Categories
Drawing Life in general Sketchbook Pages Watercolor

Mom’s Home from the Hospital

Mom and Me Again

I tried doing yesterday’s sketch again, this time starting first in pencil and then adding watercolor. It looks a lot more like her and this time our heads are the same size. Yesterdays drawing was the last page in my Aquabee sketchbook and today’s is the last page in my first Moleskine watercolor notebook.

Here’s the original photo:

mom-photoIMGP2983

Mom’s glad to be home from the hospital and I’m glad she’ll have will nurses and home health workers and my sister looking in on her. Hopefully the meds will do their thing and she’ll be able to go back to her normal life without any ill effects.

I also wish her normal life were richer, and filled with more interesting things than constant TV (including favorites the Home Shopping Channel, Court TV and General Hospital), sorting coupons and miscellaneous detritus of a lifetime, and the occasional dinner at Carrows or Norms Deli with friends or family. She used to enjoy painting and photography and collage and travel and walks on the beach.

It makes me sad to see how her world keeps shrinking and her strength and energy for doing new things are fading. And it scares me to see how easily and naturally that can happen as one ages. And it makes me want to stay strong and healthy; always learning and enjoying doing the things I love.

Categories
Drawing Sketchbook Pages Watercolor

Mom’s in the hospital

Mom and I

(Geez this is a terrible drawing–it gets worse every time I see it.)

Since I was thinking about my mom a lot this week, I decided to draw her from a photo we took at the beach on my last visit. I drew directly in ink, and strangely, my mom came out much bigger than I. I’m sure there’s all sorts of psychological reasons for this that I won’t go into here. Note to self: don’t draw wrinkles with a pen–they look like stitches. It’s a bad drawing, but it’s what’s in my sketchbook today so here it is.

My mother had a T.I.A. (trans ischemic attack — like a stroke but much briefer and less damaging though can be a precursor to a serious stroke) last Friday and my sister who lives near her took her to the Veterans Hospital in West L.A. She was in the Waves (the Women’s Navy) during WWII so she’s entitled to veterans benefits. Mom enjoys the special treatment she gets at the VA since she’s one of the few women in a hospital full of men. She was fortunate that there was no permanent damage and they’re giving her medication that should prevent future attacks.

My mother treats the hospital like it’s a fine hotel with room service. She didn’t like her bed and insisted they bring her a new mattress as she felt hers was too old and lumpy. The nurse said they’re all the same and mom said, “No, I’ve stayed her before and I had a better bed last time.” So they delivered a better mattress. They told her she could go home at 4:00 today but she said she was too tired and would go home tomorrow so they said OK. She told me it was because she knew they were serving pizza and cheese cake for dinner tonight and she didn’t want to miss it. She’s planning on staying at least through lunch tomorrow.

Lamy Safari pen, Noodlers Ink, Moleskine watercolor notebook.

Categories
Drawing Flower Art Sketchbook Pages Watercolor

What kind of tree am I?

Pink and Bright Orange Tree?

Please CLICK image then “All Sizes” to enlarge

I don’t know what kind of tree these came from, do you? Actually I drew the parts of two identical trees that are next to each other in my neighborhood. The only difference is that one has impossibly pink flowers and the other has impossibly bright orange flowers. I planned to draw both but discovered I was allergic to them and in order to finish more quickly combined their parts in one picture. Then I had to take a Claritin.

When I asked the neighbor if I could take a cutting from his tree to paint he said I could take the whole tree. He hates them because they bloom all year and constantly drop horrible stuff on his car: sticky sap, sticky little orange stringy parts of the flowers, and the hard seed pods (I know I’m using all the wrong names of the parts, sorry). He showed me the huge stump of the one he’d already cut down. Looking at the mess I had to clean up on my drawing table, I know what he’s talking about.

But the bees and hummingbirds love these trees. In the afternoon its swarming with bees and in the early evening it’s filled to capacity with chirping hummingbirds. I hope he doesn’t cut down the others. They’re stunningly beautiful and our neighborhood doesn’t have enough trees. Here’s some photos of the tree parts:
_DSC0189pink-DSC_0729pink tree

orange-DSC_0727 _DSC0187

Drawn with Lamy Safari Pen, Noodler’s Ink & watercolor in Aquabee Super Deluxe sketchbook

Categories
Animals Illustration Friday Sketchbook Pages

Illustration Friday: Run

Illustration Friday

I did this sketch from a photo I took at Golden Gate Fields in the very early morning when the jockeys are training new horses, running them around the track. I actually intended to do an ink drawing, but after a couple of unsuccessful but fun drawings with a Micron Pigma brush pen, I decided to start with a pencil sketch and THEN do an ink drawing and add watercolor. But I ran out of time, so here’s the pencil sketch.

I feel a little lame doing such a literal take on RUN but I’d been wanting to draw from my horse photos and the other options I thought of didn’t really grab me for drawing them (running out of time, running the show, river running, a Broadway run, running for office). I liked Michael’s suggestion (a nose running) a lot because it made laugh and was really original–but it was his idea, not mine.

I used a .5mm mechanical pencil in my 9×12 Aquabee Super Deluxe sketchbook.

Categories
Plein Air Watercolor

Blake Gardens, Kensington, CA

Blake Gardens

Painted on site in watercolor on 9 x 12 Arches watercolor block.

I finally got back up to Blake Gardens today with two hours before closing. My plein air painting supplies live in an old lady shopping cart in my car. I dragged that thing all around the Blake Gardens estate looking for a spot to paint that wouldn’t be too cold and windy as it was a foggy day in Kensington.

A woman taking photos stopped to see what I was doing. She’s an oil painter who paints there often so I asked for her advice. Landscape and plein air painting never really interested me until this year, and I’ve only begun exploring it. While it initially feels humbling, even embarassing, to allow myself to be a beginner and ask for help, it’s also very freeing.

She saw that I was doing pencil thumbnail sketches in a sketchbook to get started and she suggested using a Sharpie instead, blocking in the main shapes on a full page instead of doing thumbnails. She was right–that helped a lot. Then I did a quick pencil sketch on my watercolor block, picked up the biggest brush I’d brought–a 1″ flat (something I rarely use) and dug in and started painting.

The funny thing is that the scan has better contrast, value range and color saturation than the original. I’m going to make a printout of the scanned image, and using that as my reference, enhance the original painting to match the scanned version. It showed me how to make the painting better–isn’t that cool?!

So my moral dilemma is this: which is cheating more, to post the scan-enhanced version before changing the painting, or to change a plein air painting by working on it in the studio? I guess then it’s not a plein air painting anymore? What do you think?

Categories
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.

Categories
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.

Categories
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

Categories
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.

Categories
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.