Pears on a Blue Plate, Pentel Pocket Brush Pen and gouache, 7x5"
In the week and half since I gave up sugar and Splenda, pears have become my new treat. Not only are they crispy, sweet and delicious but they come in such pretty colors too. This sketch is a celebration of their gifts.
But meanwhile, giving up coffee didn’t go as well….
Busby and the Coffee Buzz
After five days of feeling wiped out, depressed, listless and witless I couldn’t take it anymore and finally had half a cup of coffee. That’s all it took: within a few minutes I was back to my old inspired self again and the blues were gone. Yay!
Maybe I’ll try to quit caffeine when I’m retired in a few years, but for now, each day is too precious to spend feeling like a zombie.
My Tuesday night sketch buddies and I met at the old Berkeley Bowl (named for its former location in a converted bowling alley). We didn’t realize when we made our plans that they closed at 8:00 so we only had a little over an hour to sketch (and shop). It was cold inside the store so the soup counter seemed like it would be a warm spot to sketch (it wasn’t, being right between the front door and an open refrigeration area).
Potatoes and Xmas Wreaths, ink & watercolor
I was amused by the juxtaposition of Christmas wreaths with bagged and loose potatoes piled high in ex-banana boxes but I didn’t enjoy the spot where I was drawing. The florescent light overhead kept flickering and a small, yappy dog just outside the door barked furiously non-stop.
Although there were at least 40 kinds of citrus fruit and nearly as many varieties and sizes of apples on display, this visit made me feel better about shopping at the stores in my neighborhood. Since I don’t like shopping to begin with, I would rather have fewer, higher quality choices in a more peaceful setting. (I’ve heard tales of grocery-cart road rage at Berkeley Bowl on Saturdays but everyone seemed reasonable tonight).
At my favorite produce market, Colusa Foods in Kensington, there is enough variety and everything is hand selected by the Japanese family that owns the store, and the prices are great. At El Cerrito Natural Grocery, everything is organic, it’s very clean, they play classical music, and the staff and shoppers are all super-nice and polite.
The teensy bouquet was still holding up and the complicated shapes in these flowers intrigued me. So I stuck them under my magnifying lamp and drew them again in sketchbook opposite the bouquet side. The California poppy had opened up and wanted to play too so I stuck him in behind the little flowers after I painted them. It’s fun drawing what’s under the magnifying glass and getting to see all the neat details.
Then it was back to work on the third painting I’ve been asked to do for the book, Must Paint Watercolor Flowers. This time it’s a peach colored begonia with really interesting veiny leaves.
Begonia leaf color tests
My first step was to test colors and try to find the pigments that will mix to the right values, colors and textures. On the tests above I experimented with glazing with different yellows, blues and greens, and tried lifting color for the veins in the leaves to see which worked best for that.
Begonia petal test colors
I found just the right mixture of colors for the petals with a color I’ve rarely ever used because it is more opaque than I usually prefer: Naples Yellow. When mixed with combinations of Cadmium Orange, Permanent rose, and Quinacridone gold, it looks like it will give me perfect petals. But now it’s back to “day job” work for the rest of the week. That will give me time to focus more on how I will approach the painting so once I have brush in hand I’m ready to go.
I don’t always plan things out so carefully, but it can help prevent wasted time and do-overs which becomes more important when I’m also photographing each step and writing about it for the book.
Fresh : Luck, collaged spread in 6x9 Fabriano Venezia sketchbook
Are you tempted to tear out the page in your sketchbook when a sketch goes bad? I used to do that.
When we were sharing sketchbooks Tuesday night, I pointed proudly to three pages that had terrible drawings on them of an object that simply wasn’t draw-able (or nameable–more about that in a minute). I said, “Look! I wasted three pages and they’re really ugly and I’m OK with letting them just be there.” Cathy the graphic designer, said, “Well, you know, you could just paste stuff over them.”
Is It Luck? Ink & gouache lottery tickets and business card (click to enlarge)
So when I visited my local donut shop in a moment of weakness (apple fritter: my drug of choice) I collected some random stuff they had on the counter: a postcard advertising a Tibet Day, some California lottery slips, the proprietor’s card, and the bag my fritter came in. I thought the picture they chose for the card— an Italian-looking chef—was funny since the store is owned and run by an Asian family. I cut stuff up and pasted it down (the bag was already sticky!), wrote and drew on them, colored with crayons, and painted on some gouache. You see a bit of the bad drawing/writing about it coming through the bag/blue paint.
Fresh Daily, collaged page: post card pieces on bakery bag pasted over bad sketch, and crayons and paint
When I wrote “Is it luck?” I was referring both to the lottery tickets and getting a good drawing. Is it luck when a drawing turns out well? Sometimes it feels like a sketch or painting can’t fail—it seems to paint or draw itself—a total gift. Other times it’s just the opposite and I have the feeling from the very start that the project will be a big FAIL. I try to recognize those negative thoughts and make them stop when I do, but sometimes they just won’t go away.
Oh… and the undrawable thing I was trying to draw? It’s something I found in a “Free” box on a neighborhood walk. A cute little wooden sorting device with numbered slots for 31 days on a sliding thingee, with three little drawers that could hold paperclips or other small stuff. It looks like a funky version of this only in oak color and without the clock.
Sorter, sort of
I thought I might be able to use it for drying paintings on panels, but the slots were too narrow. It was way too boring and complicated to draw so after three tries I put it in the garage to take to the thrift shop with some other donations. I thought about returning it to the neighbor’s “Free” box but that seemed like cheating.
So when the sketch turns into a big mess, now I know what to do: don’t rip it out, don’t just leave it there glaring in its butt ugliness; just do what those TV commercials for kitchen cabinets advertise: “Don’t replace, reface!” And when the subject isn’t fun and/or interesting to draw, stop. Life is too short to waste what is meant to be fun time not having fun!
After struggling with sketching a coconut macaroon at Saul’s last night, I brought it home in a take-out container and then sketched it eight more times, in a duet with the takeout box.
Macaroon Take-Out Page 2
Then I had my way with the sketches I didn’t like that I’d done at the restaurant (below).
Macaroon with note to self
Before I’d started the sketch above, I used the edge of the page to make a bunch of little thumbnails to play with composition ideas. This was inspired by a conversation I had with my sketch buddy Cathy. She’s a graphic designer with years of experience. Her sketches are wonderful with exciting line and great composition.
I asked Cathy what she thinks about when she starts a sketch. She said the first thing she considers is how the subject will interact with the edge of the page (or the border she sometimes draws first). She said she never “floats” a subject in the middle of the page; subjects are always cut off on one or more edges. Despite my thumbnails I ended up with way too much table and plate compared to macaroon and was mad at the sketch. So I used the space to write a note to myself about making better use of the page.
Macaroon mountain (Grammercy Park)
Then I went back to the second macaroon sketch from Saul’s and started doodling around with it. My doodles reminded me of the fence around Gramercy Park that was just outside the hotel I stayed in on a trip to New York a long time ago. With the fence, the scale of the macaroon seemed mountainous (or at least boulder-like).
Two other discoveries I noted on the page: 1) I’d divided the page almost perfectly in half (a design no-no), and 2) that I don’t like cropping things because I don’t want to miss out on a single detail or insult the object by lopping off some of it. How silly is that? I’d like to overcome this quirk and learn to put more focus on design, not just detail.
My sketchcrawl buddies and I met at Saul’s Restaurant to sketch tonight. Saul’s was really nice about letting us hang out for 3 hours and the food was delicious. It takes such discipline to draw it before eating it! The owner of the restaurant does wonderful drawings herself, as can be seen on their menus and website.
Except for breakfast, a meal at Saul’s always starts with their dill pickles.
Trout, Kale and Colorful Cauliflower
I had a plate of grilled trout with a bright green sauces and very colorful veges: kale and purple cauliflower.
Then I got into a fight with a macaroon. I drew it, painted it, messed it up, and started over. Cathy and Sonia were ready to leave, having both done some really nice sketches, but I wanted to keep fighting with the macaroon, feeling like a flop. So I asked for a take-out container and brought the macaroon home. After drawing it several more times at home I finally won the battle with the macaroon which I’ll post next time.
In a momentary memory lapse I wrote “Geranium Getting Going” in large letters in my sketchbook under this image. Then I thought, “Wait a minute, aren’t geraniums those red, ruffled, bitter smelling flowers often found in window boxes or untended and leggy in sad little gardens that someone has given up?”
And then it came back to me, DUH! This is a Camellia, not a Geranium. From a Camellia bush that I planted and that lives right outside my studio door and always blooms in the winter. It’s full of buds now and soon will be blooming madly.
I’ll just blame the memory lapse on the 4 hours of sleep I got last night as a result of working into the wee hours rebuilding my website, which is nearly done. I’m a bit disappointed that after all my work I’m finding some design issues that may be limitations of the platform I chose after much research last summer. I’m even tempted to start over on the system I would have chosen if I knew then what I know now. But this service comp’d me several years of hosting for free (because of all their system screw ups when I first started the build last summer) and I’ve already done so much work that starting over, when I’d rather be painting anyway, seems pointless.
If you would be willing to visit the new site and “beta-test” it a bit before I make it my official webs site, I’d love to have a few extra eyes on it. Just leave me a note if you’re willing to go there and click around a bit. It helps to know whether it looks ok on various computers and monitors or if there are any problems I’ve missed. Thanks!
(Updated) We met at the newly remodeled Shattuck Plaza Hotel in Berkeley to sketch on Tuesday night. The lobby of the historic building has been transformed from an old-fashioned residential hotel with good”bones” to something entirely different. The walls are covered in a variety of black and white patterned wall paper from florals to paisley to stripes that seems to vibrate. The floors are a patchwork of checkerboard marble in between sections of rug the designer describes as “red and mauve 1960s flower-power pattern”. There are two huge crystal chandeliers, a red one that was newly created and the other, an original, that is 100-years old.
I was going to try drawing all of the different patterns on the walls, floors and furniture, but couldn’t stand looking at them, as reminded me of watching the patterns behind my eyelids during my migraine of only a few days prior. So I sketched a few of the lamps, sconces and furniture I could see from where I sat. Then we headed out into the cold for our next stop.
Monks at Peets Coffee, ink & watercolor
We went to Peets Coffee across the street and relaxed to the classical music while we sketched people. The monk knew we were drawing him and when they were leaving, came over and asked to see our sketches. I told him he had a beautiful smile.
He looked a bit embarrassed by my comment, but said thank you, and told us he doesn’t usually get out much, that he was here visiting with his grandmother and brother after living the past ten years in Thailand. He seemed so genuinely happy and at peace and made me want to return to my long-neglected Zen meditation practice
It was a wonderful Thanksgiving with so much to be grateful for. We had a delicious home-cooked dinner with a turkey barbecued and smoked with cherry wood. Per tradition, I brought a big salad and as usual it remained uneaten. After dinner Rob played piano with Marcy on accordion in her former dining room (now art and music room), Tim dozed in front of a football game while Sophie and I sat at the art table where I did this sketch to start off a new sketchbook.
Later, when Bob the cat began playing piano (he jumps on it with a crash then walks across it repeatedly and hisses at you threateningly if you try to remove him) it seemed a good time to depart. We were all tired, happy and full, and called it a great day. (Best not to mess with Bob — he’s sent at least one person to the emergency room!)
I was given permission to post some of my work on the upcoming book, “Must Paint Watercolor Flowers” (Quarto Publishers, London) for which I’ve been commissioned to paint three floral watercolors. The painting is the easy part; taking the photos, correcting them in Photoshop, and writing about each of the steps takes much more time and isn’t nearly as much as fun. I thought I’d break this into a few posts so they won’t be too long.
My first step after being given my choice from a couple dozen excellent photos (which I’m not permitted to post) was to do some rehearsals in my sketchbook. I used several pages to experiment with how I wanted to approach the metal pitcher, mixing colors for the leaves, the buds and the yellow-green flowers (above). Then I experimented with color mixtures for the orange flowers and the large amount of darks (below — combinations of Winsor Green and Alizarin Crimson, Ultramarine Blue and Burnt Sienna, Sap Green and Sepia, Winsor Green and Winsor Violet).
Rehearsal - Sketchbook p. 2
Next step was to transfer the photo to my watercolor paper. Initially I was going to make the painting small enough to fit on my scanner but decided to use the maximum size the publisher allowed since it was such a complex painting. I chose a 12 x 16″ Arches 140 lb. cold press watercolor block (block is easier to set up for photographing). If I’d been given more time and/or if the photo wasn’t so complex, I probably would have transferred the image by drawing freehand or using a “gridding up” method but with a two-week deadline I used a quicker method.
Transferring the photo to watercolor paper
I enlarged the photo in Photoshop and printed it in sections (before figuring out I could have more easily used my copier to do the same) and taped them together. Then I placed a sheet of Saral Transfer Paper on top of my watercolor paper and laid the enlarged print on top of the Saral. Using a ballpoint pen, I traced over the shapes of the flowers, leaves, stems and shadows which transferred graphite lines from the Saral paper onto the watercolor paper.
Cleaning up the drawing
See what I mean about how complicated the image is! I’d left too much of an overlap on the tiled together enlarged photo and some areas didn’t get a good transfer so had to freehand some of the drawing, clean up some lines and darken others. This is my new favorite mechanical pencil, the Papermate PhD Ultra.
Masking near the pitcher
I wanted to paint the pitcher wet-into-wet and so I applied Winsor and Newton Colourless Art Masking Fluid to some of the shapes around and projecting into the pitcher to make it easier to paint wet into wet more freely. I used a cheap disposable brush to avoid messing up my good ones. I prefer Cheap Joes Golden Fleece rounds for watercolor and even though they aren’t expensive, I don’t want to ruin them with masking fluid.
Detail: Pitcher painted, removing masking fluid
I like pulling off the mask with the rubber cement pick up tool. I think it’s made out of the same stuff Vibram shoe soles are made from. The pitcher and the table have had their first washes. Next step is starting on the flowers and that will be in the next post.
Jana Bouc, Artist 