Tag: Ink

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

Drawing Gouache Painting Sketchbook Pages Still Life

Hog Island Oyster Shells: Using Gouache Like Watercolor

Post author By Jana Bouc
Post date January 26, 2009
7 Comments on Hog Island Oyster Shells: Using Gouache Like Watercolor

Oyster Shells painted in Gouache in large watercolor Moleskine — Oyster Shells, Ink and Gouache in large watercolor Moleskine (SOLD)

When I had lunch at Hog Island Oysters a few weeks ago, I asked for a doggy bag to take home these oyster shells so that I could sketch them. I finally did it, and enjoyed drawing all the rumples and bumps and ridges. Then I painted them with gouache and voila! another sketchbook completed.

I’m finding that using M. Graham and Schmincke gouache paints as if they were watercolors is a very pleasing way to work. I haven’t quite gotten the hang of using them properly opaquely, but using them transparently is quite exciting as they have more pigment load than regular watercolor.

To see if I could figure out what I was doing wrong, I studied my beloved Moira Kalmanbook, The Principles of Uncertainty, since she paints her wonderful, quirky illustrations in gouache. I saw that what I was considering flaws and errors in my application are actually—at least in her work— just part of the character of painting with gouache.

Gouache is such a flexible medium. You can use it opaquely, flat and smooth as in posters; painterly like with oil paints; or transparently as if it were watercolor. Now I’m craving oysters again — some to eat and some to paint.

Tags Gouache, Ink, Moleskine, Painting, Pen and Ink, Sketchbook Pages

Drawing People

Sketches at a Meeting

Post author By Jana Bouc
Post date January 19, 2009

It was an important meeting. The participants were brilliant experts in their fields. Yet I still couldn’t resist sketching my way through the meeting.

I only had my work notebook and a fat roller ball blue ink pen in the conference room with me. During a break I grabbed a black one but it was still weird to draw with compared to my usual extra fine point pen.

I actually captured a likeness on a couple of these little gesture sketches.

Tags Ink, ink sketch, meeting sketch, Pen and Ink, People, Sketch

Art supplies Flower Art Glass Gouache Sketchbook Pages Still Life

Experimenting with Gouache & Rotring Art Pen

Post author By Jana Bouc
Post date January 17, 2009
14 Comments on Experimenting with Gouache & Rotring Art Pen

I saved two rose buds to paint when I pruned my roses last week (in case winter ever comes to the San Francisco Bay Area—it’s been ridiculously hot and sunny). By the time I could get back in the studio, one bud had opened and my order of M. Graham and Schmincke gouache arrived. Although I planned to test the new gouache by making color charts first, I knew the roses wouldn’t hold up much longer. Also included in my art supply order was a new Rotring Art Pen.

I tried out the gouache and pen in the sketch above. I also wrote a quickie review of the Rotring Art Pen and offer some technical information about gouache by experts on the subject. If you’d like to know more about gouache or the pen, please click the “Continue reading” link below.

Tags Glass, Gouache, Ink, Micron Pigma, Moleskine, Pen and Ink, roses, Rotring Art Pen, sketchbook, Sketchbook Pages, Still Life

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

Gardening Ink and watercolor wash Painting Sketchbook Pages Watercolor

Walking and Sketching in the Neighborhood

Post author By Jana Bouc
Post date January 6, 2009
8 Comments on Walking and Sketching in the Neighborhood

I see something that inspires me to draw every time I take a walk. On this sunny winter walk, neighbors were out tending to their gardens, and flowers were blooming in unexpected places, like surrounding the fireplug above on a busy street corner.

There’s a house a few blocks from mine where the front lawn was replaced long ago by a hundred different kinds of cacti and succulents. I wondered how they managed to keep the various spikey things trimmed and on this day I found out: carefully, with very thick gloves and shovels.

They’d trimmed their enormous Nopales (or Prickly Pear) cactus and piled up the “paddles” in this old wheelbarrow. As the husband and wife worked they acted like it was completely normal for me to be standing in front of their house for 15 minutes sketching their wheelbarrow. I’m not sure what they ended up doing with the pieces of cactus. As I finished sketching, the husband piled a few paddles on his shovel and walked off down the street with them.

Later I passed this cheery scene in someone’s driveway. I didn’t see anyone around, but the brightly colored chairs and containers of (?) on a tray looked awfully inviting.

Tags cactus, Ink, Ink and watercolor wash, Painting, Sketchbook Pages, sketching, walking, Watercolor

Ink and watercolor wash Life in general Sketchbook Pages Watercolor

Osmosis Spa Sketches & 10,000 Days Art Project

Post author By Jana Bouc
Post date December 31, 2008
12 Comments on Osmosis Spa Sketches & 10,000 Days Art Project

2 Doors Down from Osmosis, ink & watercolor — Osmosis Spa Neighborhood, ink & watercolor

To finish the year off well, I spent an absolutely blissful day yesterday at Osmosis Day Spa Sanctuary. I arrived in Freestone (near Sebastopol) half an hour early so I could take a walk and sketched the old farm which is two doors down from the spa. When I returned to the spa and changed into a cozy Japanese style robe, I was taken to an ante-room with a view of the meditation garden where I was served special tea and had 15 quiet minutes alone to sip and sketch.

Tea Service at Osmosis, Ink & watercolor

Then it was time for my “enzyme bath,” the most profoundly relaxing experience I’ve had in my life. The bath attendant scooped out and molded the finely ground, fragrant cedar in a deep redwood tub into a perfect hollow to fit my body in a reclined position. The cedar is mixed with rice bran and “over 600 active enzymes that create natural soothing warmth through fermentation.” Once I was perfectly positioned in the tub, she covered me in the heavy, steamy stuff up to my neck. Every 5 minutes she returned with water to sip through a straw and draped a cool refreshing cloth over my forehead while I lay there going deeper and deeper into relaxation.

Next it was time to brush off, shower, and head upstairs for my massage. It was the best massage I’ve ever had; more of a spiritual experience and a healing than bodywork. My massage therapist, Weegi, saw the blissed-out look in my eyes when it was over and recommended that I go sit and watch the creek and walk in the meditation garden before getting into my car.

She was right. I sat by the creek and watched the water flow and hawks soaring above and then walked slowly through the Japanese zen garden and around the Koi pond a while longer. It was nearly an hour before I was ready to return to the “real” world and head home.

I don’t think driving while blissed out is exactly illegal but it definitely wouldn’t have been a good idea. I didn’t even want the radio on in the car; I just wanted to stay in that incredible place of total relaxation. I think the car and I floated all the way home a foot above the road.

To my wonderful co-workers: A huge thank-you for the gift of this spa day back on my birthday in June. It took me some time to get around to using it, but I picked the perfect cool, foggy day in December to use it to finish off my year feeling great and grateful.

Photos of Osmosis used with permission from their website.

♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

10,000 Days Art Project

As the year was coming to an end I was feeling sad. Since I’m usually a “glass half full” kind of person I did some writing to dig deeper. I realized that each year that ends brings me closer to my own end. Then my practical side kicked in and I calculated how many years I probably have left. I multiplied the number of years by 365 days which came out to 10,000 days.

Wow! 10,000 days feels like it might just be enough to do all the painting, drawing and other art projects in me to do. Now I don’t feel so bad about the end of one paltry little chunk of a year and can even look forward to resting when those 10,000 days are done. But I’m having way too much fun to stop any time soon!

Tags Ink

Drawing Ink and watercolor wash Life in general Painting Sketchbook Pages Watercolor

Found on a Walk

One of the advantages of a semi-urban neighborhood is the wealth of detritus that can be found on a walk to bring home and draw. Near the end of my daily walk is the “cat house”: a mossy, old cottage on the edge of small “urban park” (empty lot with grass). The homeowner is a kind soul who feeds the cats who live in the “park”. She also puts out bags of unwanted “free” stuff.

My first find of the day was one of those “free” bags—full of books in great condition. I selected the above, a 1963 edition of “You Can Draw” with dust jacket intact, Joan Didion’s “Year of Magical Thinking” which I’ve been wanting to read, and a funky old edition of “Everything that Rises Must Converge” by Flannery O’Connor. I appreciated the title’s nod to perspective drawing and a quick browse of the book intrigued me to read more.

The little symbols around the edge of the sketchbook page above were my experiments to create a little signature/date symbol after seeing the marks that some of the artists in “An Illustrated Life” used in their sketchbooks.

Found on a Walk #2, Ink & watercolor in large Moleskine watercolor book

When I’m walking I’m attracted to shiny things and remants of life I find on the ground. These bits include the seemingly racist “Pancho Lopez” wrapper for a pre-paid phone card, a losing lotto ticket, a claim check for “Latham Square” and a piece of a dog-walker ad.

Found on a Walk #3, Ink & Watercolor in large Moleskine watercolor book

Lastly, some holiday remains: a bit of an already abandoned Christmas tree, a piece of fluff from a Santa hat or stocking (?), fall foliage and some little seed pods.

It was a great walk; a bit blustery and it started to sprinkle as I reached home, ready for a hot cup of coffee and the drawing table.

Tags Ink, Ink and watercolor wash, Moleskine, sketchbook, urban sketch

Art supplies Every Day Matters Ink and watercolor wash Sketchbook Pages Still Life Watercolor

Salad Remains with Danny: Finishing Sketchbooks

Post author By Jana Bouc
Post date December 21, 2008
8 Comments on Salad Remains with Danny: Finishing Sketchbooks

Salad Remains with Danny's Book (ink & watercolor)

I was feasting my eyes on Danny Gregory‘s new book, “An Illustrated Life” while I was eating a delicious salad in my big yellow salad bowl for lunch today. When I finished eating I had to sketch the colorful remains. The first drawing didn’t work (partially seen on the previous sketchbook page above), though I took it as far as I could and then drew it again and painted it (happily using up two pages in this sketchbook I don’t like).

I love reading about all the other sketchbook artists in Danny’s book and the way they think about sketching and their sketchbooks. It inspired me to finally finish off all of the random sketchbooks I have going. I have at least half a dozen unfinished sketchbooks, some that I’ve made (like the one used above) and some that I’ve bought. I keep them in a special open box and grab the one that calls to me.

There are several that I don’t like for a variety of reasons (e.g. don’t like the paper, don’t like the dimensions, don’t lay flat, don’t scan well, too fancy…) and they’ve been partially used and abandoned. I’m making it my goal to fill them all by January 1 so that I can put them on a shelf and start working in one book at a time in a chronological order. I like order.

Tags Ink, Pen and Ink, Sketchbook Pages, Still Life

Drawing Ink and watercolor wash Life in general Other Art Blogs I Read Outdoors/Landscape Painting People Photos Plein Air Sketchbook Pages Watercolor

Sketching with Martha & Shirley (St. Patrick’s San Francisco)

Post author By Jana Bouc
Post date December 6, 2008
10 Comments on Sketching with Martha & Shirley (St. Patrick’s San Francisco)

St. Patrick's Church, ink & watercolor 8x6" — St. Patrick's Church, San Francisco, ink & watercolor 8x6"

Shirley (Paper and Threads) was visiting San Francisco this week and Martha (Trumpetvine) and I had the pleasure of spending the afternoon sketching with her in the park. Poor St. Patrick’s Catholic Church isn’t really falling over despite the many earthquakes it has weathered over the years. It’s just my usual wonky drawing. Martha and Shirley will post their drawings on their own blogs eventually but here is a snapshot of our work lined up together.

And here we are lined up, with me a head taller and trying to take a photo and holding my iPhone at arm’s length.

We were joined virtually on our little art blogger sketchcrawl by phone from Lisa in Texas and via Facebook (where I posted an update and photo while we were sketching) by Marta (MARTa’s Art) and EJ (Rose-Anglais) .

After sitting on cold concrete steps to sketch we were ready to warm up. We walked back to Shirley’s hotel, and she treated us to a glass of wine on the 39th floor of the Mariott Hotel (also known as the “Jukebox” building because of its unique architecture). Here’s the view from the bar just before sunset.

View from the hotel bar — View from the Marriott Hotel bar

It was such a treat to spend a Friday afternoon with these two very talented and beautiful women. After the sun set in golds and pinks, and the lights of the city came on, I had to leave while they went off in search of dinner. I BARTed to Oakland for the monthly Friday night “Art Murmur” gallery walk where my sister and niece had pieces in a show. Walking from BART I passed the grand old Paramount Theatre and set my camera to “burst” mode so I could capture the changing lights of the neon marquis.

Tags art bloggers, Ink, Ink and watercolor wash, Oakland, People, Photos, Plein Air, San Francisco