Jana Bouc, Artist

AM PM Sketchbook

Espresso pen, Handbook Journal

A woman from Scotland wrote to me and said she’d come upon my blog my accident and that I’d inspired her to start adding drawings to her daily journal. Her email inspired me to start a new sketchbook project that I’ve really been enjoying. Each morning before I get out of bed I write a few sentences about my dreams, the weather and/or how I’m feeling that morning and do a quick little drawing. Then in the evening I do another brief entry about the day or something I’m grateful for and draw something of the day. These are drawings from memory or imagination so they’re pretty goofy, not at all realistic.

Before drawing in it, I dated each page in the sketchbook in advance. It’s a square Handbook Journal Co. sketchbook that I didn’t like too much for watercolor so now I have a good use for it.

The drawing on the left is supposedly me (I don’t really look that terrible, even in the morning) and Busby doing his silly morning snuggle where he sticks his head below my ear and kneads his paws on my neck, purring madly and half choking me. I drew it while he was doing that, holding up a little mirror. The one on the right I drew tonight after a lovely Thai dinner with my dear painting group friends as we celebrated Judith’s birthday (she’s supposedly blowing out a candle stuck in a big blob of coconut ice cream surrounded by chunks of fried bananas). If you think these are funky drawings, you should (or shouldn’t) see the hilarious cars, bus and boats I drew yesterday!

Tags Pen and Ink, People

Flower Art Oil Painting

Funky roses under wrong light

Post author By Jana Bouc
Post date February 19, 2007
6 Comments on Funky roses under wrong light

Oil on canvas board, 12×16
Click image to enlarge, select All Sizes

My next door neighbor was about to toss this bouquet of roses on Friday because they were at that funky, fully-bloomed, starting to get a little stinky stage, but I swooped in before they could go in the recycling bin and rescued them to paint. I was trying hard to loosen up and have a more painterly, impressionist way of painting them. But I discovered the importance of good lighting when mixing colors and painting with oils.

The painting looked really pretty while I was painting under the lights I’d rigged up to my easel. But the next day when I looked at it in daylight it looked like dull mud instead of brilliant. The lights I was using were too much on the pinkish side which made all the colors I mixed look much pinker and brighter than they really were so once the lights were off…mud.

Above, top left: my new Verilux florescent lighting. Top center: outdoors at noon. Below, top right: the lighting I was painting under originally.

I started researching lighting for easel painting, and after buying numerous different “full spectrum” and halogen lamps, I finally found a solution that worked: an overhead florescent light fixture designed for kitchens with 4 Verilux full spectrum florescent bulbs. The fixture has electronic ballast that prevents typical florescent noise and flicker. The light is amazing–very much like bright noon sunlight. Maybe even a little too bright, but I’m not sure because I’m slightly migrainey today, making my eyes overly sensitive. If it’s too bright I can swap out any of the bulbs for a warmer or cooler version, according to the lighting store where I bought it.

To test all the various lights I tried, I set my camera at “sunlight” and then took pictures under all the different lighting arrangements of the same image and they all came out terrible. With my new light and the camera set at sunlight, I took this picture and it is pretty accurate! Yay. A good painting light and a good photography light!

Here’s all the stuff that didn’t work:

an Ott floor lamp that gave virtually no light at all
a Verilux floor lamp that gave twice as much light (but twice nothing isn’t much) but the light was very blue and only from one side — nowhere near enough to paint by
an easel lamp designed for my easel that is attached at the top to the center post — tried it with a verilux full spectrum bulb, a screw in halogen, a GE Reveal bulb (these are evil–they make everything look beautiful but are way too pink and that’s what messed everything up)
a “Combo Lamp” clamped to the side of the easel — it has a circular florescent and a regular light bulb in the middle (these are what I use on my drawing table, one on each side and they work great for watercolor and drawing).
Halogen torchieres in the room already
A photo light stand with a variety of different bulbs in it
All of the above

Then after all that shopping, I had to do an equal amount of unshopping! Yuck. What a way to spend my days off. But thanks to my darling son who helped me hang the new light fixture in the studio, at least I have my new light all set up–just in time to go back to work.

Art theory Outdoors/Landscape Puerto Vallarta Sketchbook Pages Watercolor

Puerto Vallarta Aeropuerto

Post author By Jana Bouc
Post date February 18, 2007
3 Comments on Puerto Vallarta Aeropuerto

The Control Tower at the Puerto Vallarta airport. A couple of guys in t-shirts in the open air tower were moving from side to side, looking around and then looking down at their computers (I assume).

The view from the waiting area of the runways surounded by grass, bushes, the mountains in the distance and some beat up police vehicles parked in the tall grass.

Ink and watercolor in small Moleskine watercolor notebook.
Click images to enlarge.

When I was leaving P.V. I was told to get to the airport 2 hours early. I got there even earlier than that and after a rudimentary search of my luggage and checking in, learned my flight was delayed an hour. The airport was hot and humid, with no air conditioning. I went upstairs and borrowed a chair from the burger joint to go sit by the window. When I tried to buy an empty cup to put water in for my paints they wanted $1.50 for the cup so I wandered over to the Starbucks and found someone with an empty coffee cup who was happy to give it to me. I washed it out in the bathroom and went back to my chair and finished the drawing.

I decided to go ahead through customs where they searched my carry-on backpack (and allowed me to take my empty cup and paints) and discovered another part of the airport that was air conditioned, modern, fancy and full of duty-free shops that might as well have been in NY or San Francisco. I found another window and drew the runway and then headed to my gate with a yummy ice cream on a stick coated with chocolate and almonds. I was both sad to be leaving and happy to be coming home.

Here’s a few more tips from the Judy Morris watercolor workshop:

Salting:

Morton Coarse Kosher salt works best
Tape paper flat to the table to avoid tilting and getting little star patterns…this technique is to get texture but not lighter starry areas.
Paint all of the salted areas of the painting first, finish all the salting, and then paint the rest of the painting.
Paint the area to be salted in little sections, areas no bigger than size of palm. The paint must be very, very wet. Pick up pinch of salt and rub between finger and thumb to drop it from about 10-12” above painting. Then paint next little area. Don’t let the shine go off the paint before salting and make sure there’s no clumps in the salt.
Leave little skipped white spots where you can add in a color from other areas of the painting to unify with them later when the salted areas are dry and the salt is removed.
Drop in darker paint along edges or between salt crystals or drop in a reflected color from adjoining areas (red into purple if neighboring area is red).
Blow off salt that falls into dry, non-salted areas rather than brushing it off to avoid scraping and damaging the paper.
Remove salt from salted areas by scraping that area firmly with a palette knife when very dry.
After removing salt, blot the salted area with a damp paper towel to remove any remaining salt or glaze the area with a light wash of yellow or another color to unify, soften edges and bring out a glow.
To glaze, use a flat 1″ brush and flick brush lightly in all directions, making x’s or asterisks.

These are her instructions…I’m just passing them along and I think this is the last of the PV drawings and notes from the workshop I’ll share.

Tags Pen and Ink, Puerto Vallarta

Plein Air Puerto Vallarta Sketchbook Pages Watercolor

More Puerto Vallarta sketches

Post author By Jana Bouc
Post date February 16, 2007
12 Comments on More Puerto Vallarta sketches

Watercolor in Canson 7×10 watercolor book
To enlarge images, click them and select All Sizes

Ink and watercolor in small Moleskine watercolor notebook

I struggled with painting this fountain that was outside our classroom. There was no direct light because it was in a roofed courtyard and there was a bright fuschia pink wall behind it and a bright yellow-green wall on its right side. Before I painted the background, the fountain looked great. Then I painted the wall bright pink and it overpowered the fountain so then I tried painting over it which didn’t work so I washed off as much of the pink as would come off using a damp brush, and then painted over it with yellow ochre. The second version is with the background removed in Photoshop, cropped and lightened a bit to try to recreate how it looked originally. Which do you prefer?

One good thing that came of doing the drawing was that I recalled a tip I’d heard somewhere: to make a cylindrical object like a fountain or a vase appear symmetrical: draw a light vertical line down the center first and then measure each section (measuring its width on one side by sliding your thumb down the pencil to mark the size) and then comparing it to the other side or just eyeballing it.

I drew the grocery picture in the supermarket a couple doors down from my hotel. A workshop friend and I were there to get photos developed at the in-store 1-hour photo booth (thank goodness for my Spanish–without it they would have printed all 104 pictures on my SD card instead of the 10 I wanted–I had to talk them through how to do it on their machine since there was no self-serve). We stood in the produce aisle with our pens, sketchbooks and little paint kits drawing and painting as fast as we could while shoppers and employees ignored us. The worker was standing on a raised rail changing the prices. Half of the price tags listed comparisons to Walmart prices to show shoppers they were getting a good deal. It’s not the charming street market I hoped to sketch, but they did have great fresh rolls in the bakery and organic lettuce and rotisserie chickens that I used for lunch sandwiches all week.

Tags Pen and Ink, Plein Air, Puerto Vallarta

Art theory Outdoors/Landscape Plein Air Puerto Vallarta Sketchbook Pages Watercolor

Color Chords

Ink drawing with watercolor in Canson 7×10 watercolor sketchbook
To enlarge, click image, select All Sizes

I left the workshop to go sketch outside behind the classroom, sitting on a little brick wall along a road with trucks and taxis constantly parading past. This dry fountain was going to be torn down soon as it’s in one of the ubiquitous construction areas.

(More from my workshop with Judy Morris in Puerto Vallarta last week).

COLOR CHORDS:

This is important to me because I can get so involved in rendering exactly what I see that I forget to take artistic license to create a more pleasing color scheme rather than painting whatever colors are present. A color chord is like a chord in music–a selection of color notes that harmonize or are exciting together.

Most paintings accepted into the American Watercolor Society annual show have a limited palette
Avoid too many colors or abrasive color combinations by making a “color chord” plan before painting
Use a LIMITED PALETTE with any combination of the 3 primaries (a yellow including yellow ochre, a red and a blue); a complementary color scheme (2 colors opposite each other on the color wheel) or an analagous color scheme (neighboring colors on the color wheel); or· 1 color and sepia OR
Use a BORROWED COLOR SCHEME: Collect samples of from good photos, postcards, or other paintings color schemes you like and keep them in a folder. Select a color scheme from these samples to select a color chord for your painting.

Tags Pen and Ink, Plein Air, Puerto Vallarta

Art theory Other Art Blogs I Read People Sketchbook Pages Watercolor

Focus!

Ink and watercolor in Canson 7×10 Watercolor Sketchbook
To enlarge, click image, select All Sizes
I liked the Canson paper, it’s strong and very forgiving and heavily surface-sized — better than the Moleskine notebook — but not too thrilled with the colors I used in the sketch above in trying to use at least something the teacher suggested.

Breakfast View – Ink and watercolor in small watercolor Moleskine
(to enlarge, click image, select All Sizes)

Breakfast at the workshop was at the open air buffet restaurant in our hotel, right on the beach, which was a lovely way to start the day, even if it was only half an hour after sunrise.

While I was drawing this a waiter came over to watch. I asked if he painted and he said he loved to draw but was unable to buy decent paint locally and mail order was impossible because Mexico charges 3 times the cost of the supplies in tariffs. He told me he draws pictures and then his 4 year old son colors them with crayons. He looked so admiringly at my little painting kit, amazed at what could be had in the U.S. I asked the class if they’d be willing to donate some paints for him and the teacher gave me her entire palette full of paint and three brushes. Other students gave watercolor paper and blocks. He was so grateful and everyone was really happy to have been able to help a fellow aspiring artist. I still feel happy remembering his sweet smile.

Tonight I spent the evening tonight typing up my pages of notes from the workshop. Here is one of most important thing I learned, which should be obvious but never really clicked for me before:

FOCAL POINT

I am often entranced by all the details in a subject and my paintings can suffer from lack of focal point or strong values. Forcing myself to chose a focal point BEFORE starting a sketch or painting and concentrating on values in that area at least, is going to make a huge difference in my approach and to the success of the painting.

A juror or curator for a show looks at each slide no more than 3 seconds and MUST BE ABLE TO SEE THE FOCAL POINT IMMEDIATELY. There should be the most contrast in that area (dark/light contrast or strong color contrast).
Before starting a drawing or painting, think about what interests you and attracts you to the subject and determine the focal point.
Put a painting in progress on the mantle and walk by it in the evening as the room gets dark to see if the focus is apparent
Hold the painting up to a mirror 10 feet away to look for problems with the drawing or painting, especially in portraits
Get the values right: Make a “Claude” mirror by spray-painting black the back of a sheet of plexiglass. It will reflect the image in values with the color neutralized. Or view the painting through red or gray film to show values without color.
She recommends as the best book on design in painting: “Probing the Hidden Order” by Marie McDonald Roberts.
Best spot in a painting for focal point is above horizon to the right because we read from right and up (this is the same spot as the “Divine Proportion” or “Golden Mean.”
To study focal points, very quickly go through a magazine putting red dots on the first thing you notice, then go back and study why your eyes went there. Usually contrast in value or color.

Next time I’ll post what I learned about Color Chords.

Tags Pen and Ink, People

Life in general Outdoors/Landscape Sketchbook Pages

You Can’t Always Get What You Want…

Post author By Jana Bouc
Post date February 11, 2007
18 Comments on You Can’t Always Get What You Want…

Ink & watercolor in small Moleskine watercolor notebook
(To enlarge, click images, select All Sizes)

I’m back from Puerto Vallarta and trying to return to regular life. I did these little sketches at the pool and on the beach in the afternoons after the workshop. The reason for the title of this post is that while I didn’t really get what I wanted, I did learn some important things at the workshop that I needed to know. What I didn’t get was much time painting outdoors or many sketches of charming Mexican vistas and people.

I was suprised to learn that breakfast was at 7:30 a.m. each day; that the workshop was to take place inside a classroom from 9-2 every day (with no lunch break); and that we were to work on one painting the whole week, using a black and white photo of a person supplied by the teacher combined with photos we took on a trip to town after class the second day. We were suposed to use the teacher’s special techniques using salt to make texture and designing with patterned backgrounds.

The first day was all lecture and I learned some very valuable things from it. On the second day I started on the assignment. By the end of the day I realized it wasn’t what I wanted to be doing so abandoned it, spending class time alternately watching the teacher demonstrate and occasionally ditching to go outside to sketch on my own.

As a bit of a recluse, constantly being with 20-40 people was exhausting. There was another workshop going on at the same time, a Photoshop for Artists class that had even longer days inside a darkened classroom, and we ate most meals together.) Most of the participants were seasoned travelers on the “workshop circuit” that I hadn’t even known existed prior to this. They are apparently quite financial comfortable and able to go to painting workshops all over the world on a regular basis.

Puerto Vallarta was shockingly different than what I’d seen last time I was there 30 years ago, with horrible traffic, a Sam’s Club, Walmart, Starbucks, Hooters, Office Depot, Carls Junior, Hard Rock Cafe, sprawling hotels with more under construction everywhere, and giant supermarkets — everything for the huge population of gringos visiting or living there. The only thing that remained the same was the people. The Mexican people are the warmest, most beautiful, kindest people.

Two highlights of the trip were being able to speak Spanish well enough to have conversations with local people and swimming in the warm ocean on my last day–my only day without scheduled activities.

Tomorrow I’ll post some of what I learned in the workshop that was valuable to me.

Tags Pen and Ink

Life in general Plein Air Watercolor

Hasta la vista

I’m off to Puerto Vallarta, Mexico for a week of painting, swimming, reading and siestas. I’ll be joining Judy Morris for her watercolor workshops from 9-2 in our courtyard patio “studio” and on plein air painting trips around the area. The trip is sponsored by Flying Colors Art Workshops.

The picture above is my new watercolor easel recommended by Judy. Here’s what she said about it:

“Some of you may be interested in the PERFECT plein air easel. I have one! I ABSOLUTELY LOVE IT!!! Look at Valpod Artist Easel website to see it. Norm Kramer in Idaho makes them (Valpod Artist Easels – Telephone: 208-522-8677 in Idaho). I prefer the #U8000 model. I take the tripod, shelf, plastic cups that are provided, and the small (1/4 sheet size) board. Fits in my suitcase perfectly!”

I’ll let you know how I liked it. I normally use a Winsor Newton Bristol watercolor portable easel and make a shelf by clipping a flat old palette on top of my old lady shopping cart that I drag my plein air supplies around in. I can’t bring that cart with me so will have to carry everything, which I’m not thrilled about. I may just use my watercolor sketchbook when we go off site. I’m bringing a Canson Montval Field Watercolor notebook (140 pound watercolor paper 7×10″), small Moleskine watercolor notebook and sketchbook in my backpack on the plane, and maybe a few others, depending on room.

Well, it’s already 9:30 PM and I haven’t finished packing yet and I’m leaving in the AM so I better say Adios now.

I’ll be back next weekend.

Tags Plein Air

Life in general Watercolor

Getting ready for Mexico

I’m getting ready for my painting trip to Mexico with lists of things to take care of before I leave on Saturday morning. I’m trying something new–starting to relax a little before vacation instead of pushing up until the last minute, which has always meant starting a holiday with a migraine.

Tonight my painting time is being used to prepare my palette for the trip so no art, but here’s a picture of my plein air/travel palette which I’ll be packing in my suitcase. The piece of painted watercolor paper beside it serves to remind me which colors are which and also serves as blotter paper in case the paints drip. It fits inside over the top of the paint. I use this palette regularly for plein air painting when I’m setting up an easel.

9 x 11″ Holbein palette that folds to 9×5.5″

This is the cheapie palette I’m going to take on the plane with me so I won’t be upset if it gets thrown away (thanks to Belinda Del Pesco for the idea of taking a cheapie onboard in case security puts it in the bin with the other dangerous items, like toothpaste and hand lotion.) I bought this to try it out for about $4.00 and didn’t like it much but it’s handy as a loaner for students.

8×8 cheapie palette, folds to 8×4″

While I’m at it, I thought I’d throw in pics of my other palettes that I use on a regular basis. This is my standard studio palette. It has a lid to keep the cat hair (and cat paws) out and I like it a lot. I have all of the paint names and pigment numbers marked around the outside edge.

15″ x 11″ Robert Wood studio palette

And here are two little palettes. The one on the left is an ancient Holbein palette with some of the original paints and some that I’ve refilled with new colors. I keep it in my backpack along with my little sketchbook for times when I’m not planning ahead to paint but want something small and flat to carry along just in case. It sat on my desk at work for a long time, begging to get used but only did once. I keep the Winsor & Newton on the right in my little grab-and-go kit that I use when I’m planning to paint in a cafe, at the farmer’s market or in my car — somewhere I wouldn’t use an easel. It’s very handy and portable, since it has a little water container (that dark thing at the top) as part of the kit. They both have little finger loops on the back so that you can hold them comfortably and mini brushes, though I use Niji waterbrushes for painting with them since they have handy tops to protect the brushes.

Schmincke folds to 3×5″ and Winsor Newton folds to 2.5″ x 4″ but it’s chunkier.

Flower Art Sketchbook Pages Watercolor

Potato Vine for Anne Dowden

Post author By Jana Bouc
Post date January 27, 2007
10 Comments on Potato Vine for Anne Dowden

Drawn in ink and watercolor from “live specimen” (picked from my tree)
Solanum wendlandii AKA Potato vine or Divorce Vine

I LOVE THIS QUOTE: “Hers was a life of friendship by correspondence.” (Said about botanical artist and author, Anne Ophilia Todd Dowden, who died recently at 99. “She never worked from photos, only live specimens. When certain things were in bloom you didn’t see her. She knew a lot of people but she wasn’t that social. Hers was a life of friendship by correspondence,” said her friend, Lotte Blaustein.

I can relate. I treasure my friends and family but see them infrequently, instead staying in touch by e-mail or phone calls — a friendship of correspondence. The quote makes it sound elegant instead of something one should apologize for (as I’m always doing). The people in my life understand my need for solitude and are supportive of my passion to paint, but I wonder if I’m doing them and myself a disservice.

What do you think? Do you feel torn between preserving time for your art and others’ desire to have your company and attention? Or do you thrive in the company of others and it feeds your art?

P.S. Do you like this new blog template better than the previous one? I thought the type was easier to read on this one and it’s simpler without the blue on each side.

Tags Pen and Ink