Tag: El Cerrito

Sketching at Pacific East Mall

Post author By Jana Bouc
Post date May 2, 2010
20 Comments on Sketching at Pacific East Mall

Sketching at Pacific East Mall is always an interesting proposition because it’s almost like visiting an Asian country (without the jet lag or costs). The stores and restaurants feature food and products from all the Asian countries and most of the signage and languages spoken there are also Asian.

It was fun copying the Chinese characters on the signage for these amazing and aptly named Dragon Fruits (above). I could picture these little dragons marching in a festive parade. I’m also really curious to try eating them. According to Wikipedia they are the fruit of a cactus and have a creamy pulp and a delicate aroma.

Another strange fruit, Cherimoyas had wonderful pattern on them. Since the green grocer spoke no English and I no Chinese I asked Google about the Cherimoya and learned some amazing things:

Mark Twain called the cherimoya “the most delicious fruit known to men.” The fruit is fleshy and soft, sweet, white, with a sherbet-like texture, which gives it its secondary name, custard apple. Some characterize the flavor as a blend of banana, pineapple, papaya, peach, and strawberry. Others describe it as tasting like commercial bubblegum. Similar in size to a grapefruit, it has large, glossy, dark seeds that are easily removed. The seeds are poisonous if crushed open and can be used as an insecticide. An extractive of the bark can induce paralysis if injected.

Tea Shop Canisters, ink & watercolor — Ten Ren Tea Shop Canisters and Counter, ink & watercolor

At the Ten Ren tea shop, Sonia ordered a Bubble Tea, a pink drink that had little blueberry-colored and sized balls of tapioca in it. We sat at a table and sketched to their background music of 1980’s rock and roll. One song came on that I recognized and tried think of the name of the band which led to us playing Senior-Moment Trivia. From my lame clues (big hair, blonde, nice guy with a bunch of kids, New Jersey, band named after him, there’s a “J” in the name…Jansen…no…) she came up with name of the band as we were leaving, saving me from a tortured night of trying to come up with….Bon Jovi!

It’s a good thing I was warmed up and sketching fast by the time I came to the hanging poultry. The store was preparing to close and an employee snatched them all off the line as I began to draw the last one.

Tags Art, Drawing, El Cerrito, Food sketch, fruit, Ink and watercolor wash, Pen and Ink, Sketchbook Pages, Watercolor

Animals Ink and watercolor wash Life in general Other Art Blogs I Read Painting Sketchbook Pages

Sketching Parakeets at Petco

Post author By Jana Bouc
Post date February 25, 2010
16 Comments on Sketching Parakeets at Petco

After we finished sketching the laundromat, we moved on to Petco. I can’t wait for longer days so we can do our Tuesday night sketchcrawls outdoors again. But it was fun drawing the parakeets. They were holding pretty still, puffing up and preparing for beds. I worried about them, hoping they have happy lives.

This little guy was kind of cute in a spooky, red-eyed sort of way, but even on sale I wasn’t tempted. When my sons were young, I bought an adorable pair of long-haired calico guinea pigs and we had such fun playing with them…for about two weeks. And then there was the years of caring for them….

He looked way too much like the kind of rodents you do NOT want to see in your house. I’ve seen pet rats that had some charm, but this guy just looked way too big and ratty. My sister had a rat that I babysat when she went on a trip. The rat was in a cage beside my son’s bed and it pulled the wool blanket that was my Grandma’s from the bed into the cage, bit by bit, and chewed off the corners for nesting material.

Then a couple of years ago, when Alison of art blog Scribbles Adagio was creating a multi-media work that included scraps of old blankets, I sent a 12″ square of the blanket to her in Australia. She sent me back one of the finished pieces that now hangs over my bed, a keepsake partly composed of my Grandmother’s blanket.

And I still use that old blanket to keep warm and cozy when I watch TV, even though it’s full of holes, missing corners and a 12″ square.

Tags Animals, Birds, Drawing, El Cerrito, Guinea Pig, Ink and watercolor wash, parakeets, Pen and Ink, Petco, Rat, rodents, Sketchbook Pages

Ink and watercolor wash Painting Places Shop windows Sketchbook Pages

Sketching at the Plaza Coin Laundry

Post author By Jana Bouc
Post date February 23, 2010
8 Comments on Sketching at the Plaza Coin Laundry

Tuesday night sketchcrawl was at the El Cerrito “Plaza Coin Laundry” (where the machines do not accept coins, just cards and dollar bills!). The sketch above was my last for the evening, done in my car after my sketch buddies had departed. I had struggled mightily with perspective and repeated shapes while we were sketching so it felt good to sit quietly in my car and make one final drawing that worked.

She was there folding clothes the whole time we sketched while her adult son hung around chatting on his cellphone and not helping.

Making use of a bad sketch — Making use of a badly sketched page

Above is a page where I totally messed up the sketch so instead of just leaving the ugly drawing, I used the page to write notes to myself about how to improve my sketching. Then I painted over it for fun. It’s still messy, but not wasted.

This is what I’d been trying to draw in the previous “bad” sketch. I’d totally messed up the perspective the first time, not believing what I was seeing, but did better on the second try. I also had trouble understanding and drawing the odd shape of the dryer doors on the back wall. Cathy solved that problem by drawing the row of circles first so they were all the same and then adding the trim afterwards instead of starting with the oddly shaped trim like I did.

Tags El Cerrito, Ink and watercolor wash, ink sketch, laundromat sketch, Pen and Ink, Plaza Coin Laundry, Sketchbook Pages

Ink and watercolor wash Life in general Movies People Sketchbook Pages Subway drawings

Rainy Day Plaza and People

Post author By Jana Bouc
Post date February 9, 2010
4 Comments on Rainy Day Plaza and People

Despite the rain I had a great walk to the Farmers Market at El Cerrito Plaza last Saturday. When the rain stopped I sketched and painted at an outdoor table at Peet’s Coffee across the street. Then I continued my walk to do half a dozen errands. One was to pick up the second disk of “Five Days” from the video store.

I’d rented the first disk from Netflix and couldn’t wait for it to go back and part two to arrive. I had to find out what happened. Five days is an incredibly suspenseful, well-written and perfectly acted British TV mini-series about a woman and her kids who go missing. I’d had this movie sitting around for two weeks when I finally sat down to watch it and then couldn’t turn it off. If you like suspenseful police procedurals with great character development, this one is great!

Rainy day, patient, meticulously groomed woman, riding BART.

Didn’t catch a likeness in this quickie sketch, but did catch a bit of her spirit.

Tags Drawing, El Cerrito, El Cerrito Plaza, Five Days, Ink and watercolor wash, Movie review, People, rainy day, Sketchbook Pages, subway drawing, Subway drawings

Art supplies Ink and watercolor wash Painting People Places Sketchbook Pages

Signs of Spring

Signs of spring were sprouting everywhere on my walk and I couldn’t resist stopping to sketch and paint. But I stopped so many times that before I’d gone half a mile I was so hungry I had to return home for lunch before heading out again.

The sketch above graces the first page of my new sketchbook, bound with Arches 90lb cold press watercolor paper. It’s quite different from the Fabriano Venezia sketchbooks I’ve been using the past year.

Princess flower bush blossoms, ink & watercolor

I’m really enjoying the way the book opens flat, it’s size (7.5″ tall x 5.5″ wide) and weight, how comfortable it is to hold and to hold open for working across the spread, the texture of the paper for painting and the way the pages don’t ripple, pill, or show through to the other side. The paper takes a lot of abuse and layering, which is both a good and a bad thing. Good because it holds up, but bad because it allows endless diddling around which isn’t really the point of sketching (but is a bad habit of mine).

And what’s a nice walk on a spring-like day without a stop at Peets for a Cappuccino at a sidewalk table and a bit of sketching/painting. I’m still finding my way with this paper, trying to get a sense of how much paint to use, and which pens work best with it.

One thing I’ve determined for sure is that I prefer painting on site when I go out sketching, as I did with these, and not just drawing on site and adding paint later as I did last week with my sketching group. I just spent the evening painting the drawings from last week’s outing and it just didn’t have the zing that painting from life on site does.

You can make many more sketches and have more control of the paint when you save the painting for later, but then you either have to work from memory (of which I have too little) or photos (which never capture what you really see in person) or by using a pencil to softly write “Y” in areas that are yellow, “B” for blue, etc.) While I loved those “paint by number” kits when I was a kid, I’m not crazy about painting by letter now.

Tags Art supplies, Cafe Sketch, coffee, El Cerrito, Flower Art, flowers, Ink and watercolor wash, Peets Coffee, Pen and Ink, People, Sketchbook Pages

Art theory Drawing Gouache Ink and watercolor wash Life in general Painting Places Sketchbook Pages

Sketchcrawl at Pastime Hardware

Post author By Jana Bouc
Post date November 12, 2009
19 Comments on Sketchcrawl at Pastime Hardware

Who knew it could be fun to sketch at the hardware store? There were laughs (see end of post) and artistic discoveries galore at our Tuesday night sketchcrawl, now forced to go indoors for the winter. When I first arrived I started to ask one of the helpful employees that Pastime Hardware is famous for, about the part I needed for my toilet. Before he could show me where to find it, my phone rang with the ringtone I made from the Cake song “Never There” (click below to hear the ringtone).
An employee who was standing nearby said, “Hey! That’s Cake.” and then began whistling it. Throughout the evening I could hear him whistling the tune from all around the large store, which gratefully, is one of the few stores in existence that does not play annoying music 24/7 over the loudspeakers.

I had no idea how many differently shaped toilet seats there are. I discovered that looking at the negative shapes between the seats helped me to better find the shape of each seat. Then, looking more deeply and trying not to generalize, I discoverd the piles of boxed and/or wrapped toilet seats on the shelves behind the display. And then I noticed and added the pegboard behind that. I fell in love with the pretty color I mixed from cerulean blue and yellow ochre for the pegboard. This, to me, is the joy of sketching in a nutshell: seeing more and more deeply and the fun of making lines and dots and shapes and playing with color.

Next I faced the opposite direction and drew and painted these large metal watering cans up on a tall shelf.

Watering Cans version 1, ink and watercolor

When I got home I glued a bit of my receipt (from the toilet flapper I bought) to the edge of the page in my sketchbook (above). Tonight I thought the page might look better with a dark background so I added some ink, didn’t like that, and then painted with gouache over the ink to get more what I had in mind. (The receipt is still there, I just didn’t scan that part below).

The last sketch I did was of Cathy sketching a row of hand trucks in the room filled with bins of nails. I messed up her face but fixed the FAIL by pasting another piece of receipt over her head.

I would have liked to sketch more but it was nearly time for the store to close. It had been a lot of fun, and I enjoyed the comments and questions of passing employees and the few customers shopping on a very quiet Tuesday night. Cathy said that when she was sketching outside the employee break room she overheard employees talking about us and saying, “There’s a lady out there painting… TOILET SEATS!”

At 8:45 a man announced over the loudspeakers:

“Good evening customers…and… ART STUDENTS [giggle]. The store will be closing in 15 minutes so please bring your purchases to the [giggle giggle] cashier …[giggle]…”

…and then laughter ensued throughout the store, employees, customers and us artists alike! It was a slow night at Pastime, with twice the employees as customers, so I’d like to think they enjoyed our company as much as we enjoyed theirs.

Tags Art theory, Drawing, El Cerrito, Gouache, Ink and watercolor wash, Pen and Ink, Sketchbook Pages, Still Life

Ink and watercolor wash People Places Sketchbook Pages

Sketching at Bridges Rock Gym

Post author By Jana Bouc
Post date September 28, 2009
2 Comments on Sketching at Bridges Rock Gym

Sunflowers by Tin Roof Yoga, ink & watercolor

For last Tuesday night’s sketchcrawl, we went to Bridges Rock Gym to sketch people climbing on the rock structures and practicing “slack lining” (like tight-rope walking). When I arrived I sketched these sunflowers growing on a little garden plot besides Tin Roof Yoga, attached to the gym. The Assistant Manager, Jeffie, told me that the sunflowers were “volunteers” that sprouted up in the dirt they obtained for the plot by Annie’s Annuals.

Climbers at Bridges Rock Gym, ink and watercolor

Since I was hungry and we were sketching from the cafe on the loft’s balcony I enjoyed a plate of homemade hummos, veges and pita bread, and sketched the salt shaker while I waited for my food. The cafe was offering free samples of their homemade ginger cookies — best I’ve had! Then I tried to draw the moving targets of people climbing rocks (above).

Cathy worked quickly and did a great job capturing so much of the movement and action of the climbers and the balance of the slackline (like a tightrope only springy) walkers. Here are two of Cathy’s sketches:

Rock Gym Climbers by Cathy McAullife — Rock Gym Climbers by Cathy McAuliffe

Climbers and Slackliners by Cathy McAuliffe

If you have a chance to visit the gym, be sure to look at their amazing photobook of the gym’s owner slacklining high atop peaks in Yosemite, from tree to tree in the Berkeley hills, and several floors above a Polish shopping mall. Visiting the gym made me wish I wasn’t scared of heights — it’s such a beautiful place, with great amenities and very friendly staff. Everyone is welcomed and the night we there we saw absolute beginners, a small group of children, and some very advanced climbers with amazing muscles.

When it was time to go, I was just starting to get the hang (no pun intended) of how to approach sketching the climbers, noticing that as they climbed or balanced on the rope, the movements were in patterns that kept repeating so it was just a matter of waiting a couple seconds and they’d be back in that frog-like position, for example. I’ll come back to sketch again and to try out their yoga studio.

Tags Drawing, El Cerrito, Ink and watercolor wash, Pen and Ink, People, Sketchbook Pages, sketching

Cartoon art Drawing Ink and watercolor wash Life in general People Plants Sketchbook Pages Sketchercize

Sketchercizing My Errands

Walking with my dust mop, ink & colored pencil

I needed a new dust mop, a tube of silicon adhesive and some exercise, so I put them together and walked to Pastime Hardware, a large family-owned hardware store that has everything, including their famously helpful employees.

The sketch above actually closely resembles me when I’m out walking, with my green backpack that is so comfy, even when loaded with junk, my nifty purple cap, and old green shorts.

On the way to the store I called my mom on my iPhone, getting that task done as well. As she told me tales of her adventures with her new, and first computer, I stopped to draw some cacti I spotted along the way.

My last stop was at the video store to pick up a copy of Local Color which never came out in theaters in Northern California and is finally available on DVD. Then I walked home with the mop over my shoulder feeling like I should be whistling a little tune.

Tags cactus, Colored Pencil, Drawing, El Cerrito, Ink and watercolor wash, ink sketch, Pen and Ink, People, Sketchbook Pages, Sketchercize

Albany Drawing Ink and watercolor wash Outdoors/Landscape Painting Places Sketchbook Pages

Sketching in Blue

Sunset View Cemetery Tree, Ink & Watercolor

At Tuesday night sketchcrawl last week we started at the top of Fairmount Avenue in El Cerrito. I went from sketching an empty storefront to a tree in a cemetery parking lot to a church facade as the sun went down. It was poignant being at the Sunset View Cemetery again, after attending a funeral there just a couple weeks ago.

This is my sketchbuddy Cathy sketching from across the street on a hill in front of an empty storefront. On all of these I drew with a blue Copic Multi-liner and then added watercolor wash at home. I tried to mix a similar blue but got swayed by some purple.

The sun is setting so much earlier now; we’re going to have to move indoors soon for our after-work sketchcrawls. We’re making a list of places to sketch: a bowling alley, a bingo parlor, a new rock-climbing gym, Pastime Hardware and the library are at the top of my list.

It got too dark to finish drawing this church so we headed over to Fat Apples Restaurant for tea and Cathy shared her notes and images from an amazing workshop she took in Maine from Susan Abbott. I love Susan’s work and after seeing Cathy’s paintings from the week and hearing about Susan’s wisdom and generosity as a teacher, I am even more determined to get to New England and take a workshop from her next year!

Tags Albany, Drawing, El Cerrito, Ink and watercolor wash, Pen and Ink, Sketchbook Pages, sketches

Drawing Flower Art Ink and watercolor wash Life in general Painting Sketchercize

No Power So Sketchercize & Play

Post author By Jana Bouc
Post date September 13, 2009
10 Comments on No Power So Sketchercize & Play

It’s been a weird weekend. As the song says, “It never rains in California in the summer” except it did on Saturday morning after a night of thunder and lightening (also rare in the Bay Area). It was supposed to be a plein air painting day but the combination of rain and a headache convinced me to stay home and paint instead.

Then the power went out. It was too dark in the studio to paint without some lights and I needed coffee to try to get rid of the headache so I walked to Peets to sketch there. I used my sepia Copic Multiliner and then did a watercolor wash (mixing a few colors on my mini-watercolor palette to match the ink color.

When I got home I called the electric company and they said to expect repair or a report by 11:00 p.m. that night so I made plans to go out to dinner and to the movies. I didn’t want to open the fridge so my food would stay cold as long as possible. Then I sat my sketching stool in the driveway next to my neighbor’s flower bed and sketched and painted a couple of his dahlias.

Then I took another long walk with a friend, grabbed a fish burrito and went to see Julie & Julia which I loved! It had been ages since I’d been to the movies and even longer since I’d gone alone. I sat near another woman singleton who had the most infectious laugh and we laughed together throughout the delightful movie.

I appreciated the movie’s nod to the challenges faced by tall women (being one myself). The obsession with eating and cooking rich French food made me curious to know whether Julia Child ever dealt with body image issues or weight problems.I found these quotes from her in an interview in Business Week magazine in 2000:

Q: Could you sum up your feelings about the low-fat food movement? A: I don’t go for that at all…our motto is: “Small helpings. No seconds. No snacking. A little bit of everything, and have a good time.” If you can follow that, it keeps your weight and health in good form. Even if you’re going to have some rich dessert, you can always just have a little spoonful to taste it and keep your spirits up. Then I don’t think you have to go into that miserable, low-fat stuff.

Q: That’s more the French way of eating, I think. Americans always wonder why the French aren’t fat even though they eat rich foods.
A: It’s because the French don’t eat these great big helpings. It’s really horrifying to them to go to Disneyland and see these great big fat Americans plodding along, always eating something. No snacking is very important, I think.

I have a feeling she’s right about the snacking, but I know I find it a lot easier to maintain my weight if I cook and eat simply than if I’m surrounded by delicious, rich food and try to just eat a spoonful to taste it. But then I’d always rather be in the studio than in the kitchen, and am just as happy with a bowl of brown rice, broccoli and tofu than fancy French cooking.

P.S. The electricity came back on the next morning, 24 hours later.

Tags El Cerrito, Flower Art, flowers, Ink, Ink and watercolor wash, ink sketch, Peets Coffee, Pen and Ink, Sketchbook Pages, Sketchercize, Watercolor