Category: Drawing

Categories
Art supplies Art theory Drawing Food sketch Ink and watercolor wash Oil Painting Painting Sketchbook Pages Still Life

Learning Leaning Apples on Grannie’s Linen

"Leaning Learning Apples", oil on linen, 8x8"
"Learning Leaning Apples", oil painting on linen panel, 8x8"

I’m happier with this painting of apples on a linen tablecloth embroidered by my grandmother. After the mighty fail of my cringe-worthy zombie apple painting, I got really curious. What was I missing? Clearly my drawing hadn’t been careful enough, per my friend Michael’s appraisal of the painting: “Uh, what is it?” And I know it was way overworked.

So before trying to paint these apples again I sat down with my sketchbook, an apple and my Lamy Safari pen. (The note below about Cathy’s special pen was just me grabbing any old page in the sketchbook to try out her strange new pen when she handed it to me.)

Study for "Leaning and Learning Apples," ink & watercolor
Study for "Leaning Learning Apples," ink & watercolor

I sketched one very dark purple delicious apple over and over in ink, trying to understand what I was seeing, where the planes changed, where the darks and lights were, trying not to get tricked by the reflections. That gave me a little more courage to try to paint the apples again in oil.

The painting at the top of the post was the result. This was a new painting surface for me: oil-primed linen on panel, surprisingly inexpensive (for linen), on sale at Jerrys Artarama. It was quite lovely to paint on. It was slippier than I was used to; the Ampersand Gessobord panels I usually use kind of “bite” the paint right off the brush and the oil primed linen allows it glide.

This painting is available on my DailyPaintworks gallery.

Categories
Drawing Ink and watercolor wash Painting People Sketchbook Pages

Waiting and Waiting

Waiting at Kaiser, Ink & Watercolor, 5.5x7.5"
Waiting at Kaiser, Ink & Watercolor, 5.5x7.5"

Sketching is such a great way to enjoy time spent waiting. In the sketch above I was waiting for someone during her appointment at the medical center.  The lady on the left was dressed completely in Barbie pink from head to toe, including sweatshirt, purse and shoes. Even her cell phone was bright pink.

The little boy above spent his waiting time enthusiastically “reading” a book. He squealed with delight to his mom over each page.  It was so nice to see a child loving a book even if he was too young to actually read the words.

BART Station Street Light, ink & watercolor, 7.5 x5.5"
BART Station Street Light, ink & watercolor, 7.5 x5.5"

When Casey was here visiting from France, I arrived early at the BART station to collect her and her family. While I waited I tried to find something interesting to sketch from my car but this was as good as got: concrete, pole  and sky.

I spent the previous day visiting with them in San Francisco and was looking forward to showing them around Berkeley, which we capped with a fantastic dinner at Chez Panisse (thanks Casey and Michele!) Since Casey had her family with her, we didn’t get to sketch but I thoroughly enjoyed spending time with them. They are the nicest and most fun people. I wish we lived closer so we could play together more often! I plan to visit them in France within a year or so.

Categories
Berkeley Drawing Ink and watercolor wash Interiors Painting Places Sketchbook Pages Urban Sketchers

Middle East Market, Berkeley

Middle East Market Teapot, Berkeley, ink & watercolor 5.5 x 7"
Middle East Market Teapot, Berkeley, ink & watercolor 5.5 x 7"

When I read this interesting story about the owner of the market, “From Ecuador via war-torn Iran to melting pot Berkeley” on Berkeleyside, I thought it would be a good place to sketch. I was right.

It is bright and colorful with a large variety of Middle Eastern products and freshly made food. It was quiet there on a Tuesday evening so the gentleman manning the shop was fine with us sitting at the cafe tables in the back and roaming the shop to sketch. I got so drawn into the teapot that I only had time to do one sketch before they closed at 8:00. We usually sketch from 6:30 to 8:30 or 9:00 so it was a short evening.

Categories
Benicia Drawing Ink and watercolor wash Landscape Life in general Outdoors/Landscape Painting Places Plein Air Sketchbook Pages Urban Sketchers

Losers, Finders, Keepers: Sketching Benicia

Benicia Waterfront Street Light, ink and watercolor,7x5"
Benicia Waterfront Street Light, ink and watercolor,7x5"

I accidentally overslept so when I finally arrived at our Benicia paintout at 11:00 I was an hour late. I didn’t see any other artists around. The wind was blowing so hard that I sat in my car to sketch, listening to NPR on the radio. Everything was going great, I was drawing with my favorite Lamy Safari Extra Fine Fountain pen and then painted with my watercolors set up on the passenger seat.

Benicia Waterfront, Ink and Watercolor, 5x7"
Benicia Waterfront, Ink and Watercolor, 5x7"

I turned to draw a different view, but when I reached for my pen it was gone. I searched everywhere, inside the car, under the car, nearby on the ground. No pen. I retraced my path when I’d gotten out of the car to look around and take photos. Nothing. I asked people walking by but nobody had seen my pen. I returned to the car and searched every nook and cranny again, twice.

An hour later I gave up and used a Pitt Artist Pen to do the drawing and added watercolor. I was so sad. I’d really come to love that pen. When I finished the sketch I used my iPhone to look up and call all the stationary and art stores in the Bay Area, but nobody had a Lamy with an Extra Fine nib.

Just then fellow painters Carol and Ling drove up and I told them what happened. They insisted on helping me find the pen despite my whining, “It’s hopeless, it’s just gone.” Carol checked under the seats and in the driver’s side door pocket. She told me to check the passenger’s door pocket. It was the one place I hadn’t looked (why I hadn’t looked there I can’t explain) and there it was! Yay! Joy!

I went from a sad loser to a happy finder and now every time I use my pen I get that happy feeling again. Definitely a keeper.

Categories
Drawing Faces Ink and watercolor wash Interiors Kensington Painting People Places Sketchbook Pages Urban Sketchers

Sketching at Kensington Circus Pub

Kensington Circus Pub, ink & watercolor, 5x7"
Kensington Circus Pub, ink & watercolor, 5x7"

It was a cold and rainy night so we met indoors at the cosy Kensington Circus Pub (named for the traffic roundabout it faces in Kensington, on the Berkeley border. It’s a very pleasant place to sip a beer and sketch. After eating a delicious sandwich I spent most of the evening facing the bar and doing the sketch above. I wore my L.L. Bean flashlight hat to see to paint and it worked great.

Old friends plotting at Kensington Circus Pub, ink & watercolor, 5x7"
Old friends plotting at Kensington Circus Pub, ink & watercolor, 5x7"

Then I turned to face the other direction and sketched these gentleman who were in a booth a few feet away but didn’t seem notice or care that we were drawing them. They were meeting to dine, drink and plot a business venture from what I could overhear.

Categories
Art supplies Art theory Drawing Every Day Matters Ink and watercolor wash Painting Plants Sketchbook Pages

Last Day of EDiM: “Fresh” Hydrangeas and L.L. Bean “Flashlight” Hat

Baby Hydrangea for "Something Fresh" EDM #112, ink & Watercolor, 6x4.5"
Baby Hydrangea for EDM #112: Fresh, ink & Watercolor, 6"x4.5"

I’d never been able to sketch this hydrangea plant before because once the teensy little buds open they shed piles of equally teensy little petals and make a big mess. But this one was so fresh I was able to cut and draw it without the mess. (Although it did end up making a mess anyway when my cat ate one of the leaves and then delivered it later to the rug.)

EDM #120 Flashlight (L.L. Bean Pathfinder Flashlight Hat), ink & watercolor
EDM #120 Flashlight (Hat), ink & watercolor

The cue was to draw a flashlight. My favorite flashlight is my wonderful L.L. Bean Pathfinder Cap. It has two LED lights in the brim. One points straight down and is perfect for lighting your sketchbook when painting when it’s dark, and the other points ahead to light your path. You just squeeze a spot on the brim and it toggles between down, ahead or both. When painting in a dark pub it perfectly lit my sketchbook page but nobody could tell where the light was coming from. Someone came over to try to figure it out because it just looked like my page was illuminated.

The hat is sitting on a plaster “Planes of the Head” cast, a tool for learning how to really see and draw heads (good article about this here).

Although I wasn’t a faithful follower of  “Sketch Every Day in May,” it reinforced how much I enjoy drawing. Some of the cues sounded boring but I discovered that no matter how dull a subject may seem, drawing it rarely is.

Categories
Animals Berkeley Drawing Gouache Ink and watercolor wash Painting Places Urban Sketchers

Sketching at the Teddy Bear Fountain

Teddy Bear Fountain, ink & watercolor on hot press paper, 6"x4"
Teddy Bear Fountain, ink & gouache on hot press paper, 6"x4"

Teddy bears hold hands in a circle in this wonderful, historic fountain* in North Berkeley on Marin Circle. We sketched there on a warm Tuesday evening as the sun was setting.

I did the one above very quickly at the end of the evening when just as I was about to pack up a worker came and switched on the fountain’s lights and adjusted the water so it sprayed up from the top. I had to give it one more try.

Teddy Bear Fountain, ink & watercolor, 5 1/2 x6 1/2"
Teddy Bear Fountain, ink & gouache, 5 1/2 x6 1/2"

This one was done first and I spent a longer time with it—more than I should have probably, as it began to get overworked. My friend Cathy did several wonderful sketches while we were there, which you can see here.

*An interesting bit of history about the fountain: In 1908, a real estate developer came up with the idea to make Berkeley the state capitol and lobbied hard for his proposal. The Circle and the fountain were to be part of a grand entry to the new capitol building to be built nearby. The California Legislature passed the proposal and the governor signed the bill, but Berkeley was a dry city and the liquor lobbyists were successful in convincing the voters to narrowly defeat the bill.

Categories
Art supplies Drawing Every Day Matters Glass Ink and watercolor wash Sketchbook Pages

Lightbulb Moment and Mini-Review of Stonehenge Wirebound Journal

Lightbulb, ink & watercolor, in 7x7" Stonehenge Wirebound Journall
Lightbulb, ink & watercolor, in 7x7" Stonehenge Wirebound Journal

I was trying to find a way to make this old blue photography light bulb (purchased back in the days of film) stand up so I could sketch it. I tried using tape rolled into a double-sided ball and sticking it to the table but it fell over. Then I found this little glass yogurt container about the size of a baby food jar that I’d bought primarily for the jar. Perfect. (Sketched for Every Day in May, EDM #108).

Stonehenge Wirebound Journal Mini-Review

The short version: Nope.

I loved the idea of a 7″ square journal and the paper seemed like it would be nice for pen and watercolor. The description on JerrysArtarama included this bullet point:

  • Excellent surface for graphite, colored pencil, printmaking, pen and ink, pastel, silverpoint, watercolor and more! [italic/bold added]

But it’s a no-go for watercolor. I couldn’t get a rich smooth wash anywhere on the page. When I tried to add a darker glaze over the first wash for the shadow on the table, no matter how light a touch I had, my brush picked up the first layer of paint instead. On the underside of the bulb I had a similar problem. And then there’s the mystery line across the top of the bulb. Something embossed the page in the brand new book and the color sank into it. Perhaps the edge of the ruler I used to pencil in a border before drawing in ink left an imprint, but I’ve never had that happen before.

When I ordered the sketchbook I thought I remembered Roz writing a couple of positive reviews of the paper but when I checked again, I saw that her third and final review came to much the same conclusion for watercolor.

Categories
Drawing Every Day Matters Food sketch Ink and watercolor wash Painting Sketchbook Pages Still Life

Leave It! Lemon and Vinegar

Lemon and Apple Cider Vinegar
Lemon and Apple Cider Vinegar

You know how dog owners shout “Leave it!” when they are about to roll in something stinky or eat garbage off the ground? (the dog, not the owners rolling in it). I’m taking a similar approach with my ink drawings and watercolor sketches.

If the line is wrong, if there’s a typo or the wash comes out funny, I say to myself: “Leave it!” Let it be. Fresh is (almost always) better than Fixed. Mistake is just another word for Interesting.

Do you see what I got wrong in this picture and just left it? (hint–it’s a typo…er… “writeo.”) I showed it to my sketch group and nobody could find it (but maybe it’s because we were in a dark pub?)

This was done for Every Day in May #106: Something sour or tart. I’m loving the extra practice in drawing I’m getting from the EDiM project.

Categories
Bay Area Parks Berkeley Drawing Gouache Ink and watercolor wash People Photos Places Sketchbook Pages Urban Sketchers

Golden Gate Live Steamers Train Meet at Tilden Park

Steam Train Medley from multiple sketches
Steam Train Meet Medley from multiple sketches

A few weeks ago Cathy and I were sketching guests at the Spring Meet of the Golden Gate Live Steamers Club in Berkeley’s Tilden Park. The train people were as curious about us as we were about them, and they wanted to see what we were doing. I usually don’t care when people look at my sketches, but I was drawing their trains that they had lovingly built from scratch, designing and engineering everything from the wood-burning boilers to the screws that held them together. It was like drawing their children—one thing out of place and they would know it.

Train guys
Train guys

Many of their members maintain and operate trains that their fathers or grandfathers built and they are now apprenticing their sons in the craft. Over the years the club has built a complete course of tracks with trestles, tunnels, and small buildings to match the 1.5″-to-the-foot scale of the trains. You can see photos and videos on their website including this one below of me sketching at the meet (much to my surprise!)

Continue reading “Golden Gate Live Steamers Train Meet at Tilden Park”