Category: Sketchbook Pages

Categories
Other Art Blogs I Read People Sketchbook Pages

The Impressionists – Great DVD!

watching The Impressionists

Ink line and wash in Moleskine large watercolor notebook
(To enlarge, click image, select All Sizes)

While I was out doing errands today I stopped at Silver Screen, my local video shop, and found this wonderful, new BBC mini-series, The Impressionists, about Monet (and Manet, Renoir, Degas, Bazille and others). The story ties right in to the biography of Matisse I’m (still) reading (interspersed with several other books) and am now inspired to finish it.

The visuals in the movie are fabulous. One sees the images, places, and light that inspired the paintings and then sees the paintings being painted and finished. Monet as an old man in 1920 is telling the story of the Impressionists and his life as an artist to a journalist. Through flashbacks we see the stories take place, acted by the most divinely beautiful young men and women.

The scene I sketched above is at the point where the not-yet-named Impressionists decide to hold their own show because none of them can get their paintings accepted into the official, state-sponsored “salon”– just about the only venue for sales of paintings and they’re all desperately poor.

Here’s the DVD cover:

The Impressionists - great DVD!

I’m so tired tonight from from three nights of semi-insomnia that I didn’t think I’d do any drawing. But while I didn’t want to stop the film, I got so inspired watching it I had to stop and draw and paint something! Tomorrow’s my last day of work for the week and then I have another 5-day weekend so hopefully my ability to sleep and hence my energy will return.

Categories
Sketchbook Pages Still Life Watercolor

Peace on Earth

Peace Dove Candle holder

Watercolor in Moleskine watercolor notebook (plus a little salt)
(To enlarge, click image, select “All Sizes”)

For most people, today was all about celebrating Christmas. For me it was a luxuriously quiet and spacious day. I did this little painting of a glass dove candle holder that my mother gave me as a first year anniversary present many years ago. I didn’t like it at the time as I felt it had too many pointy edges, though I don’t understand that thought now.

A crystal dove, the symbol of peace seemed a good subject for Christmas day. Spending the afternoon at my drawing table, sipping a cup of sweet pomegranite-flavored green tea while listening to a good book and painting as the sky darkened and the candle glowed was very peaceful.

As the days begin to lengthen, I wish you, and all the world, Peace.

Categories
Colored pencil art Monoprint Outdoors/Landscape Sketchbook Pages

Monotype – Larkspur Landing

SirFrancis-monotype

Monotype and colored pencil on Arches 88 paper 6″x8″
(To enlarge, click image, select “All Sizes”)

This is the second monotype I made of this scene  from this sketch. Monotypes are one of a kind, so if you goof it up, you start over from scratch. With this kind of “reductive” monotype, you spread the ink on the plate (a piece of plexiglass) and then using Q-tips, rags, pointy things, and/or fingers, you wipe away the ink in the places that you want to be white or where you want to apply color later. It’s sort of like carving a woodblock or linoleum block except that instead of ending up with an image you can print repeatedly, once you press the paper on the ink to make a print, you have nothing left.

The first monotype I made of the scene printed too lightly and when I tried to press it again (by hand using a flat disk called a baren), the plate slipped. So all my work creating the image was lost because it made an off-register double image that was still too light (see below). So I wiped all the ink of the plate, reapplied it, and starting over, removing the ink to create the image above. When it was theoretically dry I applied colored pencils.

Bad print - Larkspur

It’s double-vision image is sort of interesting, so I might still play with it a bit, adding some color and seeing what happens. The thing I love about monotype is that forces you to let go of control and play and experiment.

A note about inks: I used water-based Akua Intaglio ink on these, and though I like the way the one at the top turned out after being colored, I didn’t like this ink. It continues to smear and is still water-soluable weeks after it was printed. I’ve found that oil-based inks are much nicer to work with, make a darker image, don’t dissolve if you add watercolor and dry more quickly than this ink. To my surprise, they clean up with a little vegetable oil and some soap — no need for solvents.

Categories
Sketchbook Pages Subway drawings

Subway Drawings (BART)

BART13

I first sat behind her and was sure she was holding a can of Budweiser. It seemed so sad at 8:30 a.m. I couldn’t stop thinking about her sad life, dressed in business attire and having to drink a can of beer on her way to work so I moved to a seat to the right and slightly behind her. When I looked again, I discovered it was a can of Slimfast, not beer. She spent more time staring at the can than drinking it. I tried that stuff once and it was like drinking liquid cake batter (ewww!). I just noticed I entered the date in my sketchbook as 9/20/06 but it was really 12/20/06. Wishful thinking?

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

BART12

This position is becoming increasingly familiar as I draw on BART — people playing games on their cell phones while listening to their iPods. I was so tired coming home tonight I didn’t even want to read or draw, just wanted to close my eyes, but then I saw this guy and had to draw him. I got the date wrong again when I entered it in my sketchbook — this time I wrote 10/21/06 and then corrected it to 12/21/06. I seem to be having trouble dealing with December!

Categories
Dreams Outdoors/Landscape People Sketchbook Pages Watercolor

Watery dream

Watery dream

Ink & watercolor in HandBook Co square sketchbook
(To enlarge, click image, select “All Sizes”)

For years I used to get up every morning and sketch my dreams before I did anything else. I have volumes of dream journals full of weird, amusing or x-rated drawings, depending on what the night had in store for me. I often painted the images too. I’m not sure when or why I stopped but I recently discovered an artist who works primarily from her dreams in monotype, Denise Kester, and got inspired to explore my dreams again.

My dreams are often humorous (to me anyway, but then I’m easily amused) or insightful — sometimes I wake up having invented something important and funny, as I illustrated here (one of my very favorite posts) or just quirky, like this one.

In the quickly sketched image above from last night, I dreamt that Sharon and I were canooeing down a pretty river when I realized that we had sunk up to our necks and that I was still wearing my fanny pack containing all my electronic gadgets (cell phone, digital camera, PDA) and they were all ruined. There was more about trying to put on ill-fitting overalls after nude sunbathing but I always hate it in novels when writers go on and on about a character’s dreams so I won’t bore you further with this one.

One last thing, this image of a river with tall banks is the same one I tried to make when I was 10 and convinced my father to let me paint with his oil paints. Unfortunately he gave me a piece of waxy palette paper to paint on and I remember it being so terribly frustrating to not be able to capture the image or anything at all, really, on that horrid paper. It kept me from trying to paint again for another 20 years.

Categories
Life in general Outdoors/Landscape Sketchbook Pages Watercolor

Cold morning

Cold morning

Watercolor, then Micron Pigma Brush Pen in Moleskine large watercolor notebook
(To enlarge, click image, select “All Sizes”)

I did this quick little painting this morning of the view out my living room window (more than slightly imaginated) (imaginate is my word for imagine and exaggerate). Even with the color in the sky, everything looked so cold, with frost on all the rooftops.

I’m counting this as yesterday’s post because last night my painting group got together for a little holiday celebration pizza dinner and I had some wine (which I usually don’t and so it tends to make me quickly tipsy) and even though we all sat around eating and talking and I could have been sketching them, it didn’t occur to me until just before everyone went home. I kept thinking we were going to get back to our original plan of taking a group photo, quickly printing and handing it out, and each of us spending an hour drawing/painting from the same photo and then seeing how different all of our paintings were. But with two pizzas, two bottles of wine, a yummy salad and lots to talk about….it just never happened.

Categories
Outdoors/Landscape Sketchbook Pages Watercolor

Cody’s Books & the Absent-Minded Artist

Cody's Books 4th Street

Micron Pigma ink & watercolor in large Moleskine watercolor notebook
(To enlarge, click image, select “All Sizes”)

After I saw Martha’s rendition of the Christmas lights on Berkeley’s 4th Street shopping area I decided to make my way there one evening to sketch. I hadn’t really planned on going there tonight though. I’d gone to the Blick Art Supplies store near there since Jackie (a knowledgeable sales clerk there) had offered to help me select some good oil painting brushes. I also gathered a number of other items I needed, even though I was annoyed that I’d left my sale coupon at home. That was the second absent minded act of the day. The first was trying to return my Masterpiece Theatre Prime Suspect DVD (EXCELLENT!) to the video store without the DVD inside. Before I left home this time I made sure I had the DVD in the box and in the car to return on the way home.

When I went to check out I discovered the Absent-Minded Artist struck again. Earlier today, in preparing to take a walk with Barbara, I’d removed my wallet from my fanny pack to lighten the load and never put it back in. Both Barbara and I were feeling like half-wits on our walk — I was recovering from yet another migraine last night and she’d been unable to sleep the night before.So there I was with all my items rung up and no money or cards to pay for them. (DUH!)

All was not lost though, since 4th Street was just around the corner. I drove down there, parked, looked for something to paint, moved a little, parked, moved some more, until I finally found a scene I wanted to paint.

Since I didn’t have much time, I drew straight away with ink, not worrying about perspective and straight lines (which is obvious). When I was ready to start painting, I put on my cool strap-on headlamp and it worked great. I tilted it to shine down on my paper and could see the colors I was mixing just fine. Unfortunately just as I started painting Cody’s turned off their interior lights so I had to paint that from memory.
When I got home I discovered Miss Absent Minded struck again. The DVDs were still on my car seat — I’d forgotten to return them again.

Categories
Every Day Matters Sketchbook Pages Watercolor

A Gift: Everyday Matters #97

Everyday Matters - Gift

Micron Pigma ink and watercolor in large Moleskine watercolor notebook
(To enlarge, click image, select “All Sizes”)
This week’s EDM Challenge is to draw and write about a gift we’ve received.

On the last day of a watercolor class I was teaching, Donna brought this cute little Santa as a gift for me (along with some yummy pumpkin bread to share). In past years I was very grumpy during the holidays but this year I decided to try something different. Instead of ranting about rampant commercialism, I would try to be a source of good cheer. I discovered that if I stayed true to myself by opting out of shopping, exchanging gifts and partying, I could go through the holidays gracefully. This little Santa sits on my table as a cheery reminder of the fullness and joy the holidays can bring.

I love hearing about other people’s memories of wonderful family Christmas celebrations with snow and gingerbread and all. I never had those growing up in southern California in a non-religious Jewish family. It wasn’t until my parents divorced and my dad moved out that my mom decided we could celebrate Christmas. So she hung some decorations on a big piece of driftwood she’d found on the beach and stuck in a pot of dirt in the living room. Not the sort of holiday that sugar plum dreams are made of.

When I was married and my kids were little we made a big deal out of Christmas, and had some cozy family traditions. But as the kids got older and the marriage ended, I began to gradually back out of the holiday. Each year I got a smaller tree until one year I just hung up a little picture of a tree. Once the kids moved on to their own lives, I dropped the whole Christmas/Hanukah thing. I continued enjoying and celebrating Thanksgiving and New Years though, since those holidays, to me, are about reflecting and giving thanks and spending time with loved ones without the shopping.

Now I’m letting Christmas back in again, just a wee bit, with my little Santa sitting on my table, reminding me about the fullness and joy of the season. It seems to be working — I haven’t had a single rant and it’s already a week before Christmas. (Thanks Donna!)

(To slip just a bit in the rant department, I laughed at Willie’s Christmas tree here (notice what’s under the tree!).

Added in response to some comments: It’s hard to explain, but I really don’t feel sad at all. It’s kind of like I just don’t have that holiday gene so I don’t feel like I’m missing anything. I think I feel more unhappy when I force myself to participate in things that don’t feel authentic to me. So instead I’m kind of vicariously enjoying the holidays by watching other people who do have the gene and seeing how they enjoy the season and appreciating it.

Categories
Life in general Sketchbook Pages Still Life Watercolor

My little cow glass is broken

Broken cow glass

Watercolor in 5×5″ Hand Book Journal
(To enlarge, click image, select “All Sizes”)

I found this little glass at a thirft shop and really liked it. I’d been leaving it on the kitchen counter where it’s handy to grab for a quick glass of water. Yesterday when I came home from work I found it in the sink, chipped and cracked. I guess the kitties were investigating the counter and knocked it off. It makes me sad that I can’t drink out of it anymore. It was just the right size and shape. I like it too much to throw it away. I’ll just keep it in the studio to look at and enjoy.

I know it’s odd that to be so fond of a cheap little thrift shop glass the way other people might relish jewelry or other fancy things. That’s just how I am though–I get more pleasure from simple things than fancy ones–like the old wool blanket on my bed. It’s warm and cozy but long ago lost all its satin binding. It has several holes chewed on the edges from when I took care of my niece Sophie’s pet rat for a few days. We kept the rat in its cage in my sons’ room next to their guinea pigs. But the rat’s cage was too close to the bed and it pulled the blanket (which had been my grandmother’s) into the cage and chewed off some nice bedding material for himself (or herself, I forget which).

My sons grew up and moved on, but I still have the blanket and don’t mind the scalloped edges. The blanket keeps me warm and it’s nice to sleep covered with something that my grandmother once held in her arms as she folded it (and probably ironed it knowing her).

Categories
People Sketchbook Pages Watercolor

Judith (and Fiona) in the Night Studio

Judith in the Night Studio

Ink drawing with watercolor Raffine 6×9 sketchbook
(To enlarge, click image, select “All Sizes”)

Tonight my painting group came by for our usual Tuesday (or sometimes Wednesday) painting session. Judith offered to pose for me while she was working on a painting and she was a perfect model. She actually was an artist’s model back in her art school days. Fiona decided to pose too — she’s on the window seat behind Judith.

This was the last page in this notebook and even though I’ve complained about the Raffine sketchbook from time to time, I’ve come to like it in a funny way. Because I didn’t love it I could be really free about sketching in it, not caring if I “wasted” pages. That way of thinking has rubbed off on all my sketchbooks (I have half a dozen going at once so I can pick just the one I’m in the mood for or that’s the right size) so I’m treating them all as working tools rather than precious items of value on their own.

I’m amazed and happy that my energy has returned and I haven’t had any caffeine since last Thursday. I guess I’ve completed my caffeine detox and I’m back to myself again…or maybe it’s the wonderful rainy weather I love so much, or the finally waning full moon. Whatever it is, I’ll take it! After a good night’s sleep last night, a productive day at work doing things that were not easy, and our painting session tonight, I’m still feeling cheery and not tired. Yay!