Category: Painting

Categories
Figure Drawing Ink and watercolor wash New York Painting People Sketchbook Pages

NYC Part 3: Society of Illustrators and Hopper, Magritte, Calder at The Whitney and MoMA

Model and Artists at Society of Illustrators, NY, ink and watercolor 5.5x7.5"
Model and Artists at Society of Illustrators, NY, ink and watercolor 5.5×7.5″

My second day in New York started with visiting art museums (more about that in a minute) and ended upstairs at the Society of Illustrators for costumed figure drawing from 6:30 to 9:30.

Society of Illustrators Staircase
Society of Illustrators Staircase

Just walking through the red door, up the stairs and seeing the portraits of all the famous illustrator/members was awe-inspiring.

Models at Society of Illustrators, NY Figure Drawing, 7.5"x5.5"
Models at Society of Illustrators, NY Figure Drawing, 7.5″x5.5″

I didn’t find the models to be very inspiring; they repeated the same few poses and the thin one wore a strange headdress with a little floral jumpsuit; the voluptuous model wore painful looking bondage gear. Or maybe it was just me: I’d started getting a migraine before dinner and had taken migraine meds so was a little off kilter.

Upstairs Bar at the Society of Illustrators
Upstairs Bar at the Society of Illustrators

I would have been intimidated going to the Society of Illustrators by myself but Shirley is a regular, which helped newcomers Pat and I feel comfortable. According to Shirley there was a world-famous fashion illustrator at the bar (above) that evening. We sketched to a soundtrack of loud rock music from the 70s, including favorites from Led Zeppelin, the Eagles and John Lennon.

Model at Society of Illustrators, NY Figure Drawing, 7.5"x5.5"
Model at Society of Illustrators, NY Figure Drawing, 7.5″x5.5″

Please see Pat’s iPad drawings and her amusing story about the day and Shirley’s sketches here.

Hopper, Magritte, Calder

Edward Hopper is one of my favorite artists so I was excited to start NYC day 2  at the Whitney with Pat visiting the show of Hopper paintings and his preliminary drawings for them. What really struck me was how his drawings showed great skill in drawing and perspective and yet many of his paintings have awkward angles, wrong perspective and bodies in unnatural positions.

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A avorite Hopper painting on his homemade easel

I thought this note beside a painting might help to explain that dichotomy:

Hopper was a lifelong realist, committed to deriving his pictorial ideas from observed reality. His aim, however, was not to record outward appearances but to use his observations…as vehicles…to portray his inner life. Asked once what he was trying to achieve in a painting, he answered, “I’m after ME.”

Some favorite Hopper sketches in the show (click to enlarge):

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While at the Whitney we also visited American Legends: From Calder to O’Keefe (more Hopper…Yay! and some wonderfully whimsical Calder circus sculptures made of wire and miscellaneous detritus), then we went quickly through Robert Indiana: Beyond LOVE (meh).

Next we walked to MoMA where we met Shirley and went to the member’s preview day for Magritte: Mystery of the Ordinary.  None of us loved the Magritte. My favorite work in the show referenced painters painting, especially Clairvoyance where the artist’s still life setup is an egg but he’s painting a bird. While Shirley and Pat went off to sketch from paintings in the shows they’d already seen, I enjoyed American Modern: Hopper to O’Keefe show (Yay! even more Hopper!)

Sleeping Guy at MoMa, NY, pencil and watercolor, 7x5.5"
Sleeping Guy at MoMa, NY, pencil and watercolor, 7×5.5″

Finally, exhausted, I found Shirley sketching in a comfy chair beside the man above who was sound asleep. I drew him while she finished her sketch. Then we had dinner at a diner and walked to the Society of Illustrators for figure drawing.

Categories
Figure Drawing Ink and watercolor wash Landscape New York Outdoors/Landscape People Sketchbook Pages Urban Sketchers

New York City Part 2: Battery Park, Statue of Liberty, Ellis Island and Figures al Fresco

Battery Park, Statue of Liberty, Ellis Island, ink and watercolor, 5.5x7.5"
View from Battery Park, Statue of Liberty, Ellis Island, ink and watercolor, 5.5×7.5″

My first morning in Manhattan I woke to sun streaming through the trees and hurried to get ready for a day of sketching in Battery Park with Shirley Levine and Pat Gaignat. Above is my first sketch of the day: the view from Battery Park of the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island, where my grandfathers first arrived in the U.S. from Russia. It seemed like a perfect way to mark my arrival too.

Pat had created a multi-media iBook titled “Way to Go, Jana!” with directions for finding my way to the park at the other end of Manhattan. I downloaded it to my iPhone and headed out the door.

At my first intersection I stepped off the curb at a green light and BAM! a truck hit a motorcycle right in front of me. The bike went down but the rider didn’t seem injured. The drivers began their negotiations and I scurried across the street.

Below are a couple of screenshots from Pat’s e-book that I literally would have been lost without!

Pat's guide map page
Pat’s guide map page
Pat's guide featuring Shirley with video and audio instructions
Pat’s guide starring Shirley

In the afternoon we joined a dozen artists on benches around a small plaza for the start of “Figures al Fresco,” a weekly, free, clothed figure-drawing session sponsored by the city, complete with teacher. She drove up in an electric cart filled with art supplies to use during the session, including drawing boards, paper pads, watercolors, charcoal and pencils. I did most of my figure drawings on a newsprint pad from the cart. The last one (below) I did in my journal with my new Pentel Tradio Stylo water-soluble pen and a water brush.

Battery Park Figure Sketching, ink, 7.5x5.5"
Battery Park Figure Sketching, ink, 7.5×5.5″

John, the model was excellent, with many interesting poses that simulated working in fields and other kinds of manual labor. The teacher requested he remove his shoes so we could draw his feet. He took off the shoes, but wouldn’t remove his socks.

Me sketching in Battery Park
Pat’s photo of me sketching in Battery Park

When the session ended at 4:30,  in a hurry I returned my drawing pad to the cart, forgetting to remove my sketches. Then I joined Pat to walk the High Line, a public park built on a former elevated railroad line, as part of our journey back uptown.

You can see Shirley’s drawings here and Pat’s here. Shirley’s figure drawings show such sensitivity for the human form and Pat’s work is strong and unique. She draws on an iPad using a digital tool meant for drawing and filling shapes, not making lines. It seems extra challenging to me, but gives her line work a really dynamic look.

One funny thing about Pat who I only knew through our blogs…I didn’t realize until I saw her gentle face that I had pictured her looking the way she draws people, with thick, edgy, sharp, black outlines!

To be continued….

Categories
Ink and watercolor wash Life in general People Sketchbook Pages

New York City Trip Part 1: Three planes for the price of one

OAK to NYC-Flight In, ink and watercolor , 7.5 x 11" spread
OAK to NYC-Flight In, ink and watercolor , 7.5 x 11″ spread

I’m back from New York, happy to be home but a little sad to leave New York behind, and even sadder to have the sniffles, thanks to all the sneezing, coughing people on my planes. Next time I fly I’m wearing a mask. The flight to New York on Southwest was the only bummer part of the trip.

Seat Back Tray Still Life, ink and watercolor
Seat Back Tray Still Life, ink and watercolor

My flight was supposed to have a quick stop in Chicago but no plane change. I sketched my instant coffee (in a tea bag!) and swizzle stick on my seat-back tray (above). Later I added people waiting in the airport to the page.

Chopped salad with swizzle stick chop stick
Chopped salad with swizzle stick chop stick

(The swizzle stick came in handy when I went to eat the chopped vege and chicken salad I’d brought and discovered that Southwest has no silverware on board. The flight attendant suggested using two swizzle sticks like chopsticks. That’s one way to eat more slowly!)

So there we sit on the Chicago runway with doors closed….and wait…and wait. The woman sitting next to me is sneezing and coughing. I ask her if she’s contagious and she says no, she’s been sick for days already (ugh). I was about to change seats when they announce there’s a problem with the plane and we have to return to the terminal while they find us another plane. 

Waiting at Chicago Airport, ink and watercolor 5.5 x 7.5"
Waiting at Chicago Airport, ink and watercolor 5.5 x 7.5″\

Trying to be positive, I figure that’s better than flying with a bad plane, and now I have more time to draw. An elegant young man in a gray-green suit with his hair in a top knot played beautiful music on a lute while I sketched him and a Hasidic young father with his big hat and side curls.

Finally Southwest instructed us to walk to the other end of the terminal to board our new plane. We hustled across the terminal, lined up, slowly boarded and crammed luggage in the overhead bins again. And then waited. Again.

Southwest is known for being funny so I thought it was a joke when the flight attendant announced she was really sorry, but this plane also had a problem and we had to get off again and return to the terminal. But it wasn’t a joke.

Back in the airport they said they would find another plane and bring it to us. Twenty minutes later they told us to walk back to our original gate at the other end of the terminal to board what was hopefully a different plane (or the original plane, now fixed?). It was 10:00 PM, the time we were supposed to be arriving in New York.

That plane flew! Yay! I took a taxi from the dark, mostly closed Newark airport and arrived at the Upper West Side apartment I rented via AirBnB after 1:00 a.m. and went right to sleep.

(To be continued.)

Categories
Art supplies Bookbinding Ink and watercolor wash Sketchbook Pages Still Life

Off to New York: New Sea Monkey Journal and New Stuff

New Makeup for New York, ink and watercolor, 7.5" x 11" spread
New Makeup for New York, ink and watercolor, 7.5″ x 11″ spread

I’m off to New York City for a fun week of art adventures. I’ll be sketching and visiting art museums with New York art bloggers Shirley, Pat and Carol and the New York City Urban Sketchers. Berkeley artist friend Micaela will be joining me in NY on Friday for a 3-day slumber party and sketching marathon before she takes off to Europe.

As I was preparing for the trip I had fun doing a little shopping when I realized my clothes and makeup were long overdue for a refresh. Above is a sketch of my pretty new cosmetics. If I have time in the morning before I leave (unlikely) I’ll sketch my clothes before I pack them.

I finally bound my own journal again and am thrilled to have exactly the paper, size and format I like. What a treat to paint on real watercolor paper! As always happens as I’m binding a journal, it named itself: “Sea Monkey.”

Sea Monkey Journal Cover, 8x6"
Sea Monkey Journal Cover, 8×6″

I Googled what sea monkeys really look like but they were too creepy so I drew a sort of monkey face on a sea-horse body. Then I decorated it with gold and pink pens and drips from a white paint pen (accidental, but liked it so kept going).

As you can see, I don’t take my journals too seriously. It helps to mess them up (journal abuse I call it) right away so they don’t feel precious. An imperfect journal gives me the freedom to sketch playfully (and imperfectly). This one has a major flaw: the text block slipped when I was casing it in and there’s a big wrinkle in the lavender end papers. Oh goodie!

Categories
Building Ink and watercolor wash Sketchbook Pages

Toot’s Saloon, Crockett

Toot's Bar, Crockett, Close Up, Ink/watercolor, 8x5"
Toot’s Bar, Crockett, Close Up, Ink/watercolor, 8×5″

I struggled sketching the building containing this rundown bar on site (below) in downtown Crockett. The many bay windows were especially challenging. Despite my love for detail, I realized I needed to crop my view. So later I worked from a photo and did the better sketch above. I actually liked the version below before I added watercolor to the ink drawing.

Toot's Bar in Crocket - Second Try , ink/watercolor, 5x8"
Toot’s Bar in Crockett; ink/watercolor, 5×8″

And below, another sketch where I struggled: first to find something to draw in the short time remaining after a plein air watercolor demo at St. Mary’s College. Then I struggled with using another artist’s watercolor palette that had way too many colors. I couldn’t tell which colors were which and ended up with a lot of mud. 

St. Mary's College Student Union Detail, ink & watercolor, 5x8"
St. Mary’s College Student Union Detail, ink & watercolor, 5×8″

Since I always seem to get behind on posting I’m tempted to just post my best work and keep the funky ones to myself. But my journal is the record of my journey and each sketch is a stop along the way.

Categories
Berkeley Building Ink and watercolor wash Sketchbook Pages Urban Sketchers

Elmwood Theater, Berkeley

Elmwood Theater, Ink & Watercolor, 8x5"
Elmwood Theater, Ink & Watercolor, 8×5″

The Elmwood Theater was originally named The Strand and was built in 1914 in an Art Nouveau architectural style. Admission was ten cents for adults and five cents for kids. It closed in 1941 and reopened as the Elmwood in 1947 with a new “zigzag Moderne” decor.

All the zigzags and neon made for a fun drawing challenge. I sat on my stool on College Avenue, sheltered from the wind in the doorway of a shop closed for the evening, while people went in and out of the Korean restaurant next door carrying their fragrant food to go.

Halfway through the drawing a man climbed up a ladder and started changing the movie titles. I considered including him in the sketch but couldn’t figure out a way to make it work. By the time I finished drawing it was time to meet up so I added color at home. My favorite part of the sketch is the pigeons.

Categories
Ink and watercolor wash Landscape Places Sketchbook Pages

Santa Cruz Retreat and Surfers

Santa Cruz Beach from Bluff, in & watercolor, 5x7"
Santa Cruz Beach from Bluff, in & watercolor, 5×7″

I attended a weekend retreat in Santa Cruz, held in a remodeled former convent still operated by nuns. I stayed there once before in the 90s, when it was still an operating convent. Then I had a tiny room with a single bed, a cross on the wall and a bathroom down the hall. This time I had my own bath and a nice big bed and the nuns were wearing Bermuda shorts, t-shirts and flip-flops.

Santa Cruz Wetsuits, ink & watercolor, 5x7"
Santa Cruz Wetsuits, ink & watercolor, 5×7″

The retreat center is located on a bluff above the ocean, with stairs leading down to the beach. The weather was sunny but windy. The ocean is cold in Northern California so surfers always wear wetsuits. They’re not easy to put on so the guys in the sketch helped each other get into them. When I went through scuba certification many years ago, the hardest part of the whole program was getting into the darn wetsuits.

Categories
Emeryville Ink and watercolor wash Landscape Places Sketchbook Pages

Closed and Open: New and Old Bay Bridges

New and Old Bay Bridges, ink & watercolor, 5x8"
New and Old Bay Bridges, ink & watercolor, 5×8″

They closed down the old Bay Bridge over the long Labor Day weekend to disconnect it and open the new Bay Bridge that took twenty years to plan and build. After breakfast in Emeryville on Monday morning, we walked to Ikea, which is near the start of the bridge, and climbed up to their rooftop parking structure to get a look at the two bridges, which were both still closed.

It’s kind of weird seeing them piggy-backed together like that. We could see where the old bridge had been cut off and barricaded which brought back memories of the big earthquake in 1989 that broke the bridge, leaving a car dangling. I was home sick with the flu when that happened, and remember lying in bed feverish, watching the video of the bridge breaking, the car sliding off, over and over.

The new bridge opened to traffic Monday evening. On Tuesday they opened the bike and pedestrian lanes. You can only walk from the East Bay side to the central tower now, since they have to tear down the old bridge before they can complete the bike/pedestrian lanes all the way to San Francisco.

I’m plan to walk the 5-mile round trip soon, and sketch from the bridge. For this one I had to work from a photo because my breakfast buddy didn’t want to wait while I sketched, especially since we still had a long walk back to our car at the Doyle Street Cafe.

Categories
Berkeley Building Drawing Ink and watercolor wash Life in general Sketchbook Pages Urban Sketchers

Seeing Is Believing or Drawing Is Seeing? Zach’s Snacks on Berkeley’s North Side

Zach's Snacks on Berkeley's Northside, ink & watercolor sketch, 5x7"
Zach’s Snacks on Berkeley’s North Side, ink & watercolor, 5×7″

They say, “Seeing is believing.” I say, “Going through life without drawing is like being nearly blind. Only when I stop to look in order to draw, do I really see!”

Berkeley’s Euclid Avenue ends at the north side of University of California’s Berkeley campus (the greenery on the right, above). This block has everything you’d expect for a street abutting a college: shops with pizza, beer, coffee, burgers, snacks, and oh yeah, books.

There is some great architecture in this neighborhood too, including this apartment building with a snack shop tucked away in a little basement room. I’ve probably walked past here a hundred times and never noticed the interesting features of this building, with porches, pillars, carved wood decorations, fancy brickwork, and cool old lanterns.

Only when I stopped to draw and started really looking did I see what was there all along.

Categories
Building Ink and watercolor wash Life in general Shop windows Sketchbook Pages Urban Sketchers Watercolor

Happy Face? Donuts?

Dream Fluff Donuts, ink and watercolor, 5x7.5"
Dream Fluff Donuts, ink and watercolor, 5×7.5″

Do you have a happy face right this moment? I didn’t until I received a blog comment/email from a German blogger whose email and blog name is happyface313. It made me wonder what it would be like to be that committed to a happy outlook.

She inspired me to lose the grumpyface I’ve had the past few days while working on helping a loved one with difficult challenges, and to try out being Ms. HappyFace instead. I put on a smile, made the mental shift from grumpy to grateful, and surprise! It worked!

Happy Donuts, watercolor painting (sold)
Happy Donuts, watercolor painting, 15×22″ (sold)

What does all that have to do with donuts? Well, “Happy Face” made me think of Happy Donuts and my old painting of their shop (above), which reminded me I needed to post my recent sketch of Dream Fluff Donuts (at top). And donuts used to be my shortcut to happiness but I stay far away from those deep-fried, greasy sugar bombs now.