Dancing Nude at the Office Party, Ink & watercolor, Moleskine sketchbook, 5x7"
I dreamed that I was at an office party where dancing was to be done nude. I was having fun, and surprised that I wasn\’t the most embarassed person there. There was a woman who was so self conscious she\’d wrapped herself in a gauzy fabric trying to (unsuccessfully) hide beneath it. The dream was fun but it was even more fun to draw it and just see who appeared beneath my pencil.
I usually like to draw directly in ink but I wasn\’t sure where I was going with this one so started with pencil and then inked over it.
Oh…I guess I should also mention that while my office does have nice parties, dancing nude has never been an option at any of them and, I\’m quite certain, never will be.
I’ve been desperate to get back to sketching and was determined to do some today while I was out for a walk doing errands. Just as I sat down to sketch, cup of coffee in hand, it started raining. I didn’t care. Little drops of rain splattered on my paper, making interesting texture where they met the ink.
I’d forgotten my watercolor kit at home and was annoyed until I looked at the cup of coffee in my hand and thought of how much I liked sepia washes that Pete Scully sometimes adds to his sketches. I dipped my finger in the coffee and began finger painting.
Then it was time to head home and get ready for a special 10-year-old’s birthday party. I’m the antithesis of a party girl these days, preferring quiet time alone or in one-on-one time with friends. But last night’s dinner party and today’s birthday party were both “command performances” so I gave myself the push I needed to show up.
The intimate, sophisticated dinner party for 6 last night was a joy; the other diners brilliant, funny intellectuals beside whom I felt like a peanut brain. But I adore them all and it was an absolute delight. What a contrast to the non-stop activity and noise of kids loaded up on sugar and then cooped up indoors because of the rain today.
Mariah's Birthday Guests, pencil drawing, 8x6"
I spent the last hour of the 4-hour birthday marathon trying to sketch the jumping-bean children. They were nice kids; a junior United Nations representing as many nationalities as there were guests (and there was a dozen of them, I think).
I’m happy to be home now with no plans for the next couple days besides painting and sketching.
My artwork, that is. I’ve been doing a lot of thinking and planning for my next art projects, but other obligations have taken up my art time and energy. All I’ve done the past few days is the watercolor sketch from a trip to the U. C. Berkeley Botanical Gardens (above) and the BART subway sketches below. The aloe was drawn and a bit of wash added on site; then I messed with it some more at home. There were so many wonderful options for sketching there, but my companions weren’t interested in sketching so I didn’t want to make them wait for me.
Backpacking on BART, ink in sketchbookBig Feet & Big Glasses, ink in sketchbook
I’m quite sure this woman knew I was drawing her and I think she intentionally held her pose for me. I started with her feet because they interested me and I didn’t think I’d have time for anything more. But because she held still I continued on up her legs and eventually ran out of room when I got to the top of her head. She gave me a big grin when I got off and I gave her one back. It was a cool little acknowledgment between us.
I’m going to start keeping my “business cards” handy when I subway sketch (those cute little Moos with bits of my artwork and blog address on them) and hand them to people I’ve drawn as I get off the train (if I have the nerve).
Taking Notes, ink in sketchbook
These two women weren’t really seated this close. I just used the space on the page that way.
Sometimes I forget that people from my “day job” read my blog. I was in a meeting last week and one of the participants began the meeting by mentioning that she’d seen my sketches from the previous meeting we’d attended and immediately recognized some of the people in the sketch. What a compliment that was! (Thanks A. B.!)
After I posted this painting a few weeks ago I realized I’d left off the foamy bubbles on top of the water. Last weekend I worked on the painting some more, at first planning to just add the bubbles but ended up adding a whole new layer of paint. I gave Hannah another haircut and slimmed down her dress a bit. I felt a little afraid to go back in and start messing with things, but told myself to just have fun and see what happens.
I don’t think I quite got the essence of the foam, it looks more like rose petals floating on the surface, but I decided I liked that idea and left it alone.
I’m wondering if there is a problem with the grasses behind the rust colored reeds on the middle right that sort of point towards her head. Should that patch of yellow-green grasses have less texture, be cooler and more blurry so that they recede more? I think so.
Here’s what it looked like before in the original post:
Hannah's Reflection, Oil on Gessobord, 16x12
I’m trying to get over the idea that paintings need to be completed in one painting session or in one day. Alla prima and plein air painting is great, but so is letting layers dry and adding more more until the painting says it’s done. Sometimes it forgets to say “When” though, and then it’s overdone.
I have the same trouble with steaming vegetables. I lose my concentration and before I know it my broccoli has turned to mush. So is the revision mushy broccoli or an improvement? Do you think I should soften those grasses or move on?
Thinking about painting and broccoli reminds me of this poster I made a long time ago:
"Listen to Your Broccoli and It Will Tell You How to Eat It," Colored Pencil, 24x18"
Silly Pose on BART, Drawn later at home, Graphite 8x6
Riding our subway known as BART the other day, I sat down beside a young man who was talking to his friend in the next seat. I asked if they wanted to sit together and they made a joke about not liking each other (actually it was a racist joke that shocked me at first when I thought they were serious—they were of different races ). So I sat down and took out my sketchbook like I usually do. The guy beside me insisted I draw his friend and his friend immediately struck a crazy pose for me to draw.
I said I only had 5 minutes before I was getting off but they egged me on. I drew as fast as I could (in ink—what was I thinking!) and was making a pretty bad job of it—talk about pressure! Then I had to get off and we all had a good laugh about the bad sketch (see below). I asked if I could take his picture and he agreed, continuing the pose as I quickly snapped a photo with my iPhone and then jumped off the train as the doors were closing. Here’s the photo that I put on my computer monitor across the room to draw the sketch above in my sketchbook last night:
Quick Photo of Silly Pose
And here’s the original sketch done on BART, along with a few others from this week:
Quick ink sketch done on BART
BART people, graphite
BART people ink
Quick Photo of Silly Pose
Silly Pose on Bart, Graphite 8×6
Now, about feeling like a Zombie… I’ve been doing prep this week for a colonoscopy this afternoon. I’ve had nothing to eat since yesterday morning, except sugary clear liquids and the gallon of “Go-Litely” (hah! what false advertising!) and very little sleep due to drinking the first half gallon last night and then “Go-ing” all nite, thus the only “Litely” was my sleeping! And for the three days prior, I was told to eat none of my usually healthy diet: no vegetables, no fruits, no whole grains. Just white bread and meat, basically. The procedure isn’t until 2:00 so until then, I’ll be under a pile of blankets in bed trying to get warm and watching a movie on my laptop.
A new storm is on its way in but this morning was sunny so I took a walk in the neighborhood and discovered Spring had arrived overnight. The magnolias were blooming along with some other flowering trees.
Spring Trees, ink & watercolor wash
The Jehovah’s Witnesses were also out in full bloom, a whole parade of them canvassing the neighborhood. These folks were waiting while their colleagues knocked on the door of a house on the top of the hill.
Witnesses on the Hill, Ink & watercolor wash
One of their team told me she liked to paint too, and then offered me some reading materials. “No thanks,” I said. “But it’s really, really small,” she said. It was a small pamphlet, but why would she think that would change my mind, I wonder.
Can't Stop the Seasons, Photo
I thought about drawing this but decided a photo was good enough. Seeing the new season bursting forth in front of a sign saying “STOP” made me think about the ways we try to control things by making laws and rules and posting signs, and yet Mother Nature rolls along, no matter what we puny humans have to say about it.
I’m trying to use one sketchbook at a time and so, despite being tempted to switch to a Moleskine watercolor sketchbook, I continued on in my Strathmore Drawing sketchbook. It’s not watercolor paper but is great for ink, is my favorite size (6×8″) and is light for carrying because it only has 24 sheets. It does wrinkle a bit from the watercolor, and it’s not good for lifting out color or heavy application, but it’s a good compromise between quality of paper and size and weight.
I’ve been listening to a dumb book, Freddy and Fredericka, when I’m painting and I’m so glad I finally finished it. I don’t know why I kept listening for all 26 hours. It’s a silly farce about a bumbling, imaginary Prince and Princess of Wales sent by the King and Queen to New Jersey on a quest to take back America (but really just to get the couple out of the country because they were embarassing fools).
The funniest part of the book was unintentional. It’s the way the book is read aloud. It’s narrated by a gentleman with an uppercrust English accent who doesn’t even try to do American accents. So all the Americans in the book, from southerners in Alabama to New Jersey motorcycle gang members speak with the same English accents as the Royals. The only laugh I got from the book was hearing the motorcycle tough guy talking with an English accent instead of with a New Joisey accent.
The book makes fun of the British monarchy as well as American politicians and culture. Maybe you have to be British to enjoy the book or maybe it’s just me. I’ve never been a fan of farcical humor that uses silly names, misunderstandings and ridiculous plot lines to get laughs.
My friend Gina emailed me a photo with a note saying, “I like the light in this photo– for some reason I always think of you when I look at it.” Although I rarely paint from photos, especially those taken by other people, I just had to paint this one. My computer monitor is set up so that I can paint directly from the image on the screen which is a lot better than working from the limited colors in a printed image.
I’m not sure if I’m done yet, but I couldn’t see what else was needed so I stopped. If you have any suggestions for improving the picture, I’d love to hear.
Below are some stages of the painting. I used a bit of artistic license: I gave Hannah a bit of a haircut and deleted Gina’s wonderful dog Bella because:
The dog was competing with Hannah as the focal point and was about the same size.
I couldn’t get Bella to “read” as a dog; no matter how hard I tried to draw her correctly, she just kept turning into a jackrabbit.
Hannah’s Reflection, Oil on Gessobord, 16×12
Painting phase 1
B&W value check
Painting phase 2
Painting Phase 3
Color spots
Photo, B&W w/2 values
Photo, B&W w/3 values
Original Photo
Top row: 1) the finished painting; 2) my painting start; and 3) a black and white version of the start to see if my values were on track.
Middle row: 1) & 2) the next two steps in the painting. 3) a view of a “color spot” layer that I made in Photoshop. I created a new layer, and used Photoshop’s Paintbrush tool to select (Alt-click) and paint spots of those colors because it can be easier to see the colors when they’re isolated. Even more helpful than the color spots is a color-mixing tip I learned from Dianne Mize on Empty Easel: you apply the color to the edge of a small card and compare it to the subject until you get it right.
Bottom row: three views of the original photo. 1) “Posterized” in Photoshop down to two values; 3) posterized with three values; 3) Gina’s original photo.
P.S. This park, which Hannah affectionately calls the “swamp adventure,” is part of the East Bay Regional Parks. It is a river front park next to McAvoy harbor in Bay Point. It’s a little delta oasis in the sprawl of East Contra Costa County.
Do you dream in full color? I dreamt I spotted the most beautiful woodpecker, and in my dream I noted that it was in gorgeous golds, ochres and siennas. The woodpecker, aside from it’s unique coloroing, looked just like the California Stellar Jays I see in my neighborhood, complete with peanut in mouth and nothing like a woodpecker. (Not that I’ve ever seen a woodpecker, although I have heard them).
Lime Mohawk Bird, Goauche
Then I spotted another beautiful bird with, as I noted in the dream, a lime-colored Mohawk. Actually, in the dream I think I called it a “faux-hawk” because there’s something about the way”faux-hawk” sounds that pleases me. This bird made horrible Peacock noises.
Mermaid Hair, Gouache
The next dream carried on with the odd colored top-knot theme. The long, black, silky, beautiful, Latina hair of the girl next door had been bleached white and then died mint green so she’d look more like the Disney mermaid princesses she seems to like so much.
These were all done with gouache in the large Moleskine watercolor notebook.
Have you ever had your house cleaned by someone so expert and passionate about cleaning that when you came home afterward it was like moving into a new house? I have! I know some people have their homes cleaned regularly, and it’s probably no big deal to them. But for me, it’s a special treat.
I was first given the wonderful gift of a complete house cleaning a few years ago for my birthday. Since then I’ve carried on the tradition myself, as a gift I give myself for the new year and for my birthday, conveniently 6 months apart.
What’s made this even more special is the person who does the cleaning for me now, my wonderful neighbor and friend Maria Reyes. She is professionally trained in the art of home cleaning, but also has a talent and passion for it, and takes great pride in her work.
I think she’s also part magician. She makes things look new that I thought were impossible to get clean (like the grout on my tile kitchen counters) and she gets everything done in 1/4 the time it would take me. And the cleaning seems to last for a long time, as if she casts a spell: “Good and clean! Now stay that way!”
I was so thrilled with my clean house this time, that I filled a couple of pages in my sketchbook with little drawings of shiny things around my house — the pics above are a few of them.
If you’re in the Bay Area and are interested in having your home cleaned, I’d be happy to share her contact info with you. Just email me. She offers free estimates and does both regular scheduled cleaning and one-time jobs. Everyone whom I know that she’s cleaned for have raved about her work. She’s not the cheapest (or the most expensive), but she’s without any doubt, the best!
Jana Bouc, Artist 