Tag: People

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Oil Painting Painting People Puerto Vallarta

Work in Progress – Puerto Vallarta Cowboy

Puerto Vallarta Cowboy 10 (WIP) – – – Puerto Vallarta Cowboy 11 (WIP)
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(Earlier version w/charcoal lines)

I knew there was something wrong with the composition of this painting in progress that I started in July but I wasn’t sure what the problem was. I studied it yesterday and realized that my eyes kept going to the blank area on the ground between the brick column and the guy’s feet. I was thinking about adding a box or something to the painting in that spot but then Elinor stopped in with Robin and pointed out that the problem was the weak contrast around his head where it’s all white against white and doesn’t draw your attention and is competing with the strong red area and contrast at the bottom of the wall where a white crack serves as an arrow to the ground.

To fix the painting, I decided to add more contrast around the guys head and break up the space/negative shapes in the composition. I experimented by drawing lines in charcoal seen in the picture on the left. Then I painted the blue square behind his head (that will have white lettering added to it instead of the blue lettering on a white wall in the original photo) to add contrast and make his face the focal point it should be. I also added a second column of bricks, lowered the red paint area on the wall and added an ochre band on top of it, and lightened the sidewalk.

I have a hard time finding the problems in my own paintings though I can usually spot them a mile away in someone else’s. I need to make a checklist of questions to ask myself about a painting when I have that uneasy feeling and don’t know why. Any suggestions welcomed as there’s still a way to go on this one.

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Faces Other Art Blogs I Read Painting People Portrait Sketchbook Pages Watercolor

Portrait Swap – Ujwala in Watercolor

Ujwala, Watercolor

Watercolor in large Moleskine watercolor sketchbook from color photo
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Ujwala, Monochrome

Watercolor (Ultramarine Blue & Indigo) in large Moleskine watercolor sketchbook from black & white photo
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Forgive me Ujwala; I fear I haven’t done you justice but I thoroughly enjoyed painting your beautiful and expressive face. Thank you for allowing me to draw and paint you.

Update: Casey just posted her drawing of Ujwala too. Check it out here.

Quite awhile ago my friend and fellow art blogger Ujwala in Bangladesh invited me to do a portrait swap with her to be posted on Illustrator Rama Hughes‘ Portrait Party blog but I got sidetracked. She reminded me again recently when I was commenting on the wonderful series of portraits she’s been working on. The Portrait Party blog is really fun. It’s all drawings, paintings, and cartoons done by pairs of artists of each other. Rama recently posted pictures my friend Judith and I did of each other and when Ujwala finishes mine we’ll send them to him. If you want join the portrait party, just follow the instructions on his blog.

When I agreed (again) to do the portrait swap (which just means I paint you and you paint me), she promptly emailed me two great photos. It took me another few weeks to get around to sending her photos. I took pictures of myself at midnight in my old plaid flannel pajamas, holding the camera at arms length under bright light in the studio. The resulting photos showed every wrinkle and magnified my nose since I was holding the camera so close. I decided to forget about vanity and just send her the photos so we could get started.

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Drawing Faces People Sketchbook Pages Subway drawings

“Pitty” Tail – Tuesday Subway Drawings

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Ink in Moleskine notebook.
On my ride to work this morning, he looked so jaunty, with his perky cap, sunglasses, outdoorsy jacket and wearing what my sister calls a “pitty” tail — those skimpy little gray ponytails that balding men trying to hang onto the last bits of their wilder youth wear.

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The morning light was shining in from the window onto his face. He was only there for a minute and then he got off.

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On my ride home the train was very crowded and he was sitting on the floor cross-legged reading. I gave myself room in my sketchbook to draw all of him but he got off before I could.

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He was sound asleep on the seat in front of me, less than two feet away when I got on at 6:45 p.m. He was still asleep when I got off. I hope he didn’t miss his stop. I had a feeling that the woman on the seat beside me was watching me draw. I was imagining what she might be about to say to me (“you better not draw me” or “nice drawing–it looks just like him” or “do you think that’s right drawing somebody who’s sleeping?”) but when I stole a glance in her direction, she was also sound asleep.

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People Sketchbook Pages Subway drawings

After a long day at work

Waiting for BART 31

Ink in Moleskine

I didn’t leave work until 8:30 p.m. Thursday night so I had a longer wait than usual for a BART train, since it was after regular commuting hours. I saw this guy waiting too and had to sketch him. I don’t know what he could have been doing with his phone but he was completely mesmerized by it and didn’t move at all for the five minutes I was drawing him before the train came.

Once onboard I drew these guys who each stood in the same spot, rode one stop, and got off, to be replaced by the next guy. So I guess these were about about one to two minute quick sketches.

BART Rider 33 BART Rider 32

BART Rider 34

I’m feeling a little rusty sketching on BART because for the past couple of months I’ve been using my 13 minute subway ride to read books on oil painting and composition and haven’t been sketching as much. It was good to get back to it.

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Illustration Friday Painting People Portrait Watercolor

Wedding: Illustration Friday

Matt & Margot

Watercolor, 22″ x 15″
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Illustration Friday’s topic this week is Wedding. Usually when I participate in IF I create something new. I love the creative process of coming up with a concept for an illustration that is fresh, unique, and not the first thing anyone would think of (e.g. Paris = Eiffel Tower = trite). The second fun part is imagining and visualizing the image and then bringing it to life with pen and paint.

But this week I couldn’t resist posting this wedding portrait I did a couple years ago for my friends Matt and Margot, especially since this month is their anniversary and they’re expecting their first child in less than a month. Congratulations M&M!

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Drawing Other Art Blogs I Read People Sketchbook Pages Watercolor

Sketchcrawl 15 – Berkeley’s Fourth Street

Sketchcrawl15-peets

Peet’s Coffee. Larger

All are drawn in ink and painted with watercolor in small Moleskine watercolor notebook
Yesterday was Sketchcrawl 15 and I joined a friendly, talented group of artists (including Oakland artist Carrie, Sonoma county artist Natalie, Cathy from East Bay Plein Air Painters, and fellow art-bloggers Martha, Vern and Pete) on Berkeley’s Fourth Street to sketch. We had a good time sketching in nice weather, and met up again at the end of the day at Brennan’s Pub for drinks.

Brennan’s used to be a favorite hangout in my late 20s — a place to meet friends for drinks and partying back in the day. I hadn’t been there in at least 20 years so it was fun to see it was still virtually the same and to have a yummy Irish Coffee for old times sake. I learned today that Brennan’s will be demolished in the near future to make room for a new development but they will be moving to a historic, former train depot nearby.

Sketchcrawl15-lilly

Lilly. Larger
“Good Afternoon. Could you help me please?” “Good afternoon, could you help me please?” “Good afternoon, could you help me please?” “Thank you Jesus.” “Good afternoon, could you help me please?”

Martha and I sat on a bench across the street from Hear Music so she could draw their storefront. Just to my left was this cheerful and charming (and repetitive) blind woman soliciting money from the shoppers in this upscale area. For the half hour we sat there she continued her chant, while her sweet but old, grizzled male friend gave her quiet little cues about who was walking by, what they looked like and what they were doing. She was excited we were sketching her. I gave him my card and promised to send a copy of the finished sketch, which he liked. She also allowed me to take photos and I plan to do a painting of her as she was quite beautiful (which you can’t tell from my sketch, sadly.) We put a few dollars in her begging bowl (a quart-sized yogurt container).

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The last sketch of the day in the little courtyard behind Sur la Table. Martha went inside and drew kitchen goods.

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Spenger’s Fish Grotto
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This is the first sketch of the day I did while we waited for everyone to arrive. I painted it later at home from little color notes I penciled in to the sketch. Pete did a fabulous drawing of Spenger’s using a blue Copic fine liner and watercolor, so please be sure to visit the Berkeley Sketchcrawl website to see his drawings and Martha’s, and the cool photos Martha took of everyone sketching.

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Drawing Life in general People Sketchbook Pages

Another Harassment & Discrimination Training

Paul at Meeting

Ink in moleskine sketchbook
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Men at meeting

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It seems like only yesterday that we had the annual sexual harassment and discrimination training for managers but it was actually last October which I was able to check by doing a search on my blog for the drawings from that meeting. At first I was annoyed since I had so many other things to do, but then I realized I could sit there listening and sketch–not a bad deal getting paid to spend the morning sketching.

I think the progression of the drawings above is interesting. The first one I did was the guy on the left in the picture directly above. It was a weak first attempt at the same guy next on the right. As I progressed to the right, each person’s likeness got a little sharper until I think I really nailed the last guy on the right. Then I turned to the next page and did the drawing at the top of this post. I was really pleased with it as I think it came pretty close to capturing the gentleman. The last thing I drew was the cup. There was a bad attempt at another face under it which I turned it into my coffee cup with some extra scribbling.

What was even more interesting was that at this sexual harassment training, all the men sat together on one side of the U-shaped table and the women sat on the other two sides. (There’s more women than men at this educational non-profit since most staff come from the female-dominated teaching field.) Maybe the men were just enjoying the rare opportunity to share a little male bonding at work.

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Life in general Other Art Blogs I Read People Sketchbook Pages

Yay! No School for Scoundrels Here!

School Board Meeting

Micron Pigma Ink in small Moleskine notebook
Click to see larger

I attended my first school board meeting tonight to join with about 70 people from my neighborhood association to speak out against the planned school for expelled students in a former elementary school in my neighborhood. Many residents, including several who are teachers and/or work with disturbed kids spoke passionately and persuasively. One of the five board members who’d attended our previous meeting spoke eloquently about why it was a bad location for these students (including the fact they’d be coming from the opposite end of the district and there’s no public transit within a quarter mile of the school).

When I first sat down a woman in the next seat who was there for another cause and was very experienced with the school board meetings told me it was a done deal–the school would be put there, period, the end. Fortunately she was very surprised and wrong — the board voted against putting it at this site. YAY!

Since my painting group was supposed to meet tonight, I invited them to attend the meeting and bring sketchbooks. Only my dear friend Judith (who I can always count on to be enthusiastic about joining me to do whatever kind of odd things I cook up) said yes. While I did the sketch above, Judith did the drawing below (I love her lines!):

Judith's Drawing at the meeting

Ink and watercolor pencils in large Aquabee sketchbook
Copyright Judith H.
Click to see larger

Except for my butt hurting from sitting in the metal folding chair for nearly two hours, it was a great night. It really felt like a miracle to have swayed the board and kept this scary, poorly planned school away from our humble but proud little neighborhood.

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Drawing Life in general People Sketchbook Pages

No School for Delinquents in our Neighborhood!

Neighborhood-meeting

Ink in Moleskine notebook
Click here for larger view

When I finished drawing these people at the neighborhood meeting, I realized I’d compressed the space so that people are crammed together much more than they actually were. I wish I would have thought to capture some of the angry expressions as people spoke instead of everyone just looking sort of bored.

Tonight there was a neighborhood meeting to protest the placement in my neighborhood of a school for “high risk” middle and high school students who’ve been expelled from public school. Many are on probation for committing crimes. They plan to stick the kids in a former elementary school just two blocks from my house that is currently used as an adult school for classes like Yoga, Spanish, Ballroom Dance and English as a Second Language. Nearly 100 neighbors showed up at the meeting and spoke out vociferously against the plan. It looks like it could go either way at this point. Somehow the district slipped this plan through without Board approval or community notification but now it will be on the next board meeting agenda.

I sure hope we’re successful in fighting it since just last month the board approved (against the neighborhood association’s vote) to allow a public alternative high school to move into what has been until now a small private elementary school with a focus on Japanese language (and well-behaved children) that is just two blocks the other direction. Even though that high school’s brochure claims to be all about group hugs, yoga and community service, the idea of 150 teenagers just a block away is not at all appealing.

When I was house hunting I was always a little wary of neighborhoods that the realtor claimed had strong neighborhood groups because I figured there was a reason they needed one. But in the Bay Area, with some of the most expensive housing in the country, I feel fortunate to have been able to buy my own home at all. And this is a wonderful neighborhood with the best neighbors I’ve ever had and now I’m glad for the strong the neighborhood association.

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People Sketchbook Pages Subway drawings

BART Subway drawings

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All are ink in small Moleskine sketchbook. This guy (above) had huge fleshy ears and his headphones barely covered them. He got off really quickly or I would have done more studies of his ears which enthralled me (I’m easily amused).

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She slept the whole way home. I always wonder whether soundly sleeping people miss their stop. We were all tired on that car since it was 7:00 p.m. and I guess we’d all worked late. Almost everyone was sleeping .

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I wish it wasn’t so late and I wasn’t so tired tonight because I’m excited about going out plein air painting tomorrow morning with one of the three groups in my area that I found and joined and I’d love to say more about that. But today was really busy and then I just spent a couple hours packing all my art supplies to make sure I had everything I needed for both oil painting and watercolor sketching in my cart. Then I tried to touch up a couple of pretty bad plein air practice paintings I did this week (in my backyard), thinking I’d post those but they’re not ready. So all I have to post tonight are a couple very quick sketchy sketches from my ride home from work on BART this week.