Tag: Faces

It’s All in My Head

Cat-Tail Aloe, Ink & watercolor in sketchbook

My artwork, that is. I’ve been doing a lot of thinking and planning for my next art projects, but other obligations have taken up my art time and energy. All I’ve done the past few days is the watercolor sketch from a trip to the U. C. Berkeley Botanical Gardens (above) and the BART subway sketches below. The aloe was drawn and a bit of wash added on site; then I messed with it some more at home. There were so many wonderful options for sketching there, but my companions weren’t interested in sketching so I didn’t want to make them wait for me.

Big Feet & Big Glasses, ink in sketchbook

I’m quite sure this woman knew I was drawing her and I think she intentionally held her pose for me. I started with her feet because they interested me and I didn’t think I’d have time for anything more. But because she held still I continued on up her legs and eventually ran out of room when I got to the top of her head. She gave me a big grin when I got off and I gave her one back. It was a cool little acknowledgment between us.

I’m going to start keeping my “business cards” handy when I subway sketch (those cute little Moos with bits of my artwork and blog address on them) and hand them to people I’ve drawn as I get off the train (if I have the nerve).

These two women weren’t really seated this close. I just used the space on the page that way.

Sometimes I forget that people from my “day job” read my blog. I was in a meeting last week and one of the participants began the meeting by mentioning that she’d seen my sketches from the previous meeting we’d attended and immediately recognized some of the people in the sketch. What a compliment that was! (Thanks A. B.!)

Tags BART, Drawing, Faces, Ink, Ink and watercolor wash, Pen and Ink, People, Sketchbook Pages, subway drawing, Subway drawings, Watercolor

Drawing Faces Life in general People Photos Sketchbook Pages Subway drawings

Subway Drawings & Feeling Like a Zombie

Post author By Jana Bouc
Post date February 27, 2009
7 Comments on Subway Drawings & Feeling Like a Zombie

Silly Pose on Bart, Graphite 8x6 — Silly Pose on BART, Drawn later at home, Graphite 8x6

Riding our subway known as BART the other day, I sat down beside a young man who was talking to his friend in the next seat. I asked if they wanted to sit together and they made a joke about not liking each other (actually it was a racist joke that shocked me at first when I thought they were serious—they were of different races ). So I sat down and took out my sketchbook like I usually do. The guy beside me insisted I draw his friend and his friend immediately struck a crazy pose for me to draw.

I said I only had 5 minutes before I was getting off but they egged me on. I drew as fast as I could (in ink—what was I thinking!) and was making a pretty bad job of it—talk about pressure! Then I had to get off and we all had a good laugh about the bad sketch (see below). I asked if I could take his picture and he agreed, continuing the pose as I quickly snapped a photo with my iPhone and then jumped off the train as the doors were closing. Here’s the photo that I put on my computer monitor across the room to draw the sketch above in my sketchbook last night:

And here’s the original sketch done on BART, along with a few others from this week:

Now, about feeling like a Zombie… I’ve been doing prep this week for a colonoscopy this afternoon. I’ve had nothing to eat since yesterday morning, except sugary clear liquids and the gallon of “Go-Litely” (hah! what false advertising!) and very little sleep due to drinking the first half gallon last night and then “Go-ing” all nite, thus the only “Litely” was my sleeping! And for the three days prior, I was told to eat none of my usually healthy diet: no vegetables, no fruits, no whole grains. Just white bread and meat, basically. The procedure isn’t until 2:00 so until then, I’ll be under a pile of blankets in bed trying to get warm and watching a movie on my laptop.

Zombie signing out…

Tags BART, Drawing, Faces, Ink, ink sketch, Pen and Ink, Pencil drawing, People, Photos, Sketchbook Pages, subway drawing, Subway drawings

Dreams Faces Gouache Painting Sketchbook Pages

Dreaming in Color of Beautiful Birds

Post author By Jana Bouc
Post date January 24, 2009
9 Comments on Dreaming in Color of Beautiful Birds

Do you dream in full color? I dreamt I spotted the most beautiful woodpecker, and in my dream I noted that it was in gorgeous golds, ochres and siennas. The woodpecker, aside from it’s unique coloroing, looked just like the California Stellar Jays I see in my neighborhood, complete with peanut in mouth and nothing like a woodpecker. (Not that I’ve ever seen a woodpecker, although I have heard them).

Then I spotted another beautiful bird with, as I noted in the dream, a lime-colored Mohawk. Actually, in the dream I think I called it a “faux-hawk” because there’s something about the way”faux-hawk” sounds that pleases me. This bird made horrible Peacock noises.

The next dream carried on with the odd colored top-knot theme. The long, black, silky, beautiful, Latina hair of the girl next door had been bleached white and then died mint green so she’d look more like the Disney mermaid princesses she seems to like so much.

These were all done with gouache in the large Moleskine watercolor notebook.

Tags Drawing, dream illustrations, Dreams, Faces, Gouache, Moleskine, Painting, Sketchbook Pages

Drawing Faces People Sketchbook Pages Subway drawings

Subway Sketches: BART Riders

Post author By Jana Bouc
Post date January 15, 2009
3 Comments on Subway Sketches: BART Riders

I enjoy sketching on BART, our subway system (which has been in the news since New Year’s Eve when BART police shot and killed a defenseless, unarmed young man which was captured on cellphone video and led to protests and rioting in downtown Oakland). BART’s headquarters are in the building where I work in downtown Oakland. To keep people safe inside, the building has been on “lock down” the past couple of weeks, with I.D.s required to enter the building to keep those of us working inside safe. There’s been no trouble though, with way more media and police around than protestors.

On BART this morning, this old man made a great model. He barely moved and had the most gigantic ears I’ve ever seen.

This would probably be better if I darkened all of the area around her but I liked her pointy nose.

Tags BART, Faces, Ink, Oakland, People, Sketch, Sketchbook Pages, subway drawing, Subway drawings

Faces Ink and watercolor wash Life in general Painting People Sketchbook Pages Watercolor

Sketching as an Antidote to Insanity

Post author By Jana Bouc
Post date December 14, 2008
19 Comments on Sketching as an Antidote to Insanity

Marcy calling home, ink & watercolor — Marcy calling home from Mom's porch, ink & watercolor

It wasn’t an easy weekend in L.A. visiting family but sketching really helped me to avoid going completely bonkers. There were some lovely moments: walking on the beach in the misty morning with my sister Marcy, taking a tour with Mom and Marce of an historic house (now a museum) in Santa Monica where a huge retrospective of Milford Zorne‘s amazing paintings were on display (more about that in another post).

Mom cooking stinky cabbage, ink & watercolor

My 85 year old mother doesn’t cook much anymore, but she got inspired to make Pracas (sweet and sour meatballs in cabbage). But despite not having some of the ingredients or being able to see the recipe in the cookbook well enough to follow it, and despite the jar of ancient fossilized onion flakes she substituted for the actual onion in the recipe (demanding that I use a sharp knife to break the clump up so it could be extracted from the jar), and the house stinking like cabbage all afternoon, dinner wasn’t that bad, really.

Guy sleeping holding his boarding pass; hanging out at Mom's — Guy sleeping holding his boarding pass at Oakland airport; hanging out at Mom's

Grateful for my pen & sketchbook — Grateful for my sketchbook

It’s amazing how sketching can calm my nerves and put the whole dysfunctional family thing at a distance while still being physically present.

It’s really good to be back home.

Tags Faces, Ink and watercolor wash, Painting, Pen and Ink, People, Sketchbook Pages, sketching, Watercolor

Drawing Faces Oil Painting Other Art Blogs I Read Painting People Portrait

Self Portrait in Pigtails

Post author By Jana Bouc
Post date September 29, 2008
13 Comments on Self Portrait in Pigtails

I met a very quirky 76 year-old woman artist who has made her home, her car and her self into a wonderful, crazy work of art. I’ll share more about her next time, but today wanted to post this self-portrat she inspired.

I’d been feeling discouraged about oil painting after doing a terrible plein air painting on Saturday but meeting that woman on my walk today, I was inspired to braid my hair and decorate myself with make up and do a self portrait in oils.

I started by setting up a mirror but found it awkward to paint while having to keep looking in a mirror to my right and making the same face. So I took photos, shooting into the mirror, and then displayed the best one on my computer monitor and worked from that. Here’s the photo I used:

I started by drawing with white pastel pencil on an already toned canvas (actually a reused canvas: the first painting I did when I picked up oils a year or so ago — a portrait of my sister that was so terrible that I scraped it and covered it in a warm brown oil paint to be used again). I like sketching with a pastel pencil because it rubs off easily from a primed canvas and disappears into the oil paint without streaking or smearing.

Then I photographed the drawing bove and pasted the image as another layer in Photoshop on top of the reference photo, adjusting the new layer to 60% opacity. That allowed me to see where my drawing was off and make the adjustments on my canvas. You can see in the overlay below that I’d missed in many places, despite my attempt at accuracy.

I’ve learned the hard way that an incorrect drawing just leads to a bad painting. I could have just enlarged the photo and traced it right onto my canvas, but I love drawing and wanted the challenge of drawing myself somewhat accurately. I think the final painting does look a bit like me and it was definitely fun to do.

I’m going to wear my hair like this to work tomorrow. And I’m not going to give up oils.

Tags Faces, Oil Painting, People, photoshop, self-portrait

Drawing Faces Life in general People Sketchbook Pages Subway drawings

Doodleheads, Subway Sketching, Patience

Post author By Jana Bouc
Post date August 23, 2008
5 Comments on Doodleheads, Subway Sketching, Patience

Sketches of people meeting — Meeting, thinking, waiting (click images to enlarge)

Practicing patience while doing for others the past week has meant less time for painting. A dear friend broke his leg and has required 2 trips to the hospital and other chauffering. The computer I gave to my wonderful neighbors came down with a variety of ills, including a dead power supply and a huge load of viruses (or is that virii?). And work was a non-stop series of meetings, trouble-shooting and brainstorming sessions that completely wore out my brain.

Doodleheads: Subway sketches of people on BART

Today instead ofpainting I’ve spent hours trouble-shooting and (hopefully) restoring my former computer (the virus scan is still running and zapping hundreds of virus files). Lesson: Never let a 12 year old boy use a PC without first installing virus software! A friend told me about the free (for home users)and downloadable Avast Antivirus and he is right: it is fantastic!

I need to start a new sketchbook. This one is nearly full and I seem to be postponing the dreaded blank sketchbook, instead cramming everything on the remaining few pages.

Another thing I discovered this week is that Amazon offers all sorts of free music mp3 downloads, (click this link then scroll down) from whole albums to songs from a variety of artists. I’m listening to the ones I downloaded yesterday and really enjoying them. Everything from Billie Holiday, the Butchies, and Firewater to the entire album “Very Best of Naxos Early Music,” which is heavenly.

Tags anti-virus, Faces, free music, Ink, patience, Pen and Ink, People, sketching, subway drawing, Subway drawings, subway sketches

Drawing Faces Life in general People Sketchbook Pages Subway drawings

Waiting and waiting…BART and meeting sketches

Post author By Jana Bouc
Post date July 20, 2008
4 Comments on Waiting and waiting…BART and meeting sketches

He didn’t really have 3 extra heads. Those heads are the first people who sat in his seat but each got off after one stop so I had no time to finish them. Maybe they are his guardian angels watching over him as he sleeps.

(Larger)

WAITING

I’m getting good at waiting… My very lame loaner computer is teaching me patience because every step takes so long. Hopefully mine will be back from the shop soon. It’s amazing what a difference 2 GB of memory in the exact same computer makes compared the 500 MB in this loaner.

These are some sketches over the past couple weeks while waiting for the subway, waiting for my stop, waiting for a meeting to end….

Tags Faces, Pen and Ink, People, Subway drawings

Faces Oil Painting Painting People

Farmers Market Friends (Work in Progress)

Post author By Jana Bouc
Post date June 9, 2008
13 Comments on Farmers Market Friends (Work in Progress)

Larger

I’m really happy with the way this painting (from a photo I took at the Farmers Market) is progressing and since I couldn’t finish it tonight and it’s back to the office tomorrow, I decided to share it as a work in progress.

Questions for you:

Can you tell that the woman on the left is resting her hands on her shopping cart handle and that there’s a plastic bag of stuff in the cart?
Is the way her hands are mostly one light shape confusing?
Is that area of hands/cart handle/plastic bag distracting? (Before I pointed it out.)
Do you think I should leave their shirts alone or add the patterns that were really on their shirts?
Anything you see that needs fixing (other than the list above and below)?

I still need to add paint to the truck in the background to get the color right, paint in the lettering and add some contrast to the lady on the right (and maybe adjust her face a bit).

Tags Faces, farmers market, Oil Painting, People, work in progress

Drawing Faces Painting People Sketchbook Pages Subway drawings Watercolor

I just love to draw

Ink & watercolor in Strathmore Drawing 6×8″ sketchbook (larger)

A tall, overstuffed, nerdy guy sat down beside me on the commute home, opened his laptop and started watching a bloody horror movie. It was one of those movies with a creepy doll in it.

I turned away from him, tired from my first day back at work after being home with a cold, and feeling disgusted by what I saw on his screen. But once I started drawing, I just felt happy.

I added watercolor this evening at home and that made me feel happy too. I really like this sketchbook paper for drawing with ink and then adding light watercolor washes. Although I usually prefer Cheap Joes inexpensive Golden Fleece watercolor brushes, tonight I grabbed an old friend: the first watercolor brush I ever bought: a Winsor Newton Series 7 Kolinsky Sable brush, with peeling paint, loose ferrule and no point.

I’m glad to be 2/3 over my cold, out of my pajamas, showered and dressed after a couple of days of being housebound with no energy to do any of the above.

Tags Faces, Pen and Ink, People, Subway drawings