Category: Every Day Matters

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Art supplies Every Day Matters Ink and watercolor wash Sketchbook Pages Still Life Watercolor

Salad Remains with Danny: Finishing Sketchbooks

Salad Remains with Danny's Book (ink & watercolor)
Salad Remains with Danny's Book (ink & watercolor)

I was feasting my eyes on Danny Gregory‘s new book, “An Illustrated Life” while I was eating a delicious salad in my big yellow salad bowl for lunch today. When I finished eating I had to sketch the colorful remains. The first drawing didn’t work (partially seen on the previous sketchbook page above), though I took it as far as I could and then drew it again and painted it (happily using up two pages in this sketchbook I don’t like).

I love reading about all the other sketchbook artists in Danny’s book and the way they think about sketching and their sketchbooks. It inspired me to finally finish off all of the random sketchbooks I have going. I have at least half a dozen unfinished sketchbooks, some that I’ve made (like the one used above) and some that I’ve bought. I keep them in a special open box and grab the one that calls to me.

There are several that I don’t like for a variety of reasons (e.g. don’t like the paper, don’t like the dimensions, don’t lay flat, don’t scan well, too fancy…) and they’ve been partially used and abandoned. I’m making it my goal to fill them all by January 1 so that I can put them on a shelf and start working in one book at a time in a chronological order. I like order.

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Every Day Matters Faces Life in general People Sketchbook Pages Subway drawings

13 minutes, 4 commuters, politics and art books

Ink in 6×9 sketchbook (Larger)

On my way home from work tonight I intended to continue reading Hensche on Painting (about an American Impressionist painter and his teachings about seeing and painting color under the influence of light). But the BART train was full of fascinating faces and I had to sketch instead. There are four stops between my office and home. The person in the seat two rows ahead of me was replaced at each stop, which made for a wonderfully random assortment of models, with 2 to 4 minutes each to draw them.

Tonight my painting group was here and we talked about whether we were going to vote for Hillary or Obama. As I wrote that sentence, I realized that it doesn’t feel right to call her by her last name or to call him by his first name. I wonder what that means and if it’s unconsciously sexist of me? Or is that I didn’t know how to spell Barack and had to look it up, even though I’ve seen it a hundred times already? Or is it because when I think “Clinton” I think of her hubby?

Susie has been reading Obama’s first book, Dreams from My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance, about his life pre-candidacy and it has convinced her to vote for him. I’m going to download it from Audible.com and listen to it.

Tomorrow night (Thursday) is the California debate between the two of them, and although I don’t get CNN on my TV, they are streaming the debates live on CNN.com so I will watch it on my computer. Then I’ll make my decision and mail in my absentee ballot. (I like pretending that my vote actually matters.)

I’m just looking forward to the end of the Bush era and not having to run to turn off the sound when he’s on the radio or TV.

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Every Day Matters Painting Sketchbook Pages Still Life Watercolor

A shiny, new hour for free (& EDM #144- Something Square)

EDM #144 - Something Square

Watercolor on Arches hot pressed paper in sketchbook, 5.5 x 7.5″
Larger

This week’s Everyday Matters challenge is to draw something square. I searched my house and office and found nothing square until I started thinking about time.Then I remembered this kitchen timer that I’m going to use to make the timed paintings I wrote about yesterday. It was sitting next to these tea bags which are also (nearly) square.

I’ve been having a hard time making the transition back to ordinary time after the end of Daylight Savings. The actual day of “falling back” is my favorite day of the year because it means getting an extra hour.  Instead of resetting my clocks on Saturday night and wasting the fresh new hour sleeping, I pick an hour that I want to experience fully as my new hour. I use it for something extra special, or for something that in my usual driven way I don’t allow time for—like relaxing in a bubble bath or other such luxuries. This year I stretched it out through Monday, actually giving myself the hour several times, and then each time deciding that it wasn’t the one, and giving myself another. It was such fun!

But by Tuesday when I returned to the office, I still hadn’t settled on the perfect hour or reset my clocks and it was getting confusing. Instead of getting to say, “Oh goodie, it’s not really 3:00, it’s only 2:00! Whoopie! Another free hour!” I was looking at my watch and saying, “Oh drat, it’s not really 3:00, it’s only 2:00 — three more hours until I can take my headache home and put it to bed.”

And then today (Wednesday), even though I went to bed early and woke on time, I ended up arriving at work really late—exactly opposite what should be happening, given the extra hour in the morning. So now I’ve finally reset all my clocks and joined the world in ordinary time.

I wonder if it’s possible to give myself a special “free” hour every day, without having to wait for the annual end of Daylight Savings. Maybe I could just declare one hour each day a special hour to enjoy as I see fit. Why not? What do you think?

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Every Day Matters Painting Sketchbook Pages Still Life Studio Watercolor

Peach: EDM 133 & A peachy new homemade sketchbook

EDM #133

Watercolor on 140 lb. Fabriano Artistico hot press paper
Click for larger view

This week’s Everyday Matters’ challenge is Draw a Peach. I’ve been eating at least one juicy sweet peach a day all summer. I start the day with a peach cut up in a bowl of cereal for breakfast and have one cut up in plain yogurt for an afternoon snack. This variety is so huge that breakfast looks more like a bowl of peach than a bowl of cereal.

New sketchbook

I made myself a new sketchbook and this painting is the first page. Here’s a photo of the sketchbook:

Homemade Sketchbook

Larger view

I didn’t have the inclination or patience to learn actual bookbinding for sketchbooks like Martha and Kate nor the budget to have them beautifully custom made for me like Laura’s. So I came up with a quick, inexpensive way to do it (mostly) myself. I tore two sheets of watercolor paper–one hot press and one cold press–in half and then in half, etc. until each piece was about 7 3/4″ by 5 3/4″. Then I sorted so that every other page is hot press/cold press, and brought the stack to Kinkos (a U.S. photocopy shop). I had them punch and bind it with a spiral wire thingee and a frosted cover and black back for which they charged about $6.00. The paper is way better than the Moleskines and Aquabees I’ve been using, the dimensions are more to my liking, it’s bound on the short side so can be used more easily in landscape format and the spiral binding lets me fold pages under (which means not easily drawing across two pages, but I rarely do that anyway).

The day after I made it I read about the way Miguel makes his own sketchbooks, using a Filofax (day planner) cover and punching three holes in the paper with a special Filofax punch. I’ll try that next, since I have a similar kind of day planner with a nice leather cover that I’m not using and could convert to a sketchbook. The only problem with that method is that when you finish the pages you remove them and box them and refill with new paper. The finished pages don’t remain an intact sketchbook.

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Every Day Matters Illustration Friday Sketchbook Pages Studio Watercolor

IF: Twist; EDM #124: Something Yellow

Twist; EDM Something Yellow

Watercolor in Moleskine large watercolor sketchbook

This week’s Illustration Friday challenge is “Twist” — there’s nothing like a nice twist of lemon in a glass of ice water (or in something more exciting, like a lemon drop martini, which I’m sure sounds better than it tastes, since I’m not a fan of martinis). And last week’s Everyday Matters challenge was to draw something yellow…so there you go.

I did this watercolor sketch yesterday but when I scanned it, my monitor display was driving me crazy. No matter what I did in Photoshop I couldn’t get an image that looked anything like the original. I tried again and again to calibrate my monitor using Adobe Gamma but just couldn’t get it right. I finally gave up around midnight, vowing to resolve the problem today one way or another.

Today I went to a great photography store in Berkeley, Looking Glass Photo. They rent and sell everything you need for digital or film photography and they’re staffed by experts who are generous with their knowledge. Initially I was going to rent a fancy set of calibration tools but a handsome, Buddha-like man named Paul (a customer who used to work there) steered me towards buying a simpler unit for not much more money than it would have cost to rent the unnecessarily fancy tools for just one day. I bought the Gretagmacbeth Eye-One Display 2 which looks like a small regular computer mouse.

I waited until it got dark out, turned on my full spectrum overhead lights only and then hung the little device over my monitor. I tried the automatic calibration which was OK, and then I tried the more detailed program, which I think did a better job. When it finished, I scanned my little lemon twist and amazingly it appeared on my screen just like the original. I have no idea how it will look on your screen, but at last, after all the changes in my studio, my monitor, scanner and printer are all working together again. Whoopee! Now I can get back to painting instead of messing with computer stuff!

P.S. If this looks washed out or too bright on your monitor, please let me know.

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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….)

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Every Day Matters Painting Sketchbook Pages Watercolor

Marbles Again

Marbles

Watercolor on Arches 140 lb cold press paper 8×10″
To enlarge, click image, select All Sizes

I was determined to try again with the marbles. I just wasn’t happy with the previous version that I painted when I was way too tired. I’m not satisfied with this one either, and will try again for the fresh transparency I’m wanting to capture.

Marbles present an interesting challenge — they’re glass, reflective, transparent and round. And it’s even more challenging when a big cat named Busby insists on sitting with his chin on top of the cigar box (covered by a paper towel) on which the marbles are perched. He kept bumping them off or blocking the light, making the reflections from the window keep changing.

I’m not sure if he’s attracted to the little halogen lamp I use on still life set ups that gets nice and warm, or just to annoying me. I finally put a sketchbook between the box and the cat so that he could at least rest his head on something of mine while keeping his distance from the marbles.

On the other hand, this gives me an idea. Next time I want to draw him I’ll set up a still life and then ignore it and capture him instead while he’s actually holding still for a minute. (He actually holds still much of the day, snoozing on a blanket in the closet but it’s too dark in there to draw.)

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Every Day Matters Glass Sketchbook Pages Watercolor

EDM 117 – Draw Something Round (Marbles)

EDM-Something Round

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

All day at work (which has been insanely busy lately) I was thinking about coming home and painting some marbles for this week’s Everyday Matters challenge – Draw Something Round. But I worked until 7:30 pm and then by the time I’d cooked dinner and eaten it was 9:00 p.m. I decided to give it a go anyway. The best thing that came out of it was the fun my cats had chasing marbles around the studio. I should have drawn that!

My intention was to be loose and fresh but I guess I was just too tired. Also, I decided a month or so ago that any watercolor painting I do at home would be on watercolor paper instead of  sketchbook paper since it’s so much better and more pleasurable to paint on which I regretably ignored. But at least I got a drawing/painting done today, even if it’s not great. And tomorrow is another day to try again.

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Every Day Matters Sketchbook Pages Watercolor

Shopping Cart (EDM 115) for Plein Air Art Supplies

Shopping Cart (for Art Supplies) EDM 115

Ink and watercolor in Aquabee 6×9 sketchbook
To enlarge or see annotated details, click image and select All Sizes

This week’s Everyday Matters drawing challenge is to draw a shopping cart. I spent about an hour drawing my funny grandma shopping cart that I use to haul my plein air supplies around and then added a bit of watercolor. Before I got my new easel that has a shelf attachment, I needed something to use as a table when painting outdoors so the clip towards the top of the supplies in the cart is attached to a piece of foam core board. Once I’ve got my junk out of the cart I clip the foamcore board to the top of the cart and it makes a nice little table. Other items include a folding stool in a bag, my palette, brushes in a brush holder, a floppy hat, block of watercolor paper, a pad for sitting on the ground. I also usually throw in my small painting/drawing bag that has pens, erasers, teeny squirt bottle, kleenex, view finder, and other miscellaney. I either go out sketching with only what fits in a 6 x8″ bag or with my cart and everything but the kitchen sink. I like my comforts.

I experimented with Flickr’s annotating capabilities by noting all the items in the cart so if you’re interested you can click the image to hop over to Flickr and as you move the mouse over the little squares they will tell you what each item is. (Not that it’s so interesting, but I had fun playing with the technology). You can also see it bigger there.

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Every Day Matters Flower Art Gardening Plants Plein Air Sketchbook Pages Watercolor

Iris in my Garden (EDM: Fresh)

Iris in my garden

Watercolor in Canson 7 x 10″ Sketchbook
To enlarge, click image, select All Sizes

I’d planned to spend my painting time in the studio today but it was too gorgeous outside to stay indoors. So I pulled up a lawn chair and painted this iris in my front yard. I drew it in pencil and then added watercolor,  all the while listening to birds chirping (and the sounds of the nearby freeway which I pretend is the ocean), with the sun shining, the bees buzzing around me and the wind blowing my hair.

These irises are heart-breakingly beautiful. They are so fragile and temporary. One day they’re proudly blooming, thrusting their strong, wild purpleness proudly up to the sun and the next day they’ve turned to a little wisp of gelatinous film, drooping sadly from their stalk. I’m glad I was able to sit with this one for an hour and enjoy it’s beauty before it’s gone.