These were gouache sketches from a couple of months ago that I’m just now getting around to posting. I’m still loving gouache but have been missing using it.
I’m working on two commissioned dog portraits in oils so have put aside most of my other art projects temporarily. I’m enjoying the difficult challenge of painting two very similar dogs with dark brindle fur for two different owners but I’m missing taking the time to draw my daily dream images, play with gouache and work on painting people portraits.
I really tried to focus on two things with this portrait, getting the drawing right and keeping the gouache colors light (gouache dries darker). For once I managed to keep a tilted head tilted in my drawing–for some reason my brain always wants to make everything upright and symmetrical. It doesn’t surprise me since I learned that the image that comes in from our eyes is upside down and it’s our brains that convert it to right-side up. My brain definitely has a mind of its own…oh wait a minute–it is my mind!
Below is the original pencil drawing over which I painted the gouache. I wish I could show you the photo I worked from, but I think those are only meant to be visible to members of Julia Kay’s Portrait Party, which you can apply to join on Flickr and play too, if you want to.
Practicing gouache with found items. The lipstick with purple case I found on the street, the journal at the recycling center’s little “shop” where you leave things you don’t want and take things for free. The pear and jar lid I found in my kitchen so I guess they aren’t officially found items. The cigar box the journal is sitting on was a freebie from the local smoke shop. I love cigar boxes so much! This gouache sketch made me happy…feels like I’m starting to get it.
Susan’s Dinner at Gaumenkitzel, graphite and gouache, 7×9 inches
When we met a Gaumentkitzel for sketch night I’d already had dinner so just ordered a decaf and sketched Susan’s dinner instead. I added gouache when I got home.
SF Bernal Heights Sketchcrawl, ink, watercolor, gouache, 7.5 x 11″
When it was time to leave for the Sketchcrawl in San Francisco I couldn’t find my sketch kit containing all my favorite sketching tools. I scoured the studio and the house. No sketch kit. I feared I’d left it at my figure drawing class the day before at the community college where it had probably already been adopted by a needy art student. Sad and frustrated, I cobbled together some pens, pencils, brushes and paints, threw them in a bag and drove across the Bay Bridge to San Francisco.
Catching up with my friend Susan Cornelis who came down from Sebastopol for the day, and connecting with some other local sketch buddies helped me forget about my missing precious pens and paints for a little while. Since I was so late, after a quick walk around the neighborhood, I decided to sketch what I could see from a bench on the porch in front of the library where the final meet up would be. The lamp post in the sketch above was up on the porch too, which is a little confusing perspective-wise, being up about 8 steps from the sidewalk in this hilly neighborhood.
The good news is that I had a great time at the sketch crawl AND the next day when I was getting ready to go out to the studio I picked up the basket I use to carry things back and forth from house to studio and my sketch kit was in the basket! YAY! And I put a “Reward for return” note in the bag with my name and phone number on it in case it ever disappears again.
I think I like the sketch better broken into two separate ones (below). What do you think?
SF Bernal Heights Sketchcrawl (crop 1) ink and watercolor in XL WC Moleskine
SF Bernal Heights Sketchcrawl (crop2) ink and watercolor in XL WC Moleskine
Portrait for Julia Kaye’s Portrait Party, gouache in XL WC Moleskine, 9×6.5″
When I learned that Julia Kay’s Portrait Party (Facebook) (Flickr) was coming to SF in March for a weekend of live portrait party events I signed up. My goal for 2015 is to develop my portrait drawing and painting skills and this seemed a perfect way to get started, along with the excellent 4-hour figure/portrait drawing/painting class I’m taking at my local community college.
Since I’ve been experimenting and teaching myself to paint with gouache (more about that soon, with reviews of paint and brushes for gouache). I thought it would be a perfect medium for my first Portrait Party attempt. One thing that I know about gouache but am not yet accustomed to, is that it dries significantly darker than it looks on the palette (unlike watercolor which dries lighter). That explains the very vibrant tones in the portrait above compared to the original photo (which I don’t have permission to post here)! Below is the original sketch that I painted over in my X-large Watercolor Moleskine.
Sketch of Jan Jaap for Julia Kaye’s Portrait Party, graphite, 9×6.5″
End of Journal Self Portrait with New Glasses, graphite, 8×5″ 11/2014
I’ve been doing more oil painting than sketching lately so it’s taken longer than usual to fill my journal and get to the last page that I always save for a self-portrait (above). It’s interesting how each sketch in the collection below shows a progression upwards in age and (occasionally) in skill and how only bits of them resemble me at all. Also interesting how many of them were done on days I was feeling grumpy and/or tired (probably wisely choosing to sketch myself instead of working on something that “mattered” when I felt that way).
Below is a little gallery of self-portrait end-of-journal sketches since 2009. You can click on any image to see it larger, if you must.
End of Journal Self-Portrait, graphite, 5×7.5 in
End of Journal Self-Portrait, ink & watercolor
End of Journal Self-Portrait, February 2013, Pitt brown Brush Pen and watercolor, 8×5″
End of Journal Self Portrait, graphite and watercolor, 7.5×5″
End of Journal Self-Portrait #1, ink & watercolor, 7×5″
End of Journal Self Portrait, colored pencils, 7×5″
End of sketchbook self portraits, ink & watercolor
End of Journal Self-Portrait #1
End of Journal #2 (Ick!)
Self Portrait B-1, ink & watercolor
Tortured sketch (in mirror), Pretending sweetness (from photo)
Wildcat Canyon trail trash can, ink in pocket Moleskine notebook
Dog on wheels at the dog park, ink in pocket Moleskine
Meeting Stuff, sketches in pocket Moleskine
Sketch during Father Keating movie, ink in pocket Moleskine
Wildcat Canyon Wildflowers, ink, colored pencil, gouache in pocket Moleskine
Here are some random sketches from hikes and walks with my dog, sitting in meetings, a movie shown in a library and at the dog park. These are all in my pocket Moleskine that I carry with me all the time. Hover over images to read captions or click on them to see them larger.
A visit to the Oakland Aviation Museum was a great opportunity to sketch. The museum was the site of the original Oakland Airport and is full of interesting history and planes. This one was a 3/4 scale replica of the P-51 Mustang, a World War II long-range, single-seat fighter plane. This is the plane used by the Tuskegee Airmen.
I recently read several books about World War II that had parts about fighter pilots including The Caine Mutiny and Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption (both brilliant and fascinating). Seeing these flying tin cans up close brought home how terrifying their flights must have been and how courageous those pilots were.
Hiller 1099 Helicopter and Sea Plane. Ink and watercolor, 5×15 inches
The people who work/volunteer at the museum were really into old planes and their history. They were enthusiastic about sharing information with our group. I’d like to go back and sketch there again.
My hydrangea bush is doing great this year, probably because it’s on the side of the house that is now a dog run and every day I empty the dog’s water bowl on the bush. Also it’s no longer competing with its two siblings that I removed because one never blossomed and the other had annoying teensy flowers that shed all over the table.
EDiM 22 Remote Control, ink and watercolor, 5×7 in
These remotes live in the studio and operate a little combo TV/VCR, a DVD player and the stereo. There are another half-dozen that live in the house. I’m glad remotes were invented but they are ugly and annoying. I so wish I had this remote (a brilliant sketch and concept!)
EDiM 23 Fan, ink and watercolor, 5×7 in
As I noted in my journal above, drawing a fan seemed like it would be even more boring than drawing the remotes but in fact it was really fun. I was really surprised as I sketch to discover all kinds of interesting design features I’d never noticed before when just turning it on or off (without the using the remote that came with it, which I’ve lost).
So I didn’t make it to every day in May, just 75% of them. I went away for a 3 day retreat and when I came back had lost the momentum. Oh well.
Jana Bouc, Artist 