Category: Painting

Categories
Art supplies Bookbinding Drawing Faces Flower Art Ink and watercolor wash Painting People Self Portrait Sketchbook Pages

End of Sketchbook Self-Portrait with Birthday Flowers

Birthday Flowers Self Portrait, ink & watercolor, 7x5"
Birthday Flowers Self Portrait, ink & watercolor, 7x5"

To put the finishing touches on a completed journal, I make a self-portrait for the last page. Since it was also my birthday, I wanted to incorporate my birthday flowers in the painting. So I hung a mirror with a yellow clip  from one of my swing-arm lamps on my drawing table and put the vase of sunflowers between me and the mirror and then drew what I could see in front of me: the flowers in front of the mirror, with me and the flowers reflected in the mirror.

As usual for my end-of-journal self-portraits, I wasn’t willing to measure or try to draw and place features accurately but I think I did capture the feeling of me or the me as I was feeling.

In the next post I’ll show you my new journal and another idea I tried out for sketchbooking minus the sketchbook.

 

Categories
Drawing Food sketch Ink and watercolor wash Painting Sketchbook Pages Still Life

Red, White and Blueberries

Red, White and Blueberries, ink & watercolor, 7x5"
Red, White and Blueberries, ink & watercolor, 7x5"

Happy 4th of July, whether it’s Independence Day where you are not. Why not make every day Independence Day and claim your right to freedom from whatever holds you back?

Today I chose the freedom of sketching blueberries in my sketchbook instead of struggling with other “work” I’ve been doing in the studio. I’m also trying to claim independence from the “shoulds” that are telling me I should be at a barbeque, roasting wieners, drinking beer, and waving flags.

It looks like the Bay Area will at last have a non-foggy 4th and if so I’ll be heading up to Albany Hill to watch the fireworks around the Bay Area. And now I declare independence from my computer!

Categories
Building Drawing Flower Art Ink and watercolor wash Outdoors/Landscape Painting Places Sketchbook Pages Urban Sketchers

Sketching Ikuko’s Garden

Ikuko's Garden, ink & watercolor, 7x5"
Ikuko's Garden, ink & watercolor, 7x5"

My friend Ikuko invited our Tuesday night sketching group to sketch in her lovely and lovingly tended garden. I picked a spot that was still in the last bit of sun and sat in a lawn chair to sketch and relax. For a change I tried to just be loose and free and it was really fun.

Ikuko's at Sunset, ink & watercolor, 7x5"
Ikuko's at Sunset, ink & watercolor, 7x5"

I was interested in all of the odd contraptions on top of her fireplace and the glowing light of the sunset on the bricks and the windows. I managed to fit almost everything I wanted on the page (with a little rearranging from real life; the mail box was below the frame but I liked it so stuck it in.) I was a little annoyed when I finished the sketch that I’d “messed up” the house numbers (the 2 is too big) but a week later, who cares!

Categories
Art supplies Lighting Oil Painting Painting Still Life Studio

Meyer Lemons Bowled and New Adjustable Still Life Table

Meyer Lemons Bowled, oil on linen, 8x8"
Meyer Lemons Bowled, oil on linen panel, 8x8"

These lemons came from my little Meyer Lemon tree which produces the sweetest, plumpest lemons. I planted the tree from a small pot about 5 years ago and now it’s as tall as me. I really like the Centurion Oil Primed Linen Panel I painted this on, except that it takes much longer for the paint to dry than when painting on Gessobord because it doesn’t sink in to the oil priming.

Still life table beside easel
A= Still life table beside easel

I set up the bowl of lemons on my new rolling, adjustable (from 28″ to 45″ high) still life stand, also known as an Over the Bed Table on Amazon where I got it with free shipping (good thing because it’s not light). Since I was taking a picture of it I thought I’d also describe the other items in the photo since I’m so happy with my painting set up.

A = Rolling, adjustable height Still life stand/Over the Bed Table

B = Karen Jurick’s “Alter Easel” which I love for holding thin panels instead of trying to balance them between the narrow supports on my easel. Works great!

C = Daylight Studio Lamp for lighting the still life (not visible is the Daylight Artists Easel Lamp that is attached to the top of my easel to light the painting (that I was given for free by the company and liked so much I bought the standing light).

D = A silly maul stick (just the top shows) that doesn’t work very well. I’ve seen people using canes instead, hooked over the top of the painting to provide support for your hand when painting details.

E = Masterson Artist Palette Seal with a lid that seals like Tupperware and with a pad of palette paper inside (the palette paper is a recent discovery that I LOVE because it saves so much time from having to clean the palette.) I keep the palette in my freezer when I have paint left over. Once thawed (in a few minutes) it’s in perfect condition for the next painting session. The palette is on top of an upside down plastic drawer from a defunct rolling cart to raise it up high enough for me to use without bending over (I’m 5’10”).

Not lettered but in the picture is the beautiful silk sari fabric my friend Barbara gave me for my birthday for just this purpose and the ancient microwave cart that holds my palette and supplies. Not shown is the rolling plastic taboret I’ve had for 20 years that holds my brushes and other stuff.

OK, I know I’m a gadget girl and many of these things are not necessary. But I feel like painting (and life) are hard enough, why not have great tools to make it easier? There are lots more pictures of my studio under the category “Studio.”

Categories
Drawing Ink and watercolor wash Life in general Outdoors/Landscape Plants Sketchbook Pages

Baby Fig Tree Grows Three Leaves

Baby Fig Tree Grows Three Leaves, ink & watercolor, 7x5"
Baby Fig Tree Grows Three Leaves, ink & watercolor, 7x5"

You might remember seeing my previous sketch of my baby fig tree here when it was just a little stick. Now it has three leaves. Yay! It was fun to sit on the sidewalk in front of my house and sketch (except for the occasional ant that tried to annoy me). That reminded me of being a little kid sitting on the sidewalk playing jacks for hours. I used to be pretty good at it. I wonder if anyone still plays jacks and if they’re still made out of metal.

Categories
Berkeley Ink and watercolor wash Landscape Life in general Outdoors/Landscape Places Sketchbook Pages

A Tree Saved and How to Decide (Hell Yeah! or Why Not?)

Berkeley Rose Garden Tree, ink & watercolor, 7x5"
Berkeley Rose Garden Tree, ink & watercolor, 7x5"

Trying to sketch while recovering from a migraine and dopey from medication doesn’t always work out well. While everyone else in my plein air group painted the Berkeley Rose Garden on a sunny Saturday morning, I sat on a nearby bench and focused on drawing one tree.

I liked how it looked until I added watercolor, which I thought ruined the effect. So I stupidly added more watercolor. And more. And a bunch of lines. And then I went home and took a nap. Today I washed off as much of the paint as I could, trying to get back to the original line drawing. Then I added some muted blue and grey washes and now I like it again. Tree saved! It was actually a sunny day, just not in my head.

And now for some interesting tidbits on making choices:

Hell Yeah!
On Derek Silver’s blog he explains that as a perpetually over-committed person, if he’s not enthusiastically saying “HELL YEAH!” about something, then he’s saying “NO.”

When deciding whether to commit to something, if I feel anything less than, “Wow! That would be amazing! Absolutely! Hell yeah!” – then my answer is no.

Why the Hell Not?
Sid Salvera counters “Hell Yeah!” with the flip side on his post: Why the Hell Not? He asks:

Does this philosophy lead us to pass up opportunities we really should be saying “yes” to?

The most important thing I’ve learned about making choices is that if the word “SHOULD” appears in my decision-making thoughts (I should do that…) I need to swap it with “want to” or “don’t want to.”

Do you find it easy to make decisions? Do you get stuck in the “shoulds,” or say yes to things you don’t really want to do?

Categories
Bay Area Parks Drawing Ink and watercolor wash Landscape Other Art Blogs I Read Outdoors/Landscape Painting People Places Sketchbook Pages Urban Sketchers

Golden Gate Park with Laurelines and JanasJournal

Conservatory of Flowers, Golden Gate Park, ink & watercolor, 5x7"
Conservatory of Flowers, Golden Gate Park, ink & watercolor, 5x7"

When Laura Frankstone of Laurelines was in San Francisco for a long weekend I had the great pleasure of joining her for an afternoon of sketching in Golden Gate Park. Laura and I had corresponded and participated together in many art blogging activities since 2006, but this was the first time we met in person. She is a brilliant artist, a delightful person and great fun to sketch with.

Below are our sketches of the Conservatory. I added watercolor to mine (above) in the studio later since it was windy, foggy and cold sitting on the grass and so were ready to go explore the (way too hot) conservatory.

Laura's on left, Jana's on right
Laura's on left, Jana's on right (click to enlarge)
Photo of the Conservatory with my sketch
Photo of the Conservatory with my sketch

After getting all steamy inside the Conservatory of Flowers’ jungle-like atmosphere, and touring the Wicked Plants exhibit, we came back out to sketch people on the lawn.

Girls Picnic in Golden Gate Park, ink & watercolor, 7x5"
Girls Picnic in Golden Gate Park, ink & watercolor, 7x5"

We agreed to paint these later too, since time was short and we wanted to keep moving. Below are our two sketches.

Girls in the Park; Laura's above, Jana's below
Girls in the Park; Laura's above, Jana's below

If you click the image above to enlarge it you can see how Laura even captured the girl on the left’s cheek bulging with her snack.

Our last stop was the Tea House in the Japanese Tea Garden. The garden is an absolutely beautiful place with incredible plantings, sculptures, buildings, ponds, trees, moon bridges and more. I wanted to live there.

View from Teahouse in Japanese Tea Garden, ink & watercolor, 5x7"
View from Teahouse in Japanese Tea Garden, ink & watercolor, 5x7"

While our tea was the most delicious jasmine tea we’ve ever had, our experience was not exactly the “meditative cup of tea overlooking the peaceful waters of the garden” because men were doing construction and running a small but loud and smelly bulldozer back and forth on the path behind what I sketched above. The combination of noise and exhaust were less than ideal but unlike me, Laura didn’t complain once.

Moments after we sat down in the Teahouse another woman sat down beside us and pulled out a sketchbook (before we had ours out). She was an art history student visiting from Boston and we all sketched happily together. The waitresses kept coming over to praise our drawings. I said, “You must see people sketching here all the time.” She said no, we were the first she’d seen.

Categories
Art theory Daily Paintworks Challenge Drawing Food sketch Ink and watercolor wash Oil Painting Painting Sketchbook Pages Watercolor

Stacked! (Stacking the Odds in Your Favor)

Stacked, painting of apples and lemon stacked a top each other, oil on Gessobord, 10x8"
"Stacked!" oil on Gessobord, 10x8"

One way to the stack the odds in your favor with most endeavors is to rehearse. So before I attempted the oil painting above, I did a little thumbnail sketch, a full-sized value sketch, and a watercolor sketch (below). I also took photos just in case the paperclips and scotch tape holding it all together failed (but they didn’t–the stack is still standing!)

Stacked, ink & watercolor, 7x5"
Stacked, ink & watercolor, 7x5"

I did the watercolor sketch first with the fruit sitting on my drawing table and the grey studio wall as the background. I love ink & watercolor. So immediate and so fun!

Stacked, value study with Prismacolor cool grey markers, 10x8"
Stacked, value study with Prismacolor cool grey markers, 10x8"

Then I set up the fruit stack by my easel and did this value and compositional sketch. I wanted the sketch to be the same size as the painting so I used the Gessobord as a template, tracing around it on the sketching paper. Once I had the drawing the way I wanted it, I used Prismacolor cool grey markers (30%, 50% 80%) to shade the values. It was easy to transfer the full-sized sketch to the Gessobord with a sheet of blue Saral Transfer Paper between the sketch and the board, then drawing over the sketch with a stylus.

I revised the background by hanging a dark gold/green cloth hung behind the still life hiding the gray wall.  Now I’m wondering whether to repaint the leaves. What do you think? Is it better to leave them kind of soft and blurry so they don’t attract too much attention. Did you notice them before I asked the question?

(Painting available here)

Categories
Berkeley Building Drawing Ink and watercolor wash Interiors Landscape Painting People Places Sketchbook Pages Urban Sketchers

Sketching Oscars Burgers, Berkeley

Oscars Burgers at Sunset, Berkeley, ink & watercolor
Oscars Burgers at Sunset, Berkeley, ink & watercolor

Now that it stays light later we can finally go outdoors for our Tuesday night Urban Sketching sessions. We met at the corner of Shattuck and Hearst in Berkeley and I sketched Oscars Charbroiler from across the street. They’ve been grilling burgers, hot dogs (and now vege burgers) over fire on that corner since 1950. It was sunset by the time I painted it, hence the pink sky.

Eating French Fries and Watching NBA Playoffs
Eating French Fries and Watching NBA Playoffs

When we went inside for one more sketch. There was a big screen TV on the wall tuned to sports. It was the end of an NBA playoff game and people were watching while stuffing their faces with burgers and fries like this guy who never looked at his food, just shoveled in the fries while watching the game.

Another guy came by and complemented our drawings and asked if we came there every week to sketch. Uh, no…maybe once a decade? Though I have to admit I’d skipped dinner, got hungry, and ate one of their burgers. It was good.

Categories
Art supplies Art theory Drawing Food sketch Ink and watercolor wash Oil Painting Painting Sketchbook Pages Still Life

Learning Leaning Apples on Grannie’s Linen

"Leaning Learning Apples", oil on linen, 8x8"
"Learning Leaning Apples", oil painting on linen panel, 8x8"

I’m happier with this painting of apples on a linen tablecloth embroidered by my grandmother. After the mighty fail of my cringe-worthy zombie apple painting, I got really curious. What was I missing? Clearly my drawing hadn’t been careful enough, per my friend Michael’s appraisal of the painting: “Uh, what is it?” And I know it was way overworked.

So before trying to paint these apples again I sat down with my sketchbook, an apple and my Lamy Safari pen. (The note below about Cathy’s special pen was just me grabbing any old page in the sketchbook to try out her strange new pen when she handed it to me.)

Study for "Leaning and Learning Apples," ink & watercolor
Study for "Leaning Learning Apples," ink & watercolor

I sketched one very dark purple delicious apple over and over in ink, trying to understand what I was seeing, where the planes changed, where the darks and lights were, trying not to get tricked by the reflections. That gave me a little more courage to try to paint the apples again in oil.

The painting at the top of the post was the result. This was a new painting surface for me: oil-primed linen on panel, surprisingly inexpensive (for linen), on sale at Jerrys Artarama. It was quite lovely to paint on. It was slippier than I was used to; the Ampersand Gessobord panels I usually use kind of “bite” the paint right off the brush and the oil primed linen allows it glide.

This painting is available on my DailyPaintworks gallery.