Category: Sketchbook Pages

Subway Drawings (BART)

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.

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.

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

Tags Pen and Ink, People, Subway drawings

Drawing Sketchbook Pages

Tired View

Ink in HandBook Co. square sketchbook
Drawn laying down, looking out the window since that was all I had energy for today.

Usually this “fall-back day” is my favorite day of the year because we get an extra hour. I like to wait until an hour in the day that I’m enjoying and want another of and THEN set my clock back. That way I really get to enjoy and experience that extra hour. But I was feeling so wiped out today that I’ve decided to wait until tomorrow to grab the extra hour. I’m working from home a half-day tomorrow, so I can wait until I’m done working and then get a whole new hour back.I was feeling so funky and in a slump today that I decided to call in sick to my internal boss and play hooky. It was nice not pushing myself to accomplish anything other than a walk (to the store for milk and donuts which cancelled out the walk) . I’m recovering from a busy week and a super-busy and headachey day yesterday.

I taught my watercolor class in the morning followed by a birthday party for Cody who is turning 26 tomorrow. The party was on my ex’s new yacht (it’s truly a yacht, not just a sailboat — it’s quite big and beautiful with seating for 10 inside and outside, two bedrooms and two bathrooms and even a freezer to hold the ice cream cake that I brought). It’s berthed in Sausalito at the very end of the dock, so that sitting on it you have a view of the bay, the seals and sea birds sunning themselves on the dock and the hills of Tiburon across the water. The weather couldn’t have been more perfect, just enough wind for the sails and high 70s temperatures. The 10 of us (including my wonderful sons, niece, sister ex-husband, and most of their significant others) sailed out past Alcatraz, the Golden Gate Bridge and the Bay Bridge towards San Francisco and then enjoying the sunset, we feasted on sushi, salad, ribs, potato salad and birthday cake.

The only downside was my headache (not made better by the boat’s great sound system, with satelite radio pumping 80s rock through multiple speakers inside and outside the boat). By the time I returned home I was so exhausted that the idea of posting to the blog was absolutely impossible, which is rare. Normally I can eke out something, but I didn’t even want to see a computer, just a nice plump pillow.

Tags Ink, Pen and Ink

Drawing Sketchbook Pages Subway drawings

Subway Drawings (Noses on BART)

Post author By Jana Bouc
Post date October 25, 2006
8 Comments on Subway Drawings (Noses on BART)

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

Some people on BART today and yesterday. I felt pretty cheeky drawing the guy at the top left of the first picture. He was standing right over me, holding on to the seat in front of me reading. He got off at the next stop so I didn’t get to finish his arms or the book he was reading.

I really liked the woman’s nose in the bottom left hand picture. There’s lots of great noses on BART this week–if only I was able to draw them properly. With the train jerking so much, and the small size of the paper, noses are pretty tiny–one little jiggle and they’ve got a wild schnoz [from Yiddish for nose: snoyts, snout, muzzle, from German Schnauze.]

You can see that something funny happened to the binding in this new Moleskine. The first two pages of every Moleskine sketchbook always seem to be stuck together near the binding so this time I tried pressing them apart which was not a good thing and left a loose string on this third page. At least I got the first few pages filled (after totally messing up the drawing on the first page. Got over that by reminding myself it’s not an omen and it’s my sketchbook and I don’t have to show anyone that page!).

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Tags Pen and Ink, Subway drawings

Flower Art Sketchbook Pages Watercolor

My bottle is back!

Watercolor in Moleskine 5×8″ watercolor notebook
To enlarge, please click image, select “All Sizes”

A package was waiting for me when I came home from work tonight. It was this little bottle that I’d loaned to a watercolor student months ago. She started painting it in class and wanted to finish at home so I sent the bottle home with her. Then she injured her arm and wasn’t able to return and since she lived quite a distance from me I told her to just mail it to me. I knew she would when she could and I was so happy to see it today.

It’s funny how finding a lost something like this little Cognac bottle can mean so much. I’ve painted it many times and just really love this little bottle that I originally found on the street. I’ve wondered why it was there–would the average bum or teenager be drinking cognac on the street? I don’t know anything about liquor, but always though cognac was fancy stuff, not on the same level as Colt 45 (had to look this up–I originally said Colt 44 but that’s a gun, it turns out) or Thunderbird (had to look that up too–there’s actually a website about bum wines.)

I’m just so pleased to have my little bottle home. I know some people like diamonds, fancy cars and yachts but I can be just as happy with a quiet hour painting a flower in a sweet little bottle.

To comment, click “Comments” at top of post.

Drawing Every Day Matters Sketchbook Pages Watercolor

Dishes done (EDM #64)

Watercolor & Noodlers Ink in Moleskine 5×8″ watercolor notebook
(click image to enlarge, select “All Sizes”)

I love doing dishes. When I saw these, all nice and clean and lined up on my sink I had to capture them in my sketchbook.

I like waking up on mornings when there’s dishes to wash from the night before. It’s a nice, relaxing way to start the day peacefully. Doing dishes doesn’t require deep thinking, heavy lifting, computers, manuals, or electricity–just a sponge, water and soap. I can listen to NPR on the radio while enjoying the warm suds and squeaky clean feel of a plate as I line it up in the rack. I admire the jewel-like color of the dish soap, which I keep in a squirt bottle originally designed to apply hair dye–similar to the ketchup dispenser at my favorite greasy spoon. I reflect on how much I like the dispenser and the clear plastic sponge holder suctioned-cupped to the tile backsplash.

I look out the window over the sink and see the ugly rose bush from Home Depot that always looks straggly and think about replacing it. I ponder when my next door neighbor will landscape his yard and get rid of the ugly little red rocks from the previous owner. I admire the huge tree that I can see across the street and I urge the ivy to keep on growing that is very slowly starting to cover the soundwall at the end of our street.

Then the dishes are done and it’s time to move on to something more demanding, but I’ve had that little time to go from sleep to awake and have actually accomplished something tangible while still in my jammies.

(I keep changing my template, trying to find one that doesn’t either resize the 500 px wide Flickr images or cut off their sides. Do you find this type hard to read? Also, the comment option is at the top of the post in this template which seems dumb, and I don’t like the blue background).

Tags Pen and Ink

Flower Art Sketchbook Pages Watercolor

Rose twice

Watercolor on 7 x11″ Arches paper. Click image to enlarge, select “All Sizes”

I’ve been oddly out of synch all day today, not having energy or focus, which was frustrating. I was about to go to bed, tired and grumpy, having painted the rose below which is overworked and not what I wanted. Then I decided to give it one more try and did the rose above. The top image is better, still somewhat overworked, and still not quite what I had in mind–which I now realize needs a big sheet of paper and more time.

Watercolor on 7 x11″ Arches paper. Click image to enlarge, select “All Sizes”

I wanted the rose to fill the whole page but somehow each time I drew it (3 times) it kept being too small and I hadn’t plan to paint the little handblown glass vase at all. I decided to start painting anyway, rather than doing the drawing over yet again. Then once I started, I just kept on painting when I should have been stopping, looking, thinking instead of covering every inch with too much paint.

If it wasn’t midnight, I’d do it one more time. I like painting flowers by doing each petal wet in wet one at a time, in several layers, and that just doesn’t work very well working small, nor trying to get the painting done in one setting, since each petal has to dry before moving to the next.

Every Day Matters Life in general People Sketchbook Pages

Bubbie Hanging Laundry (EDM #88: Breezy)

Post author By Jana Bouc
Post date October 20, 2006
16 Comments on Bubbie Hanging Laundry (EDM #88: Breezy)

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?

Tags Painter Digital Art, Pencil drawing, People

Drawing People Sketchbook Pages Subway drawings

Sleeping Subway Cyclist

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.

Tags Pen and Ink, People, Subway drawings

Flower Art Life in general Plants Sketchbook Pages Watercolor

Zebra Plant

Loosely painted without drawing first using Kremer Pigments watercolors; then FW Acrylic Ink applied with Sumi brush. In 9×12 Aquabee sketchbook. (To enlarge, click image and select “All Sizes”)

At last, a day without a headache! Every time the weather changes I get migraney. It’s really frustrating here in the S.F. Bay Area because we sometimes go through three seasons in a day, especially in spring and fall. But there’s nothing like the absence of pain to brighten a day and remind me to feel grateful.
I visited my local Dick Blick (did his parents really name him that?) Art Supplies today, to pick up some ink and a sumi brush to carry on with my experiments with loose painting and adding ink. They were playing some weird music in the store that made me feel like I was getting another migraine–it had some kind of repetetive pounding sound, not a drumbeat, something chinky-chunky sounding, that was driving me nuts. I mentioned it to a fellow shopper in the ink section and she, irritated, “thanked” me for bringing it to her attention so she could be annoyed too.

I’m very sensitive to my environment, which is good for being an artist but bad for being out in the world where I easily get overstimulated when it’s busy and noisy and then need quiet downtime (preferably in the studio) to recover. Also not good for driving since I’m constantly noticing everything around me but the road. I try to make myself pay attention to driving so I’m not too much of a hazard–though I did back out of my driveway right into a parked car today (barely touched it, no harm done, but a good reminder to pay more attention!).

Tags Ink

Outdoors/Landscape Sketchbook Pages Watercolor

Cactus on Carlson

Pencil and Kremer Pigments watercolor in 9×12 Aquabee sketchbook
(click image to enlarge, select All Sizes)
Why am I painting in a sketchbook instead of on watercolor paper? I asked myself this a hundred times while I was painting this afternoon (well maybe 20 times). In my watercolor class Saturday I emphasized the importance of using good paper, especially when one is learning to paint, since it will give better results, and will assist you in making beautiful washes and glazes instead of impede you.

I should listen to my own advice! Today I wanted to paint these cacti I photographed on a walk last week. I was able to compose and paint the image I had in mind, but it would have been a lot nicer had I used watercolor paper. The Aquabee Super Deluxe Sketchbook has decent paper for watercolor sketching, but so what! I have a drawer full of watercolor paper I could have used.

Did I go for the sketchbook instead of good paper because I like filling up sketchbooks or because knowing I’m doing a “sketch” is a lot less intimidating than making a “painting” and if I’m using “real” watercolor paper, it must be a painting, and if it’s a painting it has to be good? (erckkk–that’s just plain stupid!)

Before I started blogging and sketchbooking, I only painted on good watercolor paper. But I also worked on paintings for weeks before declaring them finished. I had a belief that a painting done in one afternoon wasn’t a “real” painting. I’m putting things in quotes because these concepts aren’t ones I want but seem to have and don’t know why or when I internalized them.

I can do this one again on watercolor paper, and maybe I will. But I’m also going to start painting on good paper again unless I know for sure I just want to do something small and quick. I miss the lovely texture and flow.

Here’s the original photo I was working from. When I first saw the cacti they were glowing in the setting sun but by the time I got to them with my camera the sun was just about gone so the light wasn’t great.