Here's this week's entry to the Wet Canvas Weekend Drawing Event. The photos this week were from a South Dakota farm. I changed the composition a bit–adding an extra calf and a bale of hay and then did a quick ink and watercolor sketch. 
I did this today while I was sitting under the hair dryer at Circle Salon in Kensington waiting for my hair to turn bright copper red. Julie said my picture makes me look much older than I really am, but that's because I got so interested in all the lines and wrinkles when I was drawing. Then she got annoyed because she was ready to wash the dye out of my hair and move on to her next client but I wasn't finished with my drawing. So she took away the mirror I was using. I love drawing! I love my red hair too!
Here's the photo I took of myself under the dryer. I guess the good news is I don't look as bad as the painting, but the bad news is the painting doesn't look as good as the photo.
Irisa and I were taking a brisk lunchtime walk around Lake Merritt. These Oakland civil servants were having a little siesta under a tree by the bird sanctuary while some local residents looked on.
Just as I was falling asleep last night my sleepy brain came up with a great invention. I was so excited I turned the light back on and made this note in my bedside notebook: "Hip-Hop Suspenders Made of Bling!" I'm so tired of seeing guys walking around holding up their giant pants (or letting them fall down, displaying several layers of underwear). So in my sleepy genius I came up with what might be a hot new hip-hop style (continued below)…
…Suspenders made of chunky gold chains to match the stupid chunky bling necklaces and gold teeth that wanna-be rappers wear. Here's the picture I drew in my sketchbook this morning. Do you think I should try to market it? Leave a comment below and tell me what you think.
Categories
Glowing morning
I was surprised to wake up at 6:00 a.m. to a sunny day today since my neighborhood near the San Francisco Bay is foggy most of the time. When I looked out the window, this grand old tree was brilliantly glowing. I ran outside in my pajamas and took a few photos and then painted the tree standing at my dining room window watching as the shadows changed minute by minute. I think I overworked it, and should have stopped earlier but what a great way to start the day!
In 1987, at the ancient age of 39, when I was still married and had two little kids, I thought, as I shopped for a new bike, that I was buying my last one because certainly I would be too old to ride anymore by the time I was, say 50. It was one of those newly invented mountain bikes. Here's my farewell drawing of her from my sketchbook:
Now at 58 I'm again shopping for a new bike…and again thinking this one will be my last. It's weird to think something will be my last…but it's been true before…my last baby for example, who's now 25.
Approaching my birthday always makes me think about my life and how much I enjoy it, especially when I'm painting or drawing, and how important it is to enjoy every single day since there's only so many I have left (how many? glad I don't know).
For this week's Wet Canvas 2-hour drawing or painting challenge they posted photos from the Virgin Islands. I picked this photo of a guy named Jupiter. It was a challenge to paint it in the assigned two hours since I would normally work much more slowly. It took 2 hours to paint and then another hour to try to get a decent digital image of the painting. I finally gave up and used this one, even though the color isn't accurate– the painting doesn't have the dark blue area on his face. (…continued below)
I also tried doing the painting in Photoshop using digital brushes and digital paint. It was way too easy. I asked myself this question: If I could quickly turn out beautiful watercolors by doing it digitally would I want to, and the answer was "No." I enjoy the challenge, the deep seeing, mixing the colors, moving the paint and water around, seeing it puddle and flow. Sculpting by lifting the paint, creating illusions of light, depth, texture, shadow. The sensual pleasure of good brushes, good paper, lots of juicy puddles of paint. Or I could spend more time at the computer?
Jana Bouc, Artist 
