Category: People

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People Sketchbook Pages

Figure Drawing Group Tonight

Figure drawing group 1

Pencil in 14×17″ sketchbook

Figure Drawing Group 3

Sketched with watercolor then ink and watercolor washes added. In 9×12 Aquabee sketchbook

Figure drawing group 2

Ink (Pentel brush pen) with water added to make washes in 14×17″ sketchbook

Friday nights there’s a figure drawing group open to the public that meets on the U.C. Berkeley campus. It’s a great deal– $4.00 for 3 hours and excellent models. Our plans to go were on and off and then suddenly on again so we arrived a little late. This model really knew how to pose in interesting ways and was quite beautiful (my pictures don’t do her justice). I experimented with sketching in pencil, in ink, and watercolor with ink added afterwards. It was all fun and challenging. I saw a man there who was a regular in this same group when I used to go 20 years ago. His charcoal sketches are still phenomenal.

The whole time we were drawing we could hear people chanting, yelling and clapping nearby. I found out afterwards there was a huge pep rally going on because tomorrow is the “Big Game” between Cal (public university) and their arch rivals, Stanford (private, pricey university). When we left we saw the band playing and marching from campus up Bancroft and into a building across the street.

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People Sketchbook Pages Subway drawings

Small sleepy sketches

Cafe

BART passenger

Just a couple of quick sketches today. I drew the top sketch at Peets Coffee tonight, a few minutes before they were closing. There were still three people sitting at tables and each had one foot up on extra chairs. If Peets wasn’t about to close and I wasn’t so sleepy, it would have been fun to keep drawing. It’s not much of a sketch but at least I got my pound of decaf Holiday Blend for tomorrow morning.

The bottom picture is just a guy I drew on my very late (7 PM) BART ride home from work. Coming home so late, I was really glad I’d spent yesterday evening making a huge pot of vege soup and roasting a chicken instead of in the studio. It was so nice to come home and know the soup and chicken just needed a quick trip through the microwave and dinner would be ready. Making pictures is great, but you can’t eat them, so every now and then other things just have to come first. Like maybe tomorrow I’ll get to the dust bunnies and fur balls floating around the house! (or not?)

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Cartoon art Drawing People

No paper: what’s an artist to do?

In Line at Trader Joes
Ink on Biscotti package 4.5″ x 5
(Click image to enlarge, select “All Sizes”)

So there I was standing in a checkout line at Trader Joes that wasn’t moving, with the store crammed full of pre-Thanksgiving shoppers who like me, put off doing their week’s grocery shopping until Sunday evening. I was already feeling kind of down and grumpy because of the end of the weekend and lack of progress/success in the studio today.

After a few minutes I was also bored and started trying to think of what I could do to pass the long wait. Naturally I thought of sketching but I’d left my sketchbook in the car. I searched my pockets and bag for paper to no avail. I looked around at the display in front of me, and considered ripping off a piece of the cardboard and drawing on it but figured that might be frowned upon.

I looked in my cart and found the perfect canvas — the back of my bag of Trader Joes Biscotti (to be exact, “Trader Giotto’s Chocolate Almond Biscotti”). So I grabbed my pen and drew the people in line in front of me and the checker and bagger. By the time I got up to the checkout stand, I was in a much better mood and would have been happy to stand in line even longer, drawing more people.

The checker apologized for the long lines and I told him I’d amused myself by drawing on the package he’d just scanned. He looked at it again and said he thought it came that way. Then he started chatting with me about his lack of skill at drawing and how his father won’t shop there because of the long lines, while the people behind me stood there waiting. To hurry things along I asked for my $20 cash back and he apologized again, saying he forgot about it because he got so interested in my drawing.

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Drawing People Sketchbook Pages

What I should have done first

Value study of M.

Pentel GFKP Pocket Brush Pen and Pentel #101 Brush Pen in Raffine 6×9″ Sketchbook
(To enlarge click image, select “All Sizes”)

More about the drawing in a minute, but first…

Tonight my painting group met to celebrate Susie’s birthday at Saul’s Jewish Deli in Berkeley. It was pretty funny that all five of us ordered exactly the same thing and thoroughly enjoyed it: grilled trout, veges and a big crispy potato latke with applesauce. Then we talked about getting older, aging parents, Susie’s adventures last week going to see the aging Rolling Stones, the pros and cons of dementia, and of course, art.

There’s a wonderful used bookstore, Black Oak Books, next door to the restaurant so after chocolate birthday cake, complete with candle, singing waiters and applauding restaurant patrons, we went to the bookstore where I was excited to find a book on Janet Fish. Her watercolors and oils of glass and other transparent objects have always been a huge inspiration to me. I bought that one and put an amazing book on Viennese Watercolors of the 19th century on hold until I can bring in a couple boxes of books I’m ready to part with in trade.

Now back to the drawing/painting:

Before I started the oil painting yesterday I should have taken some time to do thumbnail sketches to develop the composition, done a value study, and some drawings to become more familiar with the structure and characteristics of the face and torso. In watercolor it’s pretty important to do this first. But I was so antsy to get my brush in the slippery oil paint that I just went for it. Now while I’m waiting for the paint to dry I’ll work backwards, doing the preliminary sketches.

I thoroughly enjoyed doing this drawing with the very sensual and expressive Pentel Pocket Brush Pen (waterproof ink) and the Pentel Brush Pen (not waterproof). I added a little water with a regular brush to get a light ink wash for the gray areas from the non-waterproof ink that I’d applied.

Meanwhile I’m reading lots of library books on oil painting to refresh my feeble memory in oil painting technique. What’s interesting is that there seems to be about 26 watercolor how-to books published for every 1 oil painting book and most of the oil painting books were published a long time ago. There isn’t even an “oil painting” category in the library’s card catalogue (but there is for watercolor and acrylic painting). Is it because oils simply don’t require so many technical skills? Or are watercolor painters a better market, more likely to buy books?

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Oil Painting People

First pass at oil painting

First pass at oil

First layer of oil sketch with 2 colors (burnt sienna & ultramarine blue), 12 x 16 inches

I’m feeling a little sheepish about posting this wonky off kilter portrait but it’s today’s sketch….so here it is. I had the canvas on an easel at too much of an angle I think — her face seems distorted in the photo and it wasn’t when I was painting it.

Having not used oils for 20 years, I didn’t quite know how to start so I grabbed a photo of someone dear to me, squeezed out some burnt sienna and ultramarine blue on my palette and started drawing with a brush and thinned paint. I was trying to avoid turpentine, using Galkyd and Gamsol (alkyd medium and odorless mineral spirits — OMS — by Gamblin which is supposed to be less toxic than others). First I tried paint diluted with 50/50 Galkyd and Gamsol but it still seemed too rich for a first layer so I started using just the Gamsol thinner and that didn’t work too well–it started dissolving the paint around it. (Oil paint has to be painted lean to fat — the first layers need to not have too much oil in them or subsequent layers won’t adhere properly.)

I loved the way it felt to work with oil — to be able to sort of sculpt with paint and have it slide around nicely. Now I need to wait for this to dry and then I can go in and fix the drawing and then start on skin tones. It’s interesting feeling like a beginner again…I’ve forgotten so much of the little I knew about oil painting but hopefully that little will return and the knowledge and skills I’ve developed with watercolor and drawing will be helpful.

Fortunately it was a warm evening tonight, even though it’s raining, so I could leave my windows and door to my studio open while using the OMS. The stuff didn’t smell, but now I have a weird metallic taste in my mouth which means there was something toxic in the air and which means I won’t be leaving a container of OMS open while I work again.

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Drawing Other Art Blogs I Read People Sketchbook Pages Subway drawings

Subway Drawings (BART)

Subway Drawing - BART 7

Ink in Moleskine (click image, select All Sizes to enlarge) 

He was sitting two seats up from me this morning and his profile was irresistible. He was a perfect model for the whole 13 minute ride. When I got off he gave me a knowing look. He couldn’t see me drawing him (the seat between us hid my notebook on my lap) so maybe he thought the times he caught me looking at him were because I found him irresistible.

Bart-Susie
Ink in Moleskine (click image, select All Sizes to enlarge)

The drawings above (Susie) and below (Sharon) were done last Thursday night on BART when we were returning from the art show in San Francisco. Neither of the pictures capture their likenesses though they do capture something of them.

Bart-Sharon

Ink in Moleskine (click image, select All Sizes to enlarge)

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Every Day Matters Life in general People Sketchbook Pages

Bubbie Hanging Laundry (EDM #88: Breezy)

Breezy - Bubby hanging laundry

Drawn in sketchbook with pencil, scanned into Painter, and digitally inked and painted.

I was very close to my grandmother and was born on her 50th birthday. She was very short and round and so soft…her skin was like velvet…well, very wrinkled velvet, and she always smelled like the sweet dusting powder she used. She had no clothes dryer–didn’t believe in them. She hung everything up to dry in the backyard, though she could barely reach the clothes line. Then EVERYTHING was ironed…even underwear, towels, and sheets. She had a special canvas laundry cart that she dragged the laundry around in that had a pocket stuffed with wooden close pins that I liked to play with. As she ironed she sprinkled the clothes first to dampen them (before steam irons) using a glass milk bottle (from when milk men delivered your milk each morning) with a special top that had holes in it and was designed for that purpose.

I was so happy a few minutes ago…I’d finished this memory drawing of my grandmother (Bubbie) that I’d been working on this week (which was actually for last week’s Everyday Matters challenge) and I’d finished this week’s Illustration Friday challenge and I really liked that drawing too–it WAS so cute and funny. And then Painter crashed just as I added the final, finishing touch. And then I realized I’d been working for two hours and NEVER SAVED that file!!!!! I can’t believe I did that! I was going to post this picture tomorrow and post the Illustration Friday picture tonight, but I can’t. It’s gone. And it’s midnight. I can’t do it over now.

Maybe losing my file was an omen–I’ve been trying to decide whether I wanted to continue pursuing/exploring digital art or stick with watercolors. If I’d done the drawing by hand, I would at least have something to show for the time, something to work with as a reference if I had to do it over. But I have NOTHING. Maybe this was the message I needed to tell me to forget about digital art and stick with paint and paper?

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Drawing People Sketchbook Pages Subway drawings

Sleeping Subway Cyclist

Subway sleeper

Micron Pigma Ink in small Moleskine sketchbook
(To enlarge, click image, select “All Sizes”)

This morning on BART I saw this lovely man as soon as I got on and purposely picked a seat one row past him. I was lucky that nobody sat between us until halfway through the ride. My ride to work is only 13 minutes and he slept the whole way, only changing his left arm slightly. When people sat in the seat in front of me I had to keep scrunching around, trying look over their shoulders or in the aisle–but then my viewpoint changed so that wasn’t too helpful. The guy sitting next to me reading didn’t pay any attention to all my gyrating, nor did anyone else.

One thing I noticed about my process was that before I started drawing I sort of drew the picture mentally first, moving the pen above the paper, picturing how I’d place the image. Then I was ready to start drawing but had this rebellious moment where I decided to start with the hand that was closest to me (which doesn’t appear in the drawing because it was the only thing he moved) even though I had a feeling it was not the “right” place to start. It worked out ok anyway. I just kept my pen moving and the ride was over before I had time to overwork it. I considered adding some colored pencil when I got home, but decided to just leave it alone.

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People Sketchbook Pages

Sexual Harassment Training

Sexual-harassment-training1
(To enlarge, click image, select “All Sizes”)

Today was mandatory Sexual Harassment Training for supervisors, presented by an attorney who looked a lot like Billy Bob Thornton. It was pretty stressful since I had a ton of deadline projects today.

Sexual-harassment-training2
At first I was anxious, worried about the work waiting for me in my office, knowing the meeting would be a total waste of time (which it was). Then I realized I could spend the time drawing which would be fun and relaxing so I pulled out my little Moleskine, which is so perfect for drawing in meetings.

Sexual-harassment-training3
They served a nice box lunch (not pictured above–this was someone’s snack during the meeting)  and we were supposed to sit and chat with each other while we ate about times we felt we felt unfairly labeled or harassed. I made sure my name was on the list of attendees, grabbed my box lunch and excused myself two hours early. I ended up working until 7:30 p.m. to get caught up and be ready for tomorrow.

Micron Pigma ink in Moleskine notebook.
All images can be clicked to enlarge and then select “All Sizes”

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Drawing Life in general Other Art Blogs I Read People Sketchbook Pages

Dad’s drawings: A tiny treasure found

In a recent post I mentioned that sometimes when I’m drawing I’m wistfully reminded of the wonderful cartoony sketches my dad used to do. I remember one time he drew me, all knobby knees and elbows and I loved seeing my image appear–it was like magic! I thought none of his drawings or paintings remained, having been angrily disposed of by his second to last wife (all right, his second wife, but it was all so dramatic and scandalous at a time when divorce was rare and he was moving on to his third and last wife.)

When I was helping my mom try to find an old photo album in her garage yesterday, we found a tiny greeting card-sized album containing mementos of her marriage to my dad–a few wedding photos and some cards and sketches he’d made for her when she was pregnant with me. I felt like I’d found an absolute treasure and was so pleased that she allowed me to take his sketches with me.

My dad died a few years ago around this time of the year so it’s really nice to be able to remember him now through his drawings and to share them with you on my blog.

(All of the following images by my dad, Howard Goldstein, can be enlarged by clicking on the image and then on “All Sizes”)

Below: Charting the labor pains “June 17, June 18” (I was born on June 19th.)
dad 2

Below: “RivaLee Enters A Room”
dad 3

Below: Talking to the doctor: “And then at 2:16 she had a harder pain but at 2:27 she…”

dad 1

These were all drawn in pencil on the back of paper that said “Enrollment Blank for the California School of Screen Process,” a mail-order art school business my father and two uncles ran for a while in the late 1940s. I guess by the time of my birth the forms had become scratch paper and the school was no more. According to the Enrollment Blanks, their school offered a diploma, a 10 page booklet on how to conduct a profitable business and “10 individual, easy to read, simple to understand lessons that will give practical experience” along with a “Complete Kit of Supplies: Paints, silk, materials, photographic supplies, frame, squeegee, stencil knife, tacks, hinges…in fact, all the materials necessary to complete the course.” Fortunately they all went on to have very successful careers in their chosen professions.