Tag: Pen and Ink

Categories
Drawing Sketchbook Pages Subway drawings

Subway Drawings (Noses on BART)

Subway Drawing - BART 5

bart6

Micron Pigma Ink in small Moleskine sketchbook
(To enlarge, click image, select “All Sizes”)

Some people on BART today and yesterday. I felt pretty cheeky drawing the guy at the top left of the first picture. He was standing right over me, holding on to the seat in front of me reading. He got off at the next stop so I didn’t get to finish his arms or the book he was reading.

I really liked the woman’s nose in the bottom left hand picture. There’s lots of great noses on BART this week–if only I was able to draw them properly. With the train jerking so much, and the small size of the paper, noses are pretty tiny–one little jiggle and they’ve got a wild schnoz [from Yiddish for nose: snoyts, snout, muzzle, from German Schnauze.]

You can see that something funny happened to the binding in this new Moleskine. The first two pages of every Moleskine sketchbook always seem to be stuck together near the binding so this time I tried pressing them apart which was not a good thing and left a loose string on this third page. At least I got the first few pages filled (after totally messing up the drawing on the first page. Got over that by reminding myself it’s not an omen and it’s my sketchbook and I don’t have to show anyone that page!).

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Categories
Drawing Every Day Matters Sketchbook Pages Watercolor

Dishes done (EDM #64)

Dishes done

Watercolor & Noodlers Ink in Moleskine 5×8″ watercolor notebook
(click image to enlarge, select “All Sizes”)

I love doing dishes. When I saw these, all nice and clean and lined up on my sink I had to capture them in my sketchbook.

I like waking up on mornings when there’s dishes to wash from the night before. It’s a nice, relaxing way to start the day peacefully. Doing dishes doesn’t require deep thinking, heavy lifting, computers, manuals, or electricity–just a sponge, water and soap. I can listen to NPR on the radio while enjoying the warm suds and squeaky clean feel of a plate as I line it up in the rack. I admire the jewel-like color of the dish soap, which I keep in a squirt bottle originally designed to apply hair dye–similar to the ketchup dispenser at my favorite greasy spoon. I reflect on how much I like the dispenser and the clear plastic sponge holder suctioned-cupped to the tile backsplash.

I look out the window over the sink and see the ugly rose bush from Home Depot that always looks straggly and think about replacing it. I ponder when my next door neighbor will landscape his yard and get rid of the ugly little red rocks from the previous owner. I admire the huge tree that I can see across the street and I urge the ivy to keep on growing that is very slowly starting to cover the soundwall at the end of our street.

Then the dishes are done and it’s time to move on to something more demanding, but I’ve had that little time to go from sleep to awake and have actually accomplished something tangible while still in my jammies.

(I keep changing my template, trying to find one that doesn’t either resize the 500 px wide Flickr images or cut off their sides. Do you find this type hard to read? Also, the comment option is at the top of the post in this template which seems dumb, and I don’t like the blue background).

Categories
Drawing People Sketchbook Pages Subway drawings

Sleeping Subway Cyclist

Subway sleeper

Micron Pigma Ink in small Moleskine sketchbook
(To enlarge, click image, select “All Sizes”)

This morning on BART I saw this lovely man as soon as I got on and purposely picked a seat one row past him. I was lucky that nobody sat between us until halfway through the ride. My ride to work is only 13 minutes and he slept the whole way, only changing his left arm slightly. When people sat in the seat in front of me I had to keep scrunching around, trying look over their shoulders or in the aisle–but then my viewpoint changed so that wasn’t too helpful. The guy sitting next to me reading didn’t pay any attention to all my gyrating, nor did anyone else.

One thing I noticed about my process was that before I started drawing I sort of drew the picture mentally first, moving the pen above the paper, picturing how I’d place the image. Then I was ready to start drawing but had this rebellious moment where I decided to start with the hand that was closest to me (which doesn’t appear in the drawing because it was the only thing he moved) even though I had a feeling it was not the “right” place to start. It worked out ok anyway. I just kept my pen moving and the ride was over before I had time to overwork it. I considered adding some colored pencil when I got home, but decided to just leave it alone.

Categories
Drawing Sketchbook Pages

Paper Clips

Paperclips

Lamy Safari pen with Noodlers Ink wash in square HandBook Co. Journal
I know this isn’t a great drawing, but I’m soooooo tired so it’s good enough.

Tonight I watched the documentary Paper Clips. It’s about a middle school in a small rural town in Tennessee whose students were learning about the Holocaust. When one girl said she couldn’t conceive of such a big number as 6 million, they decided to start collecting paper clips in order to eventually be able to see 6 million of something. This transforms the town and becomes a huge, world-wide project. There are many profound moments in the movie which shows how teachers, journalists, and a caring community can be a force for good. After all the bad news and too many depressing movies about bad news, Paper Clips is refreshingly positive and deeply moving.

Categories
People Sketchbook Pages

Sexual Harassment Training

Sexual-harassment-training1
(To enlarge, click image, select “All Sizes”)

Today was mandatory Sexual Harassment Training for supervisors, presented by an attorney who looked a lot like Billy Bob Thornton. It was pretty stressful since I had a ton of deadline projects today.

Sexual-harassment-training2
At first I was anxious, worried about the work waiting for me in my office, knowing the meeting would be a total waste of time (which it was). Then I realized I could spend the time drawing which would be fun and relaxing so I pulled out my little Moleskine, which is so perfect for drawing in meetings.

Sexual-harassment-training3
They served a nice box lunch (not pictured above–this was someone’s snack during the meeting)  and we were supposed to sit and chat with each other while we ate about times we felt we felt unfairly labeled or harassed. I made sure my name was on the list of attendees, grabbed my box lunch and excused myself two hours early. I ended up working until 7:30 p.m. to get caught up and be ready for tomorrow.

Micron Pigma ink in Moleskine notebook.
All images can be clicked to enlarge and then select “All Sizes”

Categories
Drawing Flower Art Gardening Life in general Plein Air Sketchbook Pages Watercolor

Westbrae Nursery Buddhas

Westbrae Nursery Buddha

Micron pigma ink pen, watercolor in Moleskine large watercolor notebook
(Click image, select “All Sizes” to enlarge)
(This was Monday’s post–I thought I’d clicked “Publish” but when there were no comments on it at all, I checked and discovered I had never actually put it on line….oops).

After working this morning I rode my bike into Berkeley this afternoon to do some errands. Last time I drove down Gilman I noticed that Westbrae Nursery had a bunch of Buddhas on display so after I finished my unshopping at REI (returning a clip-on umbrella that I thought would work for plein air painting but wouldn’t clip onto my easel) I rode over to the nursery.

I discovered that my new bike seat worked perfectly as a table for my teeny Winsor & Newton watercolor field kit. I stood with my bike just outside the nursery entrance to draw and paint this. One of the workers stopped by between delivery bags of manure and big plants to people’s cars. His comments: “Are you painting?” “Don’t you get tired standing?” “Wow you’re fast!”

Today was warm and sunny but by the time I started for home, the fog and wind had returned. Having not carried a jacket (a foolish mistake in the Bay Area), I had a chilly downhill ride home.

Categories
Drawing Flower Art Sketchbook Pages Watercolor

Sunflowers and Copper Pitcher

Sunflower4

This was the last of the four little paintings I did tonight.

Kremer Pigments watercolors painted loosely, without drawing; then Pentel Brushpen with black ink loosely drawn over the dry paint. In Handbook Journal Co. square 5.5 x 5.5 sketchbook (purchased from Wet Paint in Minnesota) .
To enlarge, click image, select all sizes)

Today was a gorgeous summery day in the Bay Area and I spent it with a migraine, covers pulled over my head, wearing a sweatshirt over my flannel pajamas, with my electric blanket turned on, waiting for the pain to subside and my cold body temperature to return to normal. Finally around 6:30 tonight I felt OK enough to do something enjoyable and headed to the studio. I decided to experiment with some new art toys and a copper pitcher filled with sunflowers that I’d used as a set up for my watercolor students on Saturday morning.

Sunflower1

First sketch: Ink (Pentel Brush Pen) in square Handbook Journal
(to enlarge, click image, select All Sizes)

I did this ink sketch above as a gesture drawing to warm up. I’m loving the Pentel Brush Pen with black ink that I used in the two images above–basically a waterbrush with an ink cartridge. Unfortunately I was sent the wrong one–this one is not waterproof or lightfast, so I need to get the one Roz Stendahl recommended: Pentel Pocket Brush pen with the letters GFKP on it. That one IS waterproof and permanent.

The Handbook Journal Co. sketchbook was also recommended by Roz as an alternative to Moleskine watercolor notebooks. I give it a wholehearted thumbs up! It took ink and watercolor very well, and has all the other nice features of the Moleskine notebooks (elastic strap, hard black cover, back pocket, nice paper; however the pages are not perforated). They come in many different sizes and configurations and have more pages than Moleskines. I really like this square shape.

Sunflower3

Third sketch. (Click image, select All Sizes, to enlarge)

Above is the third version I did, first drawing with a Micron Pigma pen in square Handbook Journal and then painted with Kremer Pigments. I worked much more loosely than the second one I did. I like the way the leaves and pitcher turned out. (I decided not to post the second one since it’s icky and overworked–if you have to see it I’ll leave it on my Flickr as Sunflower2.)

Categories
Animals Drawing Sketchbook Pages Watercolor

Blind Contour Friday: Spooky (Cat)

SPOOKY (Cat)

Blind Contour Friday has issued the cue for October: “Spooky.” I thought my spooky cats would be suitable subjects, though they barely sat still long enough to draw them. In case you think I’ve forgotten how to draw, a “Blind Contour Drawing” means that you draw without looking at your paper and you do not lift your pen from the paper. You follow the contour of the subject with your eyes and your pen at the same time, and if you have to backtrack or cross over to get back to the beginning you do it, all without lifting the pen. Then when you’re done drawing, you can look at your paper while you splash a little paint on it, just for more fun.

SPOOKY (Cat 2)

The cat in the top drawing is Busby and the bottom is Fiona, also known as “that spooky little kittie,” since she’s quite odd.

They’re both drawn with ink in a Raffine sketchbook and then painted with Kremer Pigments watercolors.

Categories
Drawing Life in general People Sketchbook Pages

Dining with Mom

Dining with Mom

Ink drawing in 6×8 Strathmore sketchbook. Drawn at the airport waiting for the plane home.

I made a one-day trip to Santa Monica to visit my mom and sister today. She took us out to lunch (my L.A. sister and her son are across the table from my mom and I–that’s me with my hand on my head trying to get small and hide) at Izzy’s, a nice Jewish deli.

While we were looking at our menus, there was a fly buzzing around our table. Now those of you who’ve been reading this blog for a while know that my mom is a bit of a character–the sort who has lots of nerve (or chutzpah as it’s known in Yiddish) to demand extra this, special that, and then takes home most of the stuff on the table (or who, when hospitalized, demands a new mattress and a room with a better view…and gets it).

So we’re all sitting there, trying to decide what to order, when my mom starts waving her menu at the fly, trying to make it go away. It doesn’t. So she takes her hefty menu and swats the fly against the window and SPLAT! She kills the fly, leaving a nasty splotch on the window and the quite large and chunky, dead fly, stuck to the back of her menu.

My mom and I turn to each other and start laughing, realizing what she’s done and what a mistake it was. My sister and her son are totally grossed out, she being a vegan animal rights activist who would never kill a fly–she’d probably make a little nest in a box for it, and keep it with all the other rescued creatures in her apartment.

Just then the nice limited-English proficiency waiter arrives to take our order and reaches for Mom’s menu which she’s propped up against the window, fly side in, trying to hide the mess. I felt bad for the waiter and spoke up–“She killed a fly with the menu…see…it’s right there.” So, embrazened, she says, “Yes, and there’s a mess on the window that needs to get cleaned” and pointed to the splot on the window. He says “No problemo, I’ll clean it.” But I think he meant the menu. After he took our orders and the menus, that was the last we saw of him.

Our food was delivered by a grumpy waitress, only made more grumpy, I’m sure, by mother’s requests for extra slices of bread (to turn one sandwich into two), 3 takeout boxes, 2 bags and her paltry 10% tip.

We actually had a fun day together, walking on the beach, driving around looking at historic mansions in Santa Monica near Malibu, and doing a bit of organizing in her garage and closet. It was great seeing her feeling so much better and being realtively active again at 83.

Categories
Drawing Sketchbook Pages Watercolor

Figure drawing in the dark

Figure2

figure3 Figure1

Wash pencil, ink, watercolor in Aquabee 9×12 sketchbook (Click images to enlarge, select “all sizes”)

After a break of over 20 years, I returned to the figure drawing group that has been going on for much, much longer than that at U. C. Berkeley. The group is still open to the public, there is no teacher or instruction, and the fee has only gone up from $3.00 a session to $4.00. It is now on Friday nights (6:30-9:30) and Saturday mornings (10-1) in Krober Hall.

Barbara and I went tonight and had a good time drawing the handsome and muscular African-American model with long braids/dreads. Aside from the usual difficulties of doing figure drawing, the large room was poorly lit. There were a few clip-on floodlights reflecting off the walls for artists to see their work and a photo lamp bounced into a black umbrella lighting the model. It provided nice shadows and highlights on the model but it was very hard to see details like what was foot and what was fabric. I was far from the wall lights so had trouble seeing what I was drawing (excuses, excuses, I know).

I’m really happy to get back to figure drawing and to spending time with my good friend Barbara, after many years of work and family responsibilities intervening. Through all those years we kept saying that one day we’d get back to the days of meeting for tea during the day and doing art together again. And at last we’re doing it! We had tea and pancakes after walking to La Note (a “French” cafe with snobby, French-accented waitstaff but delicious food) for her birthday breakfast and then tonight went out to draw. Life has made a nice circle!