Category: Still Life

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Oil Painting Still Life

Playing Dirty Ball!

Playing Dirty Ball, oil on Gessobord, 8x8 in
Playing Dirty Ball, oil on Gessobord, 8×8 in

I had so much fun painting these dirty old baseballs my dog found at the dog park next to the batting cage at Albany High School. It felt like fun and play, not work while I was painting it and I’m really happy with the results. I’d been struggling to find my way with oil painting the past couple months, so it feels good to get my confidence back. Playing Dirty Ball is available on my DailyPaintworks site here.

The first baseball Millie found and tore apart had a computer chip, wires and a tag with different speeds on it deep inside. Is that normal for baseballs? She loved shredding that ball, gradually tearing off the leather,  then unwinding the yards of tightly wrapped black twine until she finally got down to the wonderfully bouncy little black ball inside that she played with for weeks. At one point it rolled under the gate so she started digging a hold trying to get to it. I was surprised by the hole, worried she was trying to escape, until I found the ball on the other side of the gate.

Now that I’ve painted these dirty balls I can give them to Miss Millie for her shredding pleasure.

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Flower Art Ink and watercolor wash Sketchbook Pages Still Life

Shower Flowers Sketches: Dahlias, Pansies and Paper Bootie

More Shower Flowers: Pansies, ink and watercolor, 8x5"
More Shower Flowers: Pansies and Paper Bootie, ink and watercolor, 8×5″

My daughter-in-law’s mother (Why is there no name for this important family relationship: “Son’s Mother-in-law” and “Daughter-in-law’s mother” are so awkward!) decorated Brittney’s baby shower so brilliantly. She covered the tables with colorful vases filled with dahlias and a little pot of pansies at each place setting. She decorated the walls with banners hung with pages from all our favorite old Little Golden Books classics.

I took home my pansies to sketch (above) and a vase of dahlias to sketch (below) and paint (see previous post). Each place setting also included a little baby bootie (in sketch below) that she made from different decorative papers and filled with chocolate.

Shower Flowers Sketch: Dahlias, ink and watercolor 2-page spread in Moleskine 16x5"
Shower Flowers Sketch: Dahlias, ink and watercolor 2-page spread in Moleskine 16×5″
Categories
Flower Art Oil Painting Painting Still Life

Shower Flowers

Dahlias-Shower Flowers, oil on panel, 10x8 in
Dahlias: Shower Flowers, oil on panel, 10×8 in (Click image to enlarge)

I brought these amazing dahlias home from my daughter-in-law’s baby shower and had fun painting them. (The painting is available here.) The baby shower happened just in time as our beautiful baby girl came a month early (so exciting!). Below are some of the steps in the process. I always seem to like the earliest stages of a painting best; my biggest challenge is to stop painting sooner than I usually do. I have a new system for setting an intention and goal for each painting and each painting session and documenting the results and I’ll be sharing more about that in my next post.

Dahlias-Shower Flowers Work in Progress, oil on panel, 10×8 in
Dahlias-Shower Flowers Work in Progress 2, oil on panel, 10×8 in
Categories
Art supplies Oil Painting Painting Still Life

Found or Free: Apples and Candlestick

Found on the Street #1, Candlestick and Apples, oil painting on panel, 8x8" (<a href="http://www.dailypaintworks.com/fineart/jana-bouc/candlestick-and-apples-found-on-the-street-1/253915">$110 at my DPW Gallery: click here</a>) (Click image to enlarge)
Found on the Street #1, Candlestick and Apples, oil painting on panel, 8×8″ (Click image to enlarge)

This is one in a series of paintings of free stuff and things found on the street during my walks in the Berkeley, California area. The little apples had fallen from a neighbor’s tree and the candlestick was in a free box on the curb. Below are photos of some steps in the work in progress of this painting (which is available to purchase from my Daily Paintworks gallery here) and a couple of cool studio tips too.

Continue reading “Found or Free: Apples and Candlestick”

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Flower Art Ink and watercolor wash Sketchbook Pages Still Life

Hydrangeas and the Last of EDiM 2014 (Fan and Remote)

Hydrangeas in Glass, ink and watercolor, 7x5 in
Hydrangeas in Glass, ink and watercolor, 7×5 in

My hydrangea bush is doing great this year, probably because it’s on the side of the house that is now a dog run and every day I empty the dog’s water bowl on the bush. Also it’s no longer competing with its two siblings that I removed because one never blossomed and the other had annoying teensy flowers that shed all over the table.

EDim 22 Remote Control, ink and watercolor, 5x7 in
EDiM 22 Remote Control, ink and watercolor, 5×7 in

These remotes live in the studio and operate a little combo TV/VCR, a DVD player and the stereo. There are another half-dozen that live in the house. I’m glad remotes were invented but they are ugly and annoying. I so wish I had this remote (a brilliant sketch and concept!)

EDim 23 Fan, ink and watercolor, 5x7 in
EDiM 23 Fan, ink and watercolor, 5×7 in

As I noted in my journal above, drawing a fan seemed like it would be even more boring than drawing the remotes but in fact it was really fun. I was really surprised as I sketch to discover all kinds of interesting design features I’d never noticed before when just turning it on or off (without the using the remote that came with it, which I’ve lost).

So I didn’t make it to every day in May, just 75% of them. I went away for a 3 day retreat and when I came back had lost the momentum. Oh well.

Categories
Ink and watercolor wash Sketchbook Pages Still Life

EDiM 17 and 18: Hand Soap and Needs Polish (Silver Teapot)

EDiM 18: Needs Polish (Silver Coffee Pot), ink and watercolor, 7x5 in
EDiM 18: Needs Polish (Silver Tea Pot), ink and watercolor, 7×5 in

I bought this old silver-plated teapot at my local thrift shop. I’ve drawn it before here but now that it’s really tarnished it was even more fun to paint because of the pinkish tarnish.

EDiM 17 Hand soap, ink and watercolor, 7x5 in
EDiM 17 Hand soap, ink and watercolor, 7×5 in

I love the lemony fresh scent of this soap and look forward to washing my hands. Normally I’m overly sensitive to scented products and stay away from them but this one makes me happy. I used a green Pitt Artists Brush pen to draw this and then went over it with watercolor and a little black fine point Pitt Artist pen.

 

 

Categories
Food sketch Glass Sketchbook Pages Still Life Watercolor

EDiM 14: Glass of Juice

EDiM 14 Glass of Juice. Ink and watercolor, 7x5 in
EDiM 14 Glass of Juice. Graphite, ink and watercolor, 7×5 in

I got confused and skipped over posting this glass of yummy Trader Joe’s Garden Patch juice yesterday, and numbered the two pics I did post with the wrong numbers, which I’ve now corrected. This is an odd glass, made by Bodum and meant to be used for tea as it’s double-walled for insulation.

This was more fun to draw than to use since I prefer my tea in cups with handles, even if the glass doesn’t get hot. I love painting glass!

Categories
Ink and watercolor wash Sketchbook Pages Still Life

EDiM 15 and 16: Stapler (ancient) and Cookie (monster)

EDiM 16 Stapler. Ink and watercolor, 5x7 in
EDiM 16 Stapler. Ink and watercolor, 5×7 in

I’ve had this wonderful old stapler for as long as I can remember. Maybe it was my grandfathers? It’s heavy and has rusty spots but still works great. I enjoy using it every time I staple something.

EDiM 15 Cookie (Monster), ink and watercolor, 7x5 in
EDiM 15 Cookie (Monster), ink and watercolor, 7×5 in

I don’t eat cookies because I’m overly sensitive to sugar; eating one usually leads to eating the whole bag so I just don’t eat that first one. Drawing a cookie would have been too tempting so I drew a fellow friendly cookie monster.

Categories
Ink and watercolor wash Sketchbook Pages Still Life

EDiM 10, 11, 12 (Cracked, Found on Internet and Shelf)

EDiM 11 Water Bottle Found on Internet, ink & watercolor, 7.5x 5 in
EDiM 11 Water Bottle Found on Internet, ink & watercolor, 7.5x 5 in

I love Klean Kanteen stainless steel water bottles. I keep a tall one in my car, the one sketched above lives on my bedside table, I carry a Kid-sized bright blue one on walks and keep a jumbo 64 oz. Klean Kanteen filled with lemony water in the fridge where it surprisingly fits nicely on the door shelf. I use it to make sure I get my 8 cups of water each day. The bottles are light weight and don’t leave a taste or chemicals in the water.

EDim 10 Cracked Cup, Ink and watercolor, 7x5 in
EDim 10 Cracked Cup, Ink and watercolor, 7×5 in

This drawing is just as cracked as the cup! This was my favorite coffee cup for a long time. Now it’s on my still life shelf waiting to pose for a painting.

EDiM 12 Shelf and stuff on it by studio sink, ink & watercolor 5x7 in
EDiM 12 Shelf and stuff on it by studio sink, ink & watercolor 5×7 in

I shouldn’t have even started this sketch as I was way too tired and it shows. This is a shelf next to the sink in my studio. I drew quickly and directly with ink and painted just as quickly. Sloppy but it’s done.

Categories
Ink and watercolor wash Rose Sketchbook Pages Still Life

EDiM 6: Hand-Me-Downs from Mom and Grandma (3 tries)

EDiM 6-Relic: From Ma and Grandma's Kitchen, ink and watercolor 5x7"
EDiM 6-Relic: From Ma and Grandma’s Kitchen, ink and watercolor 5×7″

I wasn’t happy with the first two tries (posted below) for the prompt “a relic or something handed down from family” so started over with the simpler subjects pictured above: my grandmother’s yellow mixing bowl; a serving spoon with part of its pink handle broken off and my favorite spoon that I eat with all the time, both remnants of my mother’s 50s kitchen with their pre-plastic Bakelite handles. And last, my grandmother’s beat up old jar opener that she used to pop open her homemade dill pickle jars. I use it all the time to open jars and think of her each time I do.

EDiM 6-Relic: 3-hole vase and roses #2, ink and watercolor 7x5 in
EDiM 6-Relic: 3-hole vase and roses #2, ink and watercolor 7×5 in’

Above is my second attempt, some roses from my garden in a little vase my mother gave me. It’s really complicated with “arms” reaching around and circling three round-bellied vessels, all connected.

Below is the first attempt, sketched outdoors in blinding sun that messed with my judgment of color and value. Also below is an attempt at drawing what the vase looks like from a different perspective. Also a fail.

EDiM 6-Relic: 3-hole vase and roses #1, ink and watercolor 7x5 in
EDiM 6-Relic: 3-hole vase and roses #1, ink and watercolor 7×5 in

The color of the roses was so pretty…much nicer than anything I could paint.

Photo of vase and flowers I sketched from life
Photo of vase and flowers I sketched from life