Tag: Ink

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Ink and watercolor wash Painting Plein Air Still Life Watercolor

Bananas in a Debbie Meyer Green Bag

Bananas in a Bag, Watercolor & acrylic on hot press paper, 6x8
Bananas in a Bag, Watercolor & acrylic on hot press paper, 6x8"

I’m usually skeptical of anything that says “As Seen on TV” on the label, but I heard someone raving about how “Debbie Meyer Green Bags” keep fruit fresh longer and decided to give them a try. They actually do work. I used them during the summer with tomatoes from my garden and very few of them went rotten. They seemed to last for weeks without putting them in the refrigerator. I used the bags successfully with bananas and peaches too.

They supposedly can be reused 8 to 10 times but I’ve found that each time you reuse the bags they seem to have less potency.  The package says they are “made with a “a natural mineral ‘Oya’ that absorbs and removes the ethylene gases that cause normal deterioration.” Oya is made from zeolite, a kind of clay found in Japanese caves.

You do have to keep the contents of the bags dry and I found putting them in the refrigerator means they get moisture inside and you have to keep wiping the inside of the bag. I hope I don’t find out later

About the watercolor:

I wanted to use masking fluid to preserve the white highlights and shiny spots on the bag but when I opened my bottle of masking fluid I found it had turned into a solid lump of white rubber. So I tried using a white colored pencil as a resist on the white areas, but when I painted over it it didn’t repel the paint. I could have drawn the whole thing out really, really carefully and saved the white areas by painting around them, but I didn’t have the time tonight.

So I just painted, planning to use my white gel pen for the highlights but discovered it too had dried up.  In the end I made the highlights with liquid Golden acrylic, drawing straight from the little squirt bottle of paint, blobs and all.

Debbie Meyer Green Bags
Debbie Meyer Green Bags

P.S. WordPress rolled out it’s new version today with a beautiful, pwerful and simple new user interface that makes blogging a joy! Yay WordPress!

Categories
Colored pencil art Drawing Illustration Friday Life in general Sketchbook Pages

Don’t Get Old and Confused — Get a Clue

Get a Clue Necklace (detail); click images to enlarge
Get a Clue Necklace (detail); click to enlarge

Memories! Everyone I know is losing theirs including me. Ater repeatedly walking into a room and then forgetting why I’d gone in there, it occurred to me that if I carried clues with me, I’d save lots of time and extra steps.

So I invented the “Get a Clue Necklace” complete with a key ring, a tiny flashlight, sticky notes to jot down reminders, an attractive small pen to write them with, a magnifying glass for small print, an optional “My name is…” tag with a reverse side note “If found return to…” should I ever get REALLY forgetful, and a little pill box for those vitamins I always forget to take.

Below is the full page which you can click to see bigger to read some of the funny quotes about aging, as well as my list of the pros and cons of aging back when I made this.

Get a Clue Necklace; 12x9", mixed media
Get a Clue Necklace; Mixed Media, 12x9" (click to enlarge)

Here are a few of the choice quotes from the piece:

Gloria Steinem:

I’m at the age when remembering something right away is as good as an orgasm.

Whenever I meet a woman over 55 who’s just fallen in love, I always ask, “Are you taking hormones?” I tell her, “If it turns out you’re in love in a way that’s not good for you, stop taking them.”
[Addendum: Gloria Steinem, the feminist icon who once dismissed marriage as an institution that destroys relationships, became a first-time bride at the age of 66, a few years after that quote was printed.]

Peg Bracken, 81 at the time this quote was printed, said:

“These are your declining years and you can jolly well decline to do what you don’t feel like doing!”

Right on Peg, wherever you are now!

P.S. When I saw Illustration Friday’s prompt this week was “Memories” I had to share this, even though it’s from my journal several years ago.

And one more Pro to add to the Pros and Cons of aging is that when your memory goes, everything old becomes new again. Stories and jokes you’ve heard (or told) before sound vaguely familiar but since you can’t remember the punchlines, they’re good for a whole new round of laughter.

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Drawing Faces Life in general People Sketchbook Pages Subway drawings

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.

Subway sketches of people on BART
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!

Subway sketches of people on BART
Doodleheads 2: Subway sketches of people on BART

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.

Categories
Drawing Life in general People Sketchbook Pages Subway drawings

Worked late, missed train, got to draw

20080430-BART2

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Once everyone left the office I could finally concentrate on a complicated project. By the time I finished and headed out it was nearly 8:00 p.m. I arrived at the BART station just as my train was pulling away and the flashing sign said it would be 20 minutes until the next one. I was exhausted, hungry and alone on the platform with nothing to do.

Within a few minutes, more late commuters began to arrive, sit down and kill time. I grabbed my sketchbook and the 20 minutes flew by. I drew the people above while waiting (felt pen added at home because I liked the negative space) and the folks below on the train ride home.

20080430-BART1

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Categories
Drawing Life in general Painting Sketchbook Pages Still Life Watercolor

Living Alone Means Never Losing Your Socks

Socks

Ink & watercolor (larger)

I was folding my laundry and admiring my collection of wonderful SmartWool socks when it struck me: I haven’t lost a single sock since I began living alone. When I was married with kids, socks disappeared on a regular basis and I had a drawerful of one-of-a-kind socks.

My son still comes over to do his laundry but even so, only one sock temporarily migrated but he brought it back (a year later at the insistence of his girlfriend), along with a pair of my undies that had somehow ended up in his laundry.

There’s pros and cons to living alone, of course. One downside is that if you do lose something, you have nobody to blame for it. Even now, when something goes missing, my first thought is that one of my sons must have taken it. But my only available scapegoats are my cats.

Fiona the calico does like to steal my SmartWool socks (maybe they smell a bit like animals, being made of wool?). I try to keep them away from her, since she tosses them around and wrestles with them and when I find them under the bed they are shredded and holey.

At least she doesn’t eat them. My friend Marean has a beautiful Sheltie who eats her socks whole, and has had to have stomach surgery to have a “sock-ectomy.”

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Drawing Life in general Sketchbook Pages Watercolor

Greatful vs Grateful & Terrific Tools: Toto Toilet

TOTO WC

Ink & Kremer watercolors (larger)

I’m probably going to regret this post tomorrow so I apologize in advance if you find the image unsavory. It’s just that I was so tired tonight all I wanted to do was curl up with a good book and a big bowl of popcorn. To avoid the carb overload and squeeze in a little fun after a long work day, I tried to inspire myself to draw a bit. Looking for a subject, I wandered through the house and saw my shiny, excellent Toto toilet.

I highly value competence, good design, and well-made tools (from cars to combs, to clocks to computers–anything that helps manage my daily life I consider a tool). My Toto toilet is a terrific tool. It never has the problems my other WC does (which requires keeping a plunger nearby it at all times).

Here are some other tools I use and appreciate regularly for their great design and functionality: Soltek easel, iPhone, Toyota RAV 4, electric teakettle, Canon MP610 Scanner/Printer, TiVo, Canon Power Shot SD800IS camera, Photoshop, caller ID, Cheap Joes Golden Fleece brushes for watercolor and Robert Simmons Signet brushes for oil, ancient Eagle Creek backpack, my slippers, my bed…

Just writing this list makes me realize how lucky I am and how much I have to be grateful for, and this is just in the tools department, not the really important stuff of life, like friends, family and health.

That’s the great thing about drawing. I start out grumpy and tired and end up feeling grateful. So maybe I won’t regret this post after all.

One last thing: why is grateful spelled “grate” and not “great?” Grate is what you do with cheese or carrots. Great means good. Full of great makes more sense than full of grate.

OK, I had to look it up on Dictionary.com, another wonderful tool:

  • Grate in grateful comes from the Latin, grātus, which means pleasing.
  • Grate (framework of metal bars) comes from L crāt- (s. of crātis) which means wickerwork, hurdle or crate.
  • Grate (as in grating cheese or grating on your nerves) originally comes from German, kratzen to scratch.
  • GREAT comes from Groat, which was a silver coin of England, equal to four pennies, issued from 1279 to 1662 and which was larger than other coins in former use.

Oh the poor English learners! What a complex melting pot the English language is!

Categories
Drawing Faces Other Art Blogs I Read People Portrait Sketchbook Pages Watercolor

More Portrait Swaps: Andy (& Nel again)


Andy

ANDY by JANA
Ink & watercolor, Aquabee sketchbook, 12×9″ (larger)

Andy of “Drawn to Running” emailed me and invited me to do a portrait swap with him. I think he’s quite adorable and looks like someone with a very kind heart. I exaggerated in my sketch of him but had great fun doing the drawing, which was a relief after my struggles in the studio earlier this week.

Here’s his excellent portrait of me: an amazing likeness!:

Andy\'s portrait of me

JANA by ANDY

I’m still working on painting Nel and I’m determined to succeed to capture her image from one particular photo without making her look unattractive, which she most definitely is not! Here is another attempt (3rd of those I did today, the first two not worth posting!).

NEL #6
Ink & watercolor, Aquabee sketchbook, 12×9″ (larger)

Nel 6

Drawing in Sharpie is great fun. You have to move quickly or it starts to bleed; you can’t erase, just have to redraw the lines. I enjoy this kind of “take a chance and go” drawing and quick painting so much more than careful labored work these days.

Categories
Drawing Faces Life in general Other Art Blogs I Read People Sketchbook Pages Watercolor

Life: NOT as Seen on TV

NOT as seen on TV

Ink & watercolor (Larger)

“Life is what passes you by while you’re watching TV.” I used to have a little sign on my TV with those words, but back then it was a reminder to my kids, not to me. Now I need it for me.

I was chatting with my friend Lin [View from the Oak] about our struggles to find time for everything. Lin manages to paint or sketch every day, post it on her illustrious blog AND leave wonderfully encouraging comments on countless other blogs, all while working a grueling schedule and making time for her husband, offspring and grandbabies.

It occurred to me later that day: I bet Lin doesn’t watch TV! It turns out I was right. Other than the art videos she watches while on her treadmill, she rarely watches TV. She said that sketching IS her TV, her way to relax.

I used to be like that too but somehow, over time, TV has insidiously infiltrated my life. I turned to it as a way to relax when my brain was tired from thinking hard all day at work. But it puts me in a stupor so I just watch another show instead of doing something more satisfying (or just going to bed when what I really need is sleep).

Now it’s time to pull the plug! I may even cancel my cable and TiVo subscriptions and go cold turkey for a while. I bet that not only will I gain time and save money (on cable and TiVo bills), I might even lose a couple extra pounds, since watching TV often leads to snacking on empty calories while burning none!

Have you successfully quit TV? If you have any tips, I’d love to hear them!

Categories
Cartoon art Life in general Sketchbook Pages

No computer – going cold turkey

no-computer1.jpg

This is me going cold turkey, hands shaking, reaching out for the keyboard that isn’t there. Drawn with a Sharpie on a yellow legal pad before leaving the office at 8:00 p.m. and colored in Photoshop.

My sturdy laptop crashed Friday night after I installed Outlook (I HATE MICROSOFT!). I was able to apply a bit of first aid and kept it limping along, until I could get it to the emergency room today (the computer tech’s office at work) . With his wonderful bedside manner he applied his warm stethoscope, ran a few tests and shook his head sadly.

The only solution seems to be a lobotomy…a thorough brain washing…in other words, a complete reformat of the hard drive and reinstallation of the operating system and all the software and files. It’s going to take a few days.

Since I might not be able to post or visit blogs for a few days, I made this quick sketch of me to post before leaving work. I was thinking it might be kind of nice to have no computer at home, that maybe I’d do some painting after work.

Except now, after finishing my work at around 7:00, it’s already nearly 8:00 p.m. and I’m still at work. By the time I commute home in the freezing rain and have dinner, it will practically be time for bed.

Things to be grateful for:

  1. Excellent technical support at work so I don’t have to do all the work of the reinstall, just some of it.
  2. A nice clean reinstall so the computer should be like new again.
  3. I didn’t get in trouble for installing Outlook (which I need to synch my iPhone with my calendar and address book but which my company doesn’t support because it’s too full of security holes that most viruses are specifically written for).
  4. It will be warm and cozy when I get home all wet and cold.
  5. I finally caught up on all my email at work today.
Categories
Drawing Dreams Life in general People Sketchbook Pages Watercolor

Dreaming of Haircuts & Flying to prevent gang violence

Dreamt I accidentally cut off my(?) long, bleached blonde ponytail

All are ink & Schmincke watercolor in square 5.5″ sketchbook
(Larger)

I dreamt that I accidentally cut off my long, bleached-blonde ponytail. I was horrified at first. But as I stroked my departed ponytail, I realized it was really damaged and straw-like from being bleached and that I still had nearly shoulder length hair so I’d be OK. Then I remembered that I don’t have thick bleached blonde hair, I have curly red-colored hair. The End.

Flying to prevent gang violence

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I dreamt that I could fly by pushing off with my feet and then turning with my hips to change direction. Unlike my usual flying dreams, this time I was in a neat sort of capsule that came off of a carnival ride.

I saw these gangbangers (above) and thought that it might help them if I showed them how cool it was that I could fly. First they were going to rob me and then they were sort of impressed as I flew away.

Then….

I really can fly!

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….I took off on a wonderful joy ride over the ocean, flying up and swooping down and around, having a blast! Flying is just so real and wonderful in my dream and when I wake up I am completely convinced that I can do it. My body knows exactly how to move to fly.

Or maybe I’ve just been watching too much of Heroes, a fantastic TV show that is available on DVD. I highly recommend it. It’s a lot better than most movies I’ve seen in the past couple years. The writing is amazing and I love that all of the plot twists and turns are foreshadowed by the paintings and graphic novel sketches of an artist who is one of the main characters. All of the characters are interesting and the story and visuals are fascinating. I’ve been watching it on DVDs from Netflix and sadly only have a couple more disks left until they release season 2 on DVD.