Categories
Every Day Matters Sketchbook Pages Still Life Watercolor

Spoons: EDM #94

Spoon - EDM 94

Watercolor, Noodlers Ink, and a dab of ProWhite in 9×12″ Aquabee Sketchbook
(To enlarge, click image, select “All Sizes“)

This week’s Everyday Matters challenge is “Spoon.” The large pink-handled cooking spoon and the tablespoon with the dull black plastic handle are the last remaining implements from my mother’s early 1960s kitchen complete with built in pink electric oven and stove. When half the pink handle broke off the big spoon I was sad, but it actually created a handy edge for propping it in pots. I use the black-handled tablespoon for everything I eat with a spoon. I love the way the handle feels in my hand and the way it holds just the right amount of cereal and milk. The slotted spoon is a good sturdy tool that’s always handy for serving veges.

The big wirey spoon is great for draining and lifting out a whole potful of raviolis like I did tonight. I used to use a special plastic pasta tool, part spoon and part fork, for that purpose but it now serves a different purpose. I slip it horizontally between the two handles of kitchen cabinet doors to keep the cats out of the trash. I’d first tried to install baby safety locks on that cabinet, but the instructions were impossible and I’m hopeless when it comes to measuring. I always end up skipping the ruler and trying to eyeball things, which never works. I got the little plastic hooky thingy in the wrong place, and then stripped the screw when trying to remove it, so now it is a permanent feature of my cabinet door, hanging there limply to remind me of my failure.

Anyway, these are all good sturdy tools that may be homely but they do their jobs well!

Categories
Sketchbook Pages Watercolor

ATM in the dark

ATM at night

Click here to enlarge
Ink & Watercolor in Hand Book Co. 5.5 x 5.5″ Journal

I noticed this Mechanics Bank ATM glowing in the dark on a side street off San Pablo Avenue in Albany (CA). I turned down the street, hoping to find a spot to park and paint it. There was a woman sitting in a car in the perfect parking spot across the street so I pulled in behind her, assuming she was waiting for someone. Finally a guy arrived with a box of pizza and got in the car. After another five minutes waiting for them to each eat a slice they finally strapped in and drove away. I pulled up and started painting. The light was horrible in my car so I just mixed colors by guesswork and put them down. (I’ve now solved this problem I think–I bought a strap-on LED headlight at REI tonight that tilts and will light up my paper and palette.)

I was half done with when two young women parked right in front of the ATM, got out of their car, and headed to the liquor store behind me. I got out of my car too, and approached them saying, “Excuse me…I know this will sound strange but I’m painting a picture of that (pointing to ATM) and your car is blocking my view. Would you mind moving it across the street?” They didn’t seem at all amused or confused by my request. They just said they’d only be a minute and went into the liquor store. They appeared to be on a serious mission, probably for cigarettes, and they did return shortly and moved their car.

I thought I’d finished the little sketch but when I got home I could see that the walls of the bank were way too light so I added darker paint to the walls.

Categories
Animals Watercolor

Armadillo

Armadillo

Pentel Pocket brush pen ink and watercolor on Arches watercolor paper 11×7 inches
(To enlarge, click image, select All Sizes)

The armadillo photo I used as a reference was prominently featured in a PC Magazine ad for a laptop computer. The ad said the computer has “Shock Absorbing Design, Hard Disk Drive Protection and a Spill-Resistant Keyboard, all of which better protect you from the hazards of mobile computing.” From my memories of all the squashed armadillos on the roads the last time I drove across Texas, I didn’t get the impression they were all that protected from the hazards of mobility! It’s been a long time since I drove across the U.S., which I’ve done several times. Maybe now that coast to coast it’s all one long walled-in highway lined with the same fast-food chains and big box stores, you don’t see the variety of squished critters from state to state anymore. I guess that’s one good thing about the interstates.

I drew the armadillo with my Pentel Pocket Brush Pen on a piece of watercolor paper I’d previously prepared for another project with wet-in-wet washes of Permanent Rose, Lemon Yellow and Cobalt Blue. I didn’t end up doing the other project so decided to draw on it tonight. I thought I’d done a decent job with the drawing until I set the painting and drawing side by side and saw that I’d elongated his body by an extra third. I’ll be using this image again in a monoprint project so I’ll get another chance to get the proportions right.

Categories
Cartoon art Drawing People

No paper: what’s an artist to do?

In Line at Trader Joes
Ink on Biscotti package 4.5″ x 5
(Click image to enlarge, select “All Sizes”)

So there I was standing in a checkout line at Trader Joes that wasn’t moving, with the store crammed full of pre-Thanksgiving shoppers who like me, put off doing their week’s grocery shopping until Sunday evening. I was already feeling kind of down and grumpy because of the end of the weekend and lack of progress/success in the studio today.

After a few minutes I was also bored and started trying to think of what I could do to pass the long wait. Naturally I thought of sketching but I’d left my sketchbook in the car. I searched my pockets and bag for paper to no avail. I looked around at the display in front of me, and considered ripping off a piece of the cardboard and drawing on it but figured that might be frowned upon.

I looked in my cart and found the perfect canvas — the back of my bag of Trader Joes Biscotti (to be exact, “Trader Giotto’s Chocolate Almond Biscotti”). So I grabbed my pen and drew the people in line in front of me and the checker and bagger. By the time I got up to the checkout stand, I was in a much better mood and would have been happy to stand in line even longer, drawing more people.

The checker apologized for the long lines and I told him I’d amused myself by drawing on the package he’d just scanned. He looked at it again and said he thought it came that way. Then he started chatting with me about his lack of skill at drawing and how his father won’t shop there because of the long lines, while the people behind me stood there waiting. To hurry things along I asked for my $20 cash back and he apologized again, saying he forgot about it because he got so interested in my drawing.

Categories
Oil Painting Still Life

1st layer of 2nd oil painting

1st Layer, 1st Oil Painting
Work in progress: Oil on board, 15 x 12 ”
(To enlarge, click image, select “All Sizes”)

This is the first layer: I expect there will be two or three more. Before I started this, I set up my palette, grabbed a library book with some oil painting technique exercises and tried doing the first exercise, copying a value study of layers of mountains. It was boring and awful. I finished it and tossed it, feeling discouraged. Then I decided to stop worrying so much and just start painting. I grabbed the photos I took the other day and used the veges and bowl from this one:
Vege still life setup 2

and next I think I’ll add the tablecloth from this one:
RawSaveP1010201

I ran out of time before I could start the background.

The biggest hurdle for me to get over is using white paint. For 20 years of painting with watercolor, I’ve learned to preserve the white in my paper instead of using white paint and to use more water to make colors lighter. There’s a big taboo about using white paint with watercolor–it’s considered “cheating” in some circles. I didn’t think I cared about that, that my preference for leaving the white of the paper had more to do with wanting the luminance and clarity that you don’t get with opaque white paint on top of transparent watercolor.

But when it came time to actually mix up colors using white paint, it felt like what I imagine an alcoholic might feel after being sober 20 years and then being told now it’s ok to drink and reaching for that first bottle. (Except I know there’s really no comparison–terrible things don’t happen from using white paint). But I was definitely stressing over it, which was interesting for me to observe. I received a couple answers to my worries about using white paint that I posted online. One person on Wet Canvas told me to paint a white object to get over it and Nel wrote and told me to “Use white paint happily and freely in oils!” She should know–her recent oils are scrumptious.

It’s going to be interesting switching back and forth between oil and water and monoprinting. I think I’ll try the same composition in watercolor tomorrow too–especially if this oil is still to wet to work with.

Categories
Drawing Life in general Sketchbook Pages

My messy coat rack

coatrack

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

I was debating whether to draw something, go to bed, or watch TV. I drew something AND watched TV:  last night’s America’s Next Top Model that I’d TiVo’d (a bit of mental junk food is an important part of a healthy diet).

This messy coat rack was hanging in my living room by the front door when I bought my house and it’s always been handy, so it’s still there, five years later. It’s not something I would have intentionally bought or hung in my living room though. It always looks messy, whether it’s summer and hanging with hoodies, (when did sweatshirts become “hoodies”?) hats and visors, or in the winter, laden with raincoat, fleece jacket, down vest, umbrella and knit scarves. These things belong in the closet, not by the front door, the first thing visitors see.

Of course the people who come to my house are not “visitors.” They’re people who know me and won’t judge me for my housekeeping or home decor. They know I care more for function than appearances. It’s very functional to have my jacket by the door and makes it easy to grab or put away.

And most importantly, a messy coat rack is fun to draw. If it wasn’t there, the blank wall wouldn’t have inspired me to draw, and then I wouldn’t have had something to post today.

Categories
Still Life Watercolor

Kiwis

Kiwis

Drawn first with Lamy Safari pen and Noodlers Ink then
Watercolor in 5.5″ square Hand Book Co. journal
To enlarge, click image, select “All Sizes”

I was too sleepy tonight to get back to my oil painting, so I decided to do a little watercolor of these kiwis who have been waiting patiently for me to paint them. I was pleasantly surprised how well the Hand+Book Co. journal stood up to lifting out paint with a wet brush. It’s just as nice a book as the Moleskine but the paper seems a little sturdier and the square format is fun. The notebooks have more pages than the Moleskines so they’re thicker and heavier to cart around. I guess it’s like diet food–you pay more to get less. Go figure.

I always think of these little Pyrex custard cups as “Grandma’s” because even though they came from Bed Bath and Beyond, they always remind me of the ones she handed me, filled with pudding or ice cream.

I’ve heard the best way to eat kiwis is the scoop them out with a spoon…so I’m off to give that a try.

Categories
Drawing People Sketchbook Pages

What I should have done first

Value study of M.

Pentel GFKP Pocket Brush Pen and Pentel #101 Brush Pen in Raffine 6×9″ Sketchbook
(To enlarge click image, select “All Sizes”)

More about the drawing in a minute, but first…

Tonight my painting group met to celebrate Susie’s birthday at Saul’s Jewish Deli in Berkeley. It was pretty funny that all five of us ordered exactly the same thing and thoroughly enjoyed it: grilled trout, veges and a big crispy potato latke with applesauce. Then we talked about getting older, aging parents, Susie’s adventures last week going to see the aging Rolling Stones, the pros and cons of dementia, and of course, art.

There’s a wonderful used bookstore, Black Oak Books, next door to the restaurant so after chocolate birthday cake, complete with candle, singing waiters and applauding restaurant patrons, we went to the bookstore where I was excited to find a book on Janet Fish. Her watercolors and oils of glass and other transparent objects have always been a huge inspiration to me. I bought that one and put an amazing book on Viennese Watercolors of the 19th century on hold until I can bring in a couple boxes of books I’m ready to part with in trade.

Now back to the drawing/painting:

Before I started the oil painting yesterday I should have taken some time to do thumbnail sketches to develop the composition, done a value study, and some drawings to become more familiar with the structure and characteristics of the face and torso. In watercolor it’s pretty important to do this first. But I was so antsy to get my brush in the slippery oil paint that I just went for it. Now while I’m waiting for the paint to dry I’ll work backwards, doing the preliminary sketches.

I thoroughly enjoyed doing this drawing with the very sensual and expressive Pentel Pocket Brush Pen (waterproof ink) and the Pentel Brush Pen (not waterproof). I added a little water with a regular brush to get a light ink wash for the gray areas from the non-waterproof ink that I’d applied.

Meanwhile I’m reading lots of library books on oil painting to refresh my feeble memory in oil painting technique. What’s interesting is that there seems to be about 26 watercolor how-to books published for every 1 oil painting book and most of the oil painting books were published a long time ago. There isn’t even an “oil painting” category in the library’s card catalogue (but there is for watercolor and acrylic painting). Is it because oils simply don’t require so many technical skills? Or are watercolor painters a better market, more likely to buy books?

Categories
Oil Painting People

First pass at oil painting

First pass at oil

First layer of oil sketch with 2 colors (burnt sienna & ultramarine blue), 12 x 16 inches

I’m feeling a little sheepish about posting this wonky off kilter portrait but it’s today’s sketch….so here it is. I had the canvas on an easel at too much of an angle I think — her face seems distorted in the photo and it wasn’t when I was painting it.

Having not used oils for 20 years, I didn’t quite know how to start so I grabbed a photo of someone dear to me, squeezed out some burnt sienna and ultramarine blue on my palette and started drawing with a brush and thinned paint. I was trying to avoid turpentine, using Galkyd and Gamsol (alkyd medium and odorless mineral spirits — OMS — by Gamblin which is supposed to be less toxic than others). First I tried paint diluted with 50/50 Galkyd and Gamsol but it still seemed too rich for a first layer so I started using just the Gamsol thinner and that didn’t work too well–it started dissolving the paint around it. (Oil paint has to be painted lean to fat — the first layers need to not have too much oil in them or subsequent layers won’t adhere properly.)

I loved the way it felt to work with oil — to be able to sort of sculpt with paint and have it slide around nicely. Now I need to wait for this to dry and then I can go in and fix the drawing and then start on skin tones. It’s interesting feeling like a beginner again…I’ve forgotten so much of the little I knew about oil painting but hopefully that little will return and the knowledge and skills I’ve developed with watercolor and drawing will be helpful.

Fortunately it was a warm evening tonight, even though it’s raining, so I could leave my windows and door to my studio open while using the OMS. The stuff didn’t smell, but now I have a weird metallic taste in my mouth which means there was something toxic in the air and which means I won’t be leaving a container of OMS open while I work again.

Categories
Block Printing Oil Painting Still Life

Good day in the studio

Linoleum block print 4″x5″ DS water-based ink on Arches cover paper
(To enlarge any of the images, click image, then select “All Sizes”)

Yes, I’m back to the lantern image again. This time I drew it on paper, traced it on a linoleum block and then carved all the areas that appear white in the image. Then I inked the block and rubbed the paper onto the block. I’ll add watercolor when the ink is dry.

Doing all the carving gave me a terrible stiff neck from looking down so long. I also tried adding some colored ink designed for monoprinting that was too wet and didn’t quite work out (below).

Linoblock print with DS black ink and Akua Color yellow, red and blue monoprint inks on Stonehenge print paper

Today I also started my experiment with oil paints, although I’m wondering if I should have gone to acrylics instead. I’ve long been admiring Andrea’s acrylic paintings and Carla Kurt’s beautiful acrylic painting here. Both of these artists have generously shared information with me about acrylics that have tempted me to jump right in and try them. But I’ve already got oil paints and love their consistency so I need to give them another go first. I dug out my old oil painting kit from 20 years ago and sorted out the paints and did some color tests. I’m worried about getting oil paint on my hardwood floors, clothes and cats, though I assume the problem is the same with acrylics. I guess I’ve been spoiled by the easy cleanup and low toxicity of watercolor which will probably always be my #1 medium.

I feel so sentimental about my old oil paint kit (just smelling the linseed oil brings back many happy memories of my life back then) so I took a picture of it. Here’s the kit and my paint tests:

oilpaints

(Painting kit, oil paints, flesh tone color mixing chart)

It was a good art day. I also took some photos for a possible still life painting. I put these veges together for my class on Saturday and stuck the setup in the fridge so I could photograph it. But after a couple shots my camera battery died and when it was charged again, the sun disappeared so I wasn’t able to get just what I wanted. I think the one with the white cloth is my favorite except there are no shadows since the sun was behind a cloud. I’ll probably just combine elements from the photos once the veges themselves get funky.

What do you think? (ignore the background–the grass and fence won’t be in the painting).

(Comments welcomed on acrylic vs. oils, photo selection or anything else — but you have to scroll back to the top to click on Comments.)