Category: Ink and watercolor wash

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Ink and watercolor wash Life in general Plants Sketchbook Pages

The End of Daylight (Savings Time)

Japanese Maple leaves, ink & watercolor
Japanese Maple leaves, ink & watercolor

I celebrate this day each year as a sacred holiday because of the precious gift of an extra hour.  I wait until Sunday to change my clock. Then I pick an hour and spend it consciously, savoring every one of those 60 minutes by doing something especially satisfying.

And then at the end of the hour, if it was a good one, I set the clock back, feeling grateful. If the hour didn’t live up to my expectations, I just pick another hour and try again.

What are you going to do with your shiny new hour?

I wanted to sketch fall colors in honor of halloween and the end of daylight savings even though it’s warm enough here that my roses and hibiscus are still blooming and the grass is green from recent rains. This is a branch from the Japanese maple tree near my front door. It was a gift from my-coworkers in honor of my father’s death, who passed away 9 years ago today.

Update: Instead of picking an hour, I ended up doing it differently: Sunday afternoon I decided I would take a walk and if I timed it right, I could be home before I left. But I’d been having so much fun playing with taking that hour again and again that I didn’t change it on Sunday. I didn’t change it on Monday either, just hung out in the studio still relishing the possibilities. But Tuesday I had to work (from home) and realized I didn’t want another hour of WORK and since I needed to be at the restaurant to sketch at 6:30 I finally changed my clocks. Instead of one free hour though, I probably experienced at least a couple dozen over those three days. Goofy but fun!

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Drawing Flower Art Ink and watercolor wash Painting Plants Sketchbook Pages Still Life Watercolor

Wednesday Night with Hydrangeas and Windows 7

Hydrangea #3, ink and watercolor, 9x6"
Hydrangea in Cow Glass #3, ink and watercolor, 9x6"

I just needed some peaceful time at my watercolor table tonight to unwind. I’ve been admiring this hydrangea that’s been on my dining table in a little cow glass, the last remaining from a bouquet I’d picked. It’s soft pinks and greens were inspiring so I put on a book on CD and sketched and painted and listened to the story unfold.

Above is the third one, drawn first with a Pitt Artist Pen Sepia Superfine and then painted quickly with watercolor.

Below is the second one, painted directly without drawing first except with my brush and paint.

Hydrangea in Cow Glass #2, watercolor
Hydrangea in Cow Glass #2, watercolor

And here is the first one, drawn first with pencil, then I wet the flower area, dropped in different colors and when dry painted a bit over it. This one got a bit overworked but had some nice moments along the way:

Hydrangea in Cow Glass #1, graphite and watercolor
Hydrangea in Cow Glass #1, graphite and watercolor

You can see my notes in my sketchbook about never being able to remember the name of these flowers. I always go through a list of wrong names first and then have to look it up. It’s like the spot on my mental hard drive that once held the name “Hydrangea” has been corrupted and I just can get there anymore. But then I never really learned the name until a few years ago; we always called them “popcorn ball plants” when I was growing up.

I hope the colors look OK. I updated my computer to Windows 7 last night (finishing the final steps this evening) and things look a little different. Windows 7 is fantastic so far and the upgrade process was almost flawless. (Just one glitch with my graphics card driver that got resolved pretty easily.)

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Faces Glass Ink and watercolor wash Painting People Sketchbook Pages Still Life Subway drawings

Sketching with Mariah in a Too Busy Week

Sketching Fruit with Mariah after Tacos
Sketching Fruit with Mariah, ink & watercolor

This afternoon I went for a hike with Jessica and Mariah in perfect autumn weather and then J made tacos for dinner. After dinner Mariah (age 10) plopped her sketchbook, watercolor pencils, and Niji waterbrush on the table, pulled the bowl of fruit over in front of us and said “Let’s sketch.” How could I resist!

Mariah’s sketchbooks are such treasures. When we first started sketching together a couple years ago she preferred drawing from her imagination but now avidly draws what she sees too. Watching her abilities and understanding of what she sees grow is such a pleasure. Especially since she’s around the age when many girls stop drawing when they realize they can’t do it perfectly.

I also really admire how she has many pages of “just practicing” as she called them in her sketchbook (pages someone else might tear out thinking they were “failed” drawings).  She doesn’t fear leaving them there or “wasting” the page. They’re just practice. Sometimes there are three pages in a row like that. No big deal. Such wisdom. I wanted to post her fruit sketch too but she turned the page while it was wet and it got all blurry. She just couldn’t wait to start the next sketch: the box of taco shells she said she really wanted to draw but didn’t know why.

I’ve managed to squeeze in a few other nothing-special sketches in the middle of a two-week, too-busy period (work, family, life!) and here they are:

Subway Ladies
Subway Ladies, ink and watercolor

Friday night my watercolor group came over and we painted together. I did a couple quick sketches of them while we sat around the table. Judith had a new shorter haircut.

Judith, ink in Niji waterbrush
Judith, ink in Niji waterbrush

Sharon worked in water-soluble oils instead of watercolor and somehow got yellow paint on the wall that wouldn’t come off until I tried my Magic Eraser and it came right off.

Sharon, ink in Niji waterbrush
Sharon, ink in Niji waterbrush

We were all so tired after a long week but it was great to get together and paint. By request, I demonstrated how to get a good “bead” of juicy paint when making a flat wash and everyone took turns doing a few rows of the wash down the page. Together we created a really nice even page of purple.

A few more days of craziness and things start settling down again. Can’t wait!

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Albany Ink and watercolor wash Interiors People Places Sketchbook Pages

Sketching at Albany Bowling Alley, Bar and Cafe

The Bar at Albany Bowl, ink and watercolor
The Bar at Albany Bowl, ink and watercolor

Now that it’s getting dark right after work, we’re having to find indoor spots to sketch and this week we visited another planet known as the Albany Bowl. Since it was early evening on a Tuesday night, the customers were mostly people who like to bowl while drinking pitchers of beer and eating vast quantities of fried food, rather than the gang-types known to hang out there during the later hours.

Their bar, pictured above is the cleanest smelling bar I’ve ever been in. There wasn’t the slightest scent of beer or cigarettes, just fresh air and a whiff of chlorine bleach, oddly enough. It was also nearly empty since most people were doing their drinking while they bowled. Semi-hidden in the sketch above is the bartender who I “erased” with scribbles and paint after I goofed up his nose.

Cathy and I sat in tall comfy barstools along the back wall and sketched, creating a great deal of confusion for the bartender who couldn’t figure us out, though he didn’t seem to mind when we politely said, “No thanks” when he came over to take our orders. We just kept on sketching.

Albany Bowling Alley Cafe, ink & watercolor
Albany Bowling Alley Cafe, ink & watercolor

We had a similar experience in their little cafe, which from the outside appeared to offer retro-diner sketching opportunities, but in fact, had very little going for it besides the stools and miles of formica. When I said we didn’t want food, just wanted to sit and draw pictures, the young waiter didn’t get it until I showed him my sketchbook. Then he said OK and left us alone. The waitress asked to see what we’d done when we were leaving, and she squealed and laughed when we showed her. I pointed out the waiter’s little beard in my sketch and he smiled.

We tried drawing the bowlers in action; I did a page of gesture sketches and then we decided we’d had enough of the noise on this planet (constant music, announcements, bleeps and bloops from video machines, people yelling) and decided it was time to go home.

Condiments at Albany Bowl Cafe, ink & watercolor
Condiments at Albany Bowl Cafe, ink & watercolor

I really miss being able to go outdoors for our Tuesday night sketching. While urban interiors are interesting, and drawing anywhere is fun, I miss gardens and birdsong which I much prefer to neon lights and the annoying sounds of video games.

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Gouache Ink and watercolor wash Life in general Painting People Sketchbook Pages

No Stopping the Seasons…or the Arrows of Time

Can't Stop Trees, ink and watercolor
Can't Stop the Seasons, ink and watercolor

On my walk to Peets Coffee and the bookstore today I saw so many things along the way that I would have liked to sketch. But I was feeling tired and under-caffeinated so I made a mental note to take the same route on the way back to sketch them.

It struck me as ironic to see a sign saying “STOP” beside a tree (above) with leaves that are changing colors and falling. We can’t stop the seasons, time keeps steadily moving on, the days get shorter, and I’m so aware of each passing day being one less to do all the things I want to do.

As I wrote that, I pictured myself with a quiver of arrows that represent my days, and each day I select an arrow and shoot it from my bow…and that gave me an idea for a sketch….

Arrows of Time, ink and gouache
Arrows of Time, ink and gouache

And that made me wonder which is better:

  1. To carefully select the daily arrow (of time) and aim to make sure the day is spent intentionally, doing the things that matter;
    or
  2. To be adventurous, pick an arrow at random and shoot without aiming and (as my old yoga teacher used to say when instructing us to take a seemingly impossible pose) “just see what happens” — let each day be its own adventure.

UPDATE: Diane Patmore just left this most wonderful comment:

“Perhaps that sign is telling us to stop and look at the tree?”

That snapped me right out of my melancholic meanderings. Indeed, the only way to slow time is to live in the moment, and enjoy it as it’s happening! Yes! Stop and look at the tree; appreciate its beauty and the color of changing leaves. Accept its reminder that change is inevitable and resisting change causes suffering.

Breathe in the wonderful October air and be grateful to be breathing at this very moment. Ahhh. I feel much better now!

P.S. The book I bought was Imaginative Realism by James Gurney that I read about this morning on Making a Mark. It’s an excellent guide to illustration and art in general.

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Gouache Ink and watercolor wash Sketchbook Pages Still Life Watercolor

Just a Bowl of Fruit

Fruit bowl, ink, watercolor & gouache
Fruit bowl, ink, watercolor & gouache

It’s been such a busy week that I haven’t had  a moment for my blog until now. When my work week ended Friday afternoon it was time to prepare the studio for my watercolor class that started today. I’ve converted a second room to studio space for the duration of the class and I think everyone fit comfortably.

I feel so privileged to have such a great group of wonderful women artists in the class. And what troopers they were today, so determined to get the hang of doing flat washes, graded washes and glazing. By the end of the class everyone was doing beautiful, abundant, juicy washes.

I’d put out a couple of bowls of fresh fruit for class but nobody was hungry. So now I get to paint (and eat) all those yummy pears, apples and pomegranates.

After all the work on good paper today, I got frustrated by sketchbook paper that quickly muddies and doesn’t allow  reworking.  But I was so tired tonight it was either a quick sketch or nothing and since there’s been way too much nothing on my blog this week, here, at least, is something, as funky as it may be.

Tomorrow, rested up, I will try again on good paper.

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Ink and watercolor wash Life in general Painting Sketchbook Pages Still Life

Rebooting from Worker Bee to Artist

Downy Pearls Jasmine Tea, ink and watercolor
Downy Pearls Jasmine Tea, ink and watercolor

The transition from work week to painting week is often difficult for me. I supposedly work only half a day Fridays but it usually turns into a whole day. So last night, to prod the transition along, I took a nice hot shower, put on my jammies and made a cup of Peets Downy Pearls Jasmine Tea.

The tea leaves come wound up into cute little balls a bit bigger than capers. As it steeps, the tea transitions too, from little balls to long spiky, stringy tea leaves that expand tremendously.

So I put some dry “pearls” in one plate, the ones that I’d brewed for my tea in another and my tea on the table and sketched and painted it, to reboot and ease into my art life. I just wished I’d drawn with pencil instead of pen since my drawing brain wasn’t really warmed up and ready to go.

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Ink and watercolor wash Richmond Annex Sketchbook Pages

Sketching Fish Heads at Ranch 99

Salmon Heads, Ink and watercolor
Salmon Heads, Ink and watercolor

For Tuesday night sketchcrawl we met at Ranch 99 Market inside the Pacific East Mall, an Asian shopping center. I spent most of my sketching time in the fish department, where shoppers can poke and prod a huge variety of whole fish, select the ones they want and hand them to the fish mongers to scale, wash, and carve them into steaks or deep fry them whole in their gigantic deep fat fryer.

Fishmongers, Ink and watercolor
Fishmongers, Ink and watercolor

I didn’t want to get in the way of shoppers (or have my fishy model sold before I could sketch it) so I moved down to the bins of fish heads to sketch. But even in the low rent department my models were being picked over and sold.

Cod Heads, Ink and watercolor
Cod Heads, Ink and watercolor

The catfish (below) had long whiskers that reminded me of Salvador Dali.

Salmon and Catfish Heads, ink and watercolor
Salmon and Catfish Heads, ink and watercolor

We also sat on benches inside the mall and sketched diners at some of the restaurants. That made me hungry and it was getting late so I ordered takeout from Great Szechuan and we called it a night and went home. The dish wasn’t great, made worse by being slopped into in a styrofoam clamshell container instead of a traditional Chinese takeout carton and I didn’t even get a fortune cookie!

Ranch 99 Market, Ink and watercolor
Ranch 99 Market, Ink and watercolor
Categories
Animals Ink and watercolor wash Life in general People Sketchbook Pages

Dogs and their People at PetVet, Part I

Pomeranian Lady at PetVet, ink and watercolor
Wonderful Pomeranian Lady at PetVet, ink and watercolor

A couple miles south of my house, is a high-priced pet shop that sells cashmere sweaters and designer collars for dogs. I don’t shop there. PetVet is a mile or two north of my house, in Richmond. They offer discounted food, medicine and vet services and draw a much less affluent clientele.

I shop there because they sell  the prescription cat food Busby needs, but I usually try to avoid going during their weekend low-cost vet clinic. I don’t like seeing  pets with people who seem unlikely to be responsible pet owners such as this group of young men and their pit bull puppies with cropped ears (a style from dogs used in fighting.)

Tough Dudes and their Pitbulls, Ink and watercolor
Tough Dudes and their Pit Bulls, Ink and watercolor

When I arrived, the parking lot was full and people were waiting inside and outside for the first-come, first-served vet visits. After I stocked up on cat food I was intrigued by all of the interesting characters and dogs and wanted to stay and sketch. But I couldn’t find a way to do it surreptitiously.

I decided to be brave and ask if I could take photos of pe0ple with their dogs; surprisingly everyone was happy to pose. The dudes above dropped their tough guy stance and smiled nicely for me. I’d much rather be drawing from life, but it was still fun sketching from my photos.

Treats while waiting, ink and watercolor
Treats while waiting, ink and watercolor

I’d like to work on my dog drawing skills so that I’d have enough confidence to go back there and sketch the waiting dogs and owners directly.

Not a Pitbull? Ink & watercolor
Not a Pit Bull? Ink & watercolor

This young lady was quite a character. As she walked past me, she turned to a guy with a really wide pitbull and said to him “Your dog is FAT!” Then she told me her puppy wasn’t a pit bull, it was a brindle and would be bigger than a pitbull. [Except brindle is a mixture of color in a dog’s coat, not a breed.]

There were so many people there with puppies, and many of those puppies were pit bulls or pit mixes. It breaks my heart to think about how that will turn out. I know how much work it is to responsibly raise a good, healthy dog and that the shelters are full of pit bulls surrendered when the cute little puppy grew up and got to be too much trouble.

I will just try to hope that all of those people and their pets have what they need for happy, healthy lives. Meanwhile, I still have another half dozen pictures to make from the day.

Categories
Ink and watercolor wash People Places Sketchbook Pages

Sketching at Bridges Rock Gym

Sunflowers by Tin Roof Yoga, ink & watercolor
Sunflowers by Tin Roof Yoga, ink & watercolor

For last Tuesday night’s sketchcrawl, we went to Bridges Rock Gym to sketch people climbing on the rock structures and practicing “slack lining” (like tight-rope walking). When I arrived I sketched these sunflowers growing on a little garden plot besides Tin  Roof Yoga, attached to the gym. The Assistant Manager, Jeffie, told me that the sunflowers were “volunteers” that sprouted up in the dirt they obtained for the plot by Annie’s Annuals.

Climbers at Bridges Rock Gym, ink and watercolor
Climbers at Bridges Rock Gym, ink and watercolor

Since I was hungry and we were sketching from the cafe on the loft’s balcony I enjoyed a plate of homemade hummos, veges and pita bread, and sketched the salt shaker while I waited for my food. The cafe was offering free samples of their homemade ginger cookies — best I’ve had! Then I tried to draw the moving targets of people climbing rocks (above).

Cathy worked quickly and did a great job capturing so much of the movement and action of the climbers and the balance of the slackline (like a tightrope only springy) walkers. Here are two of Cathy’s sketches:

Rock Gym Climbers by Cathy McAullife
Rock Gym Climbers by Cathy McAuliffe
Climbers and Slackliners by Cathy McAuliffe
Climbers and Slackliners by Cathy McAuliffe

If you have a chance to visit the gym, be sure to look at their amazing photobook of the gym’s owner slacklining high atop peaks in Yosemite, from tree to tree in the Berkeley hills, and several floors above a Polish shopping mall. Visiting the gym made me wish I wasn’t scared of heights — it’s such a beautiful place, with great amenities and very friendly staff. Everyone is welcomed and the night we there we saw absolute beginners, a small group of children, and some very advanced climbers with amazing muscles.

When it was time to go, I was just starting to get the hang (no pun intended) of how to approach sketching the climbers, noticing that as they climbed or balanced on the rope, the movements were in patterns that kept repeating so it was just a matter of waiting a couple seconds and they’d be back in that frog-like position, for example. I’ll come back to sketch again and to try out their yoga studio.