I’m wrapping up the last of my sketches in my last handmade sketchbook with these two subway sketches and next time, my end-of-journal self portrait. I didn’t get around to binding another journal one in time and so switched to a Moleskine watercolor sketchbook as a stopgap.
Wheelchair Rider with Rear View Mirror
The Moleskine would be perfect if only it wasn’t in horizontal format. I hate the way two-page spreads become very long and skinny. Trying to sketch in it vertically is awkward to hold. Working in it for a few weeks has given me the incentive to get a new book bound ASAP!
Summer Squash & Tired Carrot in bright light, quick study, oil on board, 8x8"
When I was teaching my last session of watercolor classes I saw my students learning so much and was jealous. I realized that I wanted a teacher too! So I began a search for an oil painting mentor to review my work in progress, give me guidance and help me progress.
Value study 1, ink washes
First I tried advertising on Craigslist, describing what I needed. But the artists who responded weren’t a good fit. I wanted a mentor whose work excited and inspired me AND who was a good teacher. Then Rebeca Garcia Gonzalez sent me a postcard announcement for her show of portraits of undocumented immigrants and I fell in love with her paintings. I knew she also taught at a local art school so I emailed her my proposal, we met, and she agreed to mentor me.
Value Study 2, ink wash
At our first meeting she reviewed a dozen recent oil paintings and knew right away what I needed to work on. She said that I needed to focus on my values (the range and contrast of light to dark) and I knew she was exactly right.
Value study 3, ink and wash
She asked me to sketch using ink and diluted ink washes and to start paying close attention to values in everything I see, when I’m out walking, or just looking out the window.
Value study 4, ink wash
She suggested I ask myself, “Is this shape darker or lighter than that shape,” noticing the value relationships in everything I see to strengthen that ability. For example, a black object in bright sunlight might look lighter, relatively, than something white that is in shadow.
So much of learning to paint is learning to see, and so much of learning to see involves a kind of “peeling layers of the onion” off of our eyes to see the relationships, shapes, colors, and values in the current light and atmosphere, which can be shockingly different from what we think they are.
On the last night of the heat wave we met to sketch behind the Doubletree Hotel in Berkeley by the bay to cool off. The debate between candidates for California’s governor was on the radio so I listened on my iPhone while I sketched and it added a little spice to the evening. Who knew ol’ Jerry Brown was so funny?
Doubletree Lobby Chairs, Ink & watercolor
When it got too dark we explored the hotel, looking for sketching options. We considered the pool, the restaurant and the bar, but the seating area in the lobby was so comfy we plopped down and spent the rest of the evening drawing the chairs. You can see all of our renditions together on the Urban Sketchers Bay Area Blog.
Does this ever happen to you? You start off the morning feeling optimistic about everything you’ll get done today and then suddenly it’s evening and the To-Do list has only grown? Not only the day flew by, but given the date on this sketch, so has a week or two.
I sketched this sign while sipping an afternoon latte at Peet’s Coffee. Two women at the next table seemed so intrigued by my watercolor pencils and water brush that I said, “Here, try it!” and let them color and paint (on their napkins).
I’ve been so busy with working, teaching watercolor, and squeezing in a little time for painting and sketching that I’ve gotten behind on posting. But my number one priority today is finishing binding a new journal as I’m down to the last two pages in my current one and they’re reserved for my end-of-sketchbook self portraits.
I had a lovely Mothers Day yesterday. After spending a cozy, rainy day in the studio painting, Robin arrived to chauffer me to Cody’s house for dinner carrying a beautiful fuchsia plant as a gift. Attached to the plant was a tag proclaiming, “Buy once, use twice!” This seemed an odd bit of marketing since I generally expect things I buy to be usable multiple times, not just twice. It also made me wonder how you “use” a plant.
Upon reading further I learned they simply meant it could be enjoyed as a house plant first and then planted in the garden later. Wrapped in festive fuchsia colored cellophane it does cheer up a room. But since my cats try to eat bouquets and houseplants I will probably plant these in the garden soon.
Many of my garden plants were gifts and I always think of the people who gave them to me when I see them in the garden. And they all were “Buy once, Use twice” items too since they got sketched and planted.
The bowl of succulents in my dining room were a gift from my sister.
Succulent Garden in a Bowl, watercolor 9x6"
The penstemon in my backyard was a housewarming gift from Barbara and the rubber tree in my side yard came from Robin.
Rubber Tree
The azalea in the front yard was a birthday gift from my next door neighbors.
Front yard flowers, ink & watercolor
The Japanese maple tree by my front door was a gift from my coworkers in honor of my father’s death nearly 10 years ago.
I’ve often wished I could understand what my cats were saying but I should have known! Fortunately the Cat Translation Spell has an Unspell to reverse the effects.
This is another page in my Fake Journal for International Fake Journal Month. I was excited to get to this page where the black paper transitions to the brown pages. It’s so much fun drawing with white and gold gel pen on the black and colored pencil works beautifully on both of these papers.
Yes, sometimes it does seem like magic spells and the ability to decode hieroglyphics are required when trying to calculate how to lose weight and get lean. This spell worked: it caused a definite lean but not the right kind. That’s why it’s important to be specific when designing spells, intentions or wishes.
Be Careful What You Wish For (funny but true!)
Years ago a friend told me that she’d found her husband by writing a detailed description of the right man and the universe brought her exactly what she asked for. She encouraged me to give it a try. I played along, half-jokingly jotting down what I was looking for in a guy: tall, dark and handsome; interested in art; works in the mental health field (as I did then); physically fit, and likes kids (I was a recently divorced single mom).
The next day my sister called me (with no knowledge of my list) and said she had a friend from her gym she thought I should meet. He was a single dad who worked at a mental hospital; a tall, handsome, African-American guy. (By tall, dark and handsome I’d been picturing George Clooney, but this was OK too).
The three of us met at a pub. Art was basketball-player tall and fit though too ostentatiously dressed for my taste (my sister had only seen him in sweats) but that wasn’t the deal-breaker. The deal breaker was that he endlessly talked about himself, on and on and on all evening. Art seemed to have no interest in anything or anyone but himself.
Afterward, I marveled to my sister how he had all the qualities on that list I’d made except being interested in art. Then we looked at each other and cracked up! His name was Art and was he ever interested in Art!
How to Remove an Elephant Hat Spell, gel pens & colored pencils
For International Fake Journal Month 2010 I bound a journal with dark papers which, as you can see by the title below, is being filled with useful spells and unspells. I say that in passive voice because it is an alternate Jana who is filling it, one with great wisdom and special skills.
Janas(Fake)Journal, Book of Spells & Unspells
The papers I used to cover the book board is made of some kind of bark I think. It was in the special paper drawer at Dick Blick. Here is the full spread of the Elephant Hat spell page:
Elephant Hat Spell, full spread
In case you’re wondering when one might need such a spell, it recently came in handy for me. At my day job I was used to changing hats constantly, putting on the desktop publishing hat, then the finance hat, swapping that with the web-work hat, then the customer relations hat, database, marketing, etc. Such is life in a small non-profit during difficult financial times.
But then the hats got sticky and I couldn’t get them off; I was wearing all the hats all the time. And one morning I noticed that one of the hats had a huge, heavy elephant on it. I was sinking fast. I needed help. I tried the Elephant Hat Removal Spell. Then I asked nicely.
I got the help I needed: Half of those hats have been handed off and my schedule has been reduced to half time. The elephant disappeared and the hats are now a comfortable fit—when worn one at a time.
I was listening to Ruth Reichl‘s book “Not Becoming My Mother and Other Things She Taught Me Along the Way” while I sketched on a rainy Sunday, feeling a bit mopey. That book was the perfect antidote to mopeyness.
After her mother’s death, Reichl finds her mother’s journals and discovers the story of how her quirky mother tried to make sure her daughter wouldn’t suffer the unfulfilled life she’d had, restricted by the roles available to women of her generation.
The book is full of humor, love and amazing stories. I’m grateful that my public library has great audio books available to download for free. It ends with this great quote:
…and the most important thing I learned is that you are the only one who can make yourself happy. It is never too late to find out how to do it.” ~Ruth Reichl
I drew the frog above (from a photo on my monitor) to practice before I drew the frog on the cover of my journal (below) which I’ve named Froggie:
Froggie Journal, India & gold gel ink
The Legion Multimedia Aquarelle paper the book is bound with is holding up even better than I expected. It’s nice and smooth for writing and drawing with ink from various pens, and accepts watercolor beautifully and even allows for lifting off and repainting and other kinds of abuse.
I love spending time with my journal which is like a dear friend, a place to come for solace when I need to write and sort things out, a library for recording visual and emotional discoveries, ideas, thoughts, and experiments.
Warm sun, green hills, blossoming trees and a great Peet’s cappuccino to sip at an outdoor table while sketching was made even better by a pen that actually worked in my sketchbook. After struggling to find a pen that would not skip, scratch, smear, show through or bleed on the Arches 90 lb cold press paper I’d bound in my journal, I discovered that my Lamy Safari fountain pen was just right.
Pens
All of the pens I normally use were giving me problems. The Sakura Pigma Micron skipped, scratched over the textured paper when drawing, and was even worse for writing in the journal, whether I used my favorite .01 or a fatter-tipped .05.
Pitt Artist Pen and Sharpie tests
I tried using an Ultra-Fine Point Sharpie since it would at least produce a strong line (above). But I found that the ink flowed too quickly, bleeding and spreading if held in one spot and worse, showed through to the other side. I also tried the Pitt Artist Brush Pen on this page, which worked OK but was a thicker line than I like for general sketching. The black ink in the finer-point Pitts seemed paler than the Microns, but it might also be that they resist the sizing on the paper more.
Testing Prismacolor .05 Pen
Prismacolor Illustration pens are similar to the Sakura Pigma Micron and Pitt Artist Pens and are very nice and comfortable to hold. But they too performed poorly on the Arches CP. In the sketch above I was trying to do a contour drawing of what I saw on the BART train but my lines were barely visible until I redrew them with a Sharpie.
Testing Noodlers & Carbon Platinum Ink
Then I tested my Lamy Safari F-point fountain pen and was delighted to see that it was a pleasure to write and draw with on the Arches CP paper.
Ink
I’d last filled the Safari with Noodlers Black Bulletproof ink, which is supposed to be waterproof but actually bleeds a fair amount when a wash is applied after it’s dry. I used a dip pen to test Platinum Carbon Ink and it held up better, barely bleeding at all.
So I squirted out the remaining Noodlers in my Lamy and refilled it with the Carbon Platinum ink. I’ve been a happy sketcher ever since. The ink is a rich black, doesn’t bleed, is great to write with on this bumpy paper, and is comfy to hold. Yay!
Paper
Now that I’m halfway through my journal it’s time to prepare for binding the next one. I’ve been testing papers and I think I’ve found the one. When I finish my tests I’ll post them. I have a feeling I might have found the perfect paper for ink and watercolor journaling.
Jana Bouc, Artist 