Tag: Pen and Ink

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Every Day Matters Sketchbook Pages Watercolor

A Gift: Everyday Matters #97

Everyday Matters - Gift

Micron Pigma ink and watercolor in large Moleskine watercolor notebook
(To enlarge, click image, select “All Sizes”)
This week’s EDM Challenge is to draw and write about a gift we’ve received.

On the last day of a watercolor class I was teaching, Donna brought this cute little Santa as a gift for me (along with some yummy pumpkin bread to share). In past years I was very grumpy during the holidays but this year I decided to try something different. Instead of ranting about rampant commercialism, I would try to be a source of good cheer. I discovered that if I stayed true to myself by opting out of shopping, exchanging gifts and partying, I could go through the holidays gracefully. This little Santa sits on my table as a cheery reminder of the fullness and joy the holidays can bring.

I love hearing about other people’s memories of wonderful family Christmas celebrations with snow and gingerbread and all. I never had those growing up in southern California in a non-religious Jewish family. It wasn’t until my parents divorced and my dad moved out that my mom decided we could celebrate Christmas. So she hung some decorations on a big piece of driftwood she’d found on the beach and stuck in a pot of dirt in the living room. Not the sort of holiday that sugar plum dreams are made of.

When I was married and my kids were little we made a big deal out of Christmas, and had some cozy family traditions. But as the kids got older and the marriage ended, I began to gradually back out of the holiday. Each year I got a smaller tree until one year I just hung up a little picture of a tree. Once the kids moved on to their own lives, I dropped the whole Christmas/Hanukah thing. I continued enjoying and celebrating Thanksgiving and New Years though, since those holidays, to me, are about reflecting and giving thanks and spending time with loved ones without the shopping.

Now I’m letting Christmas back in again, just a wee bit, with my little Santa sitting on my table, reminding me about the fullness and joy of the season. It seems to be working — I haven’t had a single rant and it’s already a week before Christmas. (Thanks Donna!)

(To slip just a bit in the rant department, I laughed at Willie’s Christmas tree here (notice what’s under the tree!).

Added in response to some comments: It’s hard to explain, but I really don’t feel sad at all. It’s kind of like I just don’t have that holiday gene so I don’t feel like I’m missing anything. I think I feel more unhappy when I force myself to participate in things that don’t feel authentic to me. So instead I’m kind of vicariously enjoying the holidays by watching other people who do have the gene and seeing how they enjoy the season and appreciating it.

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People Sketchbook Pages Watercolor

Judith (and Fiona) in the Night Studio

Judith in the Night Studio

Ink drawing with watercolor Raffine 6×9 sketchbook
(To enlarge, click image, select “All Sizes”)

Tonight my painting group came by for our usual Tuesday (or sometimes Wednesday) painting session. Judith offered to pose for me while she was working on a painting and she was a perfect model. She actually was an artist’s model back in her art school days. Fiona decided to pose too — she’s on the window seat behind Judith.

This was the last page in this notebook and even though I’ve complained about the Raffine sketchbook from time to time, I’ve come to like it in a funny way. Because I didn’t love it I could be really free about sketching in it, not caring if I “wasted” pages. That way of thinking has rubbed off on all my sketchbooks (I have half a dozen going at once so I can pick just the one I’m in the mood for or that’s the right size) so I’m treating them all as working tools rather than precious items of value on their own.

I’m amazed and happy that my energy has returned and I haven’t had any caffeine since last Thursday. I guess I’ve completed my caffeine detox and I’m back to myself again…or maybe it’s the wonderful rainy weather I love so much, or the finally waning full moon. Whatever it is, I’ll take it! After a good night’s sleep last night, a productive day at work doing things that were not easy, and our painting session tonight, I’m still feeling cheery and not tired. Yay!

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Drawing Life in general Sketchbook Pages Watercolor

Sorry Cody

(not) Cody's Car

Ink & watercolor in Raffine 6×9 sketchbook
(To enlarge, click image, select “all sizes”)

My son Cody is an excellent car mechanic, specializing in customizing 60s and 70s muscle cars like his 1970 Firebird. He wanted to put a drawing of his car on his new business cards. I said I’d give it a try but somehow managed to take his beautiful Firebird and turn it into a jalopy. I knew the proper way to do this would be to start with some pencil sketches, or work from a photo of the car in Illustrator or Painter, but I had a stressful day and just felt like drawing directly in ink for fun. (Sorry Cody, maybe you do need to contact that guy who does car illustrations or my blogger friend France at Wagonized who can really draw cars.)

In case you’re interested in “muscle” cars and want to see pictures and video of his handiwork, you can visit Cody’s website. There’s even a video of his car in my driveway with the engine running with full sound effects. I guess he made that video on the day that he put the car all back together and it worked! That must be a thrilling experience to take a car apart until it’s just a shell and then spend a year designing, building and reassembling every part of it. He replaced the engine with one he built, starting from scratch with the biggest Chevy engine block ever made. Many parts had to be specially custom-designed and built for the car. Cody used to be a wonderful artist himself, doing amazing drawings and spray-painted murals (also known as graffiti) and is still my best art critic, always knowing exactly what a painting needs. Now I guess he’s more of a sculptor, making cars into moving pieces of art. He’s a great problem-solver, incredibly determined and persistent (wonder where he gets that?) and a terrific mechanic. If you need work done on your car in the East Bay, you can reach him by email:  CodyBouc@yahoo.com

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Outdoors/Landscape Sketchbook Pages Watercolor

On Sir Francis Drake Blvd.

Sir Francis Drake Blvd.

Pentel Brush pen and watercolor in 9×12 Aquabee sketchbook
(To enlarge, click image, select “All Sizes”)

I took the photo this sketch is based on when I was driving home from a trip across the bay to Marin County. There are a couple of small parks along the water on Sir Francis Drake Blvd. One was larger where windsurfers launch their rigs and then there was this little pocket park with amazing views and a little swampy area full of reeds and ducks. I’ve been doing thumbnails, trying to decide what to do with the pictures I took, and tonight decided to do this drawing in preparation for doing a monoprint.

I also made the monoprint, which was sort of successful — it will depend on how it dries and what happens when I try to color it with watercolor. I’ll wait to post it until then. I’ve discovered that printing paper is very soft and if you accidentally get a spot of ink on the paper there’s no way to remove it — wiping it with a damp paper towel just messes up the paper surface and leaves the ink right there, only looking worse.

Today was another day of feeling fairly uninspired and lethargic. I think what’s happening is caffeine withdrawal. Last week I broke my usual rules about no caffeine (I avoid it because it can cause migraines for the susceptible) and had caffeine three days in a row. Hence the migraine on Friday and now the withdrawal. I love coffee and that nice peppy feeling from caffeine but I don’t love migraines so I guess I’ll just have to deal with being tired for now. When I first gave up the caffeine a couple years ago I was railing against not being able to get that great artificial energy. I asked a friend who never uses caffeine what she does when she’s tired, thinking there must be some other way to get that energy and I was so surprised by her answer. She said, “I take a nap or just do something restful.” What a concept: rest!

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Drawing Other Art Blogs I Read People Sketchbook Pages

Roofers & Baghdad Journal

Roofers

Pigma Brush Pen in 9×12 Aquabee Sketchbook
(To enlarge, click image, select “All Sizes”)

Sorry for the slim pickins’ today. Yesterday evening I was starting to come down with a migraine which hit in full force early this morning, wiping out all chances of spending time in the studio today. I did this sketch of my next door neighbor’s roofers yesterday morning before work, looking out my kitchen window. They never stopped moving and were wearing very baggy clothes. I tried to pretend I was doing one-minute gesture sketches in a figure-drawing group but it was more like five-second gesture drawings with the figures hidden behind sweatshirts and droopy pants. That’s not a missile the guy’s holding at the bottom right of the drawing, pointing to the guy loosing his pants, it’s a long piece of aluminum.

Since I don’t have anymore of my own art to share tonight (and am amazed I’m even up standing at the computer after a day flat on my back with my eyes covered), I thought I’d mention a truly amazing book I just got at the library. It’s the artwork of Steve Mumford and is called Baghdad Journal: An Artist in Occupied Iraq. You can also see some of his online journal and images here. Anyone who’s enjoyed the work of any of the Everyday Matters journal artists including many of the people listed in my links must see Mr. Mumford’s work. As the liner notes say, “His everyday scenes of Iraq in bold, breathtaking watercolors and drawings…paint a human side of the war…from all sides of the conflict.”

Categories
People Sketchbook Pages

Figure Drawing Group Tonight

Figure drawing group 1

Pencil in 14×17″ sketchbook

Figure Drawing Group 3

Sketched with watercolor then ink and watercolor washes added. In 9×12 Aquabee sketchbook

Figure drawing group 2

Ink (Pentel brush pen) with water added to make washes in 14×17″ sketchbook

Friday nights there’s a figure drawing group open to the public that meets on the U.C. Berkeley campus. It’s a great deal– $4.00 for 3 hours and excellent models. Our plans to go were on and off and then suddenly on again so we arrived a little late. This model really knew how to pose in interesting ways and was quite beautiful (my pictures don’t do her justice). I experimented with sketching in pencil, in ink, and watercolor with ink added afterwards. It was all fun and challenging. I saw a man there who was a regular in this same group when I used to go 20 years ago. His charcoal sketches are still phenomenal.

The whole time we were drawing we could hear people chanting, yelling and clapping nearby. I found out afterwards there was a huge pep rally going on because tomorrow is the “Big Game” between Cal (public university) and their arch rivals, Stanford (private, pricey university). When we left we saw the band playing and marching from campus up Bancroft and into a building across the street.

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Every Day Matters Sketchbook Pages Still Life Watercolor

Spoons: EDM #94

Spoon - EDM 94

Watercolor, Noodlers Ink, and a dab of ProWhite in 9×12″ Aquabee Sketchbook
(To enlarge, click image, select “All Sizes“)

This week’s Everyday Matters challenge is “Spoon.” The large pink-handled cooking spoon and the tablespoon with the dull black plastic handle are the last remaining implements from my mother’s early 1960s kitchen complete with built in pink electric oven and stove. When half the pink handle broke off the big spoon I was sad, but it actually created a handy edge for propping it in pots. I use the black-handled tablespoon for everything I eat with a spoon. I love the way the handle feels in my hand and the way it holds just the right amount of cereal and milk. The slotted spoon is a good sturdy tool that’s always handy for serving veges.

The big wirey spoon is great for draining and lifting out a whole potful of raviolis like I did tonight. I used to use a special plastic pasta tool, part spoon and part fork, for that purpose but it now serves a different purpose. I slip it horizontally between the two handles of kitchen cabinet doors to keep the cats out of the trash. I’d first tried to install baby safety locks on that cabinet, but the instructions were impossible and I’m hopeless when it comes to measuring. I always end up skipping the ruler and trying to eyeball things, which never works. I got the little plastic hooky thingy in the wrong place, and then stripped the screw when trying to remove it, so now it is a permanent feature of my cabinet door, hanging there limply to remind me of my failure.

Anyway, these are all good sturdy tools that may be homely but they do their jobs well!

Categories
Sketchbook Pages Watercolor

ATM in the dark

ATM at night

Click here to enlarge
Ink & Watercolor in Hand Book Co. 5.5 x 5.5″ Journal

I noticed this Mechanics Bank ATM glowing in the dark on a side street off San Pablo Avenue in Albany (CA). I turned down the street, hoping to find a spot to park and paint it. There was a woman sitting in a car in the perfect parking spot across the street so I pulled in behind her, assuming she was waiting for someone. Finally a guy arrived with a box of pizza and got in the car. After another five minutes waiting for them to each eat a slice they finally strapped in and drove away. I pulled up and started painting. The light was horrible in my car so I just mixed colors by guesswork and put them down. (I’ve now solved this problem I think–I bought a strap-on LED headlight at REI tonight that tilts and will light up my paper and palette.)

I was half done with when two young women parked right in front of the ATM, got out of their car, and headed to the liquor store behind me. I got out of my car too, and approached them saying, “Excuse me…I know this will sound strange but I’m painting a picture of that (pointing to ATM) and your car is blocking my view. Would you mind moving it across the street?” They didn’t seem at all amused or confused by my request. They just said they’d only be a minute and went into the liquor store. They appeared to be on a serious mission, probably for cigarettes, and they did return shortly and moved their car.

I thought I’d finished the little sketch but when I got home I could see that the walls of the bank were way too light so I added darker paint to the walls.

Categories
Animals Watercolor

Armadillo

Armadillo

Pentel Pocket brush pen ink and watercolor on Arches watercolor paper 11×7 inches
(To enlarge, click image, select All Sizes)

The armadillo photo I used as a reference was prominently featured in a PC Magazine ad for a laptop computer. The ad said the computer has “Shock Absorbing Design, Hard Disk Drive Protection and a Spill-Resistant Keyboard, all of which better protect you from the hazards of mobile computing.” From my memories of all the squashed armadillos on the roads the last time I drove across Texas, I didn’t get the impression they were all that protected from the hazards of mobility! It’s been a long time since I drove across the U.S., which I’ve done several times. Maybe now that coast to coast it’s all one long walled-in highway lined with the same fast-food chains and big box stores, you don’t see the variety of squished critters from state to state anymore. I guess that’s one good thing about the interstates.

I drew the armadillo with my Pentel Pocket Brush Pen on a piece of watercolor paper I’d previously prepared for another project with wet-in-wet washes of Permanent Rose, Lemon Yellow and Cobalt Blue. I didn’t end up doing the other project so decided to draw on it tonight. I thought I’d done a decent job with the drawing until I set the painting and drawing side by side and saw that I’d elongated his body by an extra third. I’ll be using this image again in a monoprint project so I’ll get another chance to get the proportions right.

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Cartoon art Drawing People

No paper: what’s an artist to do?

In Line at Trader Joes
Ink on Biscotti package 4.5″ x 5
(Click image to enlarge, select “All Sizes”)

So there I was standing in a checkout line at Trader Joes that wasn’t moving, with the store crammed full of pre-Thanksgiving shoppers who like me, put off doing their week’s grocery shopping until Sunday evening. I was already feeling kind of down and grumpy because of the end of the weekend and lack of progress/success in the studio today.

After a few minutes I was also bored and started trying to think of what I could do to pass the long wait. Naturally I thought of sketching but I’d left my sketchbook in the car. I searched my pockets and bag for paper to no avail. I looked around at the display in front of me, and considered ripping off a piece of the cardboard and drawing on it but figured that might be frowned upon.

I looked in my cart and found the perfect canvas — the back of my bag of Trader Joes Biscotti (to be exact, “Trader Giotto’s Chocolate Almond Biscotti”). So I grabbed my pen and drew the people in line in front of me and the checker and bagger. By the time I got up to the checkout stand, I was in a much better mood and would have been happy to stand in line even longer, drawing more people.

The checker apologized for the long lines and I told him I’d amused myself by drawing on the package he’d just scanned. He looked at it again and said he thought it came that way. Then he started chatting with me about his lack of skill at drawing and how his father won’t shop there because of the long lines, while the people behind me stood there waiting. To hurry things along I asked for my $20 cash back and he apologized again, saying he forgot about it because he got so interested in my drawing.