Category: People

Learning to Vacation

Ink in Moleskine sketchbook – Peaberry’s Coffee in Oakland’s Rockridge District, land of yuppies with strollers
Click here to enlarge

Today was my first official day of vacation. There’s something about a week off that makes me want to hoard every moment and then I start worrying about it ending before it’s even gotten started. It usually takes me until the very end of vacation to get into the swing of relaxing. I’m so grateful that the physical pain in my back and hip is gone. Tomorrow I’m going celebrate feeling good and being free.

Today I had a wonderful hour and a half of massage and bodywork that my sister treated me to for my birthday and then I took an hour long walk along College Avenue in the Rockridge District of Oakland/Berkeley and had a latte at Peaberry’s Coffee (above) where I listened to the guy in the foreground rant for 20 minutes to a very patient woman about how he brought dessert and cheese to a dinner party where the hosts didn’t put his dessert out and stole the cheese for themselves and never said thank you. Then I drove over to Telegraph Avenue in Berkeley and exchanged a couple CDs at Amoeba Records. I really like one I brought home today: Rodrigo Y Gabriela–sort of flamenco/rock guitars from Mexico–wonderful!

Ink in moleskine: at Berkeley’s Skateboard Park
Click here to enlarge

Yesterday I rode my bike to REI looking for a Klean Kanteen which is a lightweight stainless steel water bottle to avoid polluting the world with jillions of plastic water bottles and my body with the chemicals in plastic that are now found to be absorbed into the water and the body. They were all out. Riding home I discovered the Berkeley Skate Park (above)– like a whole bunch of concrete ski-slopes, jumps, rails, curbs and swimming pools where skaters try out their tricks (video) without endangering anyone but themselves.

Afterwards I did some figure drawing using a brushpen, adding gouache later to some of the sketches. Here’s a couple of them.

Brush pen in Aquabee sketchbook

Brushpen and goauche on hot press Arches paper

I’m also a little frustrated because I’ve finished all of my work in progress and it’s time to start some new work but I can’t seem to settle on what I want to do next. After a couple days of trying to make myself settle down and get to work in the studio I’ve realized what I really want is to just be outdoors, drawing and painting what I see, rather than working in the studio. So that’s what I’m going to do because it’s my birthday vacation and I get to do whatever I darn please, so there!

Tags Figure Drawing, Pen and Ink, People

Flower Art Life in general Painting People Plants Portrait Still Life Watercolor

Birthday flowers from my neighbors

Post author By Jana Bouc
Post date June 20, 2007
12 Comments on Birthday flowers from my neighbors

Watercolor painted quickly and directly on Arches hot press watercolor paper without preliminary drawing and then when dry, Pentel brush pen to draw/paint the lines. 7.5″ x 11″
Click here for enlarged view

My wonderful next-door neighbors brought this potted azalea for me as a birthday gift yesterday, along with a nice card and a hug from each child. I have the sweetest neighbors. Not long after I first moved in I fell in love with their kids and after photographing them at baby Alex’s baptism painted these portraits of Alex, Yessica and Erick which they have hanging in their living room. We help each other with all sorts of things and they often bring me delicious home cooked Mexican food (including delicious barbequed salmon with cactus relish).

Then my sons took me out to good Thai food last night. It was wonderful being with them and realizing more than ever what great young men they’ve become. It made my day, even though I looked like a gimpy old lady with my limping and had to sit on my fleece jacket because the sciatica makes it hurt to sit without extra padding. But the combination of their good company, the good wishes of people who’ve written or called to wish me speedy recovery and happy birthday, the yummy Thai food, some nice pain meds and a Singha beer made for a perfectly happy birthday! And I am getting a little better each day.

Tags Ink, Pen and Ink, People

People Sketchbook Pages

Waiting for an x-ray

2 unfinished sketches – ink in Moleskine
Click here to enlarge

Today is my birthday but instead of celebrating I went to see my back doctor and then to the hospital for a hip xray. They aren’t sure if my hip pain is sciatica from a flare up of an old herniated disk in my back or something wrong with my hip. While I was waiting for the doctor I drew the spine on the right hanging in the office but didn’t get to finish because he was right on time. Then while I was waiting for the xray I drew the waiting woman on the left but got called in before I could finish that either.

This morning Barbara took me out to breakfast for our traditional annual pilgrimage for a french apple pancake at Fat Apples but instead of our usual hike up there, we drove. I had to bring my shoes for her to help me put on because the pain makes it impossible to reach my feet. I’ve got my fingers crossed that this will be gone before my birthday vacation which I postponed to next week to be able to help with all the last minute preparations for several institutes at work but I’ve ended up working from home instead. It’s a little hard to go into the office when you can’t put your own shoes on! Thank goodness for my comfy new home computer workstation and for modern pharmaceuticals! My neighbors just brought me a lovely plant for my birthday and my sons are taking me out to dinner tonight. Now I just need some birthday cake and candles to blow out to make my birthday wish for completely recovery by Thursday.

Tags Pen and Ink, People

Drawing People Sketchbook Pages Subway drawings

Subway Drawings

All are ink in Moleskine sketchbook.

This is the busiest week of the busiest month of the year at my day job. We’re holding five institutes in the next few weeks across the country and 10 hour days are norm.

As a result these drawings done on our subway system known as BART are the sum total of my art output this week.

I’ve been too tired at night to draw and too late rising in the morning to do dream drawings after not sleeping well.

But there’s just one more week to go and then I’m on vacation and it will be 12 glorious days of drawing, painting, rest, reading and relaxation. I’m planning lots of fun trips around the Bay Area to do mini-sketch crawls with art buddies.

Tags Pen and Ink, People, Subway drawings

Digital art Illustration Friday People Sketchbook Pages

IF: Suit (Birthday Suit)

The Illustration Friday challenge “suit” really didn’t grab me until I remember it was my birthday this month…

(above) I scribbled the idea for this on a handy notepad with pencil at midnight while I was waiting for my neighbor’s party to end so I could get some sleep. Then I inked over the outline today and followed the steps below to get to the finished picture. The color in the picture above comes printed on the notepad.

Techie notes:

I outlined the sketch in ink and scanned into Photoshop, using Levels to erase the background (paper had designs on it) and improve the contrast. Then I opened it in Illustrator and used “Trace” command to get clean outlines. I imported that into Painter, doing some more drawing and then creating layers defined as “Multiply” to paint it without losing the outlines. I mostly used the digital airbrush. Then I opened it in Photoshop to use the handy “Save for Web” option (Phew!) It took about 2 hours total.

This is my first project on my new electric sit-stand desk/computer workstation. It was a massive project requiring lots of computer and furniture wrangling in my studio to get it all set up and functional and some really late hours. That’s why I haven’t posted the past few days. Tomorrow I’ll post some pics of my new desk and write about the project, my ridiculous goof-ups, the fixes and the complicated but very groovy computer setup that my friend Richard, tech consultant extraordinaire, helped me plan and assemble.

Tags Painter Digital Art, People, Photoshop painting

Art theory Faces Gouache Painting People Portrait

Girl in Gouache

Gouache on hot press watercolor paper, 7×10″
Click here to see large (then click again)

I painted this from a photo I took of a little girl at my niece’s high school graduation. I’m learning a lot from working with gouache–it’s a great way to experiment with seeing values and color temperature which is so important, especially for working with oil paint. I’m also learning that while you can repaint layers with gouache you do eventually get unpleasant paint build-up and it becomes more difficult to blend, as layers beneath get reactivated (unlike acrylics).

One note for anyone who’s interested in working with gouache: Many of the colors are not at all permanent since many artists who use gouache are painting for publication and the work only needs to look good until it’s photographed. When shopping for gouache, make sure the tube of paint has an A or AA permanence rating. Anything below that (B or C) and the paint may fade or change color rapidly (just in case you paint a “keeper”).

Tags Faces, People

Art theory Dreams Gouache Other Art Blogs I Read Painting People

Painting with Gouache

Gouache on hot-pressed watercolor paper, 7″x11″
Click here to enlarge

I’ve been wanting to experiment with painting in gouache (opaque watercolor) and today finally got the chance. I so adore the artwork of Maira Kalman and the painterly, juicy way she uses gouache….which reminds me a lot of the kind of oil painting I want to do–John Sonsini is one of my current favorites…and his work reminds me a lot of Alice Neel, one of my major art heroes, who, at the age of 80, did a wonderful nude self portrait of herself painting herself.

It turns out gouache, at least on the two relatively small pieces I’ve tried so far, actually combines the best of watercolor, acrylics and oils. You can blend easily, paint with bright juicy colors, it dries quickly but not too quickly, you can paint over areas, and it cleans up with water. I had some ancient tubes of Winsor Newton Designer’s Gouache and bought a few new tubes since some of mine had turned to cement. I love it!

I’ve been trying to paint in that juicy, painterly way with acrylics and oils but haven’t succeeded so far. I haven’t worked out the balance between working quickly, free and loose, and still trying to capture a likeness of my subject and getting to detailed and tight. Then there’s the problems associated with the actual media–acrylic dries too fast too do much blending and oil dries so slowly that I keep having to stop and let it dry for a week before continuing.

I’m excited about the possibilities with gouache and enjoyed this first experiment, which was inspired by a dream. I posted the original sketchbook image here.

If you want to see more of Maira Kalman’s art, she’s had a monthly art blog on the New York Times website and the work is stunning. It will be published in a book in October. The NY Times offers a free 2-week subscription, which I took in order to look at the whole year of her art blogs.

Tags People

Cartoon art Digital art Dreams Life in general People Sketchbook Pages

Still Dreaming…

Dreamt I was at the movies with my blind husband (don’t have one) and another blind man and they were showing off by walking from side to side on the stage being tricky and funny.

Dreamt I created a company called “Subsidiary” that makes devices to make shoulders more comfortable while sleeping.

Dreamt Cody was a kid again and a funny old grandpa was in the kitchen showing him how to eat cereal from those little fold-open cereal boxes.

Dreamt my mom wanted to come live with me but I remembered I had a husband I had to ask first. Then I remembered I wasn’t married anymore but had a roommate (a former friend I don’t see anymore). I asked if she minded and she said she’d inherited a fortune and was going to be buying houses for 13 friends and I wasn’t one of them. Mom was sorting through papers in an envelope marked “Dec 06” that she’d found in her piles of junk stacked around her on her bed.

These are all drawn in ink in my sketchbook, then scanned and colored in Painter.

Tags Painter Digital Art, Pen and Ink, People

People Sketchbook Pages Subway drawings

Subway Drawing

Ink in Moleskine sketchbook
To enlarge, click image, select All Sizes

Just a few people on BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit) — our version of the subway — on the way to the Sketchcrawl Saturday. This is being another killer week at work, leaving little energy for much else. I’m determined to get in some drawing tonight and I’m looking forward to a long weekend and my annual one week birthday vacation next month.

I have an idea for a personal sketchcrawl while I’m on vacation — an hourly drawing, no matter what I’m doing or where I am. I’d set my watch to chime on the hour and every time it chimes, do a drawing of something I’m seeing or doing…for 12 hours straight. And maybe I’ll use a pre-determined different drawing technique or implement each time. So 7:00 a.m. might be a blind contour sketch, 8:00 might be using a fat felt pen, 9:00 might be using a brush and ink, 10:00 could be cross-hatching with ink or shading with a soft pencil…. It sounds like fun and gives me something to look forward to while slaving away until then.

Tags Pen and Ink, People, Subway drawings

Cartoon art Drawing Illustration Friday People Sketchbook Pages

Illustration Friday (redux): Citrus (Juggler)

Post author By Jana Bouc
Post date May 12, 2007
17 Comments on Illustration Friday (redux): Citrus (Juggler)

Ink in sketchbook then digitally painted in Painter

My Illustration Friday post yesterday was lame. I didn’t have a single interesting idea of what to do with citrus other than a literal drawing of a lemon. But today I had another idea and quickly sketched it and then spent an hour or so coloring it in Painter. Now I feel better.

Actually, I feel better about my IF post and my back is feeling 50% better today. The work my physical therapist did on me yesterday and the exercises she gave me that I did today seem to be helping. I do miss being able to lay in bed with my laptop looking at blogs but she warned me that it’s about the worst thing I can do for my back. I’ve had lower back problems forever and know how to care for it but never had upper back pain until I started reclining with my laptop.

Yippee! Getting better…makes me want to jump for joy and dance and juggle citrus!

Tags Painter Digital Art, Pen and Ink, People