Tag: People

Subway Drawings & Feeling Like a Zombie

Post author By Jana Bouc
Post date February 27, 2009
7 Comments on Subway Drawings & Feeling Like a Zombie

Silly Pose on Bart, Graphite 8x6 — Silly Pose on BART, Drawn later at home, Graphite 8x6

Riding our subway known as BART the other day, I sat down beside a young man who was talking to his friend in the next seat. I asked if they wanted to sit together and they made a joke about not liking each other (actually it was a racist joke that shocked me at first when I thought they were serious—they were of different races ). So I sat down and took out my sketchbook like I usually do. The guy beside me insisted I draw his friend and his friend immediately struck a crazy pose for me to draw.

I said I only had 5 minutes before I was getting off but they egged me on. I drew as fast as I could (in ink—what was I thinking!) and was making a pretty bad job of it—talk about pressure! Then I had to get off and we all had a good laugh about the bad sketch (see below). I asked if I could take his picture and he agreed, continuing the pose as I quickly snapped a photo with my iPhone and then jumped off the train as the doors were closing. Here’s the photo that I put on my computer monitor across the room to draw the sketch above in my sketchbook last night:

And here’s the original sketch done on BART, along with a few others from this week:

Now, about feeling like a Zombie… I’ve been doing prep this week for a colonoscopy this afternoon. I’ve had nothing to eat since yesterday morning, except sugary clear liquids and the gallon of “Go-Litely” (hah! what false advertising!) and very little sleep due to drinking the first half gallon last night and then “Go-ing” all nite, thus the only “Litely” was my sleeping! And for the three days prior, I was told to eat none of my usually healthy diet: no vegetables, no fruits, no whole grains. Just white bread and meat, basically. The procedure isn’t until 2:00 so until then, I’ll be under a pile of blankets in bed trying to get warm and watching a movie on my laptop.

Zombie signing out…

Tags BART, Drawing, Faces, Ink, ink sketch, Pen and Ink, Pencil drawing, People, Photos, Sketchbook Pages, subway drawing, Subway drawings

Drawing Flower Art Ink and watercolor wash Landscape Outdoors/Landscape Painting People Photos Sketchbook Pages

Can’t Stop the Seasons: Magnolias in Bloom

Post author By Jana Bouc
Post date February 21, 2009
14 Comments on Can’t Stop the Seasons: Magnolias in Bloom

A new storm is on its way in but this morning was sunny so I took a walk in the neighborhood and discovered Spring had arrived overnight. The magnolias were blooming along with some other flowering trees.

The Jehovah’s Witnesses were also out in full bloom, a whole parade of them canvassing the neighborhood. These folks were waiting while their colleagues knocked on the door of a house on the top of the hill.

Witnesses on the Hill, Ink & watercolor wash

One of their team told me she liked to paint too, and then offered me some reading materials. “No thanks,” I said. “But it’s really, really small,” she said. It was a small pamphlet, but why would she think that would change my mind, I wonder.

I thought about drawing this but decided a photo was good enough. Seeing the new season bursting forth in front of a sign saying “STOP” made me think about the ways we try to control things by making laws and rules and posting signs, and yet Mother Nature rolls along, no matter what we puny humans have to say about it.

I’m trying to use one sketchbook at a time and so, despite being tempted to switch to a Moleskine watercolor sketchbook, I continued on in my Strathmore Drawing sketchbook. It’s not watercolor paper but is great for ink, is my favorite size (6×8″) and is light for carrying because it only has 24 sheets. It does wrinkle a bit from the watercolor, and it’s not good for lifting out color or heavy application, but it’s a good compromise between quality of paper and size and weight.

Tags Drawing, Ink and watercolor wash, Landscape, Oil Painting, Pen and Ink, People, Photography, Photos, Sketchbook Pages, Watercolor

Drawing Gouache Painting People Sketchbook Pages

“Freddy and Frederica,” a book review

Post author By Jana Bouc
Post date February 20, 2009
3 Comments on “Freddy and Frederica,” a book review

Freddy and Fredericka, Gouache & ink, 8x6"

I’ve been listening to a dumb book, Freddy and Fredericka, when I’m painting and I’m so glad I finally finished it. I don’t know why I kept listening for all 26 hours. It’s a silly farce about a bumbling, imaginary Prince and Princess of Wales sent by the King and Queen to New Jersey on a quest to take back America (but really just to get the couple out of the country because they were embarassing fools).

The funniest part of the book was unintentional. It’s the way the book is read aloud. It’s narrated by a gentleman with an uppercrust English accent who doesn’t even try to do American accents. So all the Americans in the book, from southerners in Alabama to New Jersey motorcycle gang members speak with the same English accents as the Royals. The only laugh I got from the book was hearing the motorcycle tough guy talking with an English accent instead of with a New Joisey accent.

The book makes fun of the British monarchy as well as American politicians and culture. Maybe you have to be British to enjoy the book or maybe it’s just me. I’ve never been a fan of farcical humor that uses silly names, misunderstandings and ridiculous plot lines to get laughs.

Tags Pen and Ink, People

Art theory Landscape Oil Painting Painting People Photos Places

Hannah’s Reflection

My friend Gina emailed me a photo with a note saying, “I like the light in this photo– for some reason I always think of you when I look at it.” Although I rarely paint from photos, especially those taken by other people, I just had to paint this one. My computer monitor is set up so that I can paint directly from the image on the screen which is a lot better than working from the limited colors in a printed image.

I’m not sure if I’m done yet, but I couldn’t see what else was needed so I stopped. If you have any suggestions for improving the picture, I’d love to hear.

Below are some stages of the painting. I used a bit of artistic license: I gave Hannah a bit of a haircut and deleted Gina’s wonderful dog Bella because:

The dog was competing with Hannah as the focal point and was about the same size.
I couldn’t get Bella to “read” as a dog; no matter how hard I tried to draw her correctly, she just kept turning into a jackrabbit.

Hannah’s Reflection, Oil on Gessobord, 16×12

Top row: 1) the finished painting; 2) my painting start; and 3) a black and white version of the start to see if my values were on track.

Middle row: 1) & 2) the next two steps in the painting. 3) a view of a “color spot” layer that I made in Photoshop. I created a new layer, and used Photoshop’s Paintbrush tool to select (Alt-click) and paint spots of those colors because it can be easier to see the colors when they’re isolated. Even more helpful than the color spots is a color-mixing tip I learned from Dianne Mize on Empty Easel: you apply the color to the edge of a small card and compare it to the subject until you get it right.

Bottom row: three views of the original photo. 1) “Posterized” in Photoshop down to two values; 3) posterized with three values; 3) Gina’s original photo.

P.S. This park, which Hannah affectionately calls the “swamp adventure,” is part of the East Bay Regional Parks. It is a river front park next to McAvoy harbor in Bay Point. It’s a little delta oasis in the sprawl of East Contra Costa County.

Tags Color Theory, impressionism, Landscape, Oil Painting, People, Photos, water

Ink and watercolor wash Life in general Painting People Sketchbook Pages Watercolor

Best House Cleaner in the Bay Area (Maybe the World)

Post author By Jana Bouc
Post date January 21, 2009
11 Comments on Best House Cleaner in the Bay Area (Maybe the World)

Have you ever had your house cleaned by someone so expert and passionate about cleaning that when you came home afterward it was like moving into a new house? I have! I know some people have their homes cleaned regularly, and it’s probably no big deal to them. But for me, it’s a special treat.

I was first given the wonderful gift of a complete house cleaning a few years ago for my birthday. Since then I’ve carried on the tradition myself, as a gift I give myself for the new year and for my birthday, conveniently 6 months apart.

What’s made this even more special is the person who does the cleaning for me now, my wonderful neighbor and friend Maria Reyes. She is professionally trained in the art of home cleaning, but also has a talent and passion for it, and takes great pride in her work.

I think she’s also part magician. She makes things look new that I thought were impossible to get clean (like the grout on my tile kitchen counters) and she gets everything done in 1/4 the time it would take me. And the cleaning seems to last for a long time, as if she casts a spell: “Good and clean! Now stay that way!”

I was so thrilled with my clean house this time, that I filled a couple of pages in my sketchbook with little drawings of shiny things around my house — the pics above are a few of them.

If you’re in the Bay Area and are interested in having your home cleaned, I’d be happy to share her contact info with you. Just email me. She offers free estimates and does both regular scheduled cleaning and one-time jobs. Everyone whom I know that she’s cleaned for have raved about her work. She’s not the cheapest (or the most expensive), but she’s without any doubt, the best!

Tags home cleaning, house cleaner, house cleaning, housecleaners, Ink and watercolor wash, Pen and Ink, People, Sketchbook Pages, sketches

Drawing People

Sketches at a Meeting

Post author By Jana Bouc
Post date January 19, 2009

It was an important meeting. The participants were brilliant experts in their fields. Yet I still couldn’t resist sketching my way through the meeting.

I only had my work notebook and a fat roller ball blue ink pen in the conference room with me. During a break I grabbed a black one but it was still weird to draw with compared to my usual extra fine point pen.

I actually captured a likeness on a couple of these little gesture sketches.

Tags Ink, ink sketch, meeting sketch, Pen and Ink, People, Sketch

Drawing Faces People Sketchbook Pages Subway drawings

Subway Sketches: BART Riders

Post author By Jana Bouc
Post date January 15, 2009
3 Comments on Subway Sketches: BART Riders

I enjoy sketching on BART, our subway system (which has been in the news since New Year’s Eve when BART police shot and killed a defenseless, unarmed young man which was captured on cellphone video and led to protests and rioting in downtown Oakland). BART’s headquarters are in the building where I work in downtown Oakland. To keep people safe inside, the building has been on “lock down” the past couple of weeks, with I.D.s required to enter the building to keep those of us working inside safe. There’s been no trouble though, with way more media and police around than protestors.

On BART this morning, this old man made a great model. He barely moved and had the most gigantic ears I’ve ever seen.

This would probably be better if I darkened all of the area around her but I liked her pointy nose.

Tags BART, Faces, Ink, Oakland, People, Sketch, Sketchbook Pages, subway drawing, Subway drawings

Ink and watercolor wash Life in general Outdoors/Landscape Painting People Sketchbook Pages Watercolor

A Cold Walk by Macaroni Grill, El Cerrito

Post author By Jana Bouc
Post date January 9, 2009
7 Comments on A Cold Walk by Macaroni Grill, El Cerrito

Macaroni Grill on a cold day, ink & watercolor

On the last dayof vacation before returning to work, the world outside my windows looked raw, blustery and wet after a frost-covered morning. Hibernating sounded good, but I was feeling uninspired and blah and could tell if I stayed home I was just going to mope around. Since I needed to pick up my my sunglasses from the optometrist, I decided to walk up there.

I almost turned back after the first couple of blocks. My ears were cold and my feet were complaining. But I kept going and eventually began to perk up and enjoy myself. By the time I got to Peets Coffee (a mile later and across the street from my eye doctor’s office in El Cerrito Plaza) I was feeling enthusiastic and cheerful. With a hot latte in my hand, I sat at a cafe table outside Peets and sketched this odd chain restaurant across the street.

I ate there once when it first opened (I was curious about the new restaurant in my neighborhood) and enjoyed it, but have never been able to get anyone to go back there with me. With so many unique and trendy restaurants in the Berkeley area, I suppose there’s really no reason to go to a “big box” version of an Italian restaurant, though people do seem to pack the place on weekends.

But I’ve always had an aversion to stupid business names, and the name “Macaroni Grill” irks me. I keep picturing the chef trying to grill slippery macaroni and cheese, with all the noodles falling through the grill grates. When I was a kid I remember being annoyed by a hair salon named “Lipstick Beauty Parlor,” which I thought made no sense.

While I was waiting at the optometris’ts office, I started sketching a stand that holds many pairs of eye glasses. There were too many tiny, overlapping details and I wasn’t really interested. Fortunately the optician arrived with my glasses so I stopped. When I got home, instead of leaving a partially messed up page I turned the page 90 degrees and added a quick sketch of my sunglasses (from memory) and then stuck myself in them.

Tags Drawing, ink and watercolor, Peets Coffee, Pen and Ink, People, Sketchbook Pages, Watercolor

Faces Ink and watercolor wash Life in general Painting People Sketchbook Pages Watercolor

Sketching as an Antidote to Insanity

Post author By Jana Bouc
Post date December 14, 2008
19 Comments on Sketching as an Antidote to Insanity

Marcy calling home, ink & watercolor — Marcy calling home from Mom's porch, ink & watercolor

It wasn’t an easy weekend in L.A. visiting family but sketching really helped me to avoid going completely bonkers. There were some lovely moments: walking on the beach in the misty morning with my sister Marcy, taking a tour with Mom and Marce of an historic house (now a museum) in Santa Monica where a huge retrospective of Milford Zorne‘s amazing paintings were on display (more about that in another post).

Mom cooking stinky cabbage, ink & watercolor

My 85 year old mother doesn’t cook much anymore, but she got inspired to make Pracas (sweet and sour meatballs in cabbage). But despite not having some of the ingredients or being able to see the recipe in the cookbook well enough to follow it, and despite the jar of ancient fossilized onion flakes she substituted for the actual onion in the recipe (demanding that I use a sharp knife to break the clump up so it could be extracted from the jar), and the house stinking like cabbage all afternoon, dinner wasn’t that bad, really.

Guy sleeping holding his boarding pass; hanging out at Mom's — Guy sleeping holding his boarding pass at Oakland airport; hanging out at Mom's

Grateful for my pen & sketchbook — Grateful for my sketchbook

It’s amazing how sketching can calm my nerves and put the whole dysfunctional family thing at a distance while still being physically present.

It’s really good to be back home.

Tags Faces, Ink and watercolor wash, Painting, Pen and Ink, People, Sketchbook Pages, sketching, Watercolor

Drawing Ink and watercolor wash Life in general Other Art Blogs I Read Outdoors/Landscape Painting People Photos Plein Air Sketchbook Pages Watercolor

Sketching with Martha & Shirley (St. Patrick’s San Francisco)

Post author By Jana Bouc
Post date December 6, 2008
10 Comments on Sketching with Martha & Shirley (St. Patrick’s San Francisco)

St. Patrick's Church, ink & watercolor 8x6" — St. Patrick's Church, San Francisco, ink & watercolor 8x6"

Shirley (Paper and Threads) was visiting San Francisco this week and Martha (Trumpetvine) and I had the pleasure of spending the afternoon sketching with her in the park. Poor St. Patrick’s Catholic Church isn’t really falling over despite the many earthquakes it has weathered over the years. It’s just my usual wonky drawing. Martha and Shirley will post their drawings on their own blogs eventually but here is a snapshot of our work lined up together.

And here we are lined up, with me a head taller and trying to take a photo and holding my iPhone at arm’s length.

We were joined virtually on our little art blogger sketchcrawl by phone from Lisa in Texas and via Facebook (where I posted an update and photo while we were sketching) by Marta (MARTa’s Art) and EJ (Rose-Anglais) .

After sitting on cold concrete steps to sketch we were ready to warm up. We walked back to Shirley’s hotel, and she treated us to a glass of wine on the 39th floor of the Mariott Hotel (also known as the “Jukebox” building because of its unique architecture). Here’s the view from the bar just before sunset.

View from the hotel bar — View from the Marriott Hotel bar

It was such a treat to spend a Friday afternoon with these two very talented and beautiful women. After the sun set in golds and pinks, and the lights of the city came on, I had to leave while they went off in search of dinner. I BARTed to Oakland for the monthly Friday night “Art Murmur” gallery walk where my sister and niece had pieces in a show. Walking from BART I passed the grand old Paramount Theatre and set my camera to “burst” mode so I could capture the changing lights of the neon marquis.

Tags art bloggers, Ink, Ink and watercolor wash, Oakland, People, Photos, Plein Air, San Francisco