Category: Sketchbook Pages

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Drawing Every Day Matters Life in general Sketchbook Pages

Ears to you: EDM Challenge #79

Ears-web

This week’s Every Day Matters challenge is “Draw an Ear.” I tried drawing my own, but as it turns out, my ears can’t be seen by my eyes so I had to wait for innocent victims to venture into my web. Today was the day. First Cody came over to pick up laundry he’d left in the dryer so I charged a small equipment usage fee: sit while I draw your ear. He obliged by lying down on the couch and napping with ear nicely exposed. I had time to do it in ink first and then in pencil, which worked better. Watercolor would have been even more fun, but nap time was soon over. (His are the two bottom ears.)

Tonight Michael and I went out to dinner at Saul’s Deli in North Berkeley and then we watched a movie–well he watched the movie and I watched his ear and drew it. His ear was more interesting than the movie–some bank heist/hostage thing by Spike Lee with Jodie Foster and Denzel Washington with sub texts about Nazi war loot and the evils of violent video games and racial profiling. I didn’t stay up to watch the whole thing–sleep sounded a lot more appealing than finding out whether the good guys or bad guys win. But I did feel like a winner with his ear drawing. I like how it turned out, including the little hole from where he used to wear an earring back in the day.

Categories
Drawing Sketchbook Pages Watercolor

Rose in a bowl

rose-web copy
I’d about given up doing any drawing today. I was tired from an intense week, felt a migraine lurking, had no creative energy and spent the day puttering, sighing, resting, and doing some filing of papers and sorting of photos on my computer. I was about to head to bed when I saw this rose floating in a little glass bowl that someone in my painting group had painted Wednesday night and decided to try a quick painting. I don’t love it, but I’m glad I did it. Ink and watercolor in Moleskine watercolor notebook.

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Drawing Life in general Sketchbook Pages

Oakland Federal Building

Oakland Federal Building

This was sketched from a sunny bench in the little park just outside the Federal Building in Oakland. That tall thing in the foreground is a stone statue etched with a bit of a face, some lillies, and some extra eyes.

I’d gone to the Federal Building to cash a check at the credit union on the second floor (payment for a painting I’d sold). Inside the building there are guards, metal detectors and x-ray systems just like the airport. As I was about to go through the metal detector I remembered my new Swiss Army knife in my backback.

It was new because my old one was confiscated at the airport when I flew to Los Angeles to visit my mother in May. I’d forgotten it was there so it set off alarms going through the x-ray machine, winning me a detour to the place for naughty people where I was given a pat-down search, and every item in my backpack was thoroughly inspected.

The Swiss Army Tinker model which I’ve carried for years has knives plus a Phillips and flathead screwdriver, a can and bottle opener, a nailfile, toothpick, and tweezers, and has come in handy many times. I convinced the nice guard to hold it for me while I went upstairs to the bank.

They should have a system at the airport to store people’s illegal-to-carry-on but otherwise innocuous items like little pocket knives and now, TOOTHPASTE, DEODERANT and SUN TAN LOTION! How hard would it be to have a “coat check” system where you get a receipt for your item and pick it up when you return for a small fee?

I feel sorry for all the people at the airport today who had to discard everything from bottled water to expensive wine and cosmetics just in case they happened to have put liquid or jell explosives in there. I hope that at least the minimum wage airport custodians and security screeners were able to take those things home to use or sell on EBay rather than everything going into the trash!

Brown Micron Pigma in Strathmore 6×8 sketchbook that lives in my backpack too.

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Other Art Blogs I Read Sketchbook Pages Watercolor

Nightfall in my backyard

Night-Backyard-web

The light oval thing isn’t a flying saucer or the moon. It’s a domed skylight on the roof of a nearby building. I started drawing with ink but realized there wasn’t time–the light was going fast so I went directly to watercolors and painted as quickly as I could, in a small watercolor Moleskine notebook, racing the disappearing light.

I had trouble picking a subject to paint tonight. I’d recently bought a Fabriano Artists Journal filled with lovely colored paper perfect for colored pencils, inspired by this drawing and this one by Terri C. on her blog Painted Daisies and decided to give it a try. After a couple minutes I realized I’m just not a colored pencil person–I like the juice and flow of watercolor.

I tried finishing a painting of grapes in a glass bowl I’d started in a demonstration for my class but didn’t feel like painting from a photo. Then I looked out the window and saw bushes and trees silouhetted against the fading light I remembered these wonderful night paintings (to see them click here and here and here and here) by Allison on her amazing blog, 5 K Radius. So I tried doing my own night sketch looking through the window, not outside on a walk like Allison does, since my painting group was here and I didn’t want to miss any interesting conversations by going outside.

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Life in general Sketchbook Pages Watercolor

Magnolia & Newspaper

Magnolia-web

I was really tired tonight and didn’t think I had the energy to do a drawing but decided to go in the studio for one hour and just see what happened. I’d taken a photo of this magnolia on a walk in my neighborhood last weekend and sat down to draw it in ink in my watercolor Moleskine. One hour later, it’s drawn, painted and scanned and I really enjoyed myself and feel happy to have gotten in a little painting today.

My blog in the news:

Yesterday a reporter from the Oakland Tribune called to interview me about my blog for a piece about the growth of the “blogosphere.” It was a little surrealistic seeing my name and blog address in large bold type on the front page (!) of the paper today, though seeing my quotes (?) in print made me immediately want to edit them. In the online version they mistakenly left off the links to the blogs discussed but they’re supposedly fixing it. Click here to see the article.

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Life in general Sketchbook Pages Watercolor

Lavender: Too Much Information?

Lavender

This is Spanish lavender from my backyard in a little lavender hand-blown glass vase (the vase is actually shaped like this–for once it’s not my drawing). I used my magnifying lamp to see the details and discovered teeny purple flowers with yellow centers on the bud-shaped thingee that the lavender petals come out of and that bud thingee is shaped like a mini pine cone. I tried looking up the actual names of these parts but the diagrams I found didn’t really apply to this flower.

While Googling for the plant parts I also uncovered the following “facts” about lavender on the web:

  • Lavender can be used to treat burns, rheumatism, muscular pains, neuralgia, cold sores, insect bites, head lice, halitosis, dandruff, vaginal discharge and anal fissure.
  • Pheramones cause people to be attracted to you and causes mother-baby bonding. Pheramones (like pretty much everything else except for weight) decrease as we age. That’s why men prefer younger women.
  • The same website also explains that too much washing causes divorce: “By the 1940’s, many Californians bathed or showered daily and washed away their personal pheromones, while most of the USA stuck to weekly bathing. California soon led the USA in divorce rates and family breakdown.”
  • The source of the name lavender is Latin lavare “wash.”
  • The combined odor of lavender and pumpkin (ewww!) were found to be a much stronger aphrodesiac than expensive perfume (they actually did scientific tests that get a bit x-rated so I’ll skip the details here).

Ink and watercolor in big watercolor Moleskine notebook.

Categories
Drawing Gardening Sketchbook Pages Watercolor

1 Cactus, 2 Cacti Sketches

Cacti-small
On-site sketch in 3.5 x 5.5″ watercolor Moleskine

Cacti-big
Studio sketch from photo in Aquabee 6×9 sketchbook

It was a sunny day in the 70s today and the outdoors was calling. Instead of spending the day in the studio as planned, I took my sketchbook and little paintbox for a walk around the neighborhood, looking for something that would be fun to paint. A few blocks away I found an amazing cacti and succulent garden. I did the top sketch above while sitting on a convenient tree stump but I had problems. My pen had gone dry so I tried drawing in pencil but it just didn’t have the magic that drawing directly in ink has. I found myself repeatedly erasing and starting over which is the problem with pencils–the thrill of just going for it with ink is gone and pencils want to be ever so perfect. So I started over again, drawing directly with the watercolors and (continuing to resist stopping at 75%) added a little more paint when I got home.

I did the second sketch above in the studio tonight from the photo I took there. I think I’m going to try a larger painting also–all the overlapping shapes, shadows, and prickly things are really fun to paint.

IMGP3122 Photo of the cactus


Categories
Colored pencil art Drawing Illustration Friday Sketchbook Pages

Captured: Illustration Friday

Captured by TV

Little TV screens were recently installed in the elevators where I work. The company that programs them has their name proudly displayed: “Captivate TV”. I call it “Captive TV.” The programming includes snippets of news, bits of celebrity gossip, and advertising for stockbrokers and lawyers.

I always liked elevators as a place to have a few moments of peaceful empty time. I also enjoyed observing the interesting ways people behave socially (or anti-socially) on elevators. Sometimes I like to start a conversation and briefly get to know other humans who work in the giant hive called the Kaiser Building in Oakland. Now everyone stupidly stares at Captive TV.

What really irks me is that half the screen has the supposed news and the other half has advertising which always has something bouncing, moving, flashing. It’s almost impossible not to look at it. If you try to ionly read the news, it stays on the screen so long that you naturally continue to your right to read the blinking ad. So I try not to look at the screen at all. Now instead of peacefully taking a few quiet breaths as I transition from one part of my day to another, I spend my elevator time annoyed.

This was drawn on Canson Extra Heavy Vidalon tracing paper. I started with pencil first since I was composing an idea from my head and wasn’t quite sure what I was doing. I inked it with a Micron Pigma and erased the pencil. Some of the ink came off and smeared so I decided to color it with colored pencil to hide the slight smears. My watercolor pencils were handy so I used those. Then I tried adding water. Ooops. This paper isn’t designed for water. When I was done I realized I should have scanned the drawing and colored it in Photoshop. Oh well. Still no sign of stopping at 75% finished. There’s always the next drawing.

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Drawing Every Day Matters Life in general Sketchbook Pages Watercolor

Souvenirs…of Life

Tibetan-Bell

This week’s Every Day Matters challenge is to “draw a souvenir from a place you’ve been.” This is a Tibetan Bell. I’ve never been to Tibet. My father bought it for me at a street fair in Jack London Square in Oakland on one of his rare visits from the many places he lived in the U.S. and Canada. I loved the sound of the bell and he was happy to buy it for me.

I’ve been missing him lately–sometimes when I’m drawing I get glimpses of the amazing cartoons he used to be able to draw on command and wish I could talk to him about drawing and art. He and my mother both painted for a few years when I was a kid and both were talented photographers. I highlighted my mother’s paintings from the 50s here a few weeks ago, but all of my father’s paintings were thrown away by his second wife when he left her for his third wife.

Searching my house for souvenirs to draw, I discovered that my only keepsakes represent different periods of my life and the people and pets I’ve loved. And even those are few: my grandmother’s pearls and glass butterdish, a spice jar with hair from long gone cats and dogs, the books my father wrote, my wedding ring in a little box I painted blue, a folder with my sons’ grade school essays and drawings, earings given to me by friends and family.

Of course I have my journals, drawings, photos and paintings–those are keepers of my memories too. But I wonder what it means that I have no souvenirs or tchotchkes from places I’ve been. Maybe just that I don’t like to dust.

Ink and watercolor in WC Moleskine. I know I said that for a week I would stop painting when I was 75% done, but I was too tired again tonight to notice, and so put in the background when I should have stopped. It was a lot prettier with just a shadow and an all white background. I did stop painting the bell before I thought it was done so that’s a little progress. I’ll try again tomorrow.

Categories
Drawing Life in general Sketchbook Pages Watercolor

A little lemon

Lemon on Quiche Cup

I had so many ideas of what to draw tonight but I was so sleepy that I had to pick something fairly simple. It was fun–so much fun that I kept at it longer than I should have so it got overworked. There’s always that question of “When is a painting done?” I’ve heard it said many times that one should stop when a painting feels 75% finished but I usually go to 125%. So for the next week, I’m going to try stopping at 75% and see how that feels.

I’m experimenting with uploading pictures to Flickr and then linking them as I did here. Flickr has options for posting a small image on the blog and a big one on Flickr that you are taken to by clicking on the image. If you have an opinion, I’d love to know whether you prefer seeing images this size on the blog or a smaller size with a click to enlarge option? Do you know any disadvantages to storing the image on Flickr?

Watercolor and Micron Pigma in WC Moleskine.