Tag: People

AM PM Sketchbook

Espresso pen, Handbook Journal

A woman from Scotland wrote to me and said she’d come upon my blog my accident and that I’d inspired her to start adding drawings to her daily journal. Her email inspired me to start a new sketchbook project that I’ve really been enjoying. Each morning before I get out of bed I write a few sentences about my dreams, the weather and/or how I’m feeling that morning and do a quick little drawing. Then in the evening I do another brief entry about the day or something I’m grateful for and draw something of the day. These are drawings from memory or imagination so they’re pretty goofy, not at all realistic.

Before drawing in it, I dated each page in the sketchbook in advance. It’s a square Handbook Journal Co. sketchbook that I didn’t like too much for watercolor so now I have a good use for it.

The drawing on the left is supposedly me (I don’t really look that terrible, even in the morning) and Busby doing his silly morning snuggle where he sticks his head below my ear and kneads his paws on my neck, purring madly and half choking me. I drew it while he was doing that, holding up a little mirror. The one on the right I drew tonight after a lovely Thai dinner with my dear painting group friends as we celebrated Judith’s birthday (she’s supposedly blowing out a candle stuck in a big blob of coconut ice cream surrounded by chunks of fried bananas). If you think these are funky drawings, you should (or shouldn’t) see the hilarious cars, bus and boats I drew yesterday!

Tags Pen and Ink, People

Art theory Other Art Blogs I Read People Sketchbook Pages Watercolor

Focus!

Ink and watercolor in Canson 7×10 Watercolor Sketchbook
To enlarge, click image, select All Sizes
I liked the Canson paper, it’s strong and very forgiving and heavily surface-sized — better than the Moleskine notebook — but not too thrilled with the colors I used in the sketch above in trying to use at least something the teacher suggested.

Breakfast View – Ink and watercolor in small watercolor Moleskine
(to enlarge, click image, select All Sizes)

Breakfast at the workshop was at the open air buffet restaurant in our hotel, right on the beach, which was a lovely way to start the day, even if it was only half an hour after sunrise.

While I was drawing this a waiter came over to watch. I asked if he painted and he said he loved to draw but was unable to buy decent paint locally and mail order was impossible because Mexico charges 3 times the cost of the supplies in tariffs. He told me he draws pictures and then his 4 year old son colors them with crayons. He looked so admiringly at my little painting kit, amazed at what could be had in the U.S. I asked the class if they’d be willing to donate some paints for him and the teacher gave me her entire palette full of paint and three brushes. Other students gave watercolor paper and blocks. He was so grateful and everyone was really happy to have been able to help a fellow aspiring artist. I still feel happy remembering his sweet smile.

Tonight I spent the evening tonight typing up my pages of notes from the workshop. Here is one of most important thing I learned, which should be obvious but never really clicked for me before:

FOCAL POINT

I am often entranced by all the details in a subject and my paintings can suffer from lack of focal point or strong values. Forcing myself to chose a focal point BEFORE starting a sketch or painting and concentrating on values in that area at least, is going to make a huge difference in my approach and to the success of the painting.

A juror or curator for a show looks at each slide no more than 3 seconds and MUST BE ABLE TO SEE THE FOCAL POINT IMMEDIATELY. There should be the most contrast in that area (dark/light contrast or strong color contrast).
Before starting a drawing or painting, think about what interests you and attracts you to the subject and determine the focal point.
Put a painting in progress on the mantle and walk by it in the evening as the room gets dark to see if the focus is apparent
Hold the painting up to a mirror 10 feet away to look for problems with the drawing or painting, especially in portraits
Get the values right: Make a “Claude” mirror by spray-painting black the back of a sheet of plexiglass. It will reflect the image in values with the color neutralized. Or view the painting through red or gray film to show values without color.
She recommends as the best book on design in painting: “Probing the Hidden Order” by Marie McDonald Roberts.
Best spot in a painting for focal point is above horizon to the right because we read from right and up (this is the same spot as the “Divine Proportion” or “Golden Mean.”
To study focal points, very quickly go through a magazine putting red dots on the first thing you notice, then go back and study why your eyes went there. Usually contrast in value or color.

Next time I’ll post what I learned about Color Chords.

Tags Pen and Ink, People

People Sketchbook Pages

Figure Drawing

Pentel Brush Pen and water in 6×8″ sketchbook – 20 minute pose

As you can see we had quite a large model tonight. She was excellent at posing but when you faced her back it was like drawing a landscape with a big mountain in the middle. So I grabbed a small notebook that I could easily carry around to the other side of the room along with my brush pen and waterbrush. I drew with the brush pen and used the waterbrush to bleed the ink out for shading. Then the next pose I went back to my table and big sketchbook.

Pencil in 14×17″ sketchbook – 10 minute pose

Pencil and Pentel Brush Pen with water in 14×17″ sketchbook – 20 minute pose

It was a good night at figure drawing after an annoying afternoon working on the postcards for my show in March. I learned a lot of stuff I wasn’t really interested in learning but they’re done and finally ordered.

Tonight they had the overhead lights on instead of the directional ones because they needed to replace the bulbs in the spot lights. It was nice having enough light and there were still some decent shadows.

Tags Ink, Pencil drawing, People

People Sketchbook Pages Subway drawings

Meeting and Subway Sketches

Post author By Jana Bouc
Post date January 17, 2007
5 Comments on Meeting and Subway Sketches

Two craggy old guys sitting in front of me at the California Watercolor Association meeting tonight. The guy didn’t really have writing on his neck but it was a good spot to take down notes on upcoming watercolor shows to enter. It was an interesting meeting: Golden Acrylics had a representative demonstrating and teaching about the use of their paints and mediums with a free goody bag for everyone at the end of the meeting.

Two lovely young ladies at a meeting at work today (though my drawing doesn’t do them justice). The meeting was to envision where our organization will be in 2012 (five years) and where we’ll be–if still there, in what role, or doing something else. It’s great to get the support to pursue our own dreams as well as to help build and contribute to our organization whose mission is to improve literacy and learning for adolescents.

Two commuters and two babies on BART.

All are ink in Moleskine sketchbook.

Tags People, Subway drawings

Life in general Outdoors/Landscape People Watercolor

(G)OLD Teeth

Watercolor on Arches 140 lb cold-pressed watercolor paper, 18×14″
(To enlarge, click images, select All Sizes)

This shop near my office in downtown Oakland makes sets of snap-on gold teeth (also known as “grills”) for people who like the idea of walking around with their teeth covered with jewelry. I loved the juxtaposition of the old guy walking by their sign with the missing “G” so I took a photo and finally got it painted.

For those of you who have never heard of people buying and wearing these things, you can see some pictures here (scroll down the page there). I don’t get it. Spending big money to get what looks like really fat shiny braces that make it hard to talk or eat and cause drooling seems like a deeply bizzare perversion. The whole culture of hip-hop/rapper/gangstah bling-bling with the prerequisite ostentatious display of wealth to me just seems like an advertisement saying, “I am an ignorant person with no class, taste, common sense or social conscious.” There are so many better things that could be done with money than wear platinum, jewel-encrusted teeth.

And the trend isn’t just for rappers; here’s an article about suburban teenage girls getting them to wear to the prom. When I was out delivering some flyers for the neighborhood association on my block last week I met a family that moved in a couple of months ago. The teenage son was extremely polite and friendly…and he was wearing a set of big gold teeth.

Tags People

Drawing Other Art Blogs I Read People Sketchbook Pages Subway drawings

An Art Lesson on BART

Ink in small Moleskine

This morning I got on BART and spotted the guy on the left at the end of the car in his knitted Cat-in-the-Hat hat, except that he looked more like Mr. Natural from R. Crumb Comics than the Cat. I only had a couple minutes to draw him and then a bunch of people got on and I couldn’t see him anymore so I started drawing the hand of the guy sitting beside me holding a tiny iPod.

After a few minutes he smiled at me and then started helping me, pointing out where lines that I was drawing as curved were really straight and where I needed to add shading. My stupid pen ran out of ink so I pulled out another, with brown ink. He recommended I try UniBall pens (which I like but hadn’t used for sketching). He was clearly a talented artist and a wonderful teacher — his recommendations were right on and offered with great gentleness, kindness and caring. I asked about his art and he told me was formerly a graphic designer but now worked for Apple in “technology not art” and only rarely does his own art anymore and then only digitally with a Wacom tablet and Painter.

I’d been surprised by how crowded the San Francisco BART train was since I’d been quite late leaving for work. It was already around 9:45 but many more people than usual were getting on at each station. My “art teacher” turned to his friends behind us and as they chatted about Apple products I realized that all these people were on their way to MacWorld, which was opening today in San Francisco. I was sad to bid him farewell when I got to my stop. He was the kind of person I would love to have as a friend or a teacher and I’m sad I never even found out his name.

Tags Pen and Ink, People, Subway drawings

Drawing People Sketchbook Pages Subway drawings

Subway and Cafe Sketches

Today was back to work and back on BART. These folks (above) were my entertainment on my morning ride. These sketches are all in my little Moleskine.

I sketched these people (above) at Saul’s Deli after dinner while waiting for Michael to return from the men’s room.

These folks were at Peets. I like walking up there from my house, getting a latte, doing a quick drawing and walking back home. It’s a one-mile walk and a pleasant destination. I had trouble with the guy’s wife because she kept talking and moving. He just sat there without moving anything except for his wonderful bushy eyebrows.

Tags Pen and Ink, People, Subway drawings

Life in general People Watercolor

Reflecting on 2006

Watercolor on Arches paper, 11×8
(To enlarge, click image, select All Sizes)

I like to spend New Years Eve quietly reflecting on the past year and the new one. This year Michael’s home sick and I’m spending the evening more quietly than usual, alone in the studio thinking about life and art. I decided to make a self-portrait and will plan to do that each New Year. As I get older, it is both fascinating and disconcerting to see the changes gravity and age are leaving on my face.

I took a few photos holding the camera at arms length and then picked this one to paint from. After doing a freehand drawing, painting it, wrecking the painting, and not having enough time left in the evening to start over from scratch, I must admit I used a lightbox to trace the basic shapes for the painting above.

In her post, Celebrate Your Progress in 2006, on her blog Making a Mark, Katherine Tyrrell posted a list of topics for artists to write about. I decided to take the challenge and write about my art accomplishments in 2006:

Blogging: In May 2006 I discovered the wonderful, world-wide community of artist bloggers and started my own blog. In August 2006 a reporter from the Oakland Tribune interviewed me about my blog and the article appeared on the front page of the paper. My blog was also featured on Best Blog on WordPress and Moleskinerie. Some stats: I’ve made 205 posts, received 2,004 generous comments with nearly 47,000 total views. The most views on any one day was 498; the average is between 250-350 a day.

Numbers of art works completed: More than 300 paintings, drawings, sketches, monoprints, and digital illustrations.

Study/Learning:
Drawing: As a result of daily drawing, I’ve seen my ability improve tremendously. I used to draw and paint only from photos that I composed and enlarged in Photoshop and then traced onto watercolor paper. Now I draw most things freehand.
Classes: I’ve taken one weekend painting workshop, signed up for a painting trip to Mexico in February 2007 with watercolor teacher Judy Morris.
Study: I’ve read piles and piles of books on art, design, drawing, painting, digital art, and art history. New Media/Technique: I began doing plein air painting in Summer 2006 and learning about landscape painting. In the past couple months I’ve been exploring monoprinting and other print-making techniques and began studying oil painting. I also purchased and began to use Painter to do digital drawing and painting illustrations.

Art business (always a challenge — I’d rather paint):
Teaching: I’ve had the privilege to teach several sessions of watercolor classes to some very inspiring and talented artists from whom I learned at least as much I taught.
Sales: A buyer in another state found my website via a link to it from the California Watercolor Association’s website and made a major purchase of one of my favorite paintings.
Shows: I was selected for a one-woman show that will be hung in March of 2007. I had slides made and submitted them to the CWA National Show but otherwise have not been focusing on showing in 2006.
Prints: I’ve worked with a local studio to make professional scans and giclee prints of my work.
Framing: I am currently in the process of framing 8 watercolor paintings.

So those are the accomplishments. I’ll write about the challenges tomorrow as part of my Art Plan for 2007.

Tags People

Cartoon art Dreams Life in general People Sketchbook Pages Watercolor

Stage Fright (Dream)

Ink & Watercolor in Aquabee 9×12 sketchbook
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I woke this morning at the apex of a terrible anxiety dream…but with a slightly different take than usual. First I should say that I have terrible stage fright and cannot sing to save my life. My family used to slam doors shut and turn on the radio to avoid hearing my awful singing along with my pretty bad guitar playing when I was a teen and it never really improved.

I’ve had this dream many times, where I find myself on stage, about to sing or play guitar or both, and realize I’m completely unprepared. In last night’s dream I’d been selected to perform as “Jana and the BlackAttack” and was supposed to be leading some sort of soul/hip-hop group at a very prestigious and large theatre. I was calm and relaxed about the whole thing, trusting that the event organizers knew what they were doing in selecting me. I took a seat in the theatre, watching the opening acts. Then it was time for me to go on stage and the MC was stalling and worried since I hadn’t yet appeared backstage. I walked out onstage, noticing there was a steaming pot of potato-leek soup available for performers and stage hands. I picked up the mike and then…

I realized I didn’t know what songs I was singing, what the tunes or words were, where my band was….basically I realized I was ME. I didn’t want to let the organizer down or ruin my reputation by walking away. Then I realized I had no reputation to lose: I’m not a singer, I’m an artist and I woke up, heart pounding.

Gee, do you think I might be having a little performance anxiety about my painting…(I was struggling with oil painting before I went to bed) or even more likely, about the one-woman show of my watercolors in March that will be held in the lobby cafe of a newly restored art deco THEATRE?!!!! I thought I wasn’t worried about the show but the sleeping mind never lies….or does it?

Tags Pen and Ink, People

Other Art Blogs I Read People Sketchbook Pages

The Impressionists – Great DVD!

Post author By Jana Bouc
Post date December 27, 2006
12 Comments on The Impressionists – Great DVD!

Ink line and wash in Moleskine large watercolor notebook
(To enlarge, click image, select All Sizes)

While I was out doing errands today I stopped at Silver Screen, my local video shop, and found this wonderful, new BBC mini-series, The Impressionists, about Monet (and Manet, Renoir, Degas, Bazille and others). The story ties right in to the biography of Matisse I’m (still) reading (interspersed with several other books) and am now inspired to finish it.

The visuals in the movie are fabulous. One sees the images, places, and light that inspired the paintings and then sees the paintings being painted and finished. Monet as an old man in 1920 is telling the story of the Impressionists and his life as an artist to a journalist. Through flashbacks we see the stories take place, acted by the most divinely beautiful young men and women.

The scene I sketched above is at the point where the not-yet-named Impressionists decide to hold their own show because none of them can get their paintings accepted into the official, state-sponsored “salon”– just about the only venue for sales of paintings and they’re all desperately poor.

Here’s the DVD cover:

I’m so tired tonight from from three nights of semi-insomnia that I didn’t think I’d do any drawing. But while I didn’t want to stop the film, I got so inspired watching it I had to stop and draw and paint something! Tomorrow’s my last day of work for the week and then I have another 5-day weekend so hopefully my ability to sleep and hence my energy will return.

Tags Pen and Ink, People