Category: Sketchbook Pages

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Drawing Flower Art Other Art Blogs I Read Sketchbook Pages Watercolor

Orchid cartoon

orchid

Non-artists, today’s post will probably be boring, sorry.

I’m reading two books about art right now, “The Unknown Matisse” (the first half of a 1,000 page biography) at the recommendation of Laura, and “Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art” by Scott McCloud at the recommendation of Nora, who’s studying to be a graphic designer.

I’ve been working on my drawing in two directions: One is to be very specific and really draw what I see, not using the symbol of the object. The other is to learn to simplify and find the essence of the thing/person/animal and exaggerate it to make it more interesting and to be able to do wonderful cartoony drawings like Mattias, Paula, and Sparky, for example. I was asking Nora lots of questions about how illustrators create the characters they draw and she recommended reading Understanding Comics.

It’s written in comic book format and inspired me to try drawing my orchid in cartoon panels. With it’s long spindly stem, flower at the top and big leaves at the bottom, the orchid is awkward to compose on a page, so drawing it in panels was ideal. Conveniently, a pretend Discover credit card arrived in the mail today–just the right size to use to outline the panels.

The orchid is painted in a Raffine sketchbook, which was recommended as having great paper for 1/3 the cost of Moleskines. I’m not thrilled with it. It’s wire binding is huge, making it difficult to scan (gets shadows), the cover is flimsy, and the pages are smaller than my preferred Aquabee 6×9 Super Deluxe sketchbook which is about the same price, has about the same quality paper and smaller binding. I did learn a cool Photoshop trick to get rid of the shadows though: I used the Dodge tool set to Highlights at 50% with a large sized brush and it erased all the shadows without changing anything else.

I traced the panels using my trusty old Sharpie, but didn’t like the way the ink spread on this paper so switched to the Lamy Safari fine point to draw with. I’m liking the Lamy more and more for drawing and the Sharpie less and less. Then I added watercolor, but before painting the dark background (Daniel Smith Indigo) I scanned the drawing and added dark backgrounds in Photoshop to see if I liked it. I did, so I went back and painted them.

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Drawing Flower Art Sketchbook Pages Watercolor

Ah Sunflower, Weary of Time

Sunflowers

Ah Sunflower
  
  Ah Sunflower, weary of time,
Who countest the steps of the sun;
Seeking after that sweet golden clime
Where the traveller’s journey is done;Where the Youth pined away with desire,
And the pale virgin shrouded in snow,
Arise from their graves, and aspire
Where my Sunflower wishes to go!

William Blake

I first heard this William Blake poem on the Fug’s First Album back in 1966. While it may not be everyone’s cup of tea, this song/poem always plays in my mind when I see sunflowers. The Fugs were a sort of beat, punk, folk, psychedelic, satirical, political, underground rock band formed in 1964 in New York’s East Village. Back in those early days of FM radio and underground rock, the Fugs were breaking all of the taboos and I loved them for it, being stuck in ultraconservative, time-warped San Diego.

I was a high school girl who’d recently ditched her surfer-girl persona to become a beatnik poseur, dressing in the requisite black clothes, black berets, and white lipstick, reading poetry, and trying to look depressed and intellectual. I eventually moved to New York’s East Village myself and was horribly disappointed to discover that the beatniks were long gone, having been replaced by wannabe hippies from New Jersey.

I didn’t think I had anything to say about the sunflowers I painted tonight but there’s a story in everything it seems. These were drawn with a Lamy Safari pen with Fine nib and Noodlers Ink in the large Moleskine watercolor notebook, then painted with watercolor. I like the way the Noodlers works with watercolor. It’s not 100% waterproof so a little of it washes off and disappears and the lines soften just a tiny bit when you paint over them.

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Drawing Sketchbook Pages Subway drawings

Commuters, Geese & Working Conditions

People on Bart

Today’s morning and evening commuters sketched on BART. I’m starting to work on simplifying my lines, trying to identify the essence of the person or thing I’m drawing and exaggerating those characteristics a bit. I was able to do that on some of the people–especially the two standing at top right.

Geese in Snow Park

During my lunch break today I sketched for a few minutes in Oakland’s Snow Park, land of the wall-to-wall goose-poop lawn. The homeless guy in the background was taking turns eating bread and throwing it to the geese. Then he took all of his belongings out of his giant bin, which looked like the sort of thing they use in commercial laundries to move tons of linens around.

I know about commercial laundries because I worked in one for a day as a high school girl in San Diego, moving diapers in and out of the washer and dryer. After about 3 hours in the over 100 degree heat, I fainted. The kind, very pregnant Mexican lady I was working with somehow carried me to the bosses office where I woke up was promptly fired for not being strong enough.

My next attempt at a summer job was working in a pharmacy. My duties were to wipe the words “SAMPLE, NOT for sale” off of pills using a Q-tip dipped in acetone and then put them back into bottles, and to dust shelves. I quit after a couple of weeks–the work was horrible but even worse was the 100% white synthetic uniform I had to wear that felt like a sauna suit in the non-air-conditioned store in a hot San Diego summer.

Now I have a quiet, roomy office on the 27th floor (hope there’s no earthquakes) with a view of Lake Merritt and Fairland Park, building engineers to call if it’s too warm or cool, a fully equipped kitchen, great equipment, and a group of the most ethical, brilliant, funny, kind, dedicated women to work with. And I only go there 3 days a week, telecomuting another half day from home, with the rest of the time for art and other stuff. I am so grateful!

Brown Micron Pigma pen in little Moleskine sketchbook

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Drawing Life in general Sketchbook Pages Watercolor

Old West Gun Room, El Cerrito, CA

 

Old-West-Gun-Room
Old-West-Gun-Room

This very old gun shop is located about a mile from my house, next door to the new Peet’s Coffee. I’m sure that the only reason it continues to exist is that it’s always been here. It would never be allowed to open on the edge of a residential neighborhood in this liberal community now.

I needed a walk and I needed coffee beans and I needed to draw. So I packed my little painting kit in my backpack and headed towards Peets with a plan to get my coffee and paint the gun shop. Every few feet I saw a tree or flower I wanted to draw but decided to come back to those things later.

I walked the mile, got my pound of Peets Special Decaf beans, a cup of mostly decaf, and sat down on the sidewalk across the street in front of Payless Shoes to draw. I felt a little silly sitting on the sidewalk, making the occasional pedestrian walk around me, but I got over it once I started drawing. I drew in ink, added watercolor, decided I was more than finished, and stood up. Yikes! It took a block to work out the kinks in my legs.

When I got home it was earlier than I expected–time just seems to stretch out and expand when I’m in “the zone,” I thought. But as I was scanning the drawing I got a call from Nora asking when I might be arriving for the 6:00 dinner at Michael’s. I looked down at the clock on my computer screen and it was already 6:30! But my watch said 5:30–sometime during the walk my watch’s display had switched to “Time 2,” which I’d never changed to daylight savings time, so it was an hour behind. They were nice enough to wait for me and dinner was great!

I enjoyed the extra hour I had today, even though it wasn’t real.

Lamy Safari pen, Noodlers ink, Moleskine large watercolor notebook.

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Every Day Matters Life in general Sketchbook Pages Watercolor

What Makes Me Happy: My Studio (EDM #80)

My StudioThe Everyday Matters challenge this week was to draw something that makes you happy and write about it.

I love my studio and I love spending time in it. All I have to do to get happy is sit at my drawing table–the one in the far left corner–and start drawing. When I’m drawing or painting I like to listen to a good book from Audible.com or music on my computer. I wired the PC to my stereo system so the sound is great.

My house is a former duplex that I converted into a studio and a home. The studio was originally a living room/dining area so it’s nice and big, with room for me and six or seven watercolor students to meet. There’s even the window seat I’ve always wanted (in the far right corner) which I made by putting a sheet of laminate over a set of flat files and covered it in foam, an old quilt and some fake fur pillows.

The tall table on the left is made from two more sets of huge flat files with a sheet of laminate on top–a good spot for mat cutting, framing or demonstrating in class. People can gather round to watch or three people can use it as a worktable to paint as well. Behind that wall is the studio kitchen and the bathroom.

Behind where I sat to do the drawing is the door to the outside, my stereo, and a door to the rest of the house: two bedrooms, another bathroom, kitchen and living room/dining area.

The neighborhood’s foggy and not posh (oops–I’ve been listening to a wonderful book by Australian Bryce Courtenay,”Brother Fish,” narrated by actor Humphrey Bower and I see I’m picking up the slang) but it’s a friendly neighborhood and not far from all my favorite spots in Berkeley and Albany. I’m happy now from being in here all afternoon but now it’s time to go water the garden–one more thing that makes me happy.

Micron Pigma ink and watercolor in 9×12 Aquabee Super Deluxe sketchbook.

Categories
Drawing Sketchbook Pages Subway drawings

People with hats on BART

People on BART with hats

Some sketches in ink drawn on BART during my morning commute. Above: This morning’s commuters seemed to all be wearing hats. The woman in the middle’s cap was pink and her head of white hair was shaved almost completely. Below: Random people from yesterday and today.
I’m a words and pictures sort of person and today at work was all about numbers. I know that numbers can be our friends. With numbers there is a right answer and a wrong answer, unlike so much else in life. Today there were too many wrong answers or simply no answers. But now it’s my weekend and I can forget about numbers for a few days.

Mostly drawn with Lamy Safari and Noodlers Ink in Moleskine sketchbook. The ink just wouldn’t dry this morning so I blotted it with Kleenex so I could close the book without leaving little blobs on the other side.
Bart3

Click to enlarge.

Categories
Drawing Sketchbook Pages Watercolor

Preservation Park Fountain

Preservation Park Fountain

The organization I work for held a 3-day institute for 150 teachers at Oakland’s Preservation Park this week. This fountain is in the center of the square block collection of restored victorian homes that are now used for meeting space and offices. It’s a lovely setting and the weather was perfect for lunches outdoors in the gazebo, around the fountain, on the lawn or on benches.

Being surrounded by 150 teachers, I felt such awe and admiration. I know how difficult it is to be a Bay Area teacher these days and how high the turnover is among young teachers. Yet here they were, on the last days of their summer vacation, spending three days learning new approaches to adolescent literacy when they could be at the beach.

Since I was working while I was there, I couldn’t sit down with my sketchbook so I took some photos instead. This was drawn directly in ink and then painted in watercolor from one of the photos. I wanted to add the palm tree that was behind the fountain, but decided for once to go with “less is more”… though at the last minute I did add the building.

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Drawing Life in general Sketchbook Pages

The landscape of sleep

Bed landscape

I finally caught up on my sleep last night. I’d had a couple weeks of only getting 5 to 6 hours and then horrible nightmares on Monday night. I was too tired last night to do anything–drawing was as impossible as running a marathon. I got into bed at 8:00 right after dinner.

So I did this quick sketch of my bed this morning and I’m posting it as yesterday’s drawing since it’s where I was instead of here yesterday. The kitties look a little annoyed because they were expecting breakfast and I was drawing instead. Those fuzzy round things are cat beds but they weren’t in them–too busy chasing each other around, working up their appetites for breakfast I suppose, though they did pause briefly for me to draw them.

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Drawing Gardening Sketchbook Pages Watercolor

Nasturtiums

Nasturtiums

(Click on image then “All Sizes” to enlarge)

I picked these for my Saturday morning watercolor class. Nobody wanted to paint them but me so I’m glad they lasted until today. I did the drawing in ink this afternoon and wish I’d paid attention to my niece’s suggestion to leave some of it unpainted as the ink drawing looked really cool. But of course when I returned to it this evening I ended up painting everything.

Today was a long one: I started work at 6:30 a.m. to help get things ready for a three-day institute for 150 teachers that started today. Then I picked up my new glasses (again) and the prescription isn’t quite right (again) so tomorrow I’ll be taking them back to the shop for another try (again). Then my sister and niece came over and we went through my house, collecting all my extra pots and pans, linens and houseware for Sophie’s 1st apartment that she’s moving into next week.

One of the nice things about living in a house with two of everything (including kitchens since it’s a former duplex, now a studio and a home)–is that there’s lots of storage space. I’m so proud of Sophie and happy to see her making a home for herself while she attends college in S.F….and sad because it means she won’t be around when I visit my sister or answering the phone when I call.

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Drawing Illustration Friday Sketchbook Pages Watercolor

Play: Meercats for Illustration Friday

Play-Meercats-web

At the Oakland Zoo this summer, the Meercats played continuously while we watched, chasing each other, pouncing, play-fighting, and kicking up dust. Meercats are actually from the mongoose family, not cats, but they play just like kittens.

When I saw that the word for Illustration Friday this week was “Play” I wasn’t sure if I wanted to do anything with it. I knew that the IF site would be loaded with pictures of little kids playing or putting on stage plays and I was having trouble thinking of anything original. Plus I was worried I hadn’t been doing enough playing in my own life and wondered if I should just go outside and play instead of staying indoors trying to come up with an idea. But then I came across a photo I took of Meercats at the Oakland Zoo and decided to paint them.

I PLAYED with the image a bit too, adding the foreground and background Meercats to the picture that weren’t in the photo. I drew in pencil, then inked and added watercolor in Aquabee sketchbook (but probably should have used watercolor paper as I pushed the paper a little further than it likes to go).