifying light and dark and abstraction.
LOL! I just realized that Morton’s nickname, “Mort” means “DEAD” in French!
Below is Mort with a cantaloupe that’s bigger than his head and below that is Mortie wearing Grandpa Simon’s old fez from his days as a Mason.
Back to the series of sketches at the dining room table before (and sometimes after) breakfast. I have struggled to find the planes on lemons. Yes, I know they are spherical, not rectangular, but being able to break objects down into planes really helps to figure out where the light is hitting, where it is turning away from the light so the values become more clearly understood.
That’s my Grandma’s green glass bowl in the corner and her milk glass vase holding the hydrangeas. I’m working on simplifying and abstracting shapes and playing with color.
While I was away from my blog, WordPress made some nice changes that are making it easier to post so I’m trying to get caught up with a few months of sketches and paintings. Today a couple of fruit bowls sketched in Procreate on the iPad.
“Animal Bone and Daffodils,” gouache on watercolor paper, 11 x 8.5 inches
My dog found this animal bone on the trail in Wildcat Canyon. I don’t know what critter it was from but I assume possibly a deer that a bobcat, mountain lion or coyotes left behind. It was well-gnawed and growing moss.
I’m enjoying learning how to paint with gouache. It’s a lot of fun but definitely has its challenges!
I was really tired when I sketched this so it came out as tired and boring as I felt. That’s the great thing about Procreate and the iPad: Even when I’m too tired to paint I can still have fun and draw and paint.
Jana Bouc, Artist 