Categories
Drawing Life in general People Sketchbook Pages

Another Harassment & Discrimination Training

Paul at Meeting

Ink in moleskine sketchbook
Click to see larger

Men at meeting

Click to see larger

It seems like only yesterday that we had the annual sexual harassment and discrimination training for managers but it was actually last October which I was able to check by doing a search on my blog for the drawings from that meeting. At first I was annoyed since I had so many other things to do, but then I realized I could sit there listening and sketch–not a bad deal getting paid to spend the morning sketching.

I think the progression of the drawings above is interesting. The first one I did was the guy on the left in the picture directly above. It was a weak first attempt at the same guy next on the right. As I progressed to the right, each person’s likeness got a little sharper until I think I really nailed the last guy on the right. Then I turned to the next page and did the drawing at the top of this post. I was really pleased with it as I think it came pretty close to capturing the gentleman. The last thing I drew was the cup. There was a bad attempt at another face under it which I turned it into my coffee cup with some extra scribbling.

What was even more interesting was that at this sexual harassment training, all the men sat together on one side of the U-shaped table and the women sat on the other two sides. (There’s more women than men at this educational non-profit since most staff come from the female-dominated teaching field.) Maybe the men were just enjoying the rare opportunity to share a little male bonding at work.

Categories
Drawing Life in general People Sketchbook Pages

No School for Delinquents in our Neighborhood!

Neighborhood-meeting

Ink in Moleskine notebook
Click here for larger view

When I finished drawing these people at the neighborhood meeting, I realized I’d compressed the space so that people are crammed together much more than they actually were. I wish I would have thought to capture some of the angry expressions as people spoke instead of everyone just looking sort of bored.

Tonight there was a neighborhood meeting to protest the placement in my neighborhood of a school for “high risk” middle and high school students who’ve been expelled from public school. Many are on probation for committing crimes. They plan to stick the kids in a former elementary school just two blocks from my house that is currently used as an adult school for classes like Yoga, Spanish, Ballroom Dance and English as a Second Language. Nearly 100 neighbors showed up at the meeting and spoke out vociferously against the plan. It looks like it could go either way at this point. Somehow the district slipped this plan through without Board approval or community notification but now it will be on the next board meeting agenda.

I sure hope we’re successful in fighting it since just last month the board approved (against the neighborhood association’s vote) to allow a public alternative high school to move into what has been until now a small private elementary school with a focus on Japanese language (and well-behaved children) that is just two blocks the other direction. Even though that high school’s brochure claims to be all about group hugs, yoga and community service, the idea of 150 teenagers just a block away is not at all appealing.

When I was house hunting I was always a little wary of neighborhoods that the realtor claimed had strong neighborhood groups because I figured there was a reason they needed one. But in the Bay Area, with some of the most expensive housing in the country, I feel fortunate to have been able to buy my own home at all. And this is a wonderful neighborhood with the best neighbors I’ve ever had and now I’m glad for the strong the neighborhood association.

Categories
Drawing Life in general Outdoors/Landscape

Sausalito Sailboat Birthday Party for Robin

Sausalito Palm Tree

Ink in Moleskine sketchbook
Click here to see larger

The short version:
It was very crowded on the sailboat and there were many interesting people to talk to, so I even though I brought art supplies, didn’t get to draw anything until we left. My sister parked at a nearby upscale grocery store to grab a cup of coffee for the ride home. I pulled out my sketchbook and did this quick sketch while Sophie and I chatted and waited. I’d realized I’d never really “seen” a palm tree until I drew this one.

Categories
Drawing People Sketchbook Pages

Sketching musicians in the dark

Fishtank Ensemble 2

All sketches are ink in small Moleskine notebook
Click here to see larger

The Fishtank Ensemble performs a fascinating mix of Eastern European/Klezmer/Gypsy/Flamenco/Japanese music and their beautiful lead singer has the most astonishing, operatic voice. They were performing at Ashkenaz on a Wednesday night while I was on vacation and I went by myself to hear them since for everyone else it was a “school night.”

It was a fabulous, thrilling performance, and much of the music was very fast so I was drawing really fast too, even though I could just barely see what I was doing. Here are some more of my sketchy drawings from that night. If only they could convey the excitement of the music!

Fishtank Ensemble 1

To see larger click here.
The square instrument above is a Japanese shamisen. The lead singer plays violin and saw and can make her voice sound just an ethereal saw.

Fishtank Ensemble 3 Dancer at the Fishtank Ensemble Performance

Left above: The lead singer is tall, slim and dazzling, (my drawing doesn’t do her justice), wearing a flippy little black skirt and a very small jeweled black velvet top with bare midriff and delicate high heeled sandals.

Right above: On the other hand, this woman who was dancing in front of me looked like she was trying to make herself look dumpy. She was wearing striped kneesocks with oxford shoes, a short baggy sweater on top of a long baggy shirt and a bulky pleated knit skirt. She had her hair in pigtails and was wearing big glasses. But she was having a ton of fun dancing up a storm.

Categories
Drawing People Sketchbook Pages Subway drawings

Subway Drawings

Bart21

All are ink in Moleskine sketchbook.

This is the busiest week of the busiest month of the year at my day job. We’re holding five institutes in the next few weeks across the country and 10 hour days are norm.

bart24

As a result these drawings done on our subway system known as BART are the sum total of my art output this week.

bart23

I’ve been too tired at night to draw and too late rising in the morning to do dream drawings after not sleeping well.

BART22

But there’s just one more week to go and then I’m on vacation and it will be 12 glorious days of drawing, painting, rest, reading and relaxation. I’m planning lots of fun trips around the Bay Area to do mini-sketch crawls with art buddies.

Categories
Cartoon art Drawing Dreams Sketchbook Pages

Dreams Illustrated

Dream-GirlBand

Dreamt I started a Japanese all-girl band as a way to promote a baseball team.

Dream-Lawnchair

Dreamt I invented a combination yoga mat/lawn chair. In the same dream something was tickling me and it was big banner that said “Big Banner” tucked behind my pillow.

Dream-Cabbage-lady

Dreamt there was an old lady who kept coming to my door every month trying to sell me food made from cabbage like coleslaw and kimchee. She always carried one worn out old brochure for the American Cancer Society, and the money she made from cabbage was supposedly donated to them. I was skeptical so I visited the ACS and was given a tour. (see next)

Dream-ACSparty

(immediately above) They had a room where they helped people quit smoking by letting them smoke one last cigarette. The woman showing me around sat on a weight bench while smoking a cigarette and suddenly fell asleep and fell on the floor. Later (above previous) all the employees were having a party and were all happily smoking marijuana.

Dream-Horsecart

Dreamt there was a horse pulling a cart with a horse in it and another horse behind that and they all turned out to be fraternity guys wearing horse suits.

***

The best part of remembering my dreams is discovering the goofy stuff my mind cooks up when I’m not looking.

Categories
Drawing Sketchbook Pages Watercolor

One Year in the Blogosphere

Hammer and lemon

Watercolor in Aquabee Sketchbook 6×9
To enlarge, click image, select All Sizes

Today is the last day of my first year of blogging. I’d hoped to finish the year off with a bang but a combination of day-job overload, exhaustion and aches and pains prevented me from posting the past few days.

I’m hoping that tomorrow (Saturday) I’ll feel up to joining the 14th Worldwide Sketchcrawl in San Francisco. My former watercolor teacher and dear friend Susan is planning to be there and I’m looking forward to seeing her too and having some good sketches to share on my blog.

I’m also doing a lot of thinking about my goals and intentions for my blog and my artwork in general for year two of my sketchblog. More about that on my blog birthday tomorrow.

Here are some blog statistics for the year ending today:
Blog Stats
Total Views: 103,329
Best Day Ever: 703
Posts: 287
Comments: 3,017
Spam comments caught and prevented: 17,625

Categories
Cartoon art Drawing Illustration Friday People Sketchbook Pages

Illustration Friday (redux): Citrus (Juggler)

Citrus-juggler2

Ink in sketchbook then digitally painted in Painter

My Illustration Friday post yesterday was lame. I didn’t have a single interesting idea of what to do with citrus other than a literal drawing of a lemon. But today I had another idea and quickly sketched it and then spent an hour or so coloring it in Painter. Now I feel better.

Actually, I feel better about my IF post and my back is feeling 50% better today. The work my physical therapist did on me yesterday and the exercises she gave me that I did today seem to be helping. I do miss being able to lay in bed with my laptop looking at blogs but she warned me that it’s about the worst thing I can do for my back. I’ve had lower back problems forever and know how to care for it but never had upper back pain until I started reclining with my laptop.

Yippee! Getting better…makes me want to jump for joy and dance and juggle citrus!

Categories
Drawing Dreams People Sketchbook Pages

You’d think all I do is dream…

…it’s just that it’s been an exhausting few weeks at work and I haven’t had the energy or brain power to do much more with art at night than color in dream drawings (and sleep). Here’s a few more from the past week or two that I colored with Photoshop (though I prefer Painter for digital painting). At the end I’ll explain what I do to remember my dreams since people have asked.

Dream-May10

(left) Dreamt I visited a kindly doctor who pinched my hand to test for something.
(right) Dreamt I kept dropping stuff and knocking things over in a store. (not too far from reality…I can be a real klutz sometimes)

Dream-May8

All in one night
2. I was at some sort of spa/camp and people had to share beds. It was too crowded so I complained to the manager who told me to go find some other bed and climb in with those people. (maybe my 2 cats were crowding me off the bed?)

3. Also at the camp/spa the toilet tank was leaking and I kept trying to tighten the gasket but it just kept spinning and wouldn’t tighten

4. Walking down a dark street I saw a spinning lawn sprinkler that was shooting out fire instead of water and it was glowing beautifully in the dark, along with pretty blue lights on a police car blinking on and off. There was a weird gas leak in the house and danger of explosion so I ran in and rescued a cute, scared little dog.

Dream-May6 Dream-May7

(left) I was at a workshop and people were all talking and I couldn’t understand what they were saying and I kept telling them I couldn’t hear so they kept repeating but I still couldn’t understand them.
(right) My house and garage were leaking and flooding in the rain and my old gardener was trying to solve the problem and I was sitting with him like he was my sweetheart.

Dream-May9

Dreamt Marcy and I were jogging on a beach alongside a cliff when a huge wave hit us and pulled out to sea and I was waving my arms and yelling and a strong, handsome guy pushed us back to shore.

How I remember dreams
The only way I’m able to remember my dreams is to stay in a half asleep state when I wake up in the morning without opening my eyes for a few minutes. At that point I can usually remember the dream I was just in and as soon as it comes back to me I quickly jot it down. As I’m writing the dream it will often segue into the dream before it, and the one before that so I just keep writing. Also, while I’m asleep and an interesting dream ends and I realize it’s just a dream, I’m conscious enough to tell myself to remember it. Once they’re written down I usually will draw them right then if there’s time and if not, I’ll draw them that evening. Often while I’m drawing more pieces of the dream comes back to me too. One other thing is that I don’t use an alarm clock to wake up (I have two cats instead).

By the way, I wanted to say thanks for commenting–it’s so great to know you’ve stopped by for a visit. I’ve not been able to visit others blogs much the past few weeks or respond to comments the way I’d like to because of back pain that is aggravated by sitting at a computer. I’m trying to get better fast and am learning to work smarter — no more using a laptop while reclining in bed, it’s definitely not ergonomic and ignoring a little ache led to a great big one!

Categories
Drawing Every Day Matters Life in general Sketchbook Pages

COOL: EDM 28 & 77 (Appliance & Something Cool)

Air Conditioner - EDM #28

Lamy Safari pen, Noodlers Ink, Aquabee 6×9 sketchbook
To enlarge, click image, select “All Sizes”
(EDM = Everyday Matters art group)

We’re having a record breaking heat wave this week. My neighborhood used to be foggy and cool 90% of the time, being directly in line with the Golden Gate Bridge and a few blocks from the San Francisco Bay. The past month has been uncharacteristically sunny and warm and this week the temperature is in the high 80s to 90. I spent last night tossing and turning like a roterissie chickens roasting on a spit. I lay there muttering over and over, “Tomorrow I’m buying an air conditioner!” I called Home Depot when they opened at 7:00 a.m. and they said they had a good supply of portable air conditioners, having just put them on display.

When I arrived at 8:30 a.m. they were nearly sold out and I got the last name-brand one, a Sharp portable air conditioner. I LOVE IT! It rolls on casters and is nice and quiet. I put it in the studio today because I was working from home half the day and planned to paint the rest of the day. It was really easy to hook up (you just plug it in, attach the hose to a plastic sliding thingy that goes in the window). And then blissful cool…..ahhh.

Making an effort to be more comfortable, or to just make life more satisfying has become a focus for me since it really hit me how finite my life is. Little things like a comfortable bed or desk, pleasant temperature, cutting the stupid itchy tags off the back of clothes…can make such a difference. Why suffer?

(P.S…I know…ACs aren’t good for global warming…but I promise to only use it when it gets ridiculously hot….)