Category: Painting

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Drawing Life in general Sketchbook Pages Still Life Watercolor

More little tomatoes

Tomato-basket

Ink and watercolor in 6×9 Raffine sketchbook

Searching my house for something to draw tonight I had to resort to looking in the fridge. Everything in my house just seemed so man-made and dry. I needed something alive and bright to give me enough energy to draw since I’m recovering from a funky migraine and feeling a bit bedraggled. These little tomatoes were shining brightly in the light of my fridge and they were fun to draw and paint.

The highlight of my day today was listening to an interview with novelist and screenwriter Nora Ephron (who is also a blogger) on the NPR program Forum (where it’s available to listen or download). Her new book, “I Feel Bad About My Neck: And Other Thoughts On Being a Woman” is a funny take on the insults of aging. She is one of my favorite witty writers. Her book “Heartburn” (about a failed marriage) has one of the most hilarious passages I’ve ever read about picking the one person to end up with who’s going to drive you crazy. She is so brilliant and funny!

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Colored pencil art Drawing Other Art Blogs I Read Sketchbook Pages Watercolor

Drawing Friends

Judith by Me 2

Judith by me, Ink and watercolor (Micron Pigma .08) in 9×12 Aquabee sketchbook.

Painting group tonight in my studio but only three of us could make it. Susie wanted to work on a still life so Judith and I decided to draw each other. We took turns posing for a 5 minute sketch (below) and then drew each other’s faces as we were drawing each other (above).

Judith by Me 1 (Click image to enlarge, pick “All Sizes”)

Above: Judith by me, 5 minute ink sketch in Aquabee 9×12 sketchbook.

Me by Judith 2 (Click image to enlarge)

Above: Judith’s 5 minute sketch of me (colored in afterwards).
Ink and watercolor pencil in 12 x 16 Aquabee.

Me by Judith 1 (Click image to enlarge)

Above: Judith’s longer sketch of me, slightly cropped (sorry Judith, I removed the “cocks comb” as Susie said it resembled, that you drew growing out of my head that was really a weird pillow behind me)
Ink and watercolor pencil in 12 x 16 Aquabee.

I find that drawing someone’s face is like caressing them, getting to know them on a deeper, more intimate level. My mother always told me it’s not polite to stare, but drawing gives you a chance to stare and really see, and among friends, it is a real gift!

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Drawing Gardening Life in general Sketchbook Pages Watercolor

Little Green Tomatoes

Tomato plant

Haiku for my little tomato plants

Poor green tomatoes
Planted too late to grow red
Reach for fading sun

I guess I planted them a little too late. Everybody else has harvested theirs and removed the plants from the garden. Mine are still striving to grow up and become nice big juicy red tomatoes but summer is over. Unless we get a month of Indian Summer (fingers crossed) they will never grow up to become edible fruit.  Just sad little green tomato babies.

I drew this as a meditation after a frustrating day (more about that in a minute). I sat down outside and started drawing the middle of the plant, looking at it like a jigsaw puzzle, where each intersecting shape was a puzzle piece. Every time I reached another intersection I followed that line to the next. Eventually the puzzle started fitting together. But the sun went away and it was getting windy so after I did about 80% trying to accurately capture each little leaf and stem (amazing variety of charming leaf shapes on tomato plants!) I quickly sketched another 20% to fill it in so I could go inside. This Jigsaw Puzzle method of drawing I came up with is really helping me to understand better what I draw–especially when there are layers and layers of shapes. (Raffine 6×9 sketchbook, Lamy Safari pen, Noodlers Ink, watercolor)

My frustrating day involved typical contractor bad behavior– not finishing a job, not calling when they said they would, leaving holes that were supposed to be patched, making me stay home all day waiting for their return to finish which never happened, leaving a mess. Drawing helped me let it go, as did this quote I found in one of my old journals:

“Cheer up! Life isn’t everything.” (Mike Nichols)

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Every Day Matters Outdoors/Landscape Watercolor

View from San Quentin Prison (EDM #83: Water)

Bay View from San Quentin Prison

When I was driving home from San Anselmo (Marin County) Friday I pulled into the entrance to San Quentin Prison to watch the sunset on the San Francisco Bay. I took some photos to use for this week’s Everyday Matter’s Challenge: draw a body of water.

This afternoon it was really nice to get back to watercolor after spending yesterday struggling with the Painter software. I did this on an Arches 12 x 9″ watercolor block without doing much drawing first. I’m not sure if I should have simplified more–maybe deleted the foreground fennel plants or the electrical tower (I think that’s what it is) in the background. I also discovered when I finished that the reflection in the water doesn’t line up with the sun in the sky. (Ooops!)

Here’s the reference photo and a picture of the sign in front of the prison. It’s so weird that there’s a funky old prison on some of the most beautiful and expensive land in the country, if not the world. (click photos to enlarge on Flickr).

Bay vew from San Quentin Prison San Quentin Prison

Categories
Drawing Outdoors/Landscape Sketchbook Pages Watercolor

Monastery in San Anselmo, CA

Monastery in San Anselmo

Today was a much better day. I visited a friend in San Anselmo (Marin County) and have always been intrigued by seeing the top of this castle-like building peeking out over the trees in her neighborhood. So today on the way to my next stop (the gym) I parked at the bottom of the dirt road leading up to the monastery (or so I thought). And put my quick sketching kit in my backback and started climbing the road…which ended in a hillside covered in poison oak and weeds. I spotted a tree trunk halfway up, climbed up to it, dodging the poison oak, and used it as a little table to put my paints on.

While I was doing this quick watercolor sketch, two nursery school teachers and their brood were having an adventure, walking up the dirt road (but not climbing the hill). It was fun listening to the teachers calling out “Peanut butter!” and the kids shouting “Sandwich!” along with the whines, “It’s too hard…” and demands “Put down the stick!” and questions “What do we do when we cross a street?” (“Look for cars!”). It’s funny how the music, conversation or stories that are happening while painting somehow get embedded in the painting.

If I had taken just an extra minute before I started drawing, I wouldn’t have put that one tree centered right in front of the other, even though that’s how they were in real life. Ink, watercolor in small Moleskine watercolor notebook.

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Other Art Blogs I Read Sketchbook Pages Watercolor

We painted each other

Susie by Me

Susie by me (no risk of anyone recognizing her from this picture!)
(ink & watercolor in 9×12 Aquabee sketchbook)

Tonight my painting group had planned to take turns posing for each other for a life drawing session. Then life intervened and only Susie was able to come. We were both so tired we decided to just paint for half an hour or so. We sat across from each other at the table, and painted each other’s faces as we drew each other.

me-by-susie

Me by Susie (maybe recognizable with my new green glasses and red hair–love the way she did the hair!)
Watercolor on 4x 9.5″ block

While we painted Susie told me about the two huge, beautiful semi-ferral cats that she just adopted and some outrageous tales of blogger misdeeds that I won’t repeat here. It is an interesting subject though, what one choses to share on blogs for the world to see (as if the world is so interested) and how it can affect one’s life when it goes too far.

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Drawing Every Day Matters Sketchbook Pages Watercolor

For Labor Day – My Office: EDM #82

Labor Day - My office

I drew this from a photo I took of my office when I was leaving work for the long weekend Thursday evening. Since this week’s Everyday Matters challenge #81 was “Draw your art workspace” and I’d already drawn my studio the week before, I decided to draw my work workspace instead.

I’m lucky to have a lovely view of Lake Merritt and Fairyland Park. But I’m unlucky to always have to keep my blinds closed and never see the view (unless it’s raining) because the glare from the lake makes it impossible to see my computer and the heat coming in the windows makes it feel like a sauna.

…and I’ll be seeing it all too soon tomorrow morning.

Noodlers Ink, watercolor in Raffine almost 6×9 sketchbook.

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Animals Drawing Illustration Friday Sketchbook Pages Watercolor

Illustration Friday: Safe (Safe Version)

Safe-bears-web

Nice and safe and cozy. Now scroll down to the Risky version of “Safe” or click here to see it.

I originally drew this as a little pencil sketch in a notebook on BART yesterday. Today I scanned and enlarged it, and printed it on a sheet of paper I pulled out of my Raffine sketchbook. Then I inked over the printed pencil lines and painted it with watercolor. (I don’t like working in this Raffine sketchbook because the spiral binding is too big and it annoys me but I’ve discovered I can put the pages back when I’m done painting them. I know this would be considered sketchbook heresy to some but it works for me.)

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Animals Drawing Illustration Friday Sketchbook Pages Watercolor

Illustration Friday: Safe (Risky Version)

Snake-Unsafe-Safe
It’s best to use protection if you’re going to get close….

(I’m noticing from the comments that some people don’t get what the protection is…Is it my drawing that makes it hard to tell it’s a condom? Should I redraw to make it more obvious? Did you get it? )
I drew the snake on the left in ink in my sketchbook, painted it with watercolor, scanned it, and then in Photoshop, added a new layer and painted in the “protection.” I placed the two images side by side in a new Photoshop file.

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Drawing Every Day Matters Sketchbook Pages Watercolor

Streetlights (Everyday Matters #81)

Streetlights

Ink & watercolor in 9×12 Aquabee Sketchbook (Lamy Safari pen, Noodlers Ink).

Last week’s Everyday Matters challenge was to draw streetlights. The one on the left is on the corner of Carlson by Nation’s Burgers in El Cerrito. I spotted the middle one while taking a lunch-break walk along Lake Merritt in Oakland. The lamp on the right is on the Albany end of Solano Ave.

I drew the one below in my little Moleskine sketchbook with a Micron Pigma this morning while I was on the elevated platform at the BART station waiting for the train. It was right at eye level.

lamp