Category: Drawing

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Drawing Ink and watercolor wash Sketchbook Pages Urban Sketchers

Happy Lunar New Year at Ranch 99 Market

Happy Lunar New Year ink & watercolor sketch
Happy Lunar New Year, Shoplifters Will Be Prosecuted, ink & watercolor 5x7.5"

The shoppers at Ranch 99 Chinese supermarket were in festive spirits and the store was decked out in red and gold for Lunar New Year. There were red envelopes, red lanterns, brilliant green Narcissus in fuchsia foil wrappers, special treats in red and gold boxes, and bunches of simulated fire-crackers hanging from stop-sign shaped objects that said something in Chinese, but probably not “Stop.”

I found an empty corner in the produce section to sketch from and used a shopping cart as a table for my paints. It was an odd juxtaposition to see the “Shoplifters Will be Prosecuted” sign on a post right below the huge “Happy Lunar New Year” banner.

Whenever we sketch at Pacific East Mall, the Asian marketplace where Ranch 99 is located, I’m always surprised how the shoppers show absolutely no interest or curiosity in our odd activities. We might as well be invisible.

Chuckle Fish and Mullets, ink & watercolor
Chuckle Fish and Mullets, ink & watercolor, 5x6"

Even though I was tired at the end of the evening, I couldn’t resist drawing the fresh fish on ice when I saw their names: Chuckle Fish and Mullets. I wonder what Chuckle Fish is in Chinese?

Their huge fish department always smells as fresh as the sea, unlike the horrible ammonia scent at my local Lucky’s. The live crabs and lobsters swim in tanks and the fish are displayed whole. The fish mongers cut them to order and will even deep fry them for you.

You can see Cathy’s great sketches from the evening here and Micaela’s here on our Urban Sketchers blog. Being graphic designers they both have such wonderful design sense!

P.S. I just discovered that the store’s name is “99 Ranch” not “Ranch 99” although neither makes much sense to me. According to Wikipedia, in Chinese numerology, 99 means “doubly long in time, hence eternal; used in the name of a popular Chinese-American supermarket chain, 99 Ranch Market.”

Categories
Art supplies Drawing Ink and watercolor wash Plants

Standing Tall in a Moleskine

Succulents Along the Walk, ink & watercolor, 7x5"
Succulents Along the Walk, ink & watercolor, 7x5"

To shake things up a bit I thought I’d try a watercolor Moleskine watercolor sketchbook this time instead of binding a new journal. These sketches are the first in the Moleskine from a walk in my neighborhood on a sunny winter day.

A few spreads into the Moleskine, I’m liking the paper but hating the stupid, floppy, too-wide landscape format. Why, oh why does Moleskine refuse to bind a watercolor book on the long size in portrait format! Brenda Swenson had a clever solution: she bought a very large watercolor Moleskine and sawed off half to make one the right size! Here’s someone else who had hers sliced at the local photocopy shop.

Succulents 2, ink & wat5ercolor, 7x5"
Succulents 2, ink & watercolor, 7x5"

The spike on this plant was about 15 feet tall but I didn’t think through how to make it look that way, and since it was in ink, it is what it is. The stalk should have gotten skinnier as it got further away instead of looking like a fat asparagus.

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Drawing Life in general People Subway drawings

Subway Sketches and Exploding Head Decisions

Subway heads 1, ink in Small Moleskine sketchbook
Subway heads on way to work, ink in Small Moleskine sketchbook

It’s appropriate to be posting sketches of heads since mine feels like it might explode if I have to make one more decision! There is so much going on in my little life right now, and so many important and non-important choices to make that my brain wants to go on strike.

Some of the decisions have to do with traveling with oil paints for the first time to the Rose Frantzen 5-day workshop in Arizona in early February (ship supplies by UPS or USPS? risk checking paints in my suitcase? how to get wet paintings home? live-in or drop-by cat sitter while I’m gone? plus all the travel worries a homebody like me can drum up).

Subway heads 2, ink in small Moleskine sketchbook
Subway heads on way to San Francisco, ink in small Moleskine sketchbook

The guy on the left above was actually standing right above me on the subway and interested in what I had been drawing, posed for me. He was nice enough to say he liked it. I wanted to tell him I’d fallen in love with his chin, but figured that would be stupid.

Subway 3, Waiting
Subway people waiting, drawing slowly

Other decisions I’m dealing with have to do with some remodeling of my duplex to prepare the back unit (currently my studio) as a rental unit, replacing both kitchen/pantry/laundry room floors, moving my studio out to the new former-garage studio (easier now thanks to space planning help from my sister the amazing interior designer), and lots of sorting and getting rid of stuff to prepare for the moves.

And all the above lead to leaving my half-time day job and getting to paint full-time. But of course there are decisions related to that too, like when to take the leap, currently planned for about a year from now.

I’m grateful these decisions are all about happy, exciting, positive changes. But even happy things can be stressful. There’s even a word for that: eustress.

eustress: noun.  Stress that is deemed healthful or giving one the feeling of fulfillment. From Greek: eu ‘well, good’ + stress, modeled on distress

The trick for me is to just make each decision once and not rethink it. Decide. Done. Next. I’m getting there.

Categories
Building Drawing Ink and watercolor wash Landscape Outdoors/Landscape Sketchbook Pages

The New Oldie But Goodie

Matthew's New Old Car, ink & watercolor, 7x5"
Matthew's New Old Car, ink & watercolor, 7x5"

My neighbor Matthew who lives in the house across the street with three teenagers. I think this new old car must belong to one of them since he already has a car and a truck of his own. What interested me about the scene was the way the light was glowing on the car on this very bright early afternoon. And also the crows’ nest in the tree.

I sat on the little concrete porch outside my kitchen door looking down the cement path towards my front yard garden ahead on the left. I drew the basic shapes with pencil first, to get the drawing started with things where they belonged.

Why do I feel I have to apologize or confess when I draw in pencil instead of starting directly in ink? I like using both and sometimes I want things to be a little less wonky than they are when I just go for it in ink.

Categories
Berkeley Drawing Ink and watercolor wash People Sketchbook Pages Urban Sketchers

Sketchy Holiday Wishes

Brennan's Bar Decked Out for Xmas, ink & watercolor
Brennan's Bar Decked Out for the Holidays, ink & watercolor, 5x7"

I hope your holidays are full of love and joy (and some sketching too!) The picture above is from Brennan’s Hoffbrau and Sports Bar, one of my favorite indoor places to sketch (and to eat—they have roasted turkey legs all year long!). Although our Tuesday night drawing group spread out to sketch at different tables in the cavernous space (a former train station) we all ended up drawing these same guys at the bar. Micaela did an amazing panorama of the whole joint including me sketching (seen here on our Urban Sketchers blog).

Big Guy and Photo of Prize Steers, ink, 5x7"
Big Guy and Photo of Prize Steers, ink, 5x7"

The “decor” at Brennan’s includes many old framed photos on the walls of men in suits showing off their prize-winning steers. This guy was as big as a steer and when he got up and left before I could finish drawing him at the table I added the steer photo to complete the picture.

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Drawing Flower Art Ink and watercolor wash Painting Sketchbook Pages Sketchercize

Selling Christmas Wreaths While Abutilons Bloom

Wreaths for Sale, ink & watercolor, 7x5
Wreaths for Sale, ink & watercolor, 7x5"

When the sun is shining I find it hard to stay indoors, painting in the studio, so I take a break for a walk and some “sketchercize.” I headed to the Farmers Market to sketch but got seduced by Trader Joe’s display of wreaths for sale instead.

While I stood and sketched, using a tall planter as a table for my watercolors and water, volunteers were collecting signatures on a petition to end the death penalty in California. I signed.

Abutilon Blooming in December, ink & watercolor, 7x5"
Abutilon Blooming in December, ink & watercolor, 7x5"

On my walk home I spotted a beautiful, wildly blooming abutilon with wonderful red and yellow patterned blossoms. I would have liked to snip off a few flowers to take home and draw in detail, but I recently read reports of flower thieves in my neighborhood, stealing whole plants as well as taking cuttings and ruining plants. I didn’t want anyone to think that thief was me!

Categories
Drawing Ink and watercolor wash People Sketchbook Pages

Santa’s Name is James

Icky Shrimp Taco and Signed by Santa James
(left) Cactus Taqueria Diners with Xmas decor; (right) Santa Sketch Signed by Santa James

Cathy had the brave idea to sketch at the San Francisco Centre mall. I say “brave” because for some of us, entering an upscale glitzy mall during the holidays requires much girding of the loins. It was fun sketching on BART on the way there, but when I entered the mall I felt like I’d walked into a science fiction movie.

Noise! Shiny stuff! Expensive stuff! Way too much stuff! Escalators winding around and around, floor after floor, up to a huge domed ceiling where Santa and my sketch group were supposed to be. But it turned out there are two domes and I was on the wrong side of the mall.

Finally I made it to the correct dome where movies were projected on the dome ceiling, music was playing and Santa was sitting on a throne in front of a backdrop that said “The Picture Perfect Holiday Made Possible by Microsoft.” When they took your picture with Santa they cropped out the Microsoft bit.

Santa James and I
Santa James and I

After I sketched Santa I went up to get my free photo with him. Isn’t he the most perfect looking Santa? I asked him to sign my sketch and he did, “Santa James.” He maintained that cherubic smile all evening through dozens of crabby children and silly adults getting their picture taken with him. One group of 4 teen girls all talked on their cellphones while their picture was taken.

Categories
Drawing Food sketch Ink and watercolor wash Rose Still Life

Persimmon & Silly Pseudo Summer Rose

Persimmon-Rose Sketchbook spread, ink & watercolor
Persimmon-Rose Sketchbook spread, ink & watercolor

If we don’t get a real fall or winter this year, maybe I can just draw fall and winter colors in my sketchbook? I got inspired by Apple-Pine’s persimmon sketching obsession to sketch (and eat) some persimmons of my own.

Number One Persimmon, ink & watercolor, 7x5"
Number One Persimmon, ink & watercolor, 7x5"

I really like the way this page turned out with the gold pen over the purple paint on the bottom that I originally added to correct a drawing/design problem, and the way the shadow (from something else on the table) kind of looks like a big number one.

Silly Pseudo Summer Rose, ink & watercolor, 7x5"
Silly Pseudo Summer Rose, ink & watercolor, 7x5"

It was over 70 degrees F today and my roses are so confused. Earlier this week we had a brief shower and a bit of cold but otherwise, it’s still not winter. I know: be careful what you wish for!

Categories
Berkeley Drawing Ink and watercolor wash Painting People Sketchbook Pages

Is Your Style a Mistake? How to Find Your Style as an Artist

Caffe Trieste before the band, ink & watercolor, 7x5"
Caffe Trieste (she's saving seats with her backpack) before the band (then six people crowded around those 2 tiny tables, sitting on laps), ink & watercolor, 7x5"

Caffe Trieste was crammed with people when we went to sketch  and listen to the wonderful Randy Craig Trio—probably double the little café’s legal limit. The title of the post: “Your Style is a Mistake…” comes from a  Robert Genn quote that I noted in my journal below:

People at Trieste and Genn note
People at Trieste and Genn note

How to Find Your Style as an Artist

In an interview, Robert Genn was asked, “How does an artist find their own style?” His answer was brilliant. He said (paraphrased here) that typically what makes your style yours, what makes it unique, is the thing you do “wrong;” it is the way you break the rules intentionally or just don’t do something “correctly” that defines your style.

In other words (mine), quit hating and start embracing those wonky lines that won’t behave, that paint applied differently than those artists you aspire to emulate or the hard edges or soft focus or pale washes… Keep studying and learning and practicing, but appreciate what you can do now and cherish those quirks. (Talking to myself here!)

Randy Craig Trio guitarist, ink & watercolor
Randy Craig Trio guitarist, ink & watercolor

You don’t have to be perfect to be wonderful and neither does your art. As a matter of fact, “perfect” art (in my opinion) is boring art.

When you make mistakes, think about how you’ll do it differently next time, but also look for the bit that worked even if it’s just a small passage. For example in the sketch above, the music stand didn’t work at all, nor did the singer I cropped off on the right, but I did a much better job with the guitar this time than I did last time I sketched at Trieste.

Categories
Drawing Food sketch Ink and watercolor wash Painting Sketchbook Pages

Coconut Flour Zucchini Muffin Thief

Coconut Flour Zucchini Muffins, ink & watercolor 5x7"
Coconut Flour Zucchini Muffins, ink & watercolor 5x7"

I love zucchini muffins so was excited to find a recipe for grain-free version made with coconut flour. I got carried away grating zucchinis in my ancient Cuisinart food processor before realizing the recipe only called for 3/4 cup. Oops. But it turns out there are many other good uses for grated zucchini

The muffins turned out really well. I set them on a rack to cool and left the room. When I walked back into the kitchen an hour later I found muffins scattered about the floor with the tops chewed off and  surrounded by crumbs. Bad Kittie Fiona!

I should have known to hide them from the little calico carboholic instead of leaving them out to tempt her. She once stole a box of Ak-Mak crackers and somehow dragged it under my bed to eat them. She’s even chowed down on dry spaghetti noodles and Cheerios.

I rescued the rest of the muffins and set them on a plate to sketch (above). Then I ate one with a cup of tea. Yum!