Category: Landscape

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Drawing Landscape Outdoors/Landscape Places Plein Air Sketchbook Pages Sketchercize

Sketching Lake Merritt, Oakland

Lake Merritt View, Copic Sepia Multiliner
Lake Merritt View, Copic Sepia Multiliner

Last week I took advantage of quick sketchers Martha and Cathy being away to spend an hour working on one image instead of constantly moving from one spot to the next. This was a really complex scene and the more I drew the more details appeared to draw.

By the time I finished, Sonia (who did several sketches of different views from the same spot) and I were so cold we decided to head home. I work right across the street from the lake and doing this drawing helped me to see what an amazing resource I have for sketching right outside my door.

Lunchtime Sketching Lake Merritt Birds
Lunchtime Sketching Lake Merritt Birds

The next day at lunch, instead of eating in the kitchen with my colleagues, I took my sketchbook and went for a walk by the lake. My plan was to sketchercize: walk for 15 minutes, do a sketch, and walk 15 minutes back, getting in a 30 minute walk. But 5 minutes from the office I saw a row of Double-Crested Cormorants all lined up drying their wings in the sun as if they were on clotheslines.

(Cormorants are easily identified because they’re the only waterbirds that sit in the sun with their wings spread, hanging their feathers out to dry.  They lack an oil gland for preening, so their feathers get waterlogged when they swim under water.)

After I sketched a cormorant and walked a few minutes more, a gaggle of goofy geese were all lined up at the edge of the sidewalk, waiting for someone to decide what to do next, and they needed sketching.

Walking back to the office I came across a foot-high rock with a bronze plaque on it that said “Leon Olsen loved to walk here.” What a great way to honor someone. A memorial walk rock!

Categories
Art theory Landscape Oil Painting Outdoors/Landscape Painting Photos Places Plein Air

Port Costa Bull Valley Restaurant, Plein Air Plus

Port Costa Bull Valley Restaurant, Oil on panel, 9x12
Port Costa's Bull Valley Restaurant, Oil on panel, 9x12

When we gathered for our critique on the patio outside the funky Warehouse Cafe, a biker bar at the end of Port Costa‘s main road, I thought I’d gotten my painting of the Bull Valley Restaurant off to a good start. It was a sunny Saturday and the quirky local residents of the little town had been very welcoming, chatting and joking with the plein air painters.

Just as the critique was getting started the old lady bartender turned up the rock and roll so loud that we couldn’t hear each others’ comments and suggestions. Someone went in and asked her to turn it down and she sneered, “This is a bar. We play rock and roll!” Although some of our group had bought lunch and beer (served in mason jars), I guess we weren’t exactly their preferred clientelle.

Their usual patrons continued to roar in on their Harleys and wanna be Harleys. Some were dressed in full leather or raunchy heavy metal t-shirts and black denim. At least half of them were over 50, the guys paunchy and bald and the women, with their dyed thinning black hair, looked “rode hard and put away wet” as I’ve heard it said.

Anyway, back to the painting. As you’ll see from my initial sketch below, my perspective was even further off than it ended up in the finished painting above.

Port Costa-WIP 1
Port Costa-WIP 1

I’m always amazed how often my eyes fool me. Sometimes I’m sure a line slants one way and then I hold up a pencil to check and the line slants in the completely opposite direction.

This is the point when I stopped painting on site, planning to finish at home from photos.

Port Costa 2
Port Costa WIP 2

Once home I realized that I had a serious perspective problem with the way the roof  line and the line where the building meets the ground were parallel to each other instead of coming towards each other to finally meet at a vanishing point. I worked on the painting for a couple of days and thought I’d fixed it (blind to what was in front of my face from seeing it for too long).

When I shared what I thought was the final painting with some artist friends, they generously pointed out a few things that needed adjusting, including continuing perspective problems. Below M. added lines in Photoshop to demonstrate for me how I’d gone wrong with the perspective. It’s so great to have that kind of support!

Port Costa Perspective
Diagram showing how the perspective should have been
In the end I decided I’d taken this painting as far as it needed to go and moved on to the next project. But I promised myself that next time I’d pay more attention to perspective.

Here’s the original photo of the scene.

Bull Valley Restaurant original photo
Bull Valley Restaurant original photo
Categories
Art theory Colored pencil art Drawing Life in general Outdoors/Landscape People Places Sketchbook Pages Sketchercize

Sketchercizing My Grocery Shopping

El Cerrito Natural Grocery, Copic cobalt multiliner & Polychromos colored pencils
El Cerrito Natural Grocery, cobalt Copic multiliner and colored pencils

I had to make my morning coffee with the last drops of non-fat milk (yuck, 1% is OK but non-fat in coffee just doesn’t cut it) and there were no peaches or milk for my Cheerios. A trip to the market couldn’t be put off. But I had a full day of experiments in the studio planned and I needed some exercise. Easy solution:

  1. take the long way around, up and down big hills, to my favorite grocery store, El Cerrito Natural Grocery (cardio)
  2. sketch the market using the cobalt Copic Multiliner I wanted to experiment with (I think I prefer the sepia)
  3. shop
  4. carry groceries home in a loaded backpack plus another full bag (weight lifting)
  5. add colored pencil to the sketches to try out the new Polychromos colored pencils (LOVE THEM!)
BART riders, cobalt Copic Multiliner and colored pencils
Quick subway sketches with the cobalt Copic Multiliner and colored pencils

I’m trying to simplify my choices with my art supplies, wanting to narrow down the pens, ink, pencils and colored pencils to keep handy and those I’ll give away. I did tests today on drawing pencils, sepia liquid inks and sepia pens and will post them and my preferences tomorrow.

I’m also working on painting a grid of 16 different acrylic painting techniques to improve my understanding of acrylic techniques and possibilities. It became clear this was needed when I started a series of paintings in acrylic and realized I didn’t have the “chops” to accomplish what I wanted. I was trying to use oil painting techniques and was getting nowhere fast (and ruining brushes with all the scrubbing I was doing with them which seemed the only way to get the smooth transitions I wanted).

Each medium has its own capabilities and pitfalls. Why not make good use of the characteristics of the media instead of trying to force it to be something it’s not? Despite people claiming acrylic can be used like oils and like watercolor,  I’m going to try to learn to use it like acrylics instead and have fun with all the crazy stuff it can do. This series of large paintings wants to be in acrylic and so it shall, and soon I hope.

Categories
Animals Art supplies Art theory Bay Area Parks Drawing Ink and watercolor wash Landscape Life in general Outdoors/Landscape Painting Places Plein Air Sketchbook Pages

Rush Ranch, Plein Air: Lost Again!

Rush Ranch Horses, Sepia Copic Multiliner and watercolor wash
Rush Ranch Horses, Sepia Copic Multiliner and watercolor wash

Mariah, a wonderful young artist, accompanied me to my plein air group’s paint-out today at Rush Ranch in Suisin City. She was immediately inspired by a spot, sat down and started sketching. I faced the opposite direction and sketched these horses in the corral.

Before we’d left my house, I showed her a book on drawing animals that demonstrated how to first find and assemble the basic shapes contained in the animal (rectangles, circles, triangles) and then refine them. I decided to practice what I preached and did that with the horses. I’d never noticed what big knees horses have before. I sketched with my sepia Copic Multiliner .03 and then added watercolor washes.

Rush Ranch Vista, ink & watercolor wash
Rush Ranch Vista, ink & watercolor wash

The views from Rush Ranch were tremendous. I could have sketched for hours more but we’d arrived late and after our second sketches it was time for the group critique and lunch.

We were late because I got lost yet again (missed the turnoff and drove forever before turning around — and this was with GPS!) My mind had wandered to thinking about the people fishing (and the fish) in the slough off the little bridge we’d just passed so I missed the entrance sign and decided that the GPS telling me I’d arrived was wrong. This was especially stupid since the printed directions from my group said to go over that bridge and then turn right in 3/4 mile.

Instead I drove and drove, went over another bridge and THEN started looking for the turnoff. I went miles past that bridge, eventually arriving at the gate to a “youth correctional facility” (jail for teens) and admitted I’d blown it again. When we finally found our way back and I saw the huge “Rush Ranch” sign, I couldn’t believe I’d missed it.

Well actually I could believe it. I think I could get lost just walking from one room to another these days!

Categories
Art supplies Outdoors/Landscape Places Sketchbook Pages

Sketchercizing My Errands

El Cerrito Library, Ink (Sepia Copic Multiliner)
El Cerrito Library, Ink (Sepia Copic Multiliner)

I combined walking, errands and sketching this morning, and really enjoyed all three, especially using my new sepia Copic Multiliner to draw these sketches. The pen is made of aluminum, is refillable with a replaceable tip. It’s very comfortable in the hand with a wider barrel than my usual Micron Pigmas, and the pen just glides across the page.

First stop was my little local library where I returned “Chasing Matisse”, a lackluster memoir about a guy who gets a book deal to go visit all of the places where Matisse lived. He fancies himself an artist as well as a journalist, but I didn’t think he was much of either. He basically read Hilary Spurling’s excellent two-part biography of Matisse and repeats stuff from her book in between his boring descriptions of his own  experiences seeing what Matisse had seen and sometimes even trying to sketch or paint it.

El Cerrito Post Office
El Cerrito Post Office

Next was another return of an Amazon purchase to the El Cerrito Post Office. I asked the clerk if she’d stamp my sketchbook with her round postmark stamp, just for fun but she said no and gave me some “airmail” stickers to use instead which I didn’t.

When I was a kid my grandfather had a bunch of rubber stamps and pads of old deposit slips from when he’d been a banker before the bank closed during the depression (but why did he still have them?). I used to love going to his house and playing with the rubber stamps.

I’d planned to add sepia ink washes to these sketches at home tonight because I’d ordered a bottle of that ink, but when I looked at the items that arrived in my order I discovered they’d made a mistake and sent me black ink instead. Rats. One more thing to return.

Categories
Drawing Ink and watercolor wash Life in general Outdoors/Landscape Places Richmond Annex Sketchbook Pages Sketchercize

Teepees in the Hood: Sketchercize

Teepees in the 'Hood, ink & watercolor
Teepees in the 'Hood, ink & watercolor

I went out for a bit of “sketchercize” today, trying to get unsluggish. My plan was to walk 30 minutes, sketch wherever I landed at 30 minutes and then walk 30 minutes back. But 15 minutes out I came across this odd montage and had to stop right there. Up a few stairs just past some lovely native drought resistant plantings, and a miniature pagoda was a full sized authentic teepee in front of a wall of bamboo. Somewhere behind that was a house.

Why would someone have a teepee in their front yard? Is it for houseguests who have overstayed their welcome? A mother-in-law apartment? A garden shed? A kid’s playhouse? An art studio? A meditation room? A dog house? A place to just get away?

One nice thing about living in the San Francisco Bay Area, or at least in this part of it, is the feeling of “Anything goes,” and “Live and let live.” Slightly (?) odd artists like me fit right in. I definitely found my tribe when I moved to Berkeley, and while I live a few miles north of there now, apparently it’s close enough for teepees.

And now off to watch the season five finale of Project Runway on DVD. Since I’ve finished all 5 seasons of The Wire, and caught up on Project Runway, I’m excited to get back to more drawing and reading and much, much less time in front of the TV!

Categories
Art theory Blake Gardens Landscape Oil Painting Outdoors/Landscape Painting Places Plein Air

Blake Gardens Revised; Pondering Painting

Blake Gardens Revised, oil on panel 9x12"
Blake Gardens Revised, oil on panel 9x12"

When my sister looked at the original version of this painting (posted here) she told me her eye kept going to the bright area in the upper right. There was a lot that was distracting in that image, and I thought the ground was too dark and the two little patches of flowers on opposite sides of the path were distracting too.  But now maybe I lost some of the sunshine by lightening the ground and darkening that corner?  (see original below)

Blake Gardens Late Afternoon, oil on panel, 9x12"
Blake Gardens (version 1, click to enlarge)

So it was back to the drawing board…er easel. I spent some more time working on it and I think it’s done now. Which do you like better? Or do you think the revised version needs more work and if so what?

Yesterday I was out plein air painting in the funky little town of Port Costa, and because I was painting buildings, spent more time drawing than painting to get the perspective right.  (Which makes me realize I need to add one more point to my How to Oil Paint Plein Air List: # 5. “Get the drawing right!”). Today I tried to (but didn’t quite ) finish it. While I used to often spend a month or more completing a watercolor painting, for some reason I have the idea that an oil painting should be finished more quickly, like in one session.

Perhaps what bothers me is that when I paint plein air I work small, using a 9×12″ panel.  It seems like a waste of time to work such a small painting for days afterward, putting in lots of details (because I like details, darn it, even though plein air oil paintings are supposed to be simplified).

Maybe the trick is to paint the plein air painting as a simplified field study and then if I like it, if it has life and soul and the subject still interests me, grab a bigger canvas and paint big where I can really get into things like reflections in windows and other crunchy details,  instead of continuing to work on the study.

But for now, it’s back to overworking yesterday’s study since I just scraped off the bottom 1/4 of the painting and need to redo it before the paint dries.

Categories
Animals Bay Area Parks Drawing Ink and watercolor wash Outdoors/Landscape Painting People Places Sketchbook Pages

Goose (Poop) Park and Subway Sketches

Snow Park (Goose Park), ink & watercolor
Snow Park (Goose Park), ink & watercolor

I meant to take a walk at lunch today but when I saw this old lady feeding the geese I had to stop and sketch. This is a little park near my office in downtown Oakland called “Snow Park” but a better name would be “Goose Poop Park” since it’s home to the many Canadian geese who don’t seem to feel the need to head north or south any longer.

Bart faces and feet, ink & watercolor
Bart faces and feet, ink & watercolor

I drew the faces of these subway riders on my way to work this morning. I drew the feet on the way home. That guy was holding his juice on the floor with his feet.

Categories
Art theory Landscape Oil Painting Outdoors/Landscape Painting Plants Plein Air

My “How-To Oil Paint Plein Air” Cheat Sheet

Blake Gardens Late Afternoon, oil on panel, 9x12"
Blake Gardens Late Afternoon, oil on panel, 9x12"

After my flop of a painting on Saturday, I was determined to have another go at plein air painting. But first I wanted to put together a cheat sheet; a personalized “How to Paint Plein Air” based on what I’ve learned from teachers, books, experience, mistakes, successes and goals. I started jotting down notes as ideas and images came to me and then when the list felt complete, I typed it up and taped it to my paint box so that it will always be with me when I’m out painting. I posted another on the studio wall.

Then I went out to paint. First I drove to a site I’d been wanting to try out, a hillside cemetery in El Sobrante with what I thought would be  interesting views. But once I found a spot where I could be off the road and away from mourners, it was so windy, and the view so boring, that I left and headed for Blake Gardens.

By the time I got there and set up, I only had an hour and a half to paint before they closed at 4:30. It was so serene and beautiful there and the weather was perfect, warm sunny and no wind. I worked as fast as I could, finished all of the main areas, and added the final touches at home.

It was a confusing scene with all sorts of trees and foliage, but not having enough time helped me to simplify rather than draw all the trees in the background. I took artistic license to move things a bit to improve my composition and to delete something that wasn’t working. I’m learning!

Here is my Oil Painting Plein Air Process Cheat Sheet. I imagine it will change as I learn and grow, but it definitely helped me with this painting.

  1. FOCAL POINT: Choose one!
  2. COLOR KEY: Decide: Will the painting be predominantly Warm or Cool, High key or Low key, Predominant hue?
  3. SQUINT! to see values, simplify
  4. THUMBNAIL: Keep making them until there’s a good composition with leading lines in to focal point. A bad composition can only lead to a bad painting.
  5. CANVAS: Transpose thumbnail to canvas, creating large puzzle piece shapes, using pastel pencil or thin paint.
  6. UNDERPAINT: Loose, sketchy monochrome underpainting of shapes, darks with very diluted paint (optional)
  7. DARKS: Thinly paint the darks but MATCH values and colors using value scale and testing paint first on edge of little cards held up to compare to actual color. Just because it’s dark doesn’t mean it’s black.
  8. PAINT LARGE SHAPES: Match or exagerate the average (VIBRANT) color in  large shapes, using not too thick paint.
  9. COLOR PATCHES: Break larger shapes into smaller patches of color and light, matching or slightly exagerating the color.
  10. HIGHLIGHTS & ACCENTS: Add thick LIGHT paint, thin dark accents, and occasional splashes of “broken” color  for VIBRANCY.
  11. EDGES: Put a dab of COMPLEMENTARY colors around edges of focal points to pop, SOFTEN and/or cool receding edges.
  12. STOP: It’s a field study!

If you have discovered other things that have helped you and are willing to share them, I’d love to hear about them. And if you’d like more information about any of the items on my list, let me know and I’ll do another post with more explanation and details.

Categories
Animals Bay Area Parks Drawing Ink and watercolor wash Life in general Outdoors/Landscape People Places Sketchbook Pages Sketchercize

Pt. Isabel Sketchercize

Pt. Isabel Sights, ink & watercolor
Pt. Isabel Sights, ink & watercolor

No those aren’t circus dogs stacked up in a doggie pyramid, I just drew them that way as dogs came and went, begging for scraps at the table where the couple was eating lunch.

I’d planned to spend the day in the studio today, but when Barbara called to invite me for a walk at Pt. Isabel, I couldn’t resist. Since it was sunny and not too windy (or so I thought) I also brought along my plein air gear, thinking I might set up to paint there after our walk.  But we took a L-O-N-G walk on the Bay Trail with an equally long walk back, and then had a late lunch at the Sit Stay Cafe in the dog park.

The wind had picked up and I was getting cold and didn’t really feel like spending 3 hours standing in the wind (see top left picture with poor bent over tree from the constant ocean winds). So while I was trying to decide, Barbara took out her sketchbook and I decided to do the same. By the time I finished it was already 4:00 and another weekend was nearly over.

But a day with good solid exercise and a little sketching is a good day and it counts. (Unlike some days that just suck and don’t count.)