I went through quite a process making little birthday paintings for my granddaughters whose birthdays are two years and one week apart. I think of Madeleine as a little butterfly, always happy and amused. Strong but delicate.
Sketch for painting 11×8.5”
First I looked at reference photos of the different critters and flowers, then sketched them as if I was doing scientific illustration. I transferred my sketch to watercolor paper and painted it. Then I realized it was a terrible composition.
So I started over, deciding that they didn’t need to be scientifically correct. I let my whimsical side come out, recomposed and redrew and painted it again. This time I was happy. I hope she will like it!
Spring Yellow Daffodils with Lemon Wedge, oil on Gessobord panel, 12×9″
I tried painting these several ways, with just the vase and flowers, with a whole lemon, and then a lemon wedge. It’s all about yellow. And springtime. And daffodils. (Available on my DPW gallery here.)
LEFT: Girl with wildly matted hair on pretty deck off pretty kitchen. RIGHT: Old lady dancing for people while workmen powerwashing on a roof spray water that turns to hail. Ink and White Pitt pen in compact Moleskine, 5.5 x 7 inches.
I used to start my mornings by drawing images from my dreams but got out of the habit some years back. I got inspired to start again after seeing Nina Johansson’s project of drawing from imagination daily in a Moleskine daily planner. Her strangely beautiful pages are skillfully drawn scenes from a vivid imagination. I loved her idea of using a dated journal so I bought up a pocket-sized yellow Moleskine planner and started drawing my dreams again every morning.
Russian soldiers marching and big feet. Chinese vase with butterflies and lady bugs.
I was pretty rusty at first, but with each drawing I’m feeling more confident about mostly drawing without references or props, and without worrying about accuracy. I’m using a variety of pens including Pitt Artist Brush Pens and their new PITT Artist Pen – White pen that works really well. I’m throwing out all the other yucky white markers I tried before.
The big screen kiss and lots of goats. Visiting my secret hidden basement room again and bowl of M&Ms.
The paper in the journal is thin so there is a little show-through from previous pages but the Pitt pens are great at not bleeding.
Woke with a migraine: shipwreck and monkey. Eat on Time.
Sometimes if there are no visuals from the previous night’s dreams or I wake with a migraine, I draw what I’m feeling or something else related to life, like the two above, the migraine image on left and the reminder to eat on time (to help prevent stupid migraines).
Guy from Ace Hardware tried to take my dog and phone. Tall ships, bundt cake and a painting in progress.
Odd, the food items that appear in my dreams, mostly stuff I don’t eat.
No dream, just a sketch of a shitty migraine.
From time to time I’ll post my favorite dream sketches here, but if you’d like to see them as I draw them, visit Drawing My Dreams Daily on Tumbler or my Instagram page, which I’m using to keep daily posting simple (no computer, just iPhone shots of the sketch).
Wildcat Canyon trail trash can, ink in pocket Moleskine notebook
Dog on wheels at the dog park, ink in pocket Moleskine
Meeting Stuff, sketches in pocket Moleskine
Sketch during Father Keating movie, ink in pocket Moleskine
Wildcat Canyon Wildflowers, ink, colored pencil, gouache in pocket Moleskine
Here are some random sketches from hikes and walks with my dog, sitting in meetings, a movie shown in a library and at the dog park. These are all in my pocket Moleskine that I carry with me all the time. Hover over images to read captions or click on them to see them larger.
EDiM 5 Hobby (Millie), black ink and white Sharpie on Stonehenge brown paper glued in Moleskine, 5×7 in
I filled pages of my sketchbook trying to draw Millie from life but never got more than 1/3 a dog before she moved. So I pasted some brown Stonehenge paper over a couple of the dog scribble pages and then drew this one from a photo. She’s extra elegantly long in my drawing and seems to be prancing through the air (I forgot to add some shadows or a part of her bed so you could tell she was relaxing lying down.
EDiM7-Microwave in the studio beside the sink, ink and watercolor 5×7 in
I inherited this microwave from my son, left behind when I converted the grease monkey garage into my studio. When I use it to heat water for tea in the winter I just have to remember that if I have both electric heaters on, all the lights and the stereo going and a hair dryer blow-drying a watercolor, there’s a good chance I will shortly be sitting in the dark until I visit the circuit breaker box and flip the switch.
Jana Bouc, Artist 