Jana Bouc, Artist

Blake Gardens Revised; Pondering Painting

Post author By Jana Bouc
Post date August 9, 2009
11 Comments on Blake Gardens Revised; Pondering Painting

Blake Gardens Revised, oil on panel 9x12"

When my sister looked at the original version of this painting (posted here) she told me her eye kept going to the bright area in the upper right. There was a lot that was distracting in that image, and I thought the ground was too dark and the two little patches of flowers on opposite sides of the path were distracting too. But now maybe I lost some of the sunshine by lightening the ground and darkening that corner? (see original below)

Blake Gardens Late Afternoon, oil on panel, 9x12" — Blake Gardens (version 1, click to enlarge)

So it was back to the drawing board…er easel. I spent some more time working on it and I think it’s done now. Which do you like better? Or do you think the revised version needs more work and if so what?

Yesterday I was out plein air painting in the funky little town of Port Costa, and because I was painting buildings, spent more time drawing than painting to get the perspective right. (Which makes me realize I need to add one more point to my How to Oil Paint Plein Air List: # 5. “Get the drawing right!”). Today I tried to (but didn’t quite ) finish it. While I used to often spend a month or more completing a watercolor painting, for some reason I have the idea that an oil painting should be finished more quickly, like in one session.

Perhaps what bothers me is that when I paint plein air I work small, using a 9×12″ panel. It seems like a waste of time to work such a small painting for days afterward, putting in lots of details (because I like details, darn it, even though plein air oil paintings are supposed to be simplified).

Maybe the trick is to paint the plein air painting as a simplified field study and then if I like it, if it has life and soul and the subject still interests me, grab a bigger canvas and paint big where I can really get into things like reflections in windows and other crunchy details, instead of continuing to work on the study.

But for now, it’s back to overworking yesterday’s study since I just scraped off the bottom 1/4 of the painting and need to redo it before the paint dries.

Tags Art theory, Blake Gardens, Landscape, Oil Painting, Plein Air

Berkeley Drawing Ink and watercolor wash Places Sketchbook Pages

Sketching Doors near the Berkeley Rose Garden

Post author By Jana Bouc
Post date August 8, 2009

Here’s a few sketches of doors from last week’s North Berkeley sketchcrawl around Euclid and Crystal above the Berkeley Rose Garden. I was really tired and not terribly inspired, but it was a nice evening nevertheless.

Near Berkeley Rose Garden #1, ink & watercolor

Near Berkeley Rose Garden #2, ink & watercolor

Tags Berkeley, Drawing, Ink and watercolor wash, Pen and Ink, Sketchbook Pages

Art supplies Life in general Sketchbook Pages

Thinking about….People Chow and Pens

Post author By Jana Bouc
Post date August 7, 2009
13 Comments on Thinking about….People Chow and Pens

People Chow & Pens — Thinking About People Chow & Pen Testing

I’ve been testing pens that I have on hand, trying to find one that is permanent or archival but also will bleed when water is brushed across it. I haven’t found it yet, so if you have any suggestions, send them my way. While I was testing I was hungry and annoyed that I was going to have to stop and go cook dinner, and then clean up after dinner.

I’d recently learned that cats don’t need variety in their food (assuming they’re being fed a high quality cat food) and that in fact, switching their food around gives them digestive problems. Cats only have about 500 taste buds compared to our 9,000 so they make their eating decisions based on smell (and how hungry they are), not so much on flavor. When I stopped constantly changing their food, Busby’s chronic digestive problems disappeared and he became much nicer to have to around.

Since veterinary science has determined exactly what nutrients are required for cats, why hasn’t medical science discovered something similar for humans? I’m not saying I’d want to eat kibble 3 times a day (although my beloved Cheerios do look an awful lot like kibble and my cat Fiona has been known to rip open the Cheerios box and eat them) but wouldn’t it be nice to be able to just take a meal replacement pill, beverage or bar and have all the nutrients needed to nourish the body and stave off hunger until the next mealtime? Take the poll at the bottom of the post and tell me if you agree.

I was also thinking about how much more I enjoy sketches and sketching when they’re about something other than making a copy of something, and when there are words included. Pretty pictures are nice, but when something is just about being a pretty picture it feels soul-less to me. I want some meat in my sketches, not just pretty (or at least some kibble, if not meat).

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Tags Art supplies, Cats, Drawing, Pen and Ink, Sketchbook Pages

Berkeley Drawing Ink and watercolor wash Places Sketchbook Pages

Sketching Normandy Village in North Berkeley

Post author By Jana Bouc
Post date August 6, 2009
4 Comments on Sketching Normandy Village in North Berkeley

This week we headed to Spruce Street in North Berkeley to sketch “Normandy Village,” a 1920s blueprint copy of a village in rural France. For some reason I did all of the village sketches on one spread in my sketchbook so I’ve separated them to post here. I started with these funny gargoyles on one of the cottages, experimenting with a Penstix Indian ink pen that bleeds a bit when water is added.

Normandy Village on Spruce Street #2, ink & wash

After the gargoyles I walked back into the little village and sketched the towers. While I was balancing on my 3-legged stool on the cobbled road, some residents drove up to unload some stuff from their car. A young man showed me his large pencil drawings he’d done at school that day and said he was an illustrator and a “Concept Artist.” Actually he’s a student at SF Academy of Art but with that kind of confidence will likely go far.

Normandy Village Gnome house, ink & watercolor

While most of the cottages in the village look like Hobbit houses, one of the “Village People” as the residents are known, is a gnome collector. Her kitchen window is lined with small gnomes, and the backyard just visible through the archway above, is loaded with gnomes large and small. This one was resting in a chair.

A friendly couple who lived in one of the apartments in this building came out with a plate of produce scraps to put in the recycling bin near me. We chatted about drawing and which was more difficult, drawing people or architecture. I showed them the trick for getting angles approximately right when sketching.

When it got too dark and we were walking up the hill to our cars we saw this home below and realized that in the open on the top of the hill here there was still enough light to do one more sketch

Last sketch on Spruce Street Sketchcrawl #4, Ink & watercolor

Tags Berkeley, Ink and watercolor wash, ink sketch, Pen and Ink, Sketchbook Pages

Animals Bay Area Parks Drawing Ink and watercolor wash Outdoors/Landscape Painting People Places Sketchbook Pages

Goose (Poop) Park and Subway Sketches

Post author By Jana Bouc
Post date August 5, 2009
4 Comments on Goose (Poop) Park and Subway Sketches

Snow Park (Goose Park), ink & watercolor

I meant to take a walk at lunch today but when I saw this old lady feeding the geese I had to stop and sketch. This is a little park near my office in downtown Oakland called “Snow Park” but a better name would be “Goose Poop Park” since it’s home to the many Canadian geese who don’t seem to feel the need to head north or south any longer.

I drew the faces of these subway riders on my way to work this morning. I drew the feet on the way home. That guy was holding his juice on the floor with his feet.

Tags Animals, BART, Bay Area Parks, Birds, Ink and watercolor wash, Landscape, Oakland, Pen and Ink, People, Sketchbook Pages, subway drawing

Drawing Ink and watercolor wash Painting People Sketchbook Pages

I’m Not a Party Girl but She Is

Post author By Jana Bouc
Post date August 2, 2009
2 Comments on I’m Not a Party Girl but She Is

The Party Girl #1, ink & watercolor in sketchbook

I am so not a party girl. But my son’s fiancée is and loves any opportunity to play dress up. I was invited to her birthday party, designated (tongue in cheek) as a swanky cocktail party. I said I’d come but since I don’t own anything swanky and I firmly believe in Thoreau’s wise words, “Beware of all enterprises that require new clothes” I wouldn’t be too swanky. As it turned out, I wasn’t alone, and it was fun to see the variety of outfits people were decked out in. (My wine-colored blouse and long black skirt turned out to be perfect, as strangely enough nearly everyone was wearing combinations of black and wine or plum).

The Party Girl, ink & watercolor in sketchbook

The birthday girl was the epitomy of swank, with a skin-tight, teensy, black satin dress, long-sleeved black satin gloves, stilettos and lots of chunky bling. She is a beautiful girl, a lithe formal model and dancer, and so pulled it off elegantly and magestically, truly the princess of her party. (Sorry E, that my sketch added 20 pounds at least to your perfect figure).

Several people chose interesting hats to accompany their outfits: from a funky straw rodeo-style cowboy hat accompanying a chiffon party dress, high heels and sun glasses to a young man wearing a strange winter cap with ear flaps and Buddy Holly style glasses. (This was a Berkeley party, after all!)

Most of the people at the party were friends and family of the birthday girl so nobody seemed to mind my sitting on the couch sketching. When the cowboy-hatted drama teacher asked to see my sketchbook and I said I was embarrased at how badly I’d drawn her she gave me a big lecture on not putting down my work and never saying, “Just” as in I was “just sketching”! I could see why her students love her and are inspired by her.

It was a lovely party and yet, in my usual reclusive style, I was happy to depart after two hours and return home to a painting I was working on.

Tags Ink and watercolor wash, party, Pen and Ink, People, Sketchbook Pages

Art theory Landscape Oil Painting Outdoors/Landscape Painting Plants Plein Air

My “How-To Oil Paint Plein Air” Cheat Sheet

Post author By Jana Bouc
Post date July 29, 2009
8 Comments on My “How-To Oil Paint Plein Air” Cheat Sheet

After my flop of a painting on Saturday, I was determined to have another go at plein air painting. But first I wanted to put together a cheat sheet; a personalized “How to Paint Plein Air” based on what I’ve learned from teachers, books, experience, mistakes, successes and goals. I started jotting down notes as ideas and images came to me and then when the list felt complete, I typed it up and taped it to my paint box so that it will always be with me when I’m out painting. I posted another on the studio wall.

Then I went out to paint. First I drove to a site I’d been wanting to try out, a hillside cemetery in El Sobrante with what I thought would be interesting views. But once I found a spot where I could be off the road and away from mourners, it was so windy, and the view so boring, that I left and headed for Blake Gardens.

By the time I got there and set up, I only had an hour and a half to paint before they closed at 4:30. It was so serene and beautiful there and the weather was perfect, warm sunny and no wind. I worked as fast as I could, finished all of the main areas, and added the final touches at home.

It was a confusing scene with all sorts of trees and foliage, but not having enough time helped me to simplify rather than draw all the trees in the background. I took artistic license to move things a bit to improve my composition and to delete something that wasn’t working. I’m learning!

Here is my Oil Painting Plein Air Process Cheat Sheet. I imagine it will change as I learn and grow, but it definitely helped me with this painting.

FOCAL POINT: Choose one!
COLOR KEY: Decide: Will the painting be predominantly Warm or Cool, High key or Low key, Predominant hue?
SQUINT! to see values, simplify
THUMBNAIL: Keep making them until there’s a good composition with leading lines in to focal point. A bad composition can only lead to a bad painting.
CANVAS: Transpose thumbnail to canvas, creating large puzzle piece shapes, using pastel pencil or thin paint.
UNDERPAINT: Loose, sketchy monochrome underpainting of shapes, darks with very diluted paint (optional)
DARKS: Thinly paint the darks but MATCH values and colors using value scale and testing paint first on edge of little cards held up to compare to actual color. Just because it’s dark doesn’t mean it’s black.
PAINT LARGE SHAPES: Match or exagerate the average (VIBRANT) color in large shapes, using not too thick paint.
COLOR PATCHES: Break larger shapes into smaller patches of color and light, matching or slightly exagerating the color.
HIGHLIGHTS & ACCENTS: Add thick LIGHT paint, thin dark accents, and occasional splashes of “broken” color for VIBRANCY.
EDGES: Put a dab of COMPLEMENTARY colors around edges of focal points to pop, SOFTEN and/or cool receding edges.
STOP: It’s a field study!

If you have discovered other things that have helped you and are willing to share them, I’d love to hear about them. And if you’d like more information about any of the items on my list, let me know and I’ll do another post with more explanation and details.

Tags Art theory, Landscape Painting, Oil Painting, Plein Air, plein air painting

Animals Bay Area Parks Drawing Ink and watercolor wash Life in general Outdoors/Landscape People Places Sketchbook Pages Sketchercize

Pt. Isabel Sketchercize

No those aren’t circus dogs stacked up in a doggie pyramid, I just drew them that way as dogs came and went, begging for scraps at the table where the couple was eating lunch.

I’d planned to spend the day in the studio today, but when Barbara called to invite me for a walk at Pt. Isabel, I couldn’t resist. Since it was sunny and not too windy (or so I thought) I also brought along my plein air gear, thinking I might set up to paint there after our walk. But we took a L-O-N-G walk on the Bay Trail with an equally long walk back, and then had a late lunch at the Sit Stay Cafe in the dog park.

The wind had picked up and I was getting cold and didn’t really feel like spending 3 hours standing in the wind (see top left picture with poor bent over tree from the constant ocean winds). So while I was trying to decide, Barbara took out her sketchbook and I decided to do the same. By the time I finished it was already 4:00 and another weekend was nearly over.

But a day with good solid exercise and a little sketching is a good day and it counts. (Unlike some days that just suck and don’t count.)

Tags Animals, Bay Area Parks, Dog, Ink and watercolor wash, Pen and Ink, People, Pt. Isabel, Sketchbook Pages, Sketchercize

Bay Area Parks Drawing Ink and watercolor wash Places Sketchbook Pages

Sketching at John Muir House

Post author By Jana Bouc
Post date July 25, 2009
11 Comments on Sketching at John Muir House

John Muir Transit Then and Now, ink & watercolor

We had a paintout at John Muir National Park in Martinez today. My painting was complete rubbish, so to leave with pleasant memories of the day, I stayed and sketched these two carts that were on the patio behind the visitors center. I wrote “Transit Then and Now” on the page but the ranger corrected me when I handed him my sketchbook to get it stamped (see stamp top left).

He told me the “Then” wagon is actually a sprayer: the wooden barrel was filled with tobacco juice that John Muir’s farmhands sprayed on the fruit orchards to kill pests. He said that modern organic farmers have rediscovered this effective technique and are using it again. The “Now” cart is a neat little electric car they use to get around the beautiful hilly property. The rangers were so helpful, eager to share their knowledge about the park’s history, and very welcoming to the 21 of us who came to paint today.

Unfortunately I’ve apparently forgotten everything I knew about painting in oils plein air in the month that I’ve been focusing on acrylic painting in the studio and sketching with ink and watercolor. But at the critique several people had helpful suggestions about saving my painting. I’d started with a bad composition (despite trying out several thumbnails first) but they reminded me I could use artistic license and change the scene to improve the composition. (DUH! I can’t believe I didn’t think of that!) In fact, many people in the group did just that, deleting one or both tall palm trees that stand in front of the house and evenly divide the scene.

I’m going to give their ideas a try and who knows, maybe I’ll be able to rescue the painting. But not tonight.

Tags Bay Area Parks, Ink and watercolor wash, John Muir, Pen and Ink, Sketchbook Pages

Berkeley Drawing Flower Art Ink and watercolor wash People Places Sketchbook Pages

Sketching Around

Rose Walk Steps, Berkeley, Ink & Watercolor — Rose Walk Path steps, Berkeley, Ink & Watercolor

For our Monday night sketchcrawl we met at the Berkeley Rose Garden, sketched a bit, and then took a stroll along Euclid Ave. At sunset we sketched at the foot of the Rose Walk Path steps where two women residents of the cluster of Maybeck cottages there had a cheerful chat in front of a large Japanese maple while we sketched them.

20090720-Hollyhock — Hollyhocks, ink & watercolor

Berkeley Rose Garden views, Ink & watercolor

Inside the rose garden I sketched the trees and the person reading in a bright spot of sun. The hollyhocks on the right were our last sketching stop since it was totally dark by the time we finished them.

On Sunday I spent the afternoon on a beautiful sailboat on the San Francisco Bay. After our sail my friend Barbara and I found a dockside bench near a cafe to sketch before heading home. This funny little fishing boat was docked there and was a perfect subject for a quick sketch.

Tags Berkeley, Flower Art, Ink and watercolor wash, Pen and Ink, People, Sketchbook Pages