Stripey Still Life with Lemon, 10x8", oil on Gessobord
Getting the drawing right before beginning to paint is so important when trying to paint realistically. Although it’s theoretically easier to correct drawing errors with oil paint than watercolor, it’s still a lot less fun than painting with a good drawing. As you can see from the start of this painting below, I hadn’t quite nailed the elipse on the top of the pitcher before I started painting.
Stripey Still Life start
I wanted to get started with the painting quickly because I knew the leaves from the lemon tree were going to change wilt, even though I had inserted the stems in a little florist tube with water (and they did!). But by not getting the elipse on the top of the pitcher drawn correctly, I ended up redoing it over and over and finally giving up. I am happy with the way the fabric under the pitcher turned out, as well as the lemon and didn’t have to do any repainting on those areas, although I did change some of the fabric as I painted.
Stripey still life photo of set up with wilted leaves
On my next still life, I’m going to sketch the composition on tracing paper first, and then transfer it to the painting panel, rather than trying to sketch it on the panel. Maybe that will make the painting more fun and less of a struggle.
Last week the El Cerrito Art Association hosted an excellent watercolor painting demonstration by Christopher Schinck. Mr. Schink has a unique way of painting with watercolor and a wonderful sense of humor. He both entertained and amazed the group with his bold use of color, thick paint applied opaquely using large china bristle brushes and extraordinary knowledge of art history, composition and painting technique. I alternately watched the demo and sketched the audience (above), enjoying both equally.
“It’s better to quit early than to quit late.” (In other words, stop painting before you’ve overworked it!)
“Sarget said watercolor was ‘making the best of an emergency.'”
“When you first start painting you tend to strive for accuracy and people like it. The more you paint and explore as an artist, the less your family likes it. Push yourself so it’s still identifiable, but have fun!” (Encouraging us to abstract and simplify.)
Then a few nights later my watercolor group got together for dinner and sketching. Dinner was fabulous! Not so my sketches, but here they are anyway.
Ink wash sketch; no likeness Maple sugar candy dessert, ink & wash
What’s funny about this sketch is that I’d drawn the box and then gotten really into the details of each little packet of candy. When I finished the first row I realized there were only three across and I still had room for one more. So I just made the box smaller and left the odd lines from the original ghost box. I added color at home to the top and bottom sketches.
4th Street Jazz Festival- by Jana4th Street Jazz Festival-by Casey
Casey Toussaint and her son Paul are visiting from France and I had the pleasure of spending Sunday with them. After a quick visit to my house and studio, we headed down to the Berkeley Marina to cool off on an unseasonably hot day.
Casey & Paul on Berkeley Pier
We walked to the end of Berkeley’s long pier on San Francisco Bay with views of the Golden Gate Bridge (which Paul wanted to see) and there was a wonderful cool breeze coming in off the ocean. Then we had a delicious lunch at Skates on the Bay, where we had a window seat and watched birds nesting under the eaves and sailboats tacking back and forth on the choppy bay.
Casey & Jana @ Skates
On the way to our next stop (Dick Blick Art Supplies to pick up a large sketchbook to bring to the afternoon session of the figure drawing marathon sponsored by the Bay Area Models Guild at Merritt College in Oakland) we passed Berkeley’s Fourth Street boutique/foodie shopping area. We saw that the street was blocked off with a sign, “Fourth Street Jazz Festival” and decided to nix the figure drawing and sketch at the festival instead.
Casey sketching at Peets Fourth Street
We strolled the street and then settled at Peets Coffee for coffee and sketching where we did the two sketches at the top of the post. Casey works quickly, with wonderfully expressive lines, and got in a few more sketches from Peets:
4th Street people by CaseyMore 4th St people by Casey
After an hour or two we connected with Paul again, walked over to Blick’s for Casey’s art supply shopping and then headed to Telegraph Avenue and the University of California campus. Casey and I found a spot we wanted to sketch on campus so Paul headed back down Telegraph to Amoeba Records, a huge used CD/record store.
UC Campus building by JanaJana's sketch and buildingCasey's sketch of the building
When we met Paul back at Amoeba a couple hours later, I was hungry and we decided to head out for dinner. We all felt like Mexican food so I took them to Solano Avenue’s Cactus Taqueria. Paul was quite impressed by the size of the burrito he was served, and took photos of it. I learned that servings are much smaller in French restaurants and that it takes 5 or 6 years of serious study before someone can become a baker. He was surprised that here all one need do to beome a baker is to open a bakery and start baking.
Casey at UC Berkeley
As the sun was setting I drove them back to San Francisco. The fog had rolled in, ending the heat wave, and as we traveled across the Bay Bridge we had amazing views of San Francisco rising up out of the fog bank, sillouhetted by the setting sun. I drove really slowly across the bridge so Paul could take pictures and he got some great ones.
On Mothers’s Day my wonderful neighbors brought me this lovely bouquet of roses in a crystal vase. Then all three sweet kids wished me Happy Mothers’ Day and gave me hugs. I have the best neighbors. I took the flowers outside and sketched them twice, sitting on my studio porch steps.
The sketch above was done by painting directly with no drawing. The one below was drawn first with my Pentel Brush Pen and then painted with watercolor. Both are in the large Moleskine watercolor sketchbook.
Mothers' Day Flowers #1, ink & watercolor
It was a pretty special day. Son #1 asked his girlfriend of 5 years to marry him (and she accepted) atop a tower in Turkey, son #2 grilled a delicious dinner for me and his family, and I started the day with a great hike with my best friend Barbara. Life is good!
Inspired by Casey’s success with the Carder Method and frustrated with my own slow progress at oil painting, I bought the Carder Method video and Color Checker tool. Below are step by step photos of my using the method to paint this still life, a brief review of the Carder Method and photos of my studio set up for working with it.
The Carder Method is designed to eliminate many of the problems that can make painting difficult. By creating an carefully lit, controlled environment, a painter can focus on learning to clearly see color and value differences while eliminating problems caused by variables such as changing light.
Click “Continue Reading” to see photos and read more….
Snapping Turtle Me, brush pen and watercolor in Moleskine
It was one of those days. It started full of possibilities and ended with me feeling like a snapping turtle looking for someone to bite. So I drew how I was feeling and it made me laugh.
And now I’m officially giving up and heading to bed with a good book and a cup of cocoa.
Update: Michelle asked about the pen I used. It’s a Pentel Pocket Brush Pen with code letters GFKB. It’s permanent, waterproof and refillable with cartridges. I bought it from this link on Wet Paint’s website. Wet Paint is a great art supply store in Minnesota that I learned about from Roz.
Two of my favorite sketchers, Martha and Cathy, joined me for an evening of sketching and dinner at Kensington Circus Pub. The image above was my view out the window just after sunset. Next I sketched a window across the street (below), and then used the page to total my portion of the bill. When I scribbled out a mistake it turned into a creature.
Alchemy, dusk; ink & watercolor
Martha brought her fountain pen collection for us to try out, along with a bottle of Platinum Carbon ink. I was especially interested in her Namiki Falcoln pen, which I’d heard good things about. The two images below were my fooling around with her pens. The Namiki was a little clogged so I switched to using it as a dip pen. It’s a fabulous pen, very flexible and a ton of fun to use, but I found the line to be thicker than I prefer. I was happy to return to my favorite .05 Micron Pigma when I did the first two sketches above.
Ketchup bottle, Namiki Falcoln pen & ink
Cathy gave me a Pilot Varsity pen. It doesn’t have permanent ink so you can use it for ink & wash techniques. I used more ink than was needed to make a good wash so next time I’ll be more restrained when I use it.
Ink bottle, drawn w/Pilot Varsity pen & water wash
We discovered we are all huge fans of the HBO series The Wire which we’re working through on DVD and Cathy shared a few other favorites on DVD that I noted on the page.
I was really tired because I’d been painting all day and then went home afterward and painted until midnight, working on a project I’ll post about soon. But now, back to painting again (with a quick break for watching Adam’s performance on American Idol).
Lying on the table, stuck full of needles in a room painted soft peach, with monks softly chanting in the background, my mind wandered to the acupuncturist’s use of the word “labile” in our pre-treatment conversation and the realization that labile and labial were not the same word. While the needles worked (or didn’t) their magic, I pondered two other odd words I like to ponder: Hirsute and Hubris.
I’d finally looked those two up in the dictionary a few years ago. Hirsute, which so perfectly sounds like “Hair Suit;” is defined as “excessive hair.” While the definition of Hubris is “excessive pride,” Hubris always makes me picture ancient Egyptian gods and hieroglyphics. Maybe a Horus/Osiris/Hubris connection?
As soon as I got home I grabbed my sketchbook and introduced the two (above). Then I looked up Labile and Labial to see which was the right word when describing fluctuating energy level or emotions.
Labial Goes Labile, ink & watercolor
I was delighted to discover that Labial refers to Lips while Labile refers to Slips! (see the actual definition below).
Definition of Labile
Labile: Unstable, unsteady, not fixed. Labile comes from the Latin labilis, meaning liable to slip.
Definition of Labial
Labial: Pertaining to the lip. A sound requiring the participation of one or both lips is a labial (labium in Latin means lip) sound or, simply, a labial. All labials are consonants.
The word “lip” can be traced back to the Indo-European “leb” which also produced the Latin “labium” from which came the French “levre.” The German “lippe” is just a slip from the English “lip.”
First, a quick note that I was interviewed for the fascinating Tools Artists Use website. Although it often ends up sending me shopping, I love to see the tools other people use to make their art. If you’d like to read the interview about my favorite art supplies and tools, just click here.
OK, so to celebrate the return of the my sketchbook, here are a few sketches from the past couple weeks that are happily no longer lost forever.
Old Sailor Man on BART, ink & watercolor, 8x6"
He looked like an old sailor man to me, wishing he was on a boat, not the subway.
While I was waiting for the ear, nose, throat doctor I copied the information from his wall chart and sketched the assortment of stuff on his shelf. I became fascinated with the names of the parts of the mouth and throat (I’m easily amused).
Waiting at the Doctor's Office, 4x6"
Defining Inspiration:
I noted in particular the “Epiglottis” and wondered if the word had anything to do with the word ” Epicurean.” Even more interesting was a depiction of an open throat, described on the chart as “Inspiration” which I supposed means “breathe in.” It made me think about inspiration in art and how, when feeling uninspired we try to force something to come out when perhaps it’s more a matter of simply opening and allowing it to come in, instead.
I had my sketchbooks out to share with my painting group buddies at the end of a nice Friday night dinner together at Jimmy Beans in Berkeley…
Judith at Jimmy Beans, ink & watercolor, 7x6"
so I added one more sketch (above).
Entranced by his cellphone on BART, 3x2"
And one more subway drawing. He was mesmerized by his cellphone but I see now that the sketch looks like he’s playing with his beard or rolling or a joint. (Are they still called joints?) I heard American Idol judge Randy Jackson call a song a joint on the show tonight, so maybe not.
Marine World Critters, ink & watercolor in 6x8" sketchbook
Sunday I took Mariah to Six Flags Discovery Kingdom (formerly known as Marine World) for her 10th birthday. After the dolphin show I saw a poster of Quilson the Porcupine and said I hoped we’d get to see him. An exuberant and joyful young lady, Mariah’s enthusiasm paled next to mine when we sat in on animal show and there was Quilson, just as cute as in his picture. It turns out they can’t shoot their quills at enemies (they’re just for display).
Also in the show was an adorable anteater, a cute coatamundi, a jittery chinchilla who shed a pile of fur on her handler, and a desert fox with gigantic ears “used as air conditioners” according to the show’s corny young announcer. He never explained exactly how they work as air conditioners, though. Do they flap them? Do they sweat? Do they just create shade? Who knows?
I was so thrilled to get to see and sketch these critters that I apparently took leave of my senses and unfortunately also my sketchbook. When I next reached for it to sketch the flamingos in another area of the park (“I thought they were extinct” said Mariah), sadly so was my sketchbook. Gone! We backtracked looking for it, filled out a form at Guest Relations, and then I just tried to focus on having fun with Mariah.
After 7 hours and 6 miles (I was wearing my pedometer) and seeing the crowning event of the day, the Killer Whale Show, we headed for the exit and the Lost and Found office. I told the woman what I’d lost and she asked me to describe the first picture in the sketchbook. I said, “I have no idea what the first picture is but I know what the last one is: a PORCUPINE!” so she handed it over and I literally jumped up and down with glee (looking pretty stupid, and not caring!)
I’ve never lost a sketchbook before and while not disastrous, it was most unpleasant, especially because I use mine not only for drawing, but also to write notes or sketch out ideas for art projects and techniques to try, and information about art events, etc.
I’ll blame it on my sensory overload at Six Flags, with no escape from the speakers placed every 20 feet throughout the park playing loud rock music interspersed with DJ blather and commercials for Six Flags (?!), the crowds, trying to find our way from one “kingdom” to another, and all the other sights and sounds of a large amusement park. They even have a jumbotron screen at the killer whale show, which displays the same show you’re watching only gigantic (with more loud music). They actually interrupt the show and play a COMMERCIAL for Six Flags and more commercials play on large TV screens around the park. Hello Six Flags, we’re already here! Why are you interrupting our fun to tell us about the fun we could be having if we were here?
Jana Bouc, Artist 