Wasps Nest Under the Eaves, ink & watercolor, 8×5″
Each year a family (a nation?) of yellow-jacket wasps builds a nest here. One year they built a nest in an abandoned bird feeder which led to an interesting garden ecology life-cycle story. This time the nest is under the eaves of my studio. Fortunately it’s in an area where they’re not bothering me and vice-versa.
I would have liked to draw them and their nest with more detail, but decided it was best to work from a distance, have a more vague drawing, and not get stung.
When I eat lunch on the nearby deck, a wasp scout or two will come by for their share, which I put on a plate on the table for them. That way they don’t bother me on the chaise lounge where I usually eat and read.
I investigated having the nest professionally removed but read that they are beneficial to the garden, as they eat insect pests and move pollen around. I was surprised to learn that you shouldn’t swat at them as that makes them instinctively want to bite, which they can do repeatedly since unlike bees they don’t lose their stinger.
When the season changes I’m hoping they go away so I can remove the nest to observe and draw it more closely. And I’m watching for dead wasps that I can draw, but no luck so far.
Lucy Painting #2, Watercolor cat portrait on Arches paper, 12×9″
I was asked to make a watercolor portrait of a beloved cat much missed by her family. This post will be their first chance to see what I’ve come up with so far. I’m not sure I’ve captured her appearance or spirit yet as her family knows her.
(UPDATE 6/12/2012) Yay! They loved the painting and are getting it framed.
They sent two beautiful photos of Lucy in different poses to work from. I had to guess a little since the photos only showed one paw and the bottom half of her ears and I wasn’t sure how accurate the colors were. Below are the studies I made before the painting above.
My local bunny rescue/pet supply store Rabbit Ears, has a bunch of bunnies available for adoption including this litter of 6 week old babies and their mom. While I sketched them, they took turns sleeping piled together, eating from their big bowl of bunny chow, grooming themselves and each other, and dropping little bunny pellets.
More bunnies (left side of spread), ink & watercolor, 5x8"
I left the babies and wandered around the store, drawing rabbits in different enclosures. It’s hard to figure out bunny parts with all that fur hiding everything.
Lucy the Guinea Pig (Detail)
I think my favorite sketch is Lucy the Guinea Pig. I was surprised to see she had no visible pupils in her little red eyes.
Bunnies & Guinea Pig, right side of spread
The lop-eared rabbit’s name is Snickers. As soon as I started to sketch him he and his cage-partner Oreo got so busy grooming each other I couldn’t see his face to finish the drawing.
The High Room Taxidermy at Spengers, ink & watercolor, 5x7.5"
Our Urban Sketchers group met Tuesday night at the historic, oldest restaurant in Berkeley, Spenger’s Fish Grotto. I called ahead to see if we could sketch in the room whose walls are covered with taxidermy animals and fish. The manager was very supportive of our visit, even though he was dealing with half the restaurant (which has many rooms, all full of seafaring and other historic artifacts) being closed for carpet cleaning that day.
I arrived a bit late due to continuing construction work at my house, and found the group sitting at a big table in the middle of the taxidermy room (actually called the “High Room” because of the super high ceilings). Richard the manager had opened and designated the room just for us. Thank you Richard!
We are delighted that Berlin Urban Sketcher and illustrator Olga Prudnikova has joined us for the next couple of months while she is in Berkeley. She and the rest of our group managed to do many sketches to my one. You can see their beautiful and quirky sketches on our SF Urban Sketchers blog here and here.
Thank you Spenger’s general manager Richard, for your support and hospitality. We had a great time sketching and snacking on their famous creamy, thick clam chowder.
Fiona on Grandma's Old Ratty Blanket, ink & watercolor, 6x4"
Fiona loves curling up in this funky old wool blanket. It was my grandmothers so despite it being in tatters I can’t part with it and use it as a throw on cold evenings. There is a corner missing that my sister’s rat munched off years ago, and another corner missing that I cut off and sent to an Australian artist friend, Allison Horridge, who was collecting fabrics for an art project.
I will be offline this week to focus on the Alla Prima Portraiture workshop with Rose Frantzen that I was so incredibly lucky to get into from her waiting list. She only teaches a couple of times a year; registration for her June class will be by lottery.
Fiona, ink & watercolor, 6x4"
Meanwhile, I have the best pet sitter: Rachel McGraw of McGraw’s Paws. She is so professional, honest, kind, organized and caring. I wish all business owners could take a lesson from her. It’s weird having to show house-sitters and pet-sitters my other (neurotic) cat Busby’s hiding places: my closet behind the shoes, the bottom shelf of my dresser, kitchen cabinets (including the one above the fridge), under the couch and bed, or behind a painting drying rack.
Busby Berkeley: The Cat, Oil on Panel, 6x6"
Fiona likes everyone, and even Busby (above) who is scared of everyone likes Rachel.
Small Water Dragon Lizard, ink & watercolor, 10"x7"
On a previous sketch night at Petco, I chose pretty little birds as my subject. This time I went for the creepy, crawly things. This little lizard was very cute and I imagined he wanted to go home with me. I’m sure my cats would have enjoyed him very much. The baby corn snakes (bottom corner above) were really weird. They moved as one and appeared like a multi-headed scramble of strings.
Female Mice, $3.49
These little mousy girls were also cute, but it’s just so odd seeing animals being sold as pets that would otherwise be considered vermin. Sketching caged animals in the pet store is always disturbing to me, but is also an interesting drawing challenge.
Rats eating and licking water from their water bottles
The rats seemed pretty happy in their glass box, with no need to earn a living and food, shelter and entertainment available on demand. They were interesting to draw but the smell in the rodent area was quite unpleasant (to put it nicely). Fortunately it was time to meet up and share our sketches which we did in the scent-free aquarium accessory department.
Miller-Knox Park Sketches, Journal Spread, 11x7" (see enlarged individuals pics below)
We are having the most glorious Indian summer this October, with nicer weather than we had during the real summer. I always think of this hot, dry weather as Earthquake Weather because of the earthquakes and fires during other hot Octobers. And sure enough there have been several earthquakes the past week.
Little tree, from my car, sketch #1, ink & watercolor
When I arrived at Miller-Knox park for a plein air group paint out at 10:00, I decided to sketch the first thing I saw: this little tree. I sketched from where I parked my car. At the end of the paint out, when we returned to the parking lot, everyone was laughing at the dope who parked their car all wonky and it was my car they were pointing at.
Apparently in my enthusiasm to get sketching, I managed to park at such an angle that I went around the cement parking stop blocks, ending up half on the grass and half in the next space, none of which I’d noticed doing.
Lagoon view, geese in the shade
I took a walk and found a nice spot in the shade with a view of the lagoon and lots of white geese and Canadian geese. I lost the white geese when I repainted the shaded area so later added some white watercolor (which never quite works) to try to get them back. Since they’re in the shade, it’s OK that they’re not super white.
Lagoon and bridge view
In the Bay Area you can be in a stunningly beautiful park but have views of freeways or bridges in the background that remind you you’re still in an urban area.
People Picnicking in the Park
My last sketch of the day was of these folks setting up a picnic under the trees. This was one of those days when the weather was perfect, the scenery beautiful, and my pen and paint just worked.
Pt. Isabel in the Dry Summer, ink & watercolor 5x7"
Pt. Isabel is the USA’s (if not the world’s) largest off-leash dog park with 500,000 doggie visits a year. It is situated on what would be prime waterfront property if it weren’t all landfill that will likely return to the sea in an earthquake. Since it doesn’t rain all summer in California, gold, brown and grey-green are the primary colors of the landscape.
Without rain, there’s nothing to wash away the “marks” made by every dog who crosses the stinky bridge that goes from one part of the park to another. I always hold my breath when I cross in the summer. In a few months rain will wash the park clean and everything will be green again.
When I spotted llamas in a residential neighborhood backyard near the beach in Pacifica I took a few photos of them for painting later. In the process of this painting I experimented with a terrific new drawing tool, Accurasee, and put this llama through its paces.
I started with this watercolor sketch in my journal:
Backyard Lama, ink & watercolor, 5x5"
While sketching I edited out the apartment building in the photo and got some understanding of the subject. Then I put the sketch and my iPad displaying the photo on the table by my easel so that I could refer to both as I painted.
Blocking in the values
First I sketched in the llama on the panel (above) with thinned paint (hoping it was fairly accurate) and blocked in where I wanted the darks and lights in the painting.
Llama attempt #1, but drawing wrong
I thought I was nearly finished (above) but after a break from it, realized that the drawing was wrong: the face looked more like a dog than a llama and the neck was too short.
Then I discovered Accurasee, a free computer program for Macs and PCs (plus an iPhone app) that helps you be more accurate in your drawing or painting by using an innovative approach to the “grid drawing” method as a way to help you see. Accurasee adds a grid to a photo or scan of your drawing and you create a matching grid on or beside your painting. Then you use the grid coordinates to find the landmarks, height and width of objects in the composition.
You can read more about the history of gridding up here and see how much easier it is using Accurassee in these demos or read their user guide (pdf). (Disclaimer: I have no financial interest in promoting this product or this company, but I think it’s great!)
Photo after gridding in Accurasee
Accurasee offers a collection of clever drawing tools, including special measuring tape but I made my own using masking tape and marked off the inches:
Llama Attempt #2 Redrawn: Tape marked to match Accurasee grid
By mentally visualizing where the intersection of the lines would be, I redrew a little more accurately (though still not quite right). As they say on their website:
The ultimate goal is not to create a “dot-to-dot” drawing, but a proportionally accurate one. The Accurasee Method and tools are designed to be used as drawing aids, not a crutch. When used correctly, the Accurasee Method can quite literally train you to see more accurately.
Llama attempt #3, almost there
When comparing the painting to my watercolor concept I saw the ground was too dark so lightened and brightened it, worked some more on the face and neck and all around.
Eventually I just got tired of the whole production and decided that I’d learned everything I was going to learn from this painting, had nothing more to say, and called it done.
UPDATE: Julie asked how I was using the iPad vs my computer monitor and how I had it setup. Here is a picture:
Sketchbook and iPad set up by easel (plus messy desk and computer monitor)
I have in the past used my computer monitor to paint from but the iPad is handier because I can have it right next to the easel or on my drawing table and with two fingers I can enlarge (as in the above photo) or move the section I’m viewing or go back to seeing the full picture. I use the iPad Smart Cover which when folded back works well as a stand.
Barbara's Chickens All Grown Up, ink & watercolor 7x5"
The first time I got to sketch Barbara’s chickens they were these cute little chicks. Now they’re full-grown laying ladies and hilarious to watch as they run about with their tiny bird brains. Barbara has built the most amazing Chicken World for them in her yard, where they can run free and eat bugs and organic greens, safe from predators (raccoons are a big problem here), or snuggle in their cozy nesting house.
Gertie the Dog and Tate the Bunny
The last time we sketched in her garden I sketched Gertie from the front. Here she is from the back. She is a wonderful, loving, and very furry pooch. Then I started trying to sketch the bunny Barbara was babysitting for her daughter. The bunny was so twitchy, didn’t hold still and so fluffy as to be seemingly amorphous. But I knew there were some basic shapes in there somewhere so I kept trying to find them.
In the sketch above I finally did find the basic shape of a bunny. In the first attempts below, not so much. (I love that phrase “not so much” even though I’m sure it’s become passé by now, along with “Really?”, “You think?”, “How’s that working for you?” and “Meh.” Don’t know where those came from but I still like them for their sarcastic yet humorous tone.)
Bunny first attempts; completely at a loss
Above are the first attempts at the bunny, in which I became totally frustrated but didn’t give up. I’m glad I got to draw him since shortly after our sketch night he passed away from a recurrence of a serious illness he’d fought several times before. I hope he has found a home in bunny heaven as nice as the one he had with Barbara’s family.
Jana Bouc, Artist 