Tag: Pen and Ink

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Animals Drawing Life in general People Sketchbook Pages Subway drawings

Birth of Impressionism Show and Gopher Close Up

Sketches from visit to Birth of Impression, ink & colored pencil
Sketches from visit to Birth of Impression, ink & colored pencil

I’m not a fan of crowds, blockbusters or standing in line, but I put up with all the above to visit the Birth of Impressionism show in San Francisco’s De Young Museum in Golden Gate Park. I had planned to sketch in the park after the show but various delays only left time for these done while traveling there and back on BART and SF Muni.

I made a number of discoveries at the show and am looking forward to seeing it again, hopefully at a time when it will be less crowded. I really enjoyed many of the exquisite pre-impressionist paintings, and especially loved seeing the quite large “Whistler’s Mother” in person. Although the mother’s face appears soft and doughy, I could see in her eyes the universal worries, hope, dreams and sorrow all mothers experience.

Whistler's Mother
Whistler's Mother (click to enlarge)

I liked the detail of the little foot stool her son provided for her comfort but my niece and I chuckled about the ugly shower curtain hanging to her left. (Seriously, it looks just like a plastic shower curtain I saw on sale recently.)

I was also struck by how unskillfully made some of the early impressionist paintings appeared to me. I found myself thinking that if I’d painted them I wouldn’t have been satisfied with them. That made me consider what a harsh judge I must be of my own work. Then I wondered whether all the paintings in the show (and in museums generally) are considered fine works of art or are included in collections simply because they are historical records of work by famous artists?

And now for an abrupt change of topic….

Have you ever seen a gopher close up?

As we left the museum I saw a gopher pop his head out of a hole in the grass. He continued popping up and down, busy pushing dirt out of his hole. I thought he was so cute until I saw the close up (below) on the screen.

Gopher Close Up (click to enlarge if you dare)

Yikes! We had gophers in my first San Francisco house. I kept planting things in the garden and the next morning they’d be gone, pulled under ground by a network of gophers. I finally gave up gardening at that house. Between the fog and the gophers it was hopeless.

Categories
Bay Area Parks Berkeley Drawing Ink and watercolor wash Landscape Life in general Outdoors/Landscape Painting Places Sketchbook Pages

Indian Rock Park, Berkeley, Sketches

View from Indian Rock, ink & watercolor
View from Indian Rock, ink & watercolor

For our Tuesday night sketching we met at Indian Rock Park in North Berkeley. It was so cold, windy and foggy at my house that I put on a turtleneck, a sweater, a down vest, and my winter jacket before leaving the house. I live in the fog belt but just a few miles away, the weather at Indian Rock was lovely with no wind or fog.

My first sketch was of the giant rocks (below), a favorite site for rock climbers and sunset watchers. For the non-climbers there are stairs carved into the rock, and I climbed halfway to do the second sketch (above) where I was entranced by the idea of dining on that wonderful deck complete with white tablecloth and spectacular view.

A new trend for rock climbers is to carry a huge, specially designed backpack that looks like a giant suitcase. It is actually a folded cushion they put on the ground below where they will be climbing. I find it fascinating how there is an endless amount of specialized stuff to buy for every possible interest.

Watching the Sun Set at Indian Rock, Ink & watercolor
Watching the Sun Set at Indian Rock, Ink & watercolor

I really enjoyed drawing the rocks but why did I make the stupid drinking fountain so prominent? Oh well.

There were quite a few people enjoying the park, including a multi-generation Japanese-speaking family who all climbed the stairs, some hippies smoking pot behind the rock, young sturdy rock climbers doing the spiderman thing, and some girlfriends and couples who like me, perched on the rock to enjoy the sunset. Everyone seemed to be appreciating the quiet, peaceful, night and awesome view all the way across the bay to San Francisco.

Categories
Drawing Flower Art Ink and watercolor wash Life in general Painting Sketchbook Pages

Birthday Blog: Glads and Gladioli

Birthday Glads and Gladioli, ink & watercolor
Birthday Glads and Gladioli, ink, rubber stamps, watercolor

My blog and I are celebrating our birthdays! My blog turned 4 last month and my birthday was Saturday but I’m celebrating all month. My neighbors gave me this little bouquet of glads (gladioli) which was perfect because I had so many birthday things I was glad for.

Unlike some who expect bling for their birthday, I’m much more down to earth. Some of the highlights of what made me glad on my birthday:

  1. Starting the day with my annual pilgrimage (a 3-mile round trip walk) to Fat Apples for a baked apple souffle/pancake with my sister and my best friend (who gave me a beautiful ceramic bowl she made).
  2. A short nap (because I woke up at 5:00 a.m. like a little kid on Christmas).
  3. A cleaned out garage courtesy of my son Cody (the only gift I’d asked for).
  4. Getting to borrow my neighbor’s truck and then making it to the dump just before they closed to get rid of a truckload of 10 years of junk.
  5. A homemade card from my mom with photos of my grandmother pregnant with my mom and my mom pregnant with me (and a nice check).
  6. A delicious dinner with Cody.
  7. A video, a cup of tea and a great night’s sleep.
  8. A perfect start to my 2-week birthday vacation!

My vacation is a “stay-cation” with lots of time for sketching and painting in the beautiful Bay Area. And along with spending some quality time in the backyard on the chaise lounge with a book, I have also promised (myself) to finally restock my earthquake emergency supplies since all the food and water in there have expired by now.

Blog Birthday: Thank You!

  • 4 years
  • 782 posts
  • 8,259 comments
  • 679,347 views
  • 88,880 spam caught and deleted!
    (WordPress has excellent spam protection, which is why you never have to do that stupid Captcha-type-in-meaningless-letters to leave a comment here)

THANKS to all of you wonderful blog visitors for your encouragement, support and the great conversations! I’m so grateful for every comment and every visit, and for the many friends I’ve made with artists around the world who share their wisdom so generously!

Categories
Drawing Ink and watercolor wash Life in general Painting People Places Sketchbook Pages

Antidotes to Bad Moods and Rude Cell Phone Users

Bad Mood! Ink, watercolor, collage
Bad Mood! Ink, watercolor, marked up kitty handout from pastel demo

Sometimes I get grouchy. For no reason. Or for good reason. I don’t like to be grumpy so I try to do things to cheer up: take a walk, go dance it off at Jazzercize, write and sketch in my journal over a latte at Peet’s Coffee or all of the above. Today, after trying all, it was the surprise of seeing my sister walk into my neighborhood Peet’s (surprise because she lives 5 towns away) that did the trick.

Before she arrived, while I was sipping and sketching, I was horribly annoyed by the woman sitting beside me at her computer who made dozens of phone calls. She was trying to reach “important” people like “Mr. Spike Lee” about his New Orleans film because she had “ideas” he would be interested in. She left message after message for others about her trip to Ireland, various parties and meetings, and how she was working out in preparation for her trip to Ireland next week…”so call me…kiss, kiss…ciao.”

SHHH - cards to handout to rude cell phone users
SHHH - cards to handout to rude cell phone users

My sister told me about a funny little card she’d seen for handing to loud or rude cell phone users. I looked for one online and found that designers Aaron Draplin and Jim Coudal created the hilarious “Society for Handheld Hushing” page where you can download and print this 3-page pdf file containing a variety of cards and little handouts like the one above.

I’m not sure I’d have the nerve but perhaps if it could be done surreptitiously…

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Drawing Ink and watercolor wash Painting People Self Portrait Sketchbook Pages

Self Portraits to End the Froggie Journal

Self Portrait B-1, ink & watercolor
Self Portrait B-1, ink & watercolor

At the end of each journal I like to do a self portrait or two and write a little wrap up about my life during the period that journal was active. I blurred some of the writing so I could say what I wanted without worrying about “over sharing” personal stuff.

Self Portrait B-2, ink & watercolor
Self Portrait with Froggie Journal B-2, ink & watercolor

I was inspired by Raena’s wonderful self-portraits to try sketching standing in front of a mirror instead of just sitting down and drawing my face. While I didn’t get a real likeness I did get two images that capture how I felt and saw myself that day. And even better, I was willing to take a chance, draw in ink, leaving the “mistakes” and accept that while my sketches weren’t as “good” as I wanted them to be, I was OK with letting them exist as a point on a journey.

Categories
Drawing Ink and watercolor wash Life in general Richmond Annex Sketchbook Pages

Ripping It Up for New Beginnings: Two Johns

John Deere & Porta John, Ink & watercolor sketch of tractor
John Deere & Porta John on my corner, Ink & watercolor

They’re tearing up all the streets in my neighborhood which were already horrible. There are so many potholes I often drive with one wheel on the center double yellow line since that is the only part of the road not in shreds.

The city had deferred maintenance for the past couple years, waiting for funds to replace the water lines (requiring street demolition) and then finally to pave them. The federal money finally arrived (thanks Obama!) and now the workers are out in force ripping up all the streets (in between their lengthy breaks every hour to stand around, smoke, snack and shoot the bull).

This seemed a fitting image for one of the last few pages of my journal since I’d done some tearing up and rebuilding of my own (figuratively) during the months it was in use. (More about that next time.)

I was sitting on a corner near my house sketching this near sunset when a nice, ordinary, family man who lives on that block (with a perennially messy front yard), wandered over to see what I was doing, reeking of marijuana. He showed me a wooden burl bowl he’d just carved and we talked briefly about the joy of creativity and then he wandered off again.

P.S. Not that anyone cares, but I was curious what this tractor thingee was called so I looked it up. It’s a backhoe-loader, a fun word to say out loud. It sounds like a line in a country western song.

Categories
Bay Area Parks Berkeley Drawing Flower Art Ink and watercolor wash Landscape Outdoors/Landscape Painting Places Plein Air Rose Sketchbook Pages

Berkeley Rose Garden

Berkeley Rose Garden & Rose Practice, Ink & Watercolor
Berkeley Rose Garden & Rose Practice, Ink & Watercolor

When my plein air group met at the Berkeley Rose Garden last Saturday I arrived even later than usual: at noon, only an hour before the session was to end. I found a spot to sit and quickly sketched and painted the complicated, terraced rose garden, finishing just in time for the 1:00 critique.

Berkeley Rose Garden, Ink & Watercolor
Berkeley Rose Garden, Ink & Watercolor
Rose Grid, Ink & Watercolor
Rose Grid, Ink & Watercolor

After the critique I took some photos of the roses that most intrigued me, while guys set up white chairs for a wedding there later in the day. Once home I made a grid in my journal, and displaying the photos on my monitor, tried to understand their design and draw them.

I’ve bound my next journal and named it “Rosie” and want to decorate her with a rose design so this was practice for the rose I’ll draw on the cover. I’ve finished my journal “Froggie” but still have a bunch more pages to post.

I’ve updated my blog template. What do you think of the new design?

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Berkeley Drawing Ink and watercolor wash Painting Places

Sunset Sketching on Gilman Street, Berkeley

Berkeley Bagels' Umbrellas, Gilman St., ink & watercolor
Berkeley Bagels' Umbrellas, Gilman St., ink & watercolor

Berkeley Bagels was closed but their café tables and chairs were conveniently chained to the sidewalk, creating a nice spot to sit and sketch as the sun was going down a couple Tuesday nights ago.

I had so much fun drawing as more and more of the landscape revealed itself to me. First I was just going to draw the umbrella , but then there were the chairs behind it, and the next table and umbrella. The telephone pole appeared and had to be drawn and then the elevated concrete BART tracks and the electric pole behind it. When a BART train streaked by I added it, trying to remember what I saw.

Corner of Gilman and Northside, Berkeley
Corner of Gilman and Northside, Berkeley

I sketched this standing in the street on Northside, my back to Berkeley Natural Grocery. The street lamp must be left over from some previous incarnation of the corner. There are two of them, standing incongruously on each side of a funky little car repair shop. It took so long to draw the lamp that my sketchbuddies were ready to move on before I could draw the buildings on the next corner beyond the fence so I just threw in some paint for the sunset and the “distance.”

I’m enjoying using the stronger color I can get from adding some more opaque colors to my palette, such as cadmium orange, cad red light and cerulean blue. I used to have a “rule” about using only the most transparent colors but after working with oil paints I wanted to be able to get some of that “body” in my watercolors too.

Categories
Drawing Food sketch Ink and watercolor wash Life in general Painting Sketchbook Pages

How to Make Yogurt, Illustrated

Making Yogurt, ink & watercolor
Making Yogurt, ink & watercolor

After much trial and error I figured out just the right steps and ingredients to make delicious yogurt and so of course had to sketch the process. I wanted to make my own yogurt so that I could get the mild, creamy flavor I like without adding more plastic to the landfill; I already have a lifetime supply of empty yogurt containers.

Ingredients for 7 cups:

48 oz. Organic 1% Milk
6 oz. yogurt at room temperature (I like Clover 1.5% Plain Yogurt) or use 1 cup from previous batch
2 T. Organic powdered low-fat milk (optional)

Quick-read Thermometer
1 Quart measuring cup
2 Quart Pyrex casserole dish
Whisk

Directions:

Pour 48 oz. of milk into Pyrex casserole dish, or pot (if using stove)

Cook until 180° F. (almost boiling, 15 minutes in my microwave)

Remove from microwave and allow to cool until 110° F. or room temperature. If skin forms on top, use a fork to skim it off.

Turn on the yogurt maker* and put the jars in place so they can pre-warm.

Pour a cup or so of the milk into the 1 quart measuring cup.

Whisk the 6 oz. container of yogurt (should be at room temperature) and the powdered milk (optional) into the milk in the measuring cup.

Pour the milk/yogurt mixture back into the big bowl of milk and whisk all until completely blended.

Pour the mixture into the individual jars.

Put the dome lid on the yogurt maker and set timer for 8 hours.

When it turns off, place lids on jars and put in the refrigerator to cool.

When cold, eat as is or add fresh fruit.

Yum.

*The Waring Pro Yogurt Maker comes with reusable plastic containers but I replaced them with 1 cup glass canning jars which are more appealing. I eat the yogurt right out of the jars, wash them and use them again. The Waring helps to make the process simple: it has a timer and holds the yogurt at the right temperature for the number of hours you set it to run and then it turns off. The longer it “cooks” the more tart it becomes. But you don’t really need equipment to make yogurt; you can use a thermos, an oven pilot light or even a crock pot, but for consistent results the Waring is great.

Categories
Berkeley Drawing Ink and watercolor wash Interiors Painting People Places Sketchbook Pages

Picante Restaurant Sketching on a Rainy Berkeley Night

Picante Peach Iced Tea and Bar, ink & watercolor
Picante Peach Iced Tea and Bar, ink & watercolor

Another rainy Tuesday night, another indoor sketching session for the Tuesday Night Sketchers. We emailed back and forth today, negotiating for an agreeable place to sketch. Finally Picante came to mind and everyone agreed it was perfect, with their great food and friendly neighborhood feel.

Usually we move around sketching from different viewpoints, even within a restaurant. But with four of us tonight ( Micaela joined Sonia, Cathy and I) we parked ourselves in a comfy booth to eat and ended up staying in the same spot all evening. I started by drawing the iced tea in front of me and then turned to the right and drew the bar 10 feet away, putting it behind my tea. In reality, Sonia was sitting across the table from me and she was behind my tea.

Everyone else made several sketches but I spent the whole evening on just one. It felt luxurious to take my time and savor each visual discovery, line and color. But then I felt a bit sheepish when I realized it was 9:00 and everyone else was done and waiting for me to finish so we could do our end of evening show and tell and go home.