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Drawing Dreams People Sketchbook Pages

You’d think all I do is dream…

…it’s just that it’s been an exhausting few weeks at work and I haven’t had the energy or brain power to do much more with art at night than color in dream drawings (and sleep). Here’s a few more from the past week or two that I colored with Photoshop (though I prefer Painter for digital painting). At the end I’ll explain what I do to remember my dreams since people have asked.

Dream-May10

(left) Dreamt I visited a kindly doctor who pinched my hand to test for something.
(right) Dreamt I kept dropping stuff and knocking things over in a store. (not too far from reality…I can be a real klutz sometimes)

Dream-May8

All in one night
2. I was at some sort of spa/camp and people had to share beds. It was too crowded so I complained to the manager who told me to go find some other bed and climb in with those people. (maybe my 2 cats were crowding me off the bed?)

3. Also at the camp/spa the toilet tank was leaking and I kept trying to tighten the gasket but it just kept spinning and wouldn’t tighten

4. Walking down a dark street I saw a spinning lawn sprinkler that was shooting out fire instead of water and it was glowing beautifully in the dark, along with pretty blue lights on a police car blinking on and off. There was a weird gas leak in the house and danger of explosion so I ran in and rescued a cute, scared little dog.

Dream-May6 Dream-May7

(left) I was at a workshop and people were all talking and I couldn’t understand what they were saying and I kept telling them I couldn’t hear so they kept repeating but I still couldn’t understand them.
(right) My house and garage were leaking and flooding in the rain and my old gardener was trying to solve the problem and I was sitting with him like he was my sweetheart.

Dream-May9

Dreamt Marcy and I were jogging on a beach alongside a cliff when a huge wave hit us and pulled out to sea and I was waving my arms and yelling and a strong, handsome guy pushed us back to shore.

How I remember dreams
The only way I’m able to remember my dreams is to stay in a half asleep state when I wake up in the morning without opening my eyes for a few minutes. At that point I can usually remember the dream I was just in and as soon as it comes back to me I quickly jot it down. As I’m writing the dream it will often segue into the dream before it, and the one before that so I just keep writing. Also, while I’m asleep and an interesting dream ends and I realize it’s just a dream, I’m conscious enough to tell myself to remember it. Once they’re written down I usually will draw them right then if there’s time and if not, I’ll draw them that evening. Often while I’m drawing more pieces of the dream comes back to me too. One other thing is that I don’t use an alarm clock to wake up (I have two cats instead).

By the way, I wanted to say thanks for commenting–it’s so great to know you’ve stopped by for a visit. I’ve not been able to visit others blogs much the past few weeks or respond to comments the way I’d like to because of back pain that is aggravated by sitting at a computer. I’m trying to get better fast and am learning to work smarter — no more using a laptop while reclining in bed, it’s definitely not ergonomic and ignoring a little ache led to a great big one!

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Dreams Painting People Sketchbook Pages Watercolor

Drawing dreams: Like being a kid again

Dream-Shirley & Curious George

(above) I dreamt that Shirley (from Everyday Matters) was a graphic designer who had done the covers for some Curious George books that were being published by the organization I work for. I thought of her in the dream as Shirley hemend (the last name is actually part of her email address and it was lower case in the dream too).

Drawing dreams is so much fun. It’s just like being a kid again, sitting around like I used to with crayons and scrap paper drawing whatever came to mind next, like the people in the picture below. Except for me and the singer, the rest of the people just appeared randomly: a guy with a bozo haircut behind the singer, the old lady beside her, a guy with a beret and lady with a big hat, all just random people floating around in my subconscious waiting for a chance to come hang out for awhile.

Dream - Goofy singer

(above) Dreamt I was in a big meeting room at work where a young goofy looking singer-songwriter guy was singing a song so beautiful and heartbreaking that it brought tears to my eyes and I fell in love with him — until I realized he was too young. I’m always 25 in my dreams and then at the end I remember I’m more than twice that.

Dream-Butterflies

(above) Dreamt that Leah and I were on the hike we took Saturday where we saw so many beautiful butterflies, but this time there were hundreds instead of dozens.

All images ink & watercolor in Handbook Company Journal.
To enlarge, click images, select “All Sizes”

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Cartoon art Life in general People Sketchbook Pages

More Dream Sketches

These are all sketched in ink in my morning dream journal in ink and then colored in Photoshop. They can be seen larger by clicking image and selecting “All Sizes.”

Dreams-May-4

Dreamt I was hanging out with Michael and a lovey-dovey hippie woman who was handing out crocheted flowers and I realized I was wearing ugly sweats.

Dreams-May-3

Dreamt I was in the hospital and all I wanted was someone to bring my my toothbrush.

Dreams-May-2

Dreamt I was painting and someone told me I should take out insurance on my paintings in case of fire.

Dreams-May-1
1. Dreamt my mom was visiting and Marcy planned a hike but invited her friends and the hike was too hard for my old mom.

2. Really bad icky dream about people stealing from homeless bums.
Dream-May11

Dreamt my mom called to tell me she heard on TV that if you go to a “Big 3” (?) college you make more money the rest of your life. She often reports random information (usually about celebrities) that she hears on the TVs that are contantly on in every room of her house.

Dream-May1

1. Dreamt I was visiting my bubby (Jewish grandma) only she was Mexican and named Rosita and illiterate so I was reading a letter to her from a friend in Mexico. I was trying to translate it into Spanish but she told me to just read it in English.

2. Marcy and I were going to LA to visit our mother and I was packing and telling myself to pack light for once but I realized none of my pants fit and we had to hurry and leave and Marcy was still sleeping.
——–
Hmmm, seems like my dreams are reminding me that it’s been too long since I’ve visited my mother and that I need to buy a plane ticket and go see her soon.

Categories
Drawing Faces People Portrait Sketchbook Pages Watercolor

Drawing Faces

Faces-2-JMc

Graphite and watercolor in Aquabee 6×9 sketchbook
To enlarge, click images, select All Sizes

Faces3-JMcG

These are two more faces from my project of drawing faces from a book of character actors acting that I  explained in a previous post here. This actor was supposed to be a soccer dad whose daughter just scored a winning goal in the first picture and a Hells Angel preparing for a confrontation in the bottom picture. Drawing the top picture I could really see what all the muscles in face were doing to pull his skin here and there.

I had to draw the first one twice–the first time I didn’t get things lined up at all. I seem to always want to make faces and their features symmetrical whether they are or not. I try to straighten tilted heads, make mouths the same size on both sides of the face even when the head is turned so that it’s shorter on one side. The second time I looked more carefully at angles and where features lined up with each other and their sizes in relation to each other and I got closer to reality.

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Art theory Faces Other Art Blogs I Read People Portrait Sketchbook Pages

Drawing Famous Faces & Copyright Info for Artists

Faces-1-LM

Ink (Pentel brush pens) in Aquabee Deluxe 6×9 sketchbook
To enlarge, click image, select All Sizes

My painting group buddies Lea and Susie are taking a monthly portraiture class from local artist Myrna Wacknov. One of the homework assignments they’ve worked on during our painting group sessions is to take two sheets of watercolor paper and divide each into 8 sections using strips of tape. Then on one they draw the same person 8 times using different colors, techniques, lighting, etc. on each image. On the other they do eight different people but unify them in some way. Judith isn’t taking the class but jumped in anyway and is painting a sheet of 8 angelic portraits of George Harrison from an old Rolling Stone cover.

Then I found the book “In Character: Actors Acting” at the library, with 250 pages of photos of character actors’ faces showing every kind of expression and feeling. I couldn’t resist joining in. I bought a used copy of the book and plan to go through it, flipping it open to a page and making drawings or paintings in my sketchbook. This is the first one. There were two photos of this guy on the same page and I got distracted and accidentally drew his left eye from one photo and the right eye from the other photo. He was looking in different directions in the two photos–he’s not really wall-eyed, poor guy.

Copyright issues:
I did some research about whether I need copyright permission to use these photos in drawings. The answer is yes and no… BUT since I doubt anything I draw will look “substantially similar” to the original photo (or the person I’m drawing!), I’m probably OK.

Here’s what I learned on a page about copyright rules for illustrators:
Q: What are the rules when it comes to illustrating celebrities?
First of all, if you’re not working from your own photographs or memory, you need to obtain permission from the photographer who created the photo you will be using as reference material. (You do not need to get permission from photographers if you create portraits or caricatures based on dozens of photographs from different sources and you are careful to not to include elements that would make it obvious you copied from a particular photograph.)

Q: Can I use someone else’s photograph as reference material for a painting I’m creating?
If you’re copying a photograph, you must get the photographer’s permission…Even though it’s in a different medium, you’re violating the photographer’s copyright if you copy a photograph in your painting.
BUT….
To constitute a copyright infringement, a “copy” must be “substantially similar” to the original work. If your finished illustration looks different from any of the originals you used as a reference material, you shouldn’t need to obtain permission.

Categories
Dreams People Sketchbook Pages

Goofy sketches and dream tidbits from AM/PM journal

AMPM-eggplant

AM: Dreamt Tim was holding up an eggplant and painting it.

AMPM-umbrella-lady

PM: Memory drawing of old Chinese lady I saw today who’d converted her umbrella into a carrying device (known as a shoulder pole I learned by googling “Chinese over shoulder carrying”)

AMPM-truck

AM: Dreamt I was sitting in front seat of truck with Blake from American Idol and another couple. We were watching a movie displayed in the air in front of us and I kept fiddling unsuccessfully with the remote trying to fast forward.

AMPM-Phone

AM: Dreamt that this doorman named Jack got a phone call and they dropped the phone out the window to him, almost hitting two lady shoppers.

AMPM-Richard-cap

PM: Memory drawing of Richard from the back as he worked on my computer wearing a jacket and cap because he was cold and so was I but didn’t think of turning on the heat.

Categories
Drawing People Sketchbook Pages Subway drawings

Subway Drawings (BART)

Some drawings from my morning and evening BART rides today in ink in my small Moleskine sketchbook.

To enlarge click images and select All Sizes.

BART20

A.M. Waiting for the train

BART22

AM Riding to Work

BART21

PM Riding Home

Categories
People Sketchbook Pages Watercolor

Another portrait sketch request

Aileen1

Brown ink and watercolor in Moleskine large watercolor notebook
To enlarge, click images, select All Sizes

A few days after I posted the drawing of Dane I received an email from Aileen, the beautiful woman in the photo below, who sent me her photo and asked me to draw her too.

Aileen-A

I planned to do a quick sketch of her today as a warm up before doing some “real” painting (I put that in quotes because it’s silly of me to think that one kind of drawing or painting is more “real” than another). But instead of it being a warm up I spent all of my painting time today working on sketches of her.

I drew the first one at the top quickly in ink and then painted it. The drawing was goofy so I decided to do it again, using pencil and eraser, still working in my large Moleskine watercolor notebook and came up with the this one:

Aileen2

I wasn’t happy with the way the ultramarine blue I used in the shadows looked and the drawing still wasn’t quite right so I did it again, this time using the last page in my Moleskine notebook:

Aileen3

In this one I did a fairly dark pencil drawing first, planning to leave it mostly as a pencil drawing, just adding just a little paint, but I got carried away and forgot my plan.

The funny thing is now that I’m done, I like the very first one I did the best. It may not look like her, but it was the most fun to do and is the most Jana of all of them.

Which do you prefer and why?

Categories
Art theory Drawing Faces Other Art Blogs I Read People Photos Portrait Sketchbook Pages Watercolor

Painting vs Preparing to Paint (& Portrait Request)

Fake Dane's Portrait

Brown Micron Pigma ink and watercolor in large Moleskine Watercolor notebook
To enlarge, click images, select All Sizes

The other day I got a mysterious email from someone calling himself “Fake Dane.” He wrote, “Hey, I think your art is great. I was wondering if you’d be willing to sketch me from a picture. I’m assembling a collection that I’d post. Dane”

And he sent me his photo. If you want to draw him too, just click the photo below and select All Sizes when you get to Flickr and then you can print it out:

Fake Dane's Photo

I wrote back, “Sure, why not?” and did the sketch above. I was going for caricature so I hope he’s not offended. (UPDATE: He replied and said he really liked it and put it on his blog. There’s some funny drawings of him as a vampire there too.) If you want to do a drawing of him and send it to him too, there’s instructions in the “Please Read” sidebar on his blog.

It was a fun, quick painting project on a day in the studio that was mostly spent at the computer, trying to sort out photos and compositions for upcoming paintings, something I don’t particularly enjoy doing. And that made me think about the differences between…

Alla Prima/Plein Air vs carefully planned painting

When I’m planning a painting I consider focus, value, composition, color scheme, etc. I do thumbnails and value sketches. If it’s something requiring exact proportions, such as a portrait of someone’s child, pet or home, I’ll start with a drawing and then work from a photo, tracing it onto the watercolor paper. But even with more carefree subjects like flowers and still life or landscapes, that prep work saves a lot of frustration once painting is underway. I’ve learned that lesson the hard way.

On the other hand, my understanding is that people who regularly paint alla prima (in one setting) or plein air make the prep work quick and intuitive and let go of exactitude, painting their impression of the subject rather than a careful rendering. I’ve done some and it’s a lot harder than people like Kris Shanks, Nel Jansen, Ed Terpening, and others whose blogs I enjoy visiting, make it look.

What I’m trying to figure out is how to combine the two approaches, or how to avoid all the labored pre-planning. Judy Morris, the teacher of the workshop I took in February, said that her favorite part is planning and composing from photos, not the actual painting. For me it’s the opposite — while I enjoy drawing, I love painting more and don’t really enjoy spending a lot of time photoshopping compositions and sorting through photos at the computer. (She does the prep work manually, working with black and white photocopies and enlargements of the subject and background, which she cuts out and assembles.
On the other hand, if I don’t do the pre-planning (especially with watercolor) the whole painting ends up being a study that has to be done over. I guess with acrylics and to some extent oils, one can just keep working on and changing a piece until it’s right, but I’m not sure if that’s a great way to go either.

I’m hoping to find my own way of working that incorporates the best of both worlds.

Categories
Oil Painting People Photos Sketchbook Pages

Woman at the museum

Museum woman

Oil on canvas board, 12 x 16″
To enlarge, click images, select All Sizes

Museum-woman2

Thumbnail sketch (1.75×2.5″) in sketchbook for painting

SFMOMA

Ink in small Moleskine notebook
(original sketch at SF Museum of Modern Art cafe)

A few weeks ago I went to see the Picasso and American Art exhibit at SFMOMA and was inspired by this woman’s thick, grey hair in a giant clip and the way the teeth of the clip separated her her hair. I also took a photo of her while I was there (below) but the view was different from my drawing so I didn’t end up referring to it when I made the painting. I’m still struggling with oils and acrylics but this one was a little easier because I stuck to black, white and 3 grays. I had intended this to be an underpainting and was going to glaze over it with the colors of eggplant and chocolate but decided to leave it because I like it the way it is.

I used Gamblin Chromatic Black for the darkest darks which is not a dead black pigment like most. From the Gamblin website: “Chromatic Black is black, but it has no black pigment in it. It is made from two perfect complements: Quinacridone Red and Phthalo Emerald.” For the grays I used Gamblin’s Portland Greys in light, medium and deep. So there was no color mixing, just a value study and an attempt to get some control with applying and blending oil paints.

IMG_0663