Categories
Drawing Gardening Ink and watercolor wash Life in general Painting Plants Sketchbook Pages

First Tomato of the Year of the Foggiest Summer Ever

No. 1 Tomato, ink & watercolor
No. 1 Tomato, ink & watercolor

Despite this being the coldest summer in the San Francisco Bay Area that I can remember, my tomato plants produced their first little, shiny, red tomato. Now if we’d just get some sun instead of wind and fog, the green ones might get a chance to ripen too.

Ironically, last February some news reports warned that due to global warming, fog along the Californian coast had declined by a third over the past 100 years; the equivalent of three hours a day, dropping from 56 to 42 percent of the time. Meanwhile another report came to the opposite conclusion, saying, “The Bay Area just had its foggiest May in 50 years. And thanks to global warming, it’s about to get even foggier.”

All I know is that this is the first summer that my down comforter and electric blanket have remained on my bed all the way through July. I wouldn’t want to trade for the extreme heat in other parts of the U.S. and the world, but it would be nice to have a little bit of summer before fall!

P.S. In case you have sharp eyes and noticed that the stem behind the tomato seemed to have previously held four tomatoes, you’re right. It was leftover from a purchased bunch of tomatoes on the vine but I thought it was cute and would look nice in this picture.

Categories
Dreams Faces Life in general Painting People Portrait Sketchbook Pages Watercolor

My Dinner with Bob Dylan

Bob Dylan, watercolor
Bob Dylan, watercolor

I dreamed that Bob Dylan was having dinner with my friend Michael and he invited me to tag along. They talked seriously about music trivia for hours in the old wood-paneled café.  I was surprised at how much better Dylan looked in person. I was going to tell him but decided it sounded too dumb. So I just sat there silently, trying to inconspicuously flirt with him.

Then my calico cat Fiona woke me up, making those telltale, pre-puking sounds cats make. I pushed her off the bed and tried to go back to sleep since it was still dark. Just as I’d finally fallen back asleep she started licking my eyebrow. I gave up trying to sleep and spent the day feeling dopey and too tired to do the oil painting I had planned.

Instead it seemed like a really good idea to wash off the entire background of the Big Tulip painting I thought I’d “finished.”  More about that later…now off to get some sleep!

Categories
Drawing Ink and watercolor wash Places Sketchbook Pages

Just Can’t Settle Down: Lake Merritt Sketches

Lake Merritt, ink & watercolor pencil
Lake Merritt, ink & watercolor pencil

After work Tuesday night we met to sketch at Lake Merritt which is across the street from my office. I guess I drank too much coffee that day because I couldn’t settle down and focus. There was a fascinating parade of people walking by, all talking to each other or on cellphones, leaving bits of conversation in their wake.

Warmup sketches
Warmup sketches

I warmed up with some sketches of the local seabirds and passing people, noting a few conversation snippets. That’s an old Chinese lady with a pole over her shoulders carrying huge garbage bags on either side that were bigger than she was. I assume she was gathering cans to recycle for a few dollars.

Lake Merritt apartments, mixed media
Lake Merritt apartments, mixed media

When it got cold and windy we headed up to my office on the 25th floor and drew the view out the window. I liked my sketch of the building and tall trees at the bottom of the page but instead of stopping there, I kept drawing until the page was full. I didn’t like that so tried various ways to hide the rest and finally pasted ruled tracing paper over it.

Categories
Animals Drawing Ink and watercolor wash Painting Sketchbook Pages

Happy Birthday Parrot for Robin

Birthday Parrot, ink & watercolor
Birthday Parrot, ink & watercolor

Today is my son Robin’s birthday so I painted this cheery parrot to print on a birthday card for him. I brought the card to his party tonight at Pier 23 in San Francisco, a waterfront “roadhouse pub” where we celebrated on their back deck right on the bay. It got pretty cold out there after the sun went down but their steamed mussels and clams were warm and delicious.

I originally downloaded the photo from MorgueFile.com (a great site for finding copyright-free images) when a student asked for a demo of bird painting and we did some planning for the painting.

Drawing the bird was fun and interesting. I’d never looked that closely at a parrot (or any bird) before and made so many discoveries, from his long, segmented “fingers” to his funny tongue and the varied shapes and colors of his feathers.

I have a friend with an Amazon parrot and I think it’s time for a visit and some sketching in person!

Categories
Flower Art Landscape Painting Watercolor

Big Tulip Watercolor Painting

Big Tulip, Watercolor on paper, 30x22"
Big Tulip, Watercolor on paper, 30x22"

Big Tulip started with this journal sketch and photo which led to a craving to work big for a change. I jumped right in with a full sheet (22×30″) of watercolor paper, reminding myself that it’s not that different:  just use bigger brushes, bigger puddles of paint, and bigger movements.

Of course there’s more to it than that. In planning the painting I decided I’d be free and loose with the background, just go for it and see what happens rather than draw it in. It was fun, but there was a lot of background. I’d like to try the painting again, doing it a little differently.

I’d draw the background plantings with more specificity and I would also use different pigments. I’ve been experimenting with using cadmiums for the yellows, orange and red instead of my usual transparent colors in my palette.

The cadmiums are perfect for journal painting when I want to try to get a rich color down in one layer. They’re stable and easy to work with so they will remain in my travel palette.

But when trying to work with juicy wet-into-wet washes, the cadmiums just sit there and don’t move, like stodgy, Wednesday night meatloaf. For painting close-up flowers I like the excitement and challenge of colors that charge into each other and zip around. It’s fun to paint a petal with lots of water and then drop in rich, bright colors, let them mingle, and try to get them to go where you want by tilting the painting.

Categories
Berkeley Drawing Ink and watercolor wash Landscape Life in general Painting Places Plein Air Sketchbook Pages

Berkeley’s Clark Kerr Campus (aka School for the Deaf)

Clark Kerr Campus Building 14, ink & watercolor
Clark Kerr Campus Building 14, ink & watercolor

Tuesday night we sketched at UC Berkeley’s Clark Kerr Campus. Built in the 1930’s as a residential school for the deaf, it now serves as home to hundreds of university students and 200 low-income seniors in a peaceful setting of mission style architecture, courtyards and sunny lawns, located just behind rowdy Fraternity Row.

Clark Kerr at Sunset, ink & watercolor
Clark Kerr at Sunset, ink & watercolor

With the students gone for the summer and few of the elderly out and about, we had the place to ourselves. We met at Derby and Claremont and tried to stay in the light, moving west to follow the sun as it set. I enjoyed painting on site, trying to capture the light instead of making many drawings and adding color later as my sketching pals like to do.

Read this brief, wonderfully scandalous “get-even” tale by one of the facility’s elder low-income residents about her earlier life as a mistress to a rich, powerful man who was a member of the Bohemian Club (as was Bush). What a story and how bizarre to find it while Googling for info about the campus.

Categories
Art theory Painting Sketchbook Pages Watercolor

Watercolor Class: Remnants & August Class Registration

Watercolor Glazing Exercise
Watercolor Glazing Study, 10 x 5"

My Sunday morning watercolor class focused on glazing this week. Glazing is applying a transparent layer of paint over painted or unpainted areas. Like a piece of colored glass, a glaze won’t hide what’s below it but will change the way it appears.

I used the study above to demonstrate glazing with gradations. To make the design I printed the word “HAPPY” in big capital letters and then playfully added more pencil lines between and around letters to make more shapes.

Then I glazed each shape individually, adding more glazed layers in various areas until it felt done. I used only transparent primary colors, so that they combined to create secondary colors.  You can also use glazing to make colors appear brighter, duller, darker, warmer, cooler or in shadow or to unify an entire painting or a section of it.

Journal parrot feather spread
Parrot painting strategy sheet, converted to journal entry use

A student who takes individual classes asked for help with painting birds so I used the journal spread above to demonstrate doing a pre-painting strategy session. I tried out various techniques and pigments as I thought about how I might paint the parrot whose photo we downloaded from Morguefile.com (where you are allowed to “copy, distribute, transmit and adapt” the copyright-free photos). Doing this bit of preparation and note-taking really helps to avoid some (but certainly not all) mistakes and corrections during the painting process. LATER I used the spread to write a journal entry (which I’ve blurred here for privacy), right over the feather and color experiments.

I still have these “cheat sheets” for many of my paintings. Recently I came across the one for Cheerios with Strawberries and saw that I’d used a wash of cobalt violet light (a favorite color but very expensive) to make the milk look just like the non-fat that I’d had in that bowl of cereal.

Flat and gradated wash demo
Flat and gradated wash demo

I loved the colors so much on this demo for flat and gradated washes from the previous week that I hung it on my wall as if it was a finished painting (my own mini Rothko).

Watercolor Class Registration
My next 4-week class session begins Sunday August 8. You can register and get more information on my website here. It looks like this session will fill so be sure to sign up soon if you want to join in. I am also planning a new “independent studies” class for people wanting to paint with ongoing coaching. If you’re interested, send me a note to get on the list.

Categories
Berkeley Colored pencil art Drawing Ink and watercolor wash Interiors Painting People Places Sketchbook Pages

Gilman Auto & Pyramid Brewery: Berkeley Sketching

Gilman Auto Berkeley, ink & watercolor pencil
Gilman Auto Berkeley, ink & watercolor pencil

After Barbara and I took a walk, she picked up her car at the Smog Zone (behind Gilman Auto in Berkeley) and I sketched the car repair shop. I got tricked by the angle of the overhanging roof on the right but I drew it in ink so there it is, wonky as can be.

While drawing I sat in the middle of a planting bed on something not meant as a seat in front of the fancy new McDonalds across the street. I wanted to hurry since I kept expecting to be asked to get out of there (plus the scent of their burgers frying always reminds me of the smell of the boys’ locker room at the high school gym).

So instead of messing with watercolor I used the watercolor pencils I’ve started carrying for quick getaways when it’s not convenient to use water. I was surprised how much brighter and more saturated the color was after I added the water later at home and so wiped some of it off.

Pyramid Brewery, ink & watercolor
Pyramid Brewery, ink & watercolor

That evening Sonia and I met at Pyramid Brewery for Tuesday night sketching. We were both a little out of sorts so it was great to unwind, chat over dinner and a beer, and of course, draw. These guys (above) were wonderful models. They barely changed position and didn’t leave until I finished them. When Pyramid turned the lights down at 9:00 we headed home feeling much better than when we arrived.

Categories
Drawing Flower Art Ink and watercolor wash Painting Plants Sketchbook Pages

DUI: Drawing Under the Influence

Hydrangeas; Attempt #2, ink & watercolor
Hydrangeas Attempt #2; Painted directly without drawing and ink lines added after finishing attempt #3

During days of dismay at my disappointingly dismal drawing dexterity I determined to draw ’til I improved. But I was under the influence of migraine medicine which fixed the headache but left me drowsy. I actually fell asleep at the drawing table, dropped my brush on the page which woke me up, and had to go lie down for a spell between drawings.

Hydrangeas Attempt #1, ink & watercolor
Hydrangeas Attempt #1; drawn in ink, painted with ugly dark background which was then sponged off and a bit more paint added

My hydrangeas are bursting with vibrant blooms so I made them my subject. The first attempt got off to a decent start until I painted a nearly black background, probably due to my really dark mood and being too doped up to know when to stop.

I couldn’t stand the way it looked, so before scanning tonight took a soft, wet sponge and washed off the dark background. Then I dropped a little more color into the wet background.

Hydrangeas Attempt #3, ink & watercolor
Hydrangeas Attempt #3, ink & watercolor

I had the most fun with this last attempt, where I drew and painted more loosely, trying to capture the flavor and personality of the flowers.

Categories
Drawing Flower Art Gouache Ink and watercolor wash Life in general Painting Places Rose Sketchbook Pages

When you forget how to draw…

Hillside Gardens Apartments, ink & watercolor
Hillside Gardens Apartments, ink & watercolor

…keep drawing! After feeling so rusty sketching at the county fair I was determined to get my drawing juju back. I knew the only way to find it was to draw more.

I tried sketching at the El Cerrito 4th of July festival (see below) but was all thumbs again. Since I couldn’t make a decent sketch myself, I bought a really nice one at the festival’s art show from my friend Ikuko who had a booth there.

I decided to try again on the walk  home. The Hillside Garden Apartments (at top of post) is an ongoing renovation project and labor of love by the owner to convert an old rundown motel into beautifully landscaped apartments. He and the apartment manager were driving by and saw me standing on the corner sketching. They parked and came  to see what I doing and we had a nice neighborly chat with much mutual admiration.

Can't Draw; Ink, watercolor, colored pencil
Can't Draw; Ink, watercolor, colored pencil (click to enlarge)

Back home I continued drawing. I was happy with this sketch of a rose from my garden (below) but lost focus and overworked the watercolor. So the next day I played around with adding gouache, not worrying about getting the colors “right” since the rose had completely changed anyway.

Love the (Artist) You're With; Ink, gouache & watercolor
Love the (Artist) You're With; Ink, gouache & watercolor

Then I wrote myself a little pep talk around the rose, concluding that even if my drawing wasn’t all I wanted it to be, I could at least stop being so self-critical and, to re-phrase the old Crosby, Stills & Nash song: “If you can’t (yet) be the artist you love, then love the one you’re with!”