Category: Ink and watercolor wash

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Drawing Flower Art Gouache Ink and watercolor wash Life in general Painting Places Rose Sketchbook Pages

When you forget how to draw…

Hillside Gardens Apartments, ink & watercolor
Hillside Gardens Apartments, ink & watercolor

…keep drawing! After feeling so rusty sketching at the county fair I was determined to get my drawing juju back. I knew the only way to find it was to draw more.

I tried sketching at the El Cerrito 4th of July festival (see below) but was all thumbs again. Since I couldn’t make a decent sketch myself, I bought a really nice one at the festival’s art show from my friend Ikuko who had a booth there.

I decided to try again on the walk  home. The Hillside Garden Apartments (at top of post) is an ongoing renovation project and labor of love by the owner to convert an old rundown motel into beautifully landscaped apartments. He and the apartment manager were driving by and saw me standing on the corner sketching. They parked and came  to see what I doing and we had a nice neighborly chat with much mutual admiration.

Can't Draw; Ink, watercolor, colored pencil
Can't Draw; Ink, watercolor, colored pencil (click to enlarge)

Back home I continued drawing. I was happy with this sketch of a rose from my garden (below) but lost focus and overworked the watercolor. So the next day I played around with adding gouache, not worrying about getting the colors “right” since the rose had completely changed anyway.

Love the (Artist) You're With; Ink, gouache & watercolor
Love the (Artist) You're With; Ink, gouache & watercolor

Then I wrote myself a little pep talk around the rose, concluding that even if my drawing wasn’t all I wanted it to be, I could at least stop being so self-critical and, to re-phrase the old Crosby, Stills & Nash song: “If you can’t (yet) be the artist you love, then love the one you’re with!”

Categories
Animals Ink and watercolor wash Painting Sketchbook Pages

Alameda County Fair Sketches

County Fair Sketches, ink & watercolor
Judging the Poultry Presentation (left) and other fair items (right), ink & watercolor

The weather was perfect, Cathy drove us in her comfy car, and the fair wasn’t crowded so it should have been a great day of sketching. There were some fine moments: watching the serious 4H young ladies (above) being judged for their skills at Poultry Presentation was quite charming.

But the day at the fair just wasn’t what I’d hoped. First we discovered that the livestock barn was completely empty and that’s where I’d planned to spend most of my time. Apparently they’d completed the “market” phase the day before and those animals were gone; the animals to be judged wouldn’t arrive until the next day.

Tilt-A-Whirl, ink & watercolor
Tilt-A-Whirl, ink & watercolor

On top of that, I felt like I’d completely forgotten how to draw, having ignored my sketchbook for the past week or so while focusing on a couple of large paintings. And then there was the very loud music everywhere. We found a good spot to sit and draw the Tilt-A-Whirl (above) but the loudspeakers were playing the same 3 Michael Jackson hits over and over at full volume and I still can’t get them out of my head.

Lemonade stand, ink & watercolor
Lemonade stand, ink & watercolor

I prefer to paint on site: I try to get the colors right in one layer, putting them down as I see them and then moving on. That’s not what I did here. I sketched on site but painted it at home (when I should have been sleeping) and badly overworked it, putting paint on and taking it off, repeat, etc. I got a great photo of some cowboys in front of the lemonade stand that I will make into a painting later, so maybe this was just good practice of what not to do.

Bunny, ink & watercolor
Bunny, ink & watercolor

The only animals at the fair were bunnies and chickens which didn’t interest Cathy. I can draw chickens at my friend Barbara’s house, so after a quick rabbit sketch, we wrapped up the day and headed back home in the rush hour traffic.

I have a couple of photos I’m excited to turn into paintings which made the jaunt well worthwhile, even if my sketching was less than wonderful.

Categories
Bay Area Parks Berkeley Drawing Ink and watercolor wash Landscape Life in general Outdoors/Landscape Painting Places Sketchbook Pages

Indian Rock Park, Berkeley, Sketches

View from Indian Rock, ink & watercolor
View from Indian Rock, ink & watercolor

For our Tuesday night sketching we met at Indian Rock Park in North Berkeley. It was so cold, windy and foggy at my house that I put on a turtleneck, a sweater, a down vest, and my winter jacket before leaving the house. I live in the fog belt but just a few miles away, the weather at Indian Rock was lovely with no wind or fog.

My first sketch was of the giant rocks (below), a favorite site for rock climbers and sunset watchers. For the non-climbers there are stairs carved into the rock, and I climbed halfway to do the second sketch (above) where I was entranced by the idea of dining on that wonderful deck complete with white tablecloth and spectacular view.

A new trend for rock climbers is to carry a huge, specially designed backpack that looks like a giant suitcase. It is actually a folded cushion they put on the ground below where they will be climbing. I find it fascinating how there is an endless amount of specialized stuff to buy for every possible interest.

Watching the Sun Set at Indian Rock, Ink & watercolor
Watching the Sun Set at Indian Rock, Ink & watercolor

I really enjoyed drawing the rocks but why did I make the stupid drinking fountain so prominent? Oh well.

There were quite a few people enjoying the park, including a multi-generation Japanese-speaking family who all climbed the stairs, some hippies smoking pot behind the rock, young sturdy rock climbers doing the spiderman thing, and some girlfriends and couples who like me, perched on the rock to enjoy the sunset. Everyone seemed to be appreciating the quiet, peaceful, night and awesome view all the way across the bay to San Francisco.

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Drawing Flower Art Ink and watercolor wash Life in general Painting Sketchbook Pages

Birthday Blog: Glads and Gladioli

Birthday Glads and Gladioli, ink & watercolor
Birthday Glads and Gladioli, ink, rubber stamps, watercolor

My blog and I are celebrating our birthdays! My blog turned 4 last month and my birthday was Saturday but I’m celebrating all month. My neighbors gave me this little bouquet of glads (gladioli) which was perfect because I had so many birthday things I was glad for.

Unlike some who expect bling for their birthday, I’m much more down to earth. Some of the highlights of what made me glad on my birthday:

  1. Starting the day with my annual pilgrimage (a 3-mile round trip walk) to Fat Apples for a baked apple souffle/pancake with my sister and my best friend (who gave me a beautiful ceramic bowl she made).
  2. A short nap (because I woke up at 5:00 a.m. like a little kid on Christmas).
  3. A cleaned out garage courtesy of my son Cody (the only gift I’d asked for).
  4. Getting to borrow my neighbor’s truck and then making it to the dump just before they closed to get rid of a truckload of 10 years of junk.
  5. A homemade card from my mom with photos of my grandmother pregnant with my mom and my mom pregnant with me (and a nice check).
  6. A delicious dinner with Cody.
  7. A video, a cup of tea and a great night’s sleep.
  8. A perfect start to my 2-week birthday vacation!

My vacation is a “stay-cation” with lots of time for sketching and painting in the beautiful Bay Area. And along with spending some quality time in the backyard on the chaise lounge with a book, I have also promised (myself) to finally restock my earthquake emergency supplies since all the food and water in there have expired by now.

Blog Birthday: Thank You!

  • 4 years
  • 782 posts
  • 8,259 comments
  • 679,347 views
  • 88,880 spam caught and deleted!
    (WordPress has excellent spam protection, which is why you never have to do that stupid Captcha-type-in-meaningless-letters to leave a comment here)

THANKS to all of you wonderful blog visitors for your encouragement, support and the great conversations! I’m so grateful for every comment and every visit, and for the many friends I’ve made with artists around the world who share their wisdom so generously!

Categories
Drawing Ink and watercolor wash Life in general Painting People Places Sketchbook Pages

Antidotes to Bad Moods and Rude Cell Phone Users

Bad Mood! Ink, watercolor, collage
Bad Mood! Ink, watercolor, marked up kitty handout from pastel demo

Sometimes I get grouchy. For no reason. Or for good reason. I don’t like to be grumpy so I try to do things to cheer up: take a walk, go dance it off at Jazzercize, write and sketch in my journal over a latte at Peet’s Coffee or all of the above. Today, after trying all, it was the surprise of seeing my sister walk into my neighborhood Peet’s (surprise because she lives 5 towns away) that did the trick.

Before she arrived, while I was sipping and sketching, I was horribly annoyed by the woman sitting beside me at her computer who made dozens of phone calls. She was trying to reach “important” people like “Mr. Spike Lee” about his New Orleans film because she had “ideas” he would be interested in. She left message after message for others about her trip to Ireland, various parties and meetings, and how she was working out in preparation for her trip to Ireland next week…”so call me…kiss, kiss…ciao.”

SHHH - cards to handout to rude cell phone users
SHHH - cards to handout to rude cell phone users

My sister told me about a funny little card she’d seen for handing to loud or rude cell phone users. I looked for one online and found that designers Aaron Draplin and Jim Coudal created the hilarious “Society for Handheld Hushing” page where you can download and print this 3-page pdf file containing a variety of cards and little handouts like the one above.

I’m not sure I’d have the nerve but perhaps if it could be done surreptitiously…

Categories
Animals Emeryville Gardening Ink and watercolor wash Painting Sketchbook Pages

Ground Squirrel and Mysterious Hole

Emeryville Marina Ground Squirrel, ink & watercolor
Emeryville Marina Ground Squirrel, ink & watercolor

After a delicious breakfast on the patio at Rudy’s Can’t Fail Diner in Emeryville last Sunday, my friend Michael and I walked around the Emeryville Marine. He’s very patient with my need to stop and pet dogs and to take photos of things when I can’t sketch (can’t because he doesn’t have that much patience). I loved this cute little guy’s Joe Casual pose. When I got home I sketched him and his portrait now has the place of honor as the first page in my new journal.

Rudy's Can't Fail Cafe, Emeryville, color photo
Rudy's Can't Fail Cafe, Emeryville, color photo (I so wanted to sketch the scene when I was there, but also wanted to socialize so I took a photo and made a note to come sketch at Rudy's on a Tuesday night with my sketch buddies.)

Mysterious Hole

Meanwhile something dug a 6″ wide hole and tunnel under the grass in my backyard. I searched online, trying to find out what kind of animal dug the hole. I found this website that tells you, based on the diameter of the hole and the mounding of the dirt around it. According to that site and this one, the most likely options were armadillo, fox or badger.

Except I live in urban northern California where we definitely don’t have armadillos, badgers or foxes. We do have opossums and raccoons, but possums live in trees, not burrows, and both raccoons and possums have soft hands so their only digging is for grubs just under the sod.

Worried that it could be some huge kind of rat, I called the county’s Vector Control Department (love the euphemism “vector” for nasty critters that spread disease). A very nice gentleman came out this morning but he couldn’t figure it out either, although he mumbled something about skunks but then said not.

I followed his instructions to dig up and fill in the hole, lay a board next to it, sprinkle the board with baby powder and check it mornings looking for footprints in the powder. If the critter comes back he’ll leave his footprint and then we’ll know what it was. Maybe it’s a very small heffalump.

Categories
Drawing Ink and watercolor wash Painting People Self Portrait Sketchbook Pages

Self Portraits to End the Froggie Journal

Self Portrait B-1, ink & watercolor
Self Portrait B-1, ink & watercolor

At the end of each journal I like to do a self portrait or two and write a little wrap up about my life during the period that journal was active. I blurred some of the writing so I could say what I wanted without worrying about “over sharing” personal stuff.

Self Portrait B-2, ink & watercolor
Self Portrait with Froggie Journal B-2, ink & watercolor

I was inspired by Raena’s wonderful self-portraits to try sketching standing in front of a mirror instead of just sitting down and drawing my face. While I didn’t get a real likeness I did get two images that capture how I felt and saw myself that day. And even better, I was willing to take a chance, draw in ink, leaving the “mistakes” and accept that while my sketches weren’t as “good” as I wanted them to be, I was OK with letting them exist as a point on a journey.

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Drawing Ink and watercolor wash Life in general Richmond Annex Sketchbook Pages

Ripping It Up for New Beginnings: Two Johns

John Deere & Porta John, Ink & watercolor sketch of tractor
John Deere & Porta John on my corner, Ink & watercolor

They’re tearing up all the streets in my neighborhood which were already horrible. There are so many potholes I often drive with one wheel on the center double yellow line since that is the only part of the road not in shreds.

The city had deferred maintenance for the past couple years, waiting for funds to replace the water lines (requiring street demolition) and then finally to pave them. The federal money finally arrived (thanks Obama!) and now the workers are out in force ripping up all the streets (in between their lengthy breaks every hour to stand around, smoke, snack and shoot the bull).

This seemed a fitting image for one of the last few pages of my journal since I’d done some tearing up and rebuilding of my own (figuratively) during the months it was in use. (More about that next time.)

I was sitting on a corner near my house sketching this near sunset when a nice, ordinary, family man who lives on that block (with a perennially messy front yard), wandered over to see what I was doing, reeking of marijuana. He showed me a wooden burl bowl he’d just carved and we talked briefly about the joy of creativity and then he wandered off again.

P.S. Not that anyone cares, but I was curious what this tractor thingee was called so I looked it up. It’s a backhoe-loader, a fun word to say out loud. It sounds like a line in a country western song.

Categories
Bay Area Parks Berkeley Drawing Flower Art Ink and watercolor wash Landscape Outdoors/Landscape Painting Places Plein Air Rose Sketchbook Pages

Berkeley Rose Garden

Berkeley Rose Garden & Rose Practice, Ink & Watercolor
Berkeley Rose Garden & Rose Practice, Ink & Watercolor

When my plein air group met at the Berkeley Rose Garden last Saturday I arrived even later than usual: at noon, only an hour before the session was to end. I found a spot to sit and quickly sketched and painted the complicated, terraced rose garden, finishing just in time for the 1:00 critique.

Berkeley Rose Garden, Ink & Watercolor
Berkeley Rose Garden, Ink & Watercolor
Rose Grid, Ink & Watercolor
Rose Grid, Ink & Watercolor

After the critique I took some photos of the roses that most intrigued me, while guys set up white chairs for a wedding there later in the day. Once home I made a grid in my journal, and displaying the photos on my monitor, tried to understand their design and draw them.

I’ve bound my next journal and named it “Rosie” and want to decorate her with a rose design so this was practice for the rose I’ll draw on the cover. I’ve finished my journal “Froggie” but still have a bunch more pages to post.

I’ve updated my blog template. What do you think of the new design?

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Berkeley Drawing Ink and watercolor wash Painting Places

Sunset Sketching on Gilman Street, Berkeley

Berkeley Bagels' Umbrellas, Gilman St., ink & watercolor
Berkeley Bagels' Umbrellas, Gilman St., ink & watercolor

Berkeley Bagels was closed but their café tables and chairs were conveniently chained to the sidewalk, creating a nice spot to sit and sketch as the sun was going down a couple Tuesday nights ago.

I had so much fun drawing as more and more of the landscape revealed itself to me. First I was just going to draw the umbrella , but then there were the chairs behind it, and the next table and umbrella. The telephone pole appeared and had to be drawn and then the elevated concrete BART tracks and the electric pole behind it. When a BART train streaked by I added it, trying to remember what I saw.

Corner of Gilman and Northside, Berkeley
Corner of Gilman and Northside, Berkeley

I sketched this standing in the street on Northside, my back to Berkeley Natural Grocery. The street lamp must be left over from some previous incarnation of the corner. There are two of them, standing incongruously on each side of a funky little car repair shop. It took so long to draw the lamp that my sketchbuddies were ready to move on before I could draw the buildings on the next corner beyond the fence so I just threw in some paint for the sunset and the “distance.”

I’m enjoying using the stronger color I can get from adding some more opaque colors to my palette, such as cadmium orange, cad red light and cerulean blue. I used to have a “rule” about using only the most transparent colors but after working with oil paints I wanted to be able to get some of that “body” in my watercolors too.