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.
Cacti, ink and watercolor
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.
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.
Alejandro's Dahlias, ink & watercolor
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.
Waiting for his stop; waiting for her owner; ink and gouache
He was waiting for his stop on the subway ride and she was waiting for her owner to come out of the book store on Solano. I used the gouache to hide the guy’s nose that I added by mistake. (It wasn’t visible at this angle but he turned his head and I said, “Oh, there’s his nose,” and sketched it in, and immediately saw it was wrong.) The gouache also nicely hides the false start of the dog and the waiter (see last picture below) too.
North Berkeley Fire Station, copic sepia ink
The North Berkeley Fire Station is round. The fire truck barn is a large round concrete building with pillars and attached round buildings where the firemen (and women) live when they’re on duty. At the bottom left of the sketch is the very back of the waiting fire truck, with flag flying, just returned from one call and ready and waiting for the next.
Waiting waiter, ink and gouache
This waiter was on a break from the Inidan restaurant in front of which I was sketching. Although he was only about 20 feet away, he was so engaged in his phone call that he didn’t seem to notice me sitting on my little sketching stool, frantically trying to catch his gesture before he walked away. There’s another quickie of the waiting dog on this page too.
These were all from last Tuesday night’s sketchcrawl. I sketched in pen on site and then added the gouache at home.
Last week I took advantage of quick sketchers Martha and Cathy being away to spend an hour working on one image instead of constantly moving from one spot to the next. This was a really complex scene and the more I drew the more details appeared to draw.
By the time I finished, Sonia (who did several sketches of different views from the same spot) and I were so cold we decided to head home. I work right across the street from the lake and doing this drawing helped me to see what an amazing resource I have for sketching right outside my door.
Lunchtime Sketching Lake Merritt Birds
The next day at lunch, instead of eating in the kitchen with my colleagues, I took my sketchbook and went for a walk by the lake. My plan was to sketchercize: walk for 15 minutes, do a sketch, and walk 15 minutes back, getting in a 30 minute walk. But 5 minutes from the office I saw a row of Double-Crested Cormorants all lined up drying their wings in the sun as if they were on clotheslines.
(Cormorants are easily identified because they’re the only waterbirds that sit in the sun with their wings spread, hanging their feathers out to dry. They lack an oil gland for preening, so their feathers get waterlogged when they swim under water.)
After I sketched a cormorant and walked a few minutes more, a gaggle of goofy geese were all lined up at the edge of the sidewalk, waiting for someone to decide what to do next, and they needed sketching.
Walking back to the office I came across a foot-high rock with a bronze plaque on it that said “Leon Olsen loved to walk here.” What a great way to honor someone. A memorial walk rock!
Higgins Calligraphy Ink wash added to Palace Hotel sketch
Yesterday I tested some sepia drawing pens and bottled sepia inks to see which I preferred and did the same with an assortment of graphite pencils. To start the process I added some sepia ink washes to last week’s sketch from the Palace Hotel in San Francisco and like it much better now.
The pens I tested were all permanent, waterproof and lightfast:
Copic Multiliner SP.03 which I used in the sketch above
Micron Pigma .01 (my former favorite pen)
Pitt Artist Penswith various sized nibs including a brush pen.
My favorite was the Copic Multiliner SP .03 because of the way the ink and point just glide across the paper, the wide comfortable pen barrel, and the rich sepia color. Because it’s aluminum, refillable and has a replaceable tip, the Copic Muliliner is the most expensive of the three (around $7.00) and I can only get it via mail order which is annoying.
My second favorite was the Pitt Artist Pen with the “S” (superfine) tip. The Pitts are much more readily available in my local art stores and much less expensive (around $2.00). They have a somewhat wide comfortable barrel and a smooth feel when sketching.
The Sakura Micron Pigma .01, my former favorite, now seems a bit sharp and scratchy, but does offer more control because of the finer line. The barrel is narrower which makes it less comfortable to hold for long periods. It’s reasonably priced (around $2.25) and a good pen.
Traditional sepia ink is made from cuttlefish bladders(!) and mixed with a waterproof shellac base for a transparent waterproof satin finish.
The inks I tested were:
Higgins Sepia Calligraphy Ink (label says “non-waterproof” but provides no information regarding permanence). A beautiful warm color that flows beautifully straight or when mixed with water in washes. It is my favorite of the three, but I’m concerned about it’s archival qualities. I’ve sent the company a request for more information and will update this post when I receive it. Since it was recommended to me by an artist I trust who uses it in her fine art, ink and wash work I will continue to use it for now. It comes in a sad, unattractive, square plastic bottle with little self-esteem, and is without an eye-dropper lid.
[update 8/29/2009: Higgins Inks have been purchased by ChartPak and I was able to speak to the delightful woman in charge of their laboratory where the inks are formulated and tested. I was told that this line of inks is considered “student grade” and that testing is still underway (since it’s a new product to their company). However she was able to tell me that the colorants for this ink are dyes rather than pigments so while the ink bonds “permanently” with the paper, the colors are probably not lightfast and would be subject to fading or changing color. ]
FW Acrylic Artists Ink (label says “water resistant, permanent, highly lightfast”). Ugly chalky dark brown that didn’t work well as a wash, got blotchy and almost seemed sedimentary. It’s made using the same pigments that are in paints, so it’s basically very thin acrylic paint designed to be used in pens. This was the only one of the three with an eye dropper built into the lid and comes in a glass bottle.
Winsor & Newton Calligraphy Ink (label says “non waterproof, lightfast”). It was OK. It’s more traditionally sepia colored than the Higgins ink. I think I could make it work, but preferred the Higgins. It comes in a glass bottle without an eye-dropper lid.
Here is the test page on which I drew with the Copic Multiliner and then added washes of pure ink and ink mixed with water from each of the three bottled inks.
Copic Multiliner and Inks (click to enlarge)
On the following page I drew with the Pitt Artist Pens, including the Brush Tip, S, F, and M tips and to match the color, used the Winsor & Newton Calligraphy Ink for the washes. I liked the Pitt S (for Super-Fine I think) and thought all of them were pretty nice. At the bottom of the same page I used the Micron Pigma sepia .01 and the Higgins ink since they seemed a good pairing.
Ink-test: Pitt Pens, Micron Pigma (click to enlarge)
I decided to finally simplify my huge collection of pencils, graphite sticks, mechancal pencils and lead holders and pick one all purpose graphite pencil and one all purpose mechanical pencil. Although I have a full range of drawing pencils from super hard to super soft, I never work in that kind of detail with pencils and they’re just cluttering up my workspace. In the end I settled on these two for my in-studio and in-sketchbag all purpose pencils:
Generals Draughting Pencil went from light to dark easily without getting smeary and erased cleanly with a plastic eraser. I’ll use this one for sketching and planning in the studio, and for doing value studies in the field. (Close second: Sanford Draughting Pencil but it was a little softer/darker, making it more difficult to get a very light shade and it was smearier to erase.)
Papermate Ph.D.0.5m HB#2 Mechanical Pencil. The Papermate Ph.D. has a super comfy barrel that has a rubbery, wide triangular shape “endorsed by physical therapists.” This one is especially good for drawing light outlines before inking or painting in watercolor, although care must be taken to avoid embossing soft paper with the fine point. (Close second: Papermate Titanium .05 Mechanical Pencil. It wasn’t as comfortable and it was harder to get a nice dark.) I like using mechanical pencils because it’s handy having the lead and eraser in one unit.
El Cerrito Natural Grocery, cobalt Copic multiliner and colored pencils
I had to make my morning coffee with the last drops of non-fat milk (yuck, 1% is OK but non-fat in coffee just doesn’t cut it) and there were no peaches or milk for my Cheerios. A trip to the market couldn’t be put off. But I had a full day of experiments in the studio planned and I needed some exercise. Easy solution:
take the long way around, up and down big hills, to my favorite grocery store, El Cerrito Natural Grocery (cardio)
sketch the market using the cobalt Copic Multiliner I wanted to experiment with (I think I prefer the sepia)
shop
carry groceries home in a loaded backpack plus another full bag (weight lifting)
add colored pencil to the sketches to try out the new Polychromos colored pencils (LOVE THEM!)
Quick subway sketches with the cobalt Copic Multiliner and colored pencils
I’m trying to simplify my choices with my art supplies, wanting to narrow down the pens, ink, pencils and colored pencils to keep handy and those I’ll give away. I did tests today on drawing pencils, sepia liquid inks and sepia pens and will post them and my preferences tomorrow.
I’m also working on painting a grid of 16 different acrylic painting techniques to improve my understanding of acrylic techniques and possibilities. It became clear this was needed when I started a series of paintings in acrylic and realized I didn’t have the “chops” to accomplish what I wanted. I was trying to use oil painting techniques and was getting nowhere fast (and ruining brushes with all the scrubbing I was doing with them which seemed the only way to get the smooth transitions I wanted).
Each medium has its own capabilities and pitfalls. Why not make good use of the characteristics of the media instead of trying to force it to be something it’s not? Despite people claiming acrylic can be used like oils and like watercolor, I’m going to try to learn to use it like acrylics instead and have fun with all the crazy stuff it can do. This series of large paintings wants to be in acrylic and so it shall, and soon I hope.
Palace Hotel Garden Court detail, Copic Multiliner
After an all day meeting in San Francisco on Wednesday I met art buddy Sonia for some sketching at the Palace Hotel’s Garden Court atrium. It’s a stunning and historical room but detail lover that I am, I chose one tiny spot across the room to draw and then spent an hour on it, while Sonia did 4 or 5 sketches.
Palace Hotel Garden Court
I started with the furthest chandelier and the clock on the wall and just kept discovering more and more fun things to draw. If we weren’t so hungry and tired we could have stayed there all night sketching.
Two Ladies Chatting Over Coffee
The first lady just slid right off my pen, perfectly drawn (as I saw her) but her friend kept moving and I couldn’t get close to a likeness.
Random BART Subway Sketches
More commuter sketches (and one eagle who adorns the top of the Oakland City Hall). My co-workers and I took advantage of a sunny and surprisingly quiet day at the office to walk to Oakland City Center for lunch (ergo the Bean and Cheese sticker) and I even had a moment to pull out my sketchbook.
That messy little boy top right was on a field trip but looked like he should have still been home in bed. And that’s where I should be too. It’s been a rocky week. Glad it’s over.
I combined walking, errands and sketching this morning, and really enjoyed all three, especially using my new sepia Copic Multiliner to draw these sketches. The pen is made of aluminum, is refillable with a replaceable tip. It’s very comfortable in the hand with a wider barrel than my usual Micron Pigmas, and the pen just glides across the page.
First stop was my little local library where I returned “Chasing Matisse”, a lackluster memoir about a guy who gets a book deal to go visit all of the places where Matisse lived. He fancies himself an artist as well as a journalist, but I didn’t think he was much of either. He basically read Hilary Spurling’s excellent two-part biography of Matisse and repeats stuff from her book in between his boring descriptions of his own experiences seeing what Matisse had seen and sometimes even trying to sketch or paint it.
El Cerrito Post Office
Next was another return of an Amazon purchase to the El Cerrito Post Office. I asked the clerk if she’d stamp my sketchbook with her round postmark stamp, just for fun but she said no and gave me some “airmail” stickers to use instead which I didn’t.
When I was a kid my grandfather had a bunch of rubber stamps and pads of old deposit slips from when he’d been a banker before the bank closed during the depression (but why did he still have them?). I used to love going to his house and playing with the rubber stamps.
I’d planned to add sepia ink washes to these sketches at home tonight because I’d ordered a bottle of that ink, but when I looked at the items that arrived in my order I discovered they’d made a mistake and sent me black ink instead. Rats. One more thing to return.
This week we headed to Spruce Street in North Berkeley to sketch “Normandy Village,” a 1920s blueprint copy of a village in rural France. For some reason I did all of the village sketches on one spread in my sketchbook so I’ve separated them to post here. I started with these funny gargoyles on one of the cottages, experimenting with a Penstix Indian ink pen that bleeds a bit when water is added.
Normandy Village on Spruce Street #2, ink & wash
After the gargoyles I walked back into the little village and sketched the towers. While I was balancing on my 3-legged stool on the cobbled road, some residents drove up to unload some stuff from their car. A young man showed me his large pencil drawings he’d done at school that day and said he was an illustrator and a “Concept Artist.” Actually he’s a student at SF Academy of Art but with that kind of confidence will likely go far.
Normandy Village Gnome house, ink & watercolor
While most of the cottages in the village look like Hobbit houses, one of the “Village People” as the residents are known, is a gnome collector. Her kitchen window is lined with small gnomes, and the backyard just visible through the archway above, is loaded with gnomes large and small. This one was resting in a chair.
A friendly couple who lived in one of the apartments in this building came out with a plate of produce scraps to put in the recycling bin near me. We chatted about drawing and which was more difficult, drawing people or architecture. I showed them the trick for getting angles approximately right when sketching.
When it got too dark and we were walking up the hill to our cars we saw this home below and realized that in the open on the top of the hill here there was still enough light to do one more sketch
Last sketch on Spruce Street Sketchcrawl #4, Ink & watercolor
The day before the baby bird in the nest outside my window left the nest for the first time, his entire extended family of California Towhees chirped loudly all day, making a metallic “chip” sound, calling to him and to each other. The next day there he was, sitting in the tree on a branch near my window, looking right at me. He was bigger than I expected and was definitely having a bad hair day.
And now, quiet. No more constant activity of bringing food, standing guard, warning off interlopers. The nest is empty and the chirping is over. After watching them for days raised so many questions, which I scattered in my sketchbook among my 10 attempts to sketch the baby. My favorite was #8 when he turned his head to see mom bringing food and then opened wide to eat that yummy stuff.
I’d always thought birding was for boring old folks but now that I’m a boring old folk myself, I’m finding it quite interesting. Since my knowledge of birds is pretty limited, I initially assumed these guys were robins, since they sort of looked like them but without the red breast. Then I found the Cornell Lab of Ornithology All About Birdswebsite where you can search by many different criteria to identify a bird, including their sounds.
That’s how I learned that these guys are California Towhees which I confirmed by listening to them here. If you click the link and go listen to their sounds, you’ll understand how I came to feel that a community of chirping Towhees was as annoying as a neighbor’s constantly barking dog. I’m guessing they were all calling to the baby, “Come out, it’s safe, we’re standing guard, come out, come out, and try your new wings!”
I’m glad the incessant metallic chip, chip, chip sound only lasted one day, but I miss watching the birds being busy in the tree outside my window and so do my cats.
Jana Bouc, Artist 