Category: Sketchbook Pages

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People Sketchbook Pages Subway drawings

BART Subway drawings

bart30

All are ink in small Moleskine sketchbook. This guy (above) had huge fleshy ears and his headphones barely covered them. He got off really quickly or I would have done more studies of his ears which enthralled me (I’m easily amused).

bart28

She slept the whole way home. I always wonder whether soundly sleeping people miss their stop. We were all tired on that car since it was 7:00 p.m. and I guess we’d all worked late. Almost everyone was sleeping .

bart29

I wish it wasn’t so late and I wasn’t so tired tonight because I’m excited about going out plein air painting tomorrow morning with one of the three groups in my area that I found and joined and I’d love to say more about that. But today was really busy and then I just spent a couple hours packing all my art supplies to make sure I had everything I needed for both oil painting and watercolor sketching in my cart. Then I tried to touch up a couple of pretty bad plein air practice paintings I did this week (in my backyard), thinking I’d post those but they’re not ready. So all I have to post tonight are a couple very quick sketchy sketches from my ride home from work on BART this week.

Categories
Life in general Painting Plants Sketchbook Pages Still Life Watercolor

Remains of the Day

feather

Watercolor in Moleskine large watercolor notebook (Larger)

I picked up this feather and some sort of dingleberry/pod that fell from a tree on a walk by Lake Merritt (which has a bird sanctuary). I actually collected several feathers of different sizes, textures and colors that I wanted to draw. But trying to keep the cats away from the feathers got to be too much trouble so I put the others away. After repeatedly removing the cats from the drawing table I gave up and put this one away too, switching to drawing this little pod thingee.

Tonight my painting group got together at my studio after several weeks of not meeting and it was so nice to see everyone again and catch up on each other’s art, work, life, and families while we all painted. We’ve been together for at least 10 years (nobody can remember when we actually started), and though we’re all very different we’ve become a wonderfully close, supportive, loving little family. Together we’ve survived divorces, deaths of loved ones, romances (failed and successful), surgeries, cancer, teenagers, empty nesting (and kids who won’t leave home) and more. And all the while we’ve kept painting, learning, and growing as artists and friends. I’m so lucky to have their support and friendship.

Categories
Glass Sketchbook Pages Still Life Watercolor

Clover Honey Bubblebath and Bath Brush

Clover Honey Bubble Bath

Watercolor in large Moleskine watercolor sketchbook
Click here to see larger

These lovely items were my birthday gift from my office and I’ve been dying to paint them. I’m probably going to do it again as a “real” watercolor too, not just a sketch like this one. I might give it a shot in oil too.

The bubble bath in the bottle is thick as honey and looks and smells like it too. It’s full of other wonderful things from the garden: lettuce, celery, sage, clover, bilberry, cucumber, rosemary and avocado oil. It’s called Gardener’s Greenhouse Bubbling Bath Clover Honey. It’s the nicest bubble bath I’ve ever had and the bath brush is lovely and soft. I used them last night for the first time and it was heavenly.

My cats had never seen bubble bath before, and being fascinated with anything watery, were transfixed. While I lay in the tub and read, they fished for pawfuls of bubbles, tried to eat them, which I discouraged (I tasted it to see if it really tasted like honey and sadly it didn’t–soap!) and chased them around when I fluffed some onto the floor for them.

I woke up at 4:00 a.m. with a headache today and had a really busy day, including practicing setting up for plein air oil painting by assembling everything and then painting in my own garden. I picked a perfect spot — my Japanese Maple glowing in the light–but by the time I had everything together, it was in the shade. I painted anyway, and the painting turned out fairly icky. But it was all about rehearsing and hopefully I found all of the problems and things I still need to make this set up work. More about that later…for now it’s time to catch up on the sleep I missed last night.

Categories
Art theory Life in general People Sketchbook Pages Subway drawings

Art Shows on TV & Subway Drawings

BART26

Above, on the train to work in the morning, 5 minute drawing.
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All are ink in Moleskine sketchbook

BART27-El Cerrito Plaza Station

Above, waiting for the train on the platform, 3 minute drawing

Bart25

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Above, people on the train to work, probably 3 minutes each (my trip is only 13 minutes)

I’m sooooo tired tonight. I think I used up all my brain juice at work today which seemed more intense than usual, multi-tasking, solving problems, meeting needs, responding to questions, ticking one thing after another off the bottom of my to-do list as more things piled on top of it. At the end of the day I had 48 work email messages I still hadn’t dealt with yet, some left over from Monday. I get about a hundred a day, most needing me to do something. Thank goodness tomorrow is Thursday and Friday starts my weekend. How did I ever manage a 5-day work week? It’s only 8:15 and it feels like 10 p.m. so I’m going to go watch some mindless TV and then go to bed.

Art History Shows
I’ve TiVo’d and have been gradually watching the Simon Schama series, The Power of Art, on PBS. It’s really weird. Each week a different seedy-looking British actor portrays another famous artist (most of whom weren’t British) while Schama narrates bits of history, trying to make everything sound as lurid as possible. The actors dramatize the artists’ darkest, most desparate moments of depravity, criminality, mental illness, illicit affairs, and bizarre behavior, focusing not on their most famous work, but the work they were most infamous for. It’s kind of like the Jerry Springer/National Enquirer/tabloid TV show version of the world of art. Some of the scenes are really disturbing such as Van Gogh squeezing tube after tube of brilliant oil paint into his mouth and swallowing it. Yechh!

I’ve also TiVo’d a CPB show, “Art of the Western World” with another British guy narrating the history of art, period by period, with just the opposite approach–a bit on the “good for you” but boring side. It was originally made as a college course, I think. I love my TiVo, by the way. It’s easy to use and I can set it to record every episode of a show with one click of the remote, and search for shows about art and painting and click to record them (which is how I found these programs). One more excellent program is American Masters on PBS. Recent episodes have featured David Hockney: “The Color of Music” and John James Audubon: “Drawn from Nature.”

Painting How-To Shows
Another show I’ve been enjoying is Your Brush with Nature. Each week the host, Heiner Hertling, paints a plein air oil painting on site in different locations. It’s not corny like some painting shows and he’s a good teacher, thinking out loud as he tackles the challenges of painting outdoors. There are two watercolor painting shows I record: Terry Madden’s Watercolor Workshop and Gary Spetz’s Painting Wild Places. I’ve gotten a little tired of Spetz because he does SO MUCH detailed masking with masking fluid, but both Madden and Spetz make attractive paintings and demonstrate techniques worth knowing about. For acrylics, Jerry Yarnell demonstrates how to paint what look like traditional oil paintings but using acrylics. I was having a really hard time figuring out acrylics and watching his show really helped to understand. I tried watching the ubiquitous Bob Ross oil painting shows on PBS but just couldn’t stomach them because they were way too gimicky and not at all about painting what you see (“here’s how to paint happy little trees”). I do love his voice though.

I’ve recently discovered an art video rental company like Netflix only for art videos called Smartflix. I haven’t rented from them yet (it’s a little expensive–$10 a video rental) but it seems like it might be worth it–cheaper than taking classes (though without the teacher feedback on your own work) –to see masters at work whose books I’ve read but seeing them work adds another whole dimension.

Categories
Landscape Life in general Other Art Blogs I Read Outdoors/Landscape Painting Plein Air Sketchbook Pages Watercolor

Towata Park, Alameda

Towata Park, Alameda

Ink and watercolor in large Moleskine watercolor sketchbook
Click here to see larger

Thursday night was a 2-hour plein air paint-out on Alameda Island that was part of the Frank Bette Art Center’s annual invitational weeklong event that culminates in a show and a fund-raising auction in the park Saturday. Susie and I went there straight from work and had a very enjoyable time looking at all the accomplished plein air painters at work spread out over about a half-mile square area. It was warm, very windy and the sun was setting on the water, creating glare amidst views of a marsh, the bay, a small boat harbor, San Francisco across the bay, and a huge old concrete bridge with rush hour traffic flying across it a very short distance away. Despite all these challenges, the artists were doing some amazing work. After we’d admired all the interesting styles and techniques we found a spot where we could sit and draw too.

We’d both been attracted to the funny little boat to the left of the picture so we both drew and painted the same scene (but quite differently) in about 20 minutes. Then we took another walk around to see the finished pieces and left as the artists were setting up their paintings in a circle so that they could vote on the winning painting. While we were there, I got to see Ed Terpening, a fellow blogger, in action (the painting he was working on last night can be seen by clicking his name), and met Tom Zephyrs, a fantastic artist who is the brother-in-law of a childhood friend. Susie and my favorite was a large pastel in brilliant colors of the imposing bridge by artist and blogger Ann McMillan. She won first prize at last year’s event and that pastel is featured on the Frank Bette’s website page about the event.

Two nights in a row of painting inspiration and two nights in a row of dreaming about painting…until the earthquake hit at 4:42 this morning, putting an end to lovely dreams for the night. Fortunately it didn’t create any problems and was short enough that I didn’t even have time to do my usual earthquake reaction: panic and try to remember what it is I’m supposed to do during an earthquake. It felt like someone had taken my one-story, rectangular house that is much longer one way than the other, and picked it up at one end and snapped it, like you do with a sheet when you’re opening it and laying it on the bed.

Categories
Art theory Landscape Life in general Other Art Blogs I Read Outdoors/Landscape Sketchbook Pages

Snow Park, Oakland

Snow Park, Oakland

Ink & colored pencil in small Moleskine notebook
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I drew this sitting on a wall in front of the building where I work, waiting for a ride after I witnessed something disturbing and weird this evening that changed my plans for the evening. I left work and headed to BART to get home and meet Lea to go to the California Watercolor Association meeting where Jody Mattison was going to be demonstrating painting using a grisaille technique in black and white oil painting over an acrylic underpainting in burnt umber, and then glazing in color in oils (odd for CWA which is usually all about transparent watercolors, but serendipitous for me since I wanted to learn that technique).

I saw a boy in a small group of middle-school age skateboarders being attacked by a huge security guard half a block from my building. The security guard looked and acted just like Forrest Whitaker as Idi Amin in the Last King of Scottland. The boy couldn’t have weighed 100 pounds and the enormous guard must have been 6’4″ and 280 pounds. They were fighting like kids in a school yard shoving each other and yelling. The guard shoved the boy hard who threw his skateboard at the guard, who then pushed the kid down in a raised planting bed and began choking him. He finally let the kid up with a viscious crazy laugh and the two began yelling at each other again. People on both sides of the street and driving by in cars looked stunned. The guard kept roughing up the kid, pushing him down, strong-arming him and yelling madly. Two cars pulled over and tried to intervene but the guy ignored them, and I could see people calling 911 on their phones. Occasionally the guard would talk into a radio and then go back to acting crazy and aggressive with the kid.

I started to leave and then just couldn’t. I walked over to them and said, “Excuse me sir, do you work here? This is totally inappropriate and unprofessional behavior.” He said he worked for the security firm hired by the building. The kid was saying, “Did you see him attack me? He was harassing me…” and his buddy said “I have it all on my camera!” He showed me the film on his little digital camera and it clearly showed the guard’s aggressive behavior and the kid defending himself. I asked them if they would all follow me back to the building where I knew the building security guards who staffed the front desk would be more reasonable. Surprisingly they all agreed to follow me as did several witnesses. Inside the building the guard said the police had already been called and everyone agreed to wait for them or left their names and numbers for the police.

Meanwhile I realized I’d never get home in time to meet Lea so I phoned her. She offered to bring me dinner so that we could go directly from my office to the meeting. Finally the police came, interviewed everyone separately. From what I heard while waiting, apparently these kids regularly skateboard by the building because the boy who got attacked’s mom owns the Togos Deli in the building and the guard regularly harasses them about skateboarding, even though they stay on public property, not on the building’s grounds. And the guard claimed the kids harass him. I told him that he still had no business behaving that way and I told the boys that they were asking for trouble, knowing that this guy was wacked but still tempting him by skating nearby but that still didn’t give him the right to harm them.

Finally I left everyone in the building with the police and went out in front and did this drawing of the sunset view of the park across the street with the huge herd of geese (it’s too big to call it a flock) that hang out there, Lake Merritt in the back to the left, and a tall, glorious Art Deco apartment building behind the trees. Lea arrived with a wonderful dinner for me, and drove us to the meeting for the demonstration which was terrific!

Tomorrow when I go to work I’m going to talk to the building management to tell them that guy should NOT be working there.

Categories
Outdoors/Landscape Sketchbook Pages Watercolor

Colusa Circle’s Kensington Bistro

Kensington Bistro

Ink and watercolor in small Moleskine notebook
Click here to see larger

I supposedly work half a day from home on Mondays so that I can get out and paint in the afternoons. Unfortunately I often have trouble turning off the work email and end up working most of the day. Today I forced myself out the door around 3:00 for a walk and a visit to my favorite produce market, Colusa Market in Kensington. I parked at the Colusa Circle, took an enjoyable walk, and then came back and sat on a bench in front of the pub called the “Kensington Circus” and drew the Kensington Bistro across the traffic circle. The little peaks on the building are all wonky but I just couldn’t make myself get out a ruler and use 2 point perspective. I just wanted to draw so I did. The bistro is situated on a slight hill so the building does slant downhill from left to right…but still…

Categories
Painting Sketchbook Pages Still Life Watercolor

Quick Cantaloupe

Cantaloupe

Ink & watercolor in large Moleskine watercolor notebook
Click here to see bigger

When I was traveling across country many years ago, taking an old highway instead of a huge interstate, I stopped for breakfast in an old-fashioned roadside diner with wood panelled walls and big, dark padded booths. I was handed a typed menu covered in a thick plastic sleeve with red leatherette edging. There was a typo on the menu that said, “Fresh cantalpupe.” I’ve never been able to look at cantaloupe since then without remembering that wonderfully odd typo and saying silently to myself, “cantalpupe.” Try it…it’s so fun to say…but then so is cantaloupe with it’s extra, silent “u”. Shouldn’t it be pronounced cantaloope with that u in there?

And it tastes good too. Now I’m going to go eat my still life and go to bed!

Categories
Drawing People Sketchbook Pages

Sketching musicians in the dark

Fishtank Ensemble 2

All sketches are ink in small Moleskine notebook
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The Fishtank Ensemble performs a fascinating mix of Eastern European/Klezmer/Gypsy/Flamenco/Japanese music and their beautiful lead singer has the most astonishing, operatic voice. They were performing at Ashkenaz on a Wednesday night while I was on vacation and I went by myself to hear them since for everyone else it was a “school night.”

It was a fabulous, thrilling performance, and much of the music was very fast so I was drawing really fast too, even though I could just barely see what I was doing. Here are some more of my sketchy drawings from that night. If only they could convey the excitement of the music!

Fishtank Ensemble 1

To see larger click here.
The square instrument above is a Japanese shamisen. The lead singer plays violin and saw and can make her voice sound just an ethereal saw.

Fishtank Ensemble 3 Dancer at the Fishtank Ensemble Performance

Left above: The lead singer is tall, slim and dazzling, (my drawing doesn’t do her justice), wearing a flippy little black skirt and a very small jeweled black velvet top with bare midriff and delicate high heeled sandals.

Right above: On the other hand, this woman who was dancing in front of me looked like she was trying to make herself look dumpy. She was wearing striped kneesocks with oxford shoes, a short baggy sweater on top of a long baggy shirt and a bulky pleated knit skirt. She had her hair in pigtails and was wearing big glasses. But she was having a ton of fun dancing up a storm.

Categories
Every Day Matters Illustration Friday Sketchbook Pages Studio Watercolor

IF: Twist; EDM #124: Something Yellow

Twist; EDM Something Yellow

Watercolor in Moleskine large watercolor sketchbook

This week’s Illustration Friday challenge is “Twist” — there’s nothing like a nice twist of lemon in a glass of ice water (or in something more exciting, like a lemon drop martini, which I’m sure sounds better than it tastes, since I’m not a fan of martinis). And last week’s Everyday Matters challenge was to draw something yellow…so there you go.

I did this watercolor sketch yesterday but when I scanned it, my monitor display was driving me crazy. No matter what I did in Photoshop I couldn’t get an image that looked anything like the original. I tried again and again to calibrate my monitor using Adobe Gamma but just couldn’t get it right. I finally gave up around midnight, vowing to resolve the problem today one way or another.

Today I went to a great photography store in Berkeley, Looking Glass Photo. They rent and sell everything you need for digital or film photography and they’re staffed by experts who are generous with their knowledge. Initially I was going to rent a fancy set of calibration tools but a handsome, Buddha-like man named Paul (a customer who used to work there) steered me towards buying a simpler unit for not much more money than it would have cost to rent the unnecessarily fancy tools for just one day. I bought the Gretagmacbeth Eye-One Display 2 which looks like a small regular computer mouse.

I waited until it got dark out, turned on my full spectrum overhead lights only and then hung the little device over my monitor. I tried the automatic calibration which was OK, and then I tried the more detailed program, which I think did a better job. When it finished, I scanned my little lemon twist and amazingly it appeared on my screen just like the original. I have no idea how it will look on your screen, but at last, after all the changes in my studio, my monitor, scanner and printer are all working together again. Whoopee! Now I can get back to painting instead of messing with computer stuff!

P.S. If this looks washed out or too bright on your monitor, please let me know.