Tag: Pen and Ink

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Drawing Life in general Outdoors/Landscape

Sausalito Sailboat Birthday Party for Robin

Sausalito Palm Tree

Ink in Moleskine sketchbook
Click here to see larger

The short version:
It was very crowded on the sailboat and there were many interesting people to talk to, so I even though I brought art supplies, didn’t get to draw anything until we left. My sister parked at a nearby upscale grocery store to grab a cup of coffee for the ride home. I pulled out my sketchbook and did this quick sketch while Sophie and I chatted and waited. I’d realized I’d never really “seen” a palm tree until I drew this one.

Continue reading “Sausalito Sailboat Birthday Party for Robin”
Categories
Outdoors/Landscape Sketchbook Pages Watercolor

Colusa Circle’s Kensington Bistro

Kensington Bistro

Ink and watercolor in small Moleskine notebook
Click here to see larger

I supposedly work half a day from home on Mondays so that I can get out and paint in the afternoons. Unfortunately I often have trouble turning off the work email and end up working most of the day. Today I forced myself out the door around 3:00 for a walk and a visit to my favorite produce market, Colusa Market in Kensington. I parked at the Colusa Circle, took an enjoyable walk, and then came back and sat on a bench in front of the pub called the “Kensington Circus” and drew the Kensington Bistro across the traffic circle. The little peaks on the building are all wonky but I just couldn’t make myself get out a ruler and use 2 point perspective. I just wanted to draw so I did. The bistro is situated on a slight hill so the building does slant downhill from left to right…but still…

Categories
Drawing People Sketchbook Pages

Sketching musicians in the dark

Fishtank Ensemble 2

All sketches are ink in small Moleskine notebook
Click here to see larger

The Fishtank Ensemble performs a fascinating mix of Eastern European/Klezmer/Gypsy/Flamenco/Japanese music and their beautiful lead singer has the most astonishing, operatic voice. They were performing at Ashkenaz on a Wednesday night while I was on vacation and I went by myself to hear them since for everyone else it was a “school night.”

It was a fabulous, thrilling performance, and much of the music was very fast so I was drawing really fast too, even though I could just barely see what I was doing. Here are some more of my sketchy drawings from that night. If only they could convey the excitement of the music!

Fishtank Ensemble 1

To see larger click here.
The square instrument above is a Japanese shamisen. The lead singer plays violin and saw and can make her voice sound just an ethereal saw.

Fishtank Ensemble 3 Dancer at the Fishtank Ensemble Performance

Left above: The lead singer is tall, slim and dazzling, (my drawing doesn’t do her justice), wearing a flippy little black skirt and a very small jeweled black velvet top with bare midriff and delicate high heeled sandals.

Right above: On the other hand, this woman who was dancing in front of me looked like she was trying to make herself look dumpy. She was wearing striped kneesocks with oxford shoes, a short baggy sweater on top of a long baggy shirt and a bulky pleated knit skirt. She had her hair in pigtails and was wearing big glasses. But she was having a ton of fun dancing up a storm.

Categories
Flower Art Gardening Landscape Outdoors/Landscape Plants Plein Air Sketchbook Pages Watercolor

Tilden Botanical Garden

Serpentine Cone Flower

Serpentine Cone Flower
Ink and watercolor in large Moleskine watercolor notebook
Click here to see enlarged

Today I went to Berkeley’s Tilden Park Botanical Gardens with Richard. It’s a lovely, serene place filled with California native plants and trees from giant redwoods to wildflowers. He hiked around the hills, fields, bridges, creeks and wooded areas, enjoying the quiet breeze and birdsong. Most of the flowering plants had already done their big blooming in the spring but these coneflowers grabbed my interest so I sat down on the grass and did this quick sketch while Richard, a photographer, took close up shots of flowers.

Then we decided to move on to Blake Gardens. Richard had never been there and there were many parts of the estate I’d never explored, so we hiked all around there too, finding amazing jewels of nature and design at every turn. We took lots of photos but since time was limited and we wanted to see everything, I didn’t do another drawing. Now that I’ve seen the full scope of what’s there I think it holds promise for unlimited painting opportunities.

Categories
Animals Landscape Outdoors/Landscape Sketchbook Pages Watercolor

Patterson House at Ardenwood Farm

Ardenwood Patterson House

Ink and watercolor in Moleskine large watercolor sketchbook
Click here for enlarged view

This is the Patterson House at Ardenwood Farms, an historical, working Victorian farm in Fremont, California. They have a blacksmith shop and people dressed in period costumes using the tools of the time to cook, churn butter, wash clothes, and other chores; a horse drawn train, farm animals and historic farm equipment. We’d planned to go sketch all the sights and activities on Thursday but when I phoned Ardenwood they told me there would be 250 campers there that day and the next. She recommended we come today when there were no groups scheduled so we did. Unfortunately she didn’t mention that everything was shut down on Wednesdays–no docents in Victorian clothes, no activities, nothing. The only thing to see was the house and a few farm animals.

Michelle and I wandered the property, noting where things would have been happening if they weren’t closed. We decided to draw the house, which was very enjoyable. I drew directly in ink and then added watercolor. Then we visited the barnyard animals, watched the funny goats, some mating bunnies, and drew this solitary bunny:

Ardenwood bunny

Ink in moleskine sketchbook

Tonight I went by myself to Ashkenaz Music Center since nobody else wanted to join me to hear the most amazing musical group, The Fishtank Ensemble. They are a unique and extremely talented group of musicians who play a combination of Gypsy, Eastern European, Klezmer and Jazz with some unusual instruments, including a Japanese Shamisen, a musical saw, several different violins and other string instruments, accordian, standup base and a female singer with an extraordinary operatic voice. It was fantastic! I’d heard them live on the radio on an NPR program a few weeks ago and had been trying to find their CD locally and was amazed when I drove by Ashkenaz and saw their name on the marquee for tonight. What a treat! And they had their CD for sale which I bought.

I think I’m finally getting into this vacation thing–going to a musical concert on a “school night” is great!

P.S. Does the picture of the house look overly contrasty or washed out on your monitor? I’m still having trouble getting my monitor to properly display the intensity of the color and contrast. I’m afraid I’m toning down the image in Photoshop to make it look right on my monitor which tends to mamke everything look very strongly colored. So then it looks good on my monitor but I have no idea how it looks on anyone else’s.

Categories
Figure Drawing Gouache Life in general People Sketchbook Pages

Learning to Vacation

Peaberrys-coffee

Ink in Moleskine sketchbook – Peaberry’s Coffee in Oakland’s Rockridge District, land of yuppies with strollers
Click here to enlarge

Today was my first official day of vacation. There’s something about a week off that makes me want to hoard every moment and then I start worrying about it ending before it’s even gotten started. It usually takes me until the very end of vacation to get into the swing of relaxing. I’m so grateful that the physical pain in my back and hip is gone. Tomorrow I’m going celebrate feeling good and being free.

Today I had a wonderful hour and a half of massage and bodywork that my sister treated me to for my birthday and then I took an hour long walk along College Avenue in the Rockridge District of Oakland/Berkeley and had a latte at Peaberry’s Coffee (above) where I listened to the guy in the foreground rant for 20 minutes to a very patient woman about how he brought dessert and cheese to a dinner party where the hosts didn’t put his dessert out and stole the cheese for themselves and never said thank you. Then I drove over to Telegraph Avenue in Berkeley and exchanged a couple CDs at Amoeba Records. I really like one I brought home today: Rodrigo Y Gabriela–sort of flamenco/rock guitars from Mexico–wonderful!

skatepark1

Ink in moleskine: at Berkeley’s Skateboard Park
Click here to enlarge

Yesterday I rode my bike to REI looking for a Klean Kanteen which is a lightweight stainless steel water bottle to avoid polluting the world with jillions of plastic water bottles and my body with the chemicals in plastic that are now found to be absorbed into the water and the body. They were all out. Riding home I discovered the Berkeley Skate Park (above)– like a whole bunch of concrete ski-slopes, jumps, rails, curbs and swimming pools where skaters try out their tricks (video) without endangering anyone but themselves.

Afterwards I did some figure drawing using a brushpen, adding gouache later to some of the sketches. Here’s a couple of them.

body2

Brush pen in Aquabee sketchbook

body1

Brushpen and goauche on hot press Arches paper

I’m also a little frustrated because I’ve finished all of my work in progress and it’s time to start some new work but I can’t seem to settle on what I want to do next. After a couple days of trying to make myself settle down and get to work in the studio I’ve realized what I really want is to just be outdoors, drawing and painting what I see, rather than working in the studio. So that’s what I’m going to do because it’s my birthday vacation and I get to do whatever I darn please, so there!

Categories
Flower Art Life in general Painting People Plants Portrait Still Life Watercolor

Birthday flowers from my neighbors

Birthday Flowers

Watercolor painted quickly and directly on Arches hot press watercolor paper without preliminary drawing and then when dry, Pentel brush pen to draw/paint the lines. 7.5″ x 11″
Click here for enlarged view

My wonderful next-door neighbors brought this potted azalea for me as a birthday gift yesterday, along with a nice card and a hug from each child. I have the sweetest neighbors. Not long after I first moved in I fell in love with their kids and after photographing them at baby Alex’s baptism painted these portraits of Alex, Yessica and Erick which they have hanging in their living room. We help each other with all sorts of things and they often bring me delicious home cooked Mexican food (including delicious barbequed salmon with cactus relish).

Then my sons took me out to good Thai food last night. It was wonderful being with them and realizing more than ever what great young men they’ve become. It made my day, even though I looked like a gimpy old lady with my limping and had to sit on my fleece jacket because the sciatica makes it hurt to sit without extra padding. But the combination of their good company, the good wishes of people who’ve written or called to wish me speedy recovery and happy birthday, the yummy Thai food, some nice pain meds and a Singha beer made for a perfectly happy birthday! And I am getting a little better each day.

Categories
People Sketchbook Pages

Waiting for an x-ray

waiting for an xray

2 unfinished sketches – ink in Moleskine
Click here to enlarge

Today is my birthday but instead of celebrating I went to see my back doctor and then to the hospital for a hip xray. They aren’t sure if my hip pain is sciatica from a flare up of an old herniated disk in my back or something wrong with my hip. While I was waiting for the doctor I drew the spine on the right hanging in the office but didn’t get to finish because he was right on time. Then while I was waiting for the xray I drew the waiting woman on the left but got called in before I could finish that either.

This morning Barbara took me out to breakfast for our traditional annual pilgrimage for a french apple pancake at Fat Apples but instead of our usual hike up there, we drove. I had to bring my shoes for her to help me put on because the pain makes it impossible to reach my feet. I’ve got my fingers crossed that this will be gone before my birthday vacation which I postponed to next week to be able to help with all the last minute preparations for several institutes at work but I’ve ended up working from home instead. It’s a little hard to go into the office when you can’t put your own shoes on! Thank goodness for my comfy new home computer workstation and for modern pharmaceuticals! My neighbors just brought me a lovely plant for my birthday and my sons are taking me out to dinner tonight. Now I just need some birthday cake and candles to blow out to make my birthday wish for completely recovery by Thursday.

Categories
Digital art Dreams Sketchbook Pages

Dreams…

Art group turned into dance group

All were drawn in pencil and then ink in my dream sketchbook, then scanned and digitally colored in Painter.
Click here to see enlarged.

(Above) Dreamt that my painting group turned into a dance group.

(Below) Click here to see enlarged. Dreamt I was standing in line to sign up for a race. A big sweaty bald guy without a shirt kept leaning on me and I told him to stop it. Once we started running I realized I could fly so I did, even though I knew it meant I wouldn’t get the race t-shirt. Flying is so much fun!

race dream

dad in NY

(Above) Click here to see larger.  Dreamed I was visiting New York City with my dad and we were walking the streets stopping into jazz cafes and listening to music. I had my flashlight to light our path. I was so happy being in New York I started crying with joy and decided to move there. His wife Linda was there, dressed like Jackie O and neat and trim. Then I remembered how expensive it is to live in Manhattan and that my dad died many years ago. But it was still a happy dream.

If you look at the images enlarged, please tell me if they’re too big for your screen.

Categories
Drawing People Sketchbook Pages Subway drawings

Subway Drawings

Bart21

All are ink in Moleskine sketchbook.

This is the busiest week of the busiest month of the year at my day job. We’re holding five institutes in the next few weeks across the country and 10 hour days are norm.

bart24

As a result these drawings done on our subway system known as BART are the sum total of my art output this week.

bart23

I’ve been too tired at night to draw and too late rising in the morning to do dream drawings after not sleeping well.

BART22

But there’s just one more week to go and then I’m on vacation and it will be 12 glorious days of drawing, painting, rest, reading and relaxation. I’m planning lots of fun trips around the Bay Area to do mini-sketch crawls with art buddies.