Category: Drawing

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Drawing Sketchbook Pages

Compassion on Election Eve

Compassion

Sepia Ink (Memory Brush Pen) in Raffine Sketchbook

I was listening to the early election returns while I was drawing this little statue of Kwan Yin or Kanzeon, the Buddhist bodhisattva (saint/goddess) of compassion for self and others. It seemed an appropriate image for election eve.

I received my order today from Jerry’s Artarama and I’m not happy with it. The box of 10 mat boards was supposed to be white Strathmore Museum Board that I can no longer get around here, but instead is a box of random off-white mat boards in mediocre condition, with fingerprints, dents or tears.  I drew this with what looked in the catalogue like a brush pen but is really a floppy-tipped felt pen–not terrible, but not great. The Liquin oil painting medium that was supposed to be a good substitute for turpentine smells worse than turps. I’d also ordered a whole bunch of aluminum frame kits which still haven’t arrived. I hope they be in better shape than the mat board, which I now have to deal with returning.

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Animals Drawing Sketchbook Pages

New Kittie Tree: Great Customer Service

Ink in Raffine sketchbook
To enlarge, click image, select “All Sizes”

About a year and a half ago I bought a used kitty play structure for my new rescue kittens. Then they both came down with ringworm (probably from the shelter), which is very contagious and very hard to cure. I had to throw away everything they’d touched (including their play structure) that couldn’t be severely bleached. I had to isolate them for about three months, give them serious medicine that had to be specially compounded, bathe them in nasty smelling stuff, bleach every surface in the house they’d touched and every day vacuum and bleach every surface in their two rooms (spare bedroom/exercise room and bath). I had to wash my clothes after each visit to them in their isolation rooms. It was really sad having new kittens locked up like that so I spent as much time with them as I could. Finally they were declared cured and could return to the rest of the house.

I searched for another kitty tree like the one they loved. Nobody carried it around here anymore so I ordered it online about a year ago. Even though it was made by the same company, Green Duck, it wasn’t quite as sturdy as the original. A couple weeks ago I realized the top shelf was slipping and spinning on it’s pole and when the kitties jumped up on it, it kept swinging around and hitting the window. The whole top shelf was starting to tilt downhill and I could tell it would eventually fall off. I called the online merchant I bought it from and they said that Green Duck was no longer doing business with them; they said to call Green Duck directly.

Green Duck apologized and said they’d send me another one the next day (no questions asked about price, purchase date, shipping the behemoth, etc.). They were no longer making the original one so we selected this one as a replacement (and an upgrade) and it arrived two days later. This was the best customer service I’ve experienced in a very long time. They’re a great company and stand behind their products. As you can see from the drawing, Busby approves. I haven’t figured out what to do with the old one yet so I feel like a crazy cat woman now, with two kitty trees. (as if I wasn’t before!)

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Colored pencil art Drawing Monoprint Still Life

Monoprint experiment

Monoprint Lantern

Black water-based printing ink & colored pencils on Stonehenge paper, 7×9 inches
(To enlarge, click image, select “all sizes”)

Today I experimented with making monoprints, having been inspired by Belinda del Pesco‘s amazing monoprints, and Kris Shank’s woodcuts. This is the same candle lantern I drew and posted a couple days ago. I’ve drawn it so many times now — for each monoprint you have to do the drawing again. I think some of the others were better drawn but this one was dry and I could add color, so its the one that gets posted.

I’d never made monoprints before and didn’t know anything about how to make them so I read a few articles on the internet and then went to the art store. I bought both water-based and oil-based printing ink and a brayer to roll it out with and some print-making paper. I tried lots of different approaches and had a good time learning what works and what doesn’t. My usual way of learning things is quite different: read lots of books, research all the details, make sure I have all the right equipment and supplies and know what I’m doing before I do it. This time I just experimented, letting it be an adventure, saying “let’s see what happens if…” I made many interesting mistakes and a bit of a mess but since I wasn’t too attached to the outcome it was a great day.

There’s several approaches to doing monoprints and the one I liked best was to apply the ink on a sheet of acrylic and then sort of carve away and push around the ink using various implements, none designed for that purpose (stumps, rubber clay tool, coffee stirrer, paintbrush handle). Once I had the drawing done, I put a sheet of paper on top of the plastic and used my rolling pin to press the paper and ink together. The water-based ink dried fairly quickly on the paper so I was able to add colored pencil to it this evening. I tried applying watercolor but it melted the ink. I think I’ll be able to add watercolor to the oil-based prints once they’re dry. I made half a dozen prints. Two were complete flops and the rest were not bad for a first try.

I also bought a couple of linoleum blocks and carving tools so I’m going to try that next. Then it’s back to watercolor — I have several paintings just begging to be painted.

Categories
Drawing Sketchbook Pages Still Life

Lantern in the dark for Daddy

Lantern

UniBall Signo white pen on 9×12″ top sheet from an Arches watercolor block
(To enlarge, click on image and select “All Sizes”)

On the fifth anniversary of my father’s death, I drew this candle lantern that was given to me by my son. I’m going to light the candle now and spend some time reflecting on my father’s life. Lighting a candle to mourn a loved one on the anniversary of their death is part of the Jewish tradition known as Yahrzeit and there are special candles that burn for 24 hours for that purpose. Since my father was both Jewish and an artist, I think it’s OK that I’m commemorating his passing with a drawing and a tea candle in a little lantern instead. I remember my grandmother lighting these little candles for her family members who had passed and thinking them full of mystery.

As part of Yahrzeit, the mourner is supposed to recite the Kaddish or “Mourner’s Prayer.” In reading about this (since I know so little of the Jewish religion) I found this excerpt from the last line of the prayer that I liked:

May He who makes peace in high places make peace for us  and for all…

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Drawing Other Art Blogs I Read People Sketchbook Pages Subway drawings

Subway Drawings (BART)

Subway Drawing - BART 7

Ink in Moleskine (click image, select All Sizes to enlarge) 

He was sitting two seats up from me this morning and his profile was irresistible. He was a perfect model for the whole 13 minute ride. When I got off he gave me a knowing look. He couldn’t see me drawing him (the seat between us hid my notebook on my lap) so maybe he thought the times he caught me looking at him were because I found him irresistible.

Bart-Susie
Ink in Moleskine (click image, select All Sizes to enlarge)

The drawings above (Susie) and below (Sharon) were done last Thursday night on BART when we were returning from the art show in San Francisco. Neither of the pictures capture their likenesses though they do capture something of them.

Bart-Sharon

Ink in Moleskine (click image, select All Sizes to enlarge)

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Drawing Sketchbook Pages

Tired View

Tired View

Ink in HandBook Co. square sketchbook
Drawn laying down, looking out the window since that was all I had energy for today.

Usually this “fall-back day” is my favorite day of the year because we get an extra hour. I like to wait until an hour in the day that I’m enjoying and want another of and THEN set my clock back. That way I really get to enjoy and experience that extra hour. But I was feeling so wiped out today that I’ve decided to wait until tomorrow to grab the extra hour. I’m working from home a half-day tomorrow, so I can wait until I’m done working and then get a whole new hour back.I was feeling so funky and in a slump today that I decided to call in sick to my internal boss and play hooky. It was nice not pushing myself to accomplish anything other than a walk (to the store for milk and donuts which cancelled out the walk) . I’m recovering from a busy week and a super-busy and headachey day yesterday.

I taught my watercolor class in the morning followed by a birthday party for Cody who is turning 26 tomorrow. The party was on my ex’s new yacht (it’s truly a yacht, not just a sailboat — it’s quite big and beautiful with seating for 10 inside and outside, two bedrooms and two bathrooms and even a freezer to hold the ice cream cake that I brought). It’s berthed in Sausalito at the very end of the dock, so that sitting on it you have a view of the bay, the seals and sea birds sunning themselves on the dock and the hills of Tiburon across the water. The weather couldn’t have been more perfect, just enough wind for the sails and high 70s temperatures. The 10 of us (including my wonderful sons, niece, sister ex-husband, and most of their significant others) sailed out past Alcatraz, the Golden Gate Bridge and the Bay Bridge towards San Francisco and then enjoying the sunset, we feasted on sushi, salad, ribs, potato salad and birthday cake.

The only downside was my headache (not made better by the boat’s great sound system, with satelite radio pumping 80s rock through multiple speakers inside and outside the boat). By the time I returned home I was so exhausted that the idea of posting to the blog was absolutely impossible, which is rare. Normally I can eke out something, but I didn’t even want to see a computer, just a nice plump pillow.

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Drawing Sketchbook Pages Subway drawings

Subway Drawings (Noses on BART)

Subway Drawing - BART 5

bart6

Micron Pigma Ink in small Moleskine sketchbook
(To enlarge, click image, select “All Sizes”)

Some people on BART today and yesterday. I felt pretty cheeky drawing the guy at the top left of the first picture. He was standing right over me, holding on to the seat in front of me reading. He got off at the next stop so I didn’t get to finish his arms or the book he was reading.

I really liked the woman’s nose in the bottom left hand picture. There’s lots of great noses on BART this week–if only I was able to draw them properly. With the train jerking so much, and the small size of the paper, noses are pretty tiny–one little jiggle and they’ve got a wild schnoz [from Yiddish for nose: snoyts, snout, muzzle, from German Schnauze.]

You can see that something funny happened to the binding in this new Moleskine. The first two pages of every Moleskine sketchbook always seem to be stuck together near the binding so this time I tried pressing them apart which was not a good thing and left a loose string on this third page. At least I got the first few pages filled (after totally messing up the drawing on the first page. Got over that by reminding myself it’s not an omen and it’s my sketchbook and I don’t have to show anyone that page!).

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Drawing Every Day Matters Sketchbook Pages Watercolor

Dishes done (EDM #64)

Dishes done

Watercolor & Noodlers Ink in Moleskine 5×8″ watercolor notebook
(click image to enlarge, select “All Sizes”)

I love doing dishes. When I saw these, all nice and clean and lined up on my sink I had to capture them in my sketchbook.

I like waking up on mornings when there’s dishes to wash from the night before. It’s a nice, relaxing way to start the day peacefully. Doing dishes doesn’t require deep thinking, heavy lifting, computers, manuals, or electricity–just a sponge, water and soap. I can listen to NPR on the radio while enjoying the warm suds and squeaky clean feel of a plate as I line it up in the rack. I admire the jewel-like color of the dish soap, which I keep in a squirt bottle originally designed to apply hair dye–similar to the ketchup dispenser at my favorite greasy spoon. I reflect on how much I like the dispenser and the clear plastic sponge holder suctioned-cupped to the tile backsplash.

I look out the window over the sink and see the ugly rose bush from Home Depot that always looks straggly and think about replacing it. I ponder when my next door neighbor will landscape his yard and get rid of the ugly little red rocks from the previous owner. I admire the huge tree that I can see across the street and I urge the ivy to keep on growing that is very slowly starting to cover the soundwall at the end of our street.

Then the dishes are done and it’s time to move on to something more demanding, but I’ve had that little time to go from sleep to awake and have actually accomplished something tangible while still in my jammies.

(I keep changing my template, trying to find one that doesn’t either resize the 500 px wide Flickr images or cut off their sides. Do you find this type hard to read? Also, the comment option is at the top of the post in this template which seems dumb, and I don’t like the blue background).

Categories
Drawing Illustration Friday

Illustration Friday: GHOST (True story)

ghost_001

Drawn and painted digitally in Painter. To enlarge, click on image and open “Ghost (Large version)” on Flickr.

When I was a kid my mom made a ghost costume for me out of an old sheet, cutting holes for eyes and arms. Unfortunately it kept slipping around and I couldn’t see where I was going. It was also too long so I kept tripping on it. After about one block of trick-or-treating I stepped on the hem, tripped and fell, getting a nasty bloody nose. Then I had a really cool and scary Halloween costume!

This is a re-do of the drawing I wrote about yesterday that disappeared after working on it for two hours when Painter crashed and I discovered I hadn’t saved the file ever. Painter tends to be very glitchy that way, and I should have known better. I tried to recreate it today and it’s a little different, but better in some ways, and so am I, having learned a few good lessons!

I had a hard time getting the text to look right on screen when I shrunk thefile to fit on the screen. I finally had to reduce the “canvas” size to 450 px wide and then put the type in. Now I see why people use Illustrator. Pixel-based type is terrible if the image isn’t created at the final type size and you have to reduce the image size but Illustrator doesn’t have that problem.

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Drawing People Sketchbook Pages Subway drawings

Sleeping Subway Cyclist

Subway sleeper

Micron Pigma Ink in small Moleskine sketchbook
(To enlarge, click image, select “All Sizes”)

This morning on BART I saw this lovely man as soon as I got on and purposely picked a seat one row past him. I was lucky that nobody sat between us until halfway through the ride. My ride to work is only 13 minutes and he slept the whole way, only changing his left arm slightly. When people sat in the seat in front of me I had to keep scrunching around, trying look over their shoulders or in the aisle–but then my viewpoint changed so that wasn’t too helpful. The guy sitting next to me reading didn’t pay any attention to all my gyrating, nor did anyone else.

One thing I noticed about my process was that before I started drawing I sort of drew the picture mentally first, moving the pen above the paper, picturing how I’d place the image. Then I was ready to start drawing but had this rebellious moment where I decided to start with the hand that was closest to me (which doesn’t appear in the drawing because it was the only thing he moved) even though I had a feeling it was not the “right” place to start. It worked out ok anyway. I just kept my pen moving and the ride was over before I had time to overwork it. I considered adding some colored pencil when I got home, but decided to just leave it alone.