Category: Places

Teepees in the Hood: Sketchercize

Post author By Jana Bouc
Post date August 10, 2009
5 Comments on Teepees in the Hood: Sketchercize

I went out for a bit of “sketchercize” today, trying to get unsluggish. My plan was to walk 30 minutes, sketch wherever I landed at 30 minutes and then walk 30 minutes back. But 15 minutes out I came across this odd montage and had to stop right there. Up a few stairs just past some lovely native drought resistant plantings, and a miniature pagoda was a full sized authentic teepee in front of a wall of bamboo. Somewhere behind that was a house.

Why would someone have a teepee in their front yard? Is it for houseguests who have overstayed their welcome? A mother-in-law apartment? A garden shed? A kid’s playhouse? An art studio? A meditation room? A dog house? A place to just get away?

One nice thing about living in the San Francisco Bay Area, or at least in this part of it, is the feeling of “Anything goes,” and “Live and let live.” Slightly (?) odd artists like me fit right in. I definitely found my tribe when I moved to Berkeley, and while I live a few miles north of there now, apparently it’s close enough for teepees.

And now off to watch the season five finale of Project Runway on DVD. Since I’ve finished all 5 seasons of The Wire, and caught up on Project Runway, I’m excited to get back to more drawing and reading and much, much less time in front of the TV!

Tags Ink and watercolor wash, Landscape, Micron Pigma, Pen and Ink, Richmond Annex, Sketchbook Pages, Sketchercize

Art theory Blake Gardens Landscape Oil Painting Outdoors/Landscape Painting Places Plein Air

Blake Gardens Revised; Pondering Painting

Post author By Jana Bouc
Post date August 9, 2009
11 Comments on Blake Gardens Revised; Pondering Painting

Blake Gardens Revised, oil on panel 9x12"

When my sister looked at the original version of this painting (posted here) she told me her eye kept going to the bright area in the upper right. There was a lot that was distracting in that image, and I thought the ground was too dark and the two little patches of flowers on opposite sides of the path were distracting too. But now maybe I lost some of the sunshine by lightening the ground and darkening that corner? (see original below)

Blake Gardens Late Afternoon, oil on panel, 9x12" — Blake Gardens (version 1, click to enlarge)

So it was back to the drawing board…er easel. I spent some more time working on it and I think it’s done now. Which do you like better? Or do you think the revised version needs more work and if so what?

Yesterday I was out plein air painting in the funky little town of Port Costa, and because I was painting buildings, spent more time drawing than painting to get the perspective right. (Which makes me realize I need to add one more point to my How to Oil Paint Plein Air List: # 5. “Get the drawing right!”). Today I tried to (but didn’t quite ) finish it. While I used to often spend a month or more completing a watercolor painting, for some reason I have the idea that an oil painting should be finished more quickly, like in one session.

Perhaps what bothers me is that when I paint plein air I work small, using a 9×12″ panel. It seems like a waste of time to work such a small painting for days afterward, putting in lots of details (because I like details, darn it, even though plein air oil paintings are supposed to be simplified).

Maybe the trick is to paint the plein air painting as a simplified field study and then if I like it, if it has life and soul and the subject still interests me, grab a bigger canvas and paint big where I can really get into things like reflections in windows and other crunchy details, instead of continuing to work on the study.

But for now, it’s back to overworking yesterday’s study since I just scraped off the bottom 1/4 of the painting and need to redo it before the paint dries.

Tags Art theory, Blake Gardens, Landscape, Oil Painting, Plein Air

Berkeley Drawing Ink and watercolor wash Places Sketchbook Pages

Sketching Doors near the Berkeley Rose Garden

Post author By Jana Bouc
Post date August 8, 2009

Here’s a few sketches of doors from last week’s North Berkeley sketchcrawl around Euclid and Crystal above the Berkeley Rose Garden. I was really tired and not terribly inspired, but it was a nice evening nevertheless.

Near Berkeley Rose Garden #1, ink & watercolor

Near Berkeley Rose Garden #2, ink & watercolor

Tags Berkeley, Drawing, Ink and watercolor wash, Pen and Ink, Sketchbook Pages

Berkeley Drawing Ink and watercolor wash Places Sketchbook Pages

Sketching Normandy Village in North Berkeley

Post author By Jana Bouc
Post date August 6, 2009
4 Comments on Sketching Normandy Village in North Berkeley

This week we headed to Spruce Street in North Berkeley to sketch “Normandy Village,” a 1920s blueprint copy of a village in rural France. For some reason I did all of the village sketches on one spread in my sketchbook so I’ve separated them to post here. I started with these funny gargoyles on one of the cottages, experimenting with a Penstix Indian ink pen that bleeds a bit when water is added.

Normandy Village on Spruce Street #2, ink & wash

After the gargoyles I walked back into the little village and sketched the towers. While I was balancing on my 3-legged stool on the cobbled road, some residents drove up to unload some stuff from their car. A young man showed me his large pencil drawings he’d done at school that day and said he was an illustrator and a “Concept Artist.” Actually he’s a student at SF Academy of Art but with that kind of confidence will likely go far.

Normandy Village Gnome house, ink & watercolor

While most of the cottages in the village look like Hobbit houses, one of the “Village People” as the residents are known, is a gnome collector. Her kitchen window is lined with small gnomes, and the backyard just visible through the archway above, is loaded with gnomes large and small. This one was resting in a chair.

A friendly couple who lived in one of the apartments in this building came out with a plate of produce scraps to put in the recycling bin near me. We chatted about drawing and which was more difficult, drawing people or architecture. I showed them the trick for getting angles approximately right when sketching.

When it got too dark and we were walking up the hill to our cars we saw this home below and realized that in the open on the top of the hill here there was still enough light to do one more sketch

Last sketch on Spruce Street Sketchcrawl #4, Ink & watercolor

Tags Berkeley, Ink and watercolor wash, ink sketch, Pen and Ink, Sketchbook Pages

Animals Bay Area Parks Drawing Ink and watercolor wash Outdoors/Landscape Painting People Places Sketchbook Pages

Goose (Poop) Park and Subway Sketches

Post author By Jana Bouc
Post date August 5, 2009
4 Comments on Goose (Poop) Park and Subway Sketches

Snow Park (Goose Park), ink & watercolor

I meant to take a walk at lunch today but when I saw this old lady feeding the geese I had to stop and sketch. This is a little park near my office in downtown Oakland called “Snow Park” but a better name would be “Goose Poop Park” since it’s home to the many Canadian geese who don’t seem to feel the need to head north or south any longer.

I drew the faces of these subway riders on my way to work this morning. I drew the feet on the way home. That guy was holding his juice on the floor with his feet.

Tags Animals, BART, Bay Area Parks, Birds, Ink and watercolor wash, Landscape, Oakland, Pen and Ink, People, Sketchbook Pages, subway drawing

Animals Bay Area Parks Drawing Ink and watercolor wash Life in general Outdoors/Landscape People Places Sketchbook Pages Sketchercize

Pt. Isabel Sketchercize

No those aren’t circus dogs stacked up in a doggie pyramid, I just drew them that way as dogs came and went, begging for scraps at the table where the couple was eating lunch.

I’d planned to spend the day in the studio today, but when Barbara called to invite me for a walk at Pt. Isabel, I couldn’t resist. Since it was sunny and not too windy (or so I thought) I also brought along my plein air gear, thinking I might set up to paint there after our walk. But we took a L-O-N-G walk on the Bay Trail with an equally long walk back, and then had a late lunch at the Sit Stay Cafe in the dog park.

The wind had picked up and I was getting cold and didn’t really feel like spending 3 hours standing in the wind (see top left picture with poor bent over tree from the constant ocean winds). So while I was trying to decide, Barbara took out her sketchbook and I decided to do the same. By the time I finished it was already 4:00 and another weekend was nearly over.

But a day with good solid exercise and a little sketching is a good day and it counts. (Unlike some days that just suck and don’t count.)

Tags Animals, Bay Area Parks, Dog, Ink and watercolor wash, Pen and Ink, People, Pt. Isabel, Sketchbook Pages, Sketchercize

Bay Area Parks Drawing Ink and watercolor wash Places Sketchbook Pages

Sketching at John Muir House

Post author By Jana Bouc
Post date July 25, 2009
11 Comments on Sketching at John Muir House

John Muir Transit Then and Now, ink & watercolor

We had a paintout at John Muir National Park in Martinez today. My painting was complete rubbish, so to leave with pleasant memories of the day, I stayed and sketched these two carts that were on the patio behind the visitors center. I wrote “Transit Then and Now” on the page but the ranger corrected me when I handed him my sketchbook to get it stamped (see stamp top left).

He told me the “Then” wagon is actually a sprayer: the wooden barrel was filled with tobacco juice that John Muir’s farmhands sprayed on the fruit orchards to kill pests. He said that modern organic farmers have rediscovered this effective technique and are using it again. The “Now” cart is a neat little electric car they use to get around the beautiful hilly property. The rangers were so helpful, eager to share their knowledge about the park’s history, and very welcoming to the 21 of us who came to paint today.

Unfortunately I’ve apparently forgotten everything I knew about painting in oils plein air in the month that I’ve been focusing on acrylic painting in the studio and sketching with ink and watercolor. But at the critique several people had helpful suggestions about saving my painting. I’d started with a bad composition (despite trying out several thumbnails first) but they reminded me I could use artistic license and change the scene to improve the composition. (DUH! I can’t believe I didn’t think of that!) In fact, many people in the group did just that, deleting one or both tall palm trees that stand in front of the house and evenly divide the scene.

I’m going to give their ideas a try and who knows, maybe I’ll be able to rescue the painting. But not tonight.

Tags Bay Area Parks, Ink and watercolor wash, John Muir, Pen and Ink, Sketchbook Pages

Berkeley Drawing Flower Art Ink and watercolor wash People Places Sketchbook Pages

Sketching Around

Rose Walk Steps, Berkeley, Ink & Watercolor — Rose Walk Path steps, Berkeley, Ink & Watercolor

For our Monday night sketchcrawl we met at the Berkeley Rose Garden, sketched a bit, and then took a stroll along Euclid Ave. At sunset we sketched at the foot of the Rose Walk Path steps where two women residents of the cluster of Maybeck cottages there had a cheerful chat in front of a large Japanese maple while we sketched them.

20090720-Hollyhock — Hollyhocks, ink & watercolor

Berkeley Rose Garden views, Ink & watercolor

Inside the rose garden I sketched the trees and the person reading in a bright spot of sun. The hollyhocks on the right were our last sketching stop since it was totally dark by the time we finished them.

On Sunday I spent the afternoon on a beautiful sailboat on the San Francisco Bay. After our sail my friend Barbara and I found a dockside bench near a cafe to sketch before heading home. This funny little fishing boat was docked there and was a perfect subject for a quick sketch.

Tags Berkeley, Flower Art, Ink and watercolor wash, Pen and Ink, People, Sketchbook Pages

Animals Bay Area Parks Drawing Ink and watercolor wash Outdoors/Landscape Places Richmond Annex Sketchbook Pages Sketchercize

Amazing Grace: “Sketchercizing” on the S.F. Bay Trail

Post author By Jana Bouc
Post date July 13, 2009
13 Comments on Amazing Grace: “Sketchercizing” on the S.F. Bay Trail

The weather is gorgeous in the S.F. Bay Area today, sunny and warm with a gentle breeze. It inspired me to drag my old bike out of hiding and go for my first bike ride in two years. Of course the tires were completely flat. I got my first bit of exercise pumping up the tires (while managing to get chain grease all over myself working from the wrong side of the bike.) Finally took off down the street and 3 blocks later realized that when the front tire pointed straight ahead, the handles bars were turned to the left.

Rode back home, called bike store, got directions to fix it, used wrong little L-shaped wrench thingee which got stuck in the hole, called bike store again, found the correct metric wrench they said to use in my son’s tools he left behind in my garage, got the stuck one out, tried again, but couldn’t loosen the bolt. Looked around to see if there were any men home on the block who could strong-arm it for me. No men home.

Called sons (both avid cyclists). Son #1 not answering. Son #2 was working from home and was so sweet, came right over and fixed it for me. Finally, two hours after I first planned to leave, I was on my way, down to the Bay Trail.

It was glorious! I rode through Richmond Annex, crossed over the freeway on the pedestrian bridge at Sacramento St., over to Central, down to the Bay Trail, and rode all the way to the Rosie the Riveter Monument and National Park in Richmond. I stopped to paint the ship “Amazing Grace” (above) in the Marina Bay Yacht Harbor.

Sit Stay Cafe at Pt. Isabell, ink & watercolor, 6x9"

My reward on the way home was lunch at the Sit Stay Cafe at Pt. Isabel. I was sitting under a bright red-orange umbrella there when I painted this and so all the colors came out really weird (that’s the bay and SF in the distance on upper right). I loved the body language of the people and the dogs. Pt. Isabel is an enormous dog park along the bay with spectacular views. The cafe is next door to Mud Puppy’s Tub and Scrub dog bathing shop, so the patio and cafe are dog friendly.

Then I cycled home happy, if a bit sunburned. Tonight is the El Cerrito Art Association meeting, with a demo by artist and Liquitext rep Michele Theberge.

What a great day! The views of the bay, the harbors, the city, were spectacular, the sun hot and the breezes cooling. Doesn’t get much better than this! Definitely an Amazing Grace kind of day!

(Some of this also posted on Sketchercise.ning.com.)

Tags Amazing Grace, Animals, Bay Area Parks, Color Theory, Dog, Drawing, Ink, Ink and watercolor wash, Mud Puppy's, Plein Air, Pt. Isabel, Richmond Annex, Sit Stay Cafe, Sketchbook Pages, Sketchercize, Watercolor

Albany Drawing Faces Ink and watercolor wash People Places Sketchbook Pages

Monday Night Sketchcrawl: Albany

Post author By Jana Bouc
Post date July 7, 2009
8 Comments on Monday Night Sketchcrawl: Albany

Monday night Cathy and I did a little sketching around San Pablo Avenue between Albany and El Cerrito, not the most inspiring of locales it turns out. It amused me that the palm tree above had an Available for Lease sign just in front of it, though it was actually a space in the building behind it (that I didn’t draw) that was for lease. The other pics above are of the Albany bowl and inside Peets Coffee where we ended the evening.

We started at the Old Gun Room, a still-functioning, historic gun store that is terribly out of place and time. I was having trouble paying close attention to detail last night, and drew the N in “Guns” on the sign backwards, as well as adding an extra wagon wheel in the fence. I think I did a better job last time I drew and painted the Gun Room when I painted it on site.

I like the way the Hotsy-Totsy sign came out, though I’m not sure what happened to the perspective: I KNOW I couldn’t have seen the top of the sign. But I was really hungry at that point and was having even more trouble paying attention to details. By the way, the Hotsy-Totsy Club is anything but! It opens around 7 a.m. (need I say more?).(UPDATE: the club has new owners and a new clientele and a fun retro vibe; see my newer post here).

Cathy likes to sketch on site in order to capture more images, and then adds paint at home. I don’t usually do that, preferring to paint on site, but tried it last night. After I’d done all the cross-hatching on the windows and door area, trying to shade them, I looked at what Cathy was doing and saw that she just does the outlines without any cross-hatching when she’s going to paint the images later. I think that makes more sense and allows the watercolor to do the shading rather than the incongruous scribbly ink that was too dark.

We decided that next week we’ll go somewhere pretty and away from traffic, like the Berkeley Rose Garden.

Tags Albany, El Cerrito, Faces, Ink and watercolor wash, Pen and Ink, People, Sketchbook Pages