Category: Watercolor

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Block Printing Every Day Matters Watercolor

Lantern again (EDM 95) on frustrating day

New Years Lantern

Block print, printing ink & watercolor, 5×4″
(To enlarge click image, select “All Sizes”)

This week’s Everyday Matters challenge was to make a holiday card image. I thought a lantern glowing in the dark would be a good image for my cards this year. I’d carved and printed a linoleum block a few weeks ago and the ink was finally dry enough to paint with watercolor so tonight I painted three of the prints, trying to find the right combination of colors. I think this is the one.

I actually send New Years cards, not Christmas cards, since I started opting out of the winter shopping holidays over 10 years ago and celebrating the new year is more meaningful to me. Though it sometimes feels a little odd to be so out of step with the rest of the known world, it works for me, and allows me to enjoy the season without the stress.

I had such high hopes for painting and making monoprints today, but even though I got up at 6:30 it just didn’t happen. The morning flew by and then I had to go out to get framing supplies. I needed the Blick store people to cut the giganto foam core board down to size. First there were math challenges figuring out how to cut the 10 pieces I needed from the various sizes of foamcore board, then there was problems with their cutter, a missing screwdriver to change the blade, various incompetencies, long lines, etc. Two hours later, with lots of extra free foamcore board that they cut wrong and had to redo but gave me anyway, I headed to the hardware store for glass. The glass was dirty and hard to clean but finally, the framing that had to be done today was finished. Then it was time for dinner and poof the day was gone.

At least I got to noodle around adding color to the lantern. I have the afternoon tomorrow to paint and I will!

Categories
Sketchbook Pages Still Life Watercolor

Blue Thrift Shop Bottle

Little blue thrift shop bottle

Kremer Pigments watercolors in large Moleskine watercolor notebook
(To enlarge, click images, select All Sizes)

Bottle value sketch

Quick value sketch before painting

I wanted to play with monotypes tonight but was too tired after working all day so decided to do a small watercolor sketch instead. I don’t know what this bottle held originally–nothing fancy, I’m sure. But I just love it’s proud stance, and hands-on-hips attitude. I found it at Thrift Town, a sort of thrift shop department store where I’d gone looking for a used doctor’s lab coat to wear while painting in oils to protect my clothes. They didn’t have any lab coats even though they said they did on the phone. Instead I found a soft denim old lady’s house coat in the bathrobe department which works perfectly and looks more like a traditional painter’s smock.

I used Kremer pigment watercolors for this painting even though I knew they weren’t quite the right choice. My regular Winsor Newton cobalt and ultramarine blues would have been more appropriately transparent and glowing, but I went with the more opaque and sedimentary (or is it flocculating?) Kremer pigments, just to see what would happen. They’re fun to work with and after several layers of glazes, gave the background an interesting texture. The Moleskine paper was pooping out though, starting to pill and dissolve so it was time to stop messing around and go to bed.

Categories
Animals Plein Air Sketchbook Pages Watercolor

At the Dog Park

Watercolor and Micron Pigma Brush Pen in Raffine 6″x9″ Sketchbook

Yesterday I’d planned to spend the day in the studio but it was such a surprisingly nice day that I decided to go sketch at the dog park which is only about a mile from my house. Pt. Isabelle is a 23 acre park where dogs are allowed off leash and can run, swim and play. It’s on the S. F. Bay with stunning views of the Golden Gate Bridge. I sat on a bench along the path and watched the passing parade of canines and their owners. One very large dog turned out to be a miniature horse, the size of a Great Dane, and she caused quite a stir. I overheard her owner telling the gathering crowd that they take her places in their mini-van and that she sleeps outdoors but comes in the house and hangs out with the family. That brought back fond memories of my favorite childhood book, Pippi Longstocking, whose horse lived with her indoors.

Every dog that passed by took a turn peeing on the post beside my bench but none would hold still long enough for me to draw them. I filled several pages with partial dogs and then switched to doggie stick figures, just trying to capture their gestures and shapes. It was a hoot eavesdropping on the conversations I heard with owners and their dogs: “Now, Isis, I told you not to do that…stop it now Isis or else you’ll be sorry when you get home, Isis, stay, no, stay, I told you to stay….” It reminded me of the Far Side cartoon that goes:

What you say: Oh Ginger, that was a bad thing. You’re a bad, bad dog, Ginger.
What a dog hears: Blah Ginger, blah blah blah. Blah blah blah blah, Ginger.

After I’d finished the second picture it got really windy and foggy so I headed home, happy to be in the studio having enjoyed what may have been the last nice day before winter hit. Today it rained all day.

Categories
Every Day Matters Sketchbook Pages Still Life Watercolor

Spoons: EDM #94

Spoon - EDM 94

Watercolor, Noodlers Ink, and a dab of ProWhite in 9×12″ Aquabee Sketchbook
(To enlarge, click image, select “All Sizes“)

This week’s Everyday Matters challenge is “Spoon.” The large pink-handled cooking spoon and the tablespoon with the dull black plastic handle are the last remaining implements from my mother’s early 1960s kitchen complete with built in pink electric oven and stove. When half the pink handle broke off the big spoon I was sad, but it actually created a handy edge for propping it in pots. I use the black-handled tablespoon for everything I eat with a spoon. I love the way the handle feels in my hand and the way it holds just the right amount of cereal and milk. The slotted spoon is a good sturdy tool that’s always handy for serving veges.

The big wirey spoon is great for draining and lifting out a whole potful of raviolis like I did tonight. I used to use a special plastic pasta tool, part spoon and part fork, for that purpose but it now serves a different purpose. I slip it horizontally between the two handles of kitchen cabinet doors to keep the cats out of the trash. I’d first tried to install baby safety locks on that cabinet, but the instructions were impossible and I’m hopeless when it comes to measuring. I always end up skipping the ruler and trying to eyeball things, which never works. I got the little plastic hooky thingy in the wrong place, and then stripped the screw when trying to remove it, so now it is a permanent feature of my cabinet door, hanging there limply to remind me of my failure.

Anyway, these are all good sturdy tools that may be homely but they do their jobs well!

Categories
Sketchbook Pages Watercolor

ATM in the dark

ATM at night

Click here to enlarge
Ink & Watercolor in Hand Book Co. 5.5 x 5.5″ Journal

I noticed this Mechanics Bank ATM glowing in the dark on a side street off San Pablo Avenue in Albany (CA). I turned down the street, hoping to find a spot to park and paint it. There was a woman sitting in a car in the perfect parking spot across the street so I pulled in behind her, assuming she was waiting for someone. Finally a guy arrived with a box of pizza and got in the car. After another five minutes waiting for them to each eat a slice they finally strapped in and drove away. I pulled up and started painting. The light was horrible in my car so I just mixed colors by guesswork and put them down. (I’ve now solved this problem I think–I bought a strap-on LED headlight at REI tonight that tilts and will light up my paper and palette.)

I was half done with when two young women parked right in front of the ATM, got out of their car, and headed to the liquor store behind me. I got out of my car too, and approached them saying, “Excuse me…I know this will sound strange but I’m painting a picture of that (pointing to ATM) and your car is blocking my view. Would you mind moving it across the street?” They didn’t seem at all amused or confused by my request. They just said they’d only be a minute and went into the liquor store. They appeared to be on a serious mission, probably for cigarettes, and they did return shortly and moved their car.

I thought I’d finished the little sketch but when I got home I could see that the walls of the bank were way too light so I added darker paint to the walls.

Categories
Animals Watercolor

Armadillo

Armadillo

Pentel Pocket brush pen ink and watercolor on Arches watercolor paper 11×7 inches
(To enlarge, click image, select All Sizes)

The armadillo photo I used as a reference was prominently featured in a PC Magazine ad for a laptop computer. The ad said the computer has “Shock Absorbing Design, Hard Disk Drive Protection and a Spill-Resistant Keyboard, all of which better protect you from the hazards of mobile computing.” From my memories of all the squashed armadillos on the roads the last time I drove across Texas, I didn’t get the impression they were all that protected from the hazards of mobility! It’s been a long time since I drove across the U.S., which I’ve done several times. Maybe now that coast to coast it’s all one long walled-in highway lined with the same fast-food chains and big box stores, you don’t see the variety of squished critters from state to state anymore. I guess that’s one good thing about the interstates.

I drew the armadillo with my Pentel Pocket Brush Pen on a piece of watercolor paper I’d previously prepared for another project with wet-in-wet washes of Permanent Rose, Lemon Yellow and Cobalt Blue. I didn’t end up doing the other project so decided to draw on it tonight. I thought I’d done a decent job with the drawing until I set the painting and drawing side by side and saw that I’d elongated his body by an extra third. I’ll be using this image again in a monoprint project so I’ll get another chance to get the proportions right.

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Still Life Watercolor

Kiwis

Kiwis

Drawn first with Lamy Safari pen and Noodlers Ink then
Watercolor in 5.5″ square Hand Book Co. journal
To enlarge, click image, select “All Sizes”

I was too sleepy tonight to get back to my oil painting, so I decided to do a little watercolor of these kiwis who have been waiting patiently for me to paint them. I was pleasantly surprised how well the Hand+Book Co. journal stood up to lifting out paint with a wet brush. It’s just as nice a book as the Moleskine but the paper seems a little sturdier and the square format is fun. The notebooks have more pages than the Moleskines so they’re thicker and heavier to cart around. I guess it’s like diet food–you pay more to get less. Go figure.

I always think of these little Pyrex custard cups as “Grandma’s” because even though they came from Bed Bath and Beyond, they always remind me of the ones she handed me, filled with pudding or ice cream.

I’ve heard the best way to eat kiwis is the scoop them out with a spoon…so I’m off to give that a try.

Categories
Outdoors/Landscape Plein Air Sketchbook Pages Watercolor

Painting Palms in the Dark

Painting Palms in the Dark

Ink and watercolor in large Moleskine watercolor notebook
(To enlarge, click image and select “All Sizes”)

The other night Michael and I were driving down Santa Fe Ave near Gilman in Berkeley and he pointed out these two palm trees that were lit up and glowing in the dark. Tonight I returned to paint them in the dark from the front seat of my car. I couldn’t exactly see what I was doing or what colors I was getting. The light in my car was fairly dim and my paper looked brownish instead of white. I was excited to get home and see it under the light, where it looks completely different. I’m really starting to enjoy letting things just happen with my art instead of trying to control it so much. That’s a wall  covered with ivy in front of some small trees in front of the palms, in case you can’t tell.

I’ve been noticing palm trees lately and wondering….why do they exist? Why did they evolve to be so tall and skinny, with the leaves/fronds and fruit up so high up?

Categories
Still Life Watercolor

Persimmon in Spoon Holder

Persimmon

Ink & Watercolor in Large Moleskine Watercolor Notebook
(To enlarge, click image, select “All Sizes”)

It felt like time to get back to some color tonight and this persimmon was a willing victim for a quick little study.

I stopped at the art store on the way home from work tonight and ended up spending too long (and too much money), gathering oil painting supplies and learning from a knowledgeable employee about improvements in oil painting materials since I last used them 20 years ago, and how to work with the new safer mediums and solvents–no more turpentine. I remember being in an oil painting class at SF City College in a room without special ventilation, with 30 students all having open containers of turpentine and paint thinner. By the end of class I’d feel like I was drunk–just one of the many reasons I seem to have so few functioning brain cells these days, I’m sure!

It felt weird buying white paint, since in watercolor one tries to save the white of the paper for areas that are to remain white. With oils you can add a highlight or a light area at the end of the painting, which rarely is successful with watercolor, unless you don’t mind opaque paint on top of a transparent watercolor.

My plan is to try to use the oils like watercolors, glazing in layers. I’m certainly not planning to give up watercolor, but every now and then there’s something I’m painting that seems to want to be more opaque and have greater depth.

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Other Art Blogs I Read Plants Sketchbook Pages Watercolor

Just a Value Sketch (Persimmon)

Persimon-value sketch

Above: Watercolor in Raffine sketchbook

Below: Original photo and grayscale version
Persimmon photo persimmon-grayscale

(Click images to enlarge, select “All Sizes”)

I was inspired to focus on value studies by Katherine Tyrrell’s post about “the best ever workshop” she attended and her instructor’s “constant and particular emphasis on the huge importance of values when painting light.” For tomorrow’s watercolor class I’m going to ask my students to do some value studies and wanted to have one prepared in advance so that’s what my post is about today.

Value studies can be so helpful not just for figuring out the values that actually exist in the reference material, but also for deciding how to change the image before painting it. It gives you a chance to consider where values need to be different to help the composition and for that matter, how does the composition need to change to be more successful?

It seemed to me that my original photo, while bright and colorful didn’t have much of a range of values so I tried to increase the contrast by adding stronger darks when I did the value study. Then I converted the original photo to grayscale to compare to my 0ainted version. I think somewhere in between the two might be best. I scanned the pencil drawing before painting it, so it will be easy to print it again and paint it again, if I decide to.
I’ve found that students usually grumble about having to do value studies–it seems too much like eating enough fiber or flossing teeth. I guess value studies just don’t seem that sexy (I hate it when people use the word sexy to describe things having nothing to do with sex like cellphones, cars, and now painting…but somehow that word works here…though now I’ve probably now increased my spam by using it…) in the way bright wet-in-wet washes or painting glass or thunderclouds are. But there’s nothing that captures light in a painting more than really nailing the values and getting those darks and lights in there.

I took this picture today when I was taking a nice walk in the Berkeley hills with my sister just after it had rained. It was supposed to rain all day today and I was all set for a cozy day at home in the rain but instead it was hot and sunny….in November?