Three-object painting

I scrounged around the house looking at stuff and eventually came up with these three objects--an English teapot, a tea strainer my mom gave me, and a jar of marmalade. I drew it with a sepia-colored Tombow (water-soluble) marker, per Brenda's instructions, and then watercolored.

You really do lose the line (and also run the risk of muddiness) with the water-soluble pen, but you can also fudge or complete eliminate lines you don't like with a bit of water, which is nice. When I put in the shadow below the teapot, the top half of the letter "T" went away, and I had to wait until things dried and go back in with the Tombow to redraw it. I didn't put in the "Bonne Maman" until after everything was dry.

I had fun with this, both drawing it and painting it. I used a new brush, though, that is super-flexible--more so than I'm used to, and I think I'll go back to my stiffer brushes. Capturing the feel of tarnished silver for the tea strainer was challenging, and it was surprisingly the addition of a fairly bright yellow that gave it the feel of silver. Something about the light and the reflections.

Here's a photo of the "models" and the picture I made from them. The tea strainer is a little big in scale. And uh-oh, now you can see that it wasn't really marmalade, it was Apricot Preserves! Oh well…

Continuous line

This week's teacher for Sketchbook Skool is Brenda Swenson, with whom I have studied before, so I'm revisiting territory I have covered in the past; but it's always good to go back and get a refresher on techniques, and I love her work, so it's a pleasure. This week's assignments are to do continuous-line drawings in pen--one object, two objects, and three. The three-object one is supposed to be done in a water-soluble pen and then painted, and I haven't gotten to that yet, but here are a few contour drawings:

I had an empty soda bottle sitting on the desk, but the shape wasn't very challenging, so I went for some shadows and reflections and lettering to make it more interesting.









Then I did this candlestick, which was a much more complex object. I badly misjudged the scale and wound up running out of room at the bottom, so it's foreshortened and truncated. Also, all that trim meant multiple line crossings, and I'm not fond of that. I'll try this one again sometime, just for the challenge.

And for my two-object picture, a French press coffee pot and a mug. This one was a good lesson in running your eyes over the objects before committing to running your pen over them, so to speak. When doing continuous-line contour, it's really easy to draw  yourself into a corner and realize--there's no way to get there from here, without lifting the point of my pen! Which you are not allowed to do. So a bit of the coffee pot ended up missing! Sometimes the suggestion is enough, though...

More later.

Selfies

We were supposed to do seven selfies this week for Sketchbook Skool. I already posted one below (with earmuffs); here are two more. Not sure I'll make it to seven, the next week's lesson has already started!

Did this one in the mirror--it's a little round ceramic-framed one I hung by the door to check myself before I leave in the morning. We were supposed to do one with a strong light source, with the face divided into light and shadow. It's hard to draw yourself in the mirror, because you get that pursed-up, concentrating look on your face and it's not very attractive! Also, somehow the horizon line of the eyes got out of whack. Oh well, fun and colorful if not accurate. Micron pen #5 and watercolor.

Took a photo in the mirror to get the back of my head, and then did this as a continuous-line contour drawing. I did the entire braid, top to bottom, in one continuous line, except for two lines that I went back and added later, because the head looked too narrow. Then I put in the neck and sweater with three more strokes. Micron pen #5.

This week's sketches

Here are a couple of sketches from the past week of "sketch journaling." Today I am moving up from "Beginnings" to "Seeing" at Sketchbook Skool--I felt like I was in the wrong class and asked for a transfer, and they said yes! I'll keep reporting here...

Last Saturday's drawing at the wildlife refuge…in the middle of the San Fernando Valley, 500 yards down a path from 100 screaming 12-year-olds playing soccer, in the midst of freeways, busy surface streets, and office complexes, exists…this! A designated wildlife area with a lake and a large marshy field where all kinds of birds and beasties gather. I need to go back and paint a "real" picture, but NOT on a Saturday--the place was crawling with photographers, moms with baby buggies, and other noisy people who spooked the wildlife. Weekday morning, here I come.

And a lunchtime sketch at The Great Grill, in Burbank on San Fernando. They serve a great veggie burger and play oldies tunes in their jukebox that take me back to junior high. This was a great item to sketch--I'm getting tired of recording the condiments on my table!

More assignments

This week's Sketchbook Skool class is with the charming Koosje Koene. I enjoy listening to her talk and seeing her sketchbooks, but the lessons for the week were rather slight:

1. Pick something simple and draw it with colored pencils;

2. Go outside and paint "on site" in public so you get used to ignoring people while you paint en plein air. 

I actually haven't used colored pencils before, so that one was a good exercise for me. I didn't have any regular colored pencils, but I did have four colors (red, blue, yellow, and green) of watercolor pencils that I haven't gotten around to trying out yet, so I used those instead. Here is a tomato:

Colored pencil is kind of a pain! You have to build and build and build to get the combination of colors and the coverage you want, and I found my result rather unsatisfactory: My tomato looks more like an apple, because the texture of the page gave it that grainy look, whereas a tomato is smooth smooth smooth. I have to admit that I vastly prefer my watercolors--swoosh, swish, and you have some nice even color. But the pencils are good discipline, and when I see what people like young adult author Maggie Stiefvater (who is also a fine artist!) do with them, it inspires me to try a few more.

I have drawn and/or painted outside around other people more than a few times, so this one wasn't so scary for me. It was a bit rainy today in SoCal, so I took myself out to breakfast at the Lakeside Cafe--it's a place I've been meaning to try for years, and since they have a covered patio that looks out over a small manmade lake and the Los Encinos Adobe, I thought it would be the ideal place to sit inside while drawing the outside, and it was.

The adobe is rather unimpressive--honestly, it looks like a refurbished Motel 6, if there were parking places (instead of the charming little lake) in front of the lined-up doors and windows! So after I drew it and finished my coffee, I went across to the other side and drew the Lakeside Cafe from the perspective of the adobe! I didn't like that drawing as much--I had perspective problems--so I only watercolored the one.

I haven't much experience with painting water, so the lake came out messy and not very water-like, especially because I put the water in from memory after I got home. I'd like to go back there sometime when I can really take my time, set up in the park, and do a "real" painting (no ink, and on watercolor paper) to explore painting water on site.

I'm hoping next week's lesson is a little more challenging. But regardless, it's getting me to draw and paint, and that was the point!

Wednesday...

A few more drawings from my week's documentation…

Tuesday night's 10-12 Book Club read Winger, by Andrew Smith. It was a controversial choice, provoked a lot of discussion, and received ratings ranging from 10 out of 10 to 2 out of 10 to "I refuse to read this book!" Here's yesterday's cover of the cover:

This morning it was a perfect sunny 72 degrees out on this California "winter" day, so I spent some time in the yard, watering and sketching. I'm not great with the foliage (getting impatient and short-handing it and then faking it with some paint to cover up my deficient drawing skills), so I purposely didn't add color to this one:

Maybe I will later.

I worked 12-9 today because we had a rehearsal for our upcoming Readers' Theater program (NOT So Happily After, some retold fairy tales by Roald Dahl and Ron Koertge), so on my dinner break beforehand I went to Wahoo's for a burrito and did a little drawing while waiting for my food to come. I painted it after I got home. I was trying for a particular look for the blue linoleum table top, but it didn't really work out, so it's kind of smudgy. And I haven't got the hang of spatter yet, so it went everywhere on my desk except where I was aiming it. I hope it looks like hot sauce and not like arterial spray!

Anyway, that's my week so far. More to come...

Sunday Farmers' Market

Going to the O.N.E.generation Encino Farmers' Market at Victory and Louise on Sunday mornings has become a tradition for me this past year or so. I buy a chocolate croissant from my favorite Scottish baker, pick up a glass of fresh-squeezed orange juice, and stock up on produce for the week--greens, berries, tomatoes, broccoli, eggplant, whatever. Sometimes I buy some homemade cheese as a treat, or one perfect artichoke, or a previously unfamiliar vegetable from the Japanese farmer, with instructions for cooking it. My last stop is always one particular flower vendor, who always has inexpensive and unusual bunches of my favorites. I put together something scented (stock, sweet william), something beautifully colored (gerbera daisies), and something showy and long-lasting (alstroemeria), and take it home to make a giant bouquet for the top of my piano, where it pleases my eye all week.

Each and every time I go to the farmers' market, I think to myself, Gee, why didn't I bring my sketchbook so I could draw all of this? Sometimes I take photos of some of the brightly colored offerings, thinking I will paint them later...but so far I haven't.

Today, I took my sketchbook, and instead of bringing my croissant and juice home, I sat in the patio area where food vendors set up around folding tables and chairs, and I sketched. It was really fun, and I can't believe I have put it off for so long. This is the reason I signed up for Sketchbook Skool--to give me a reason (or an excuse) to take the time to draw. I wanted to stay even longer than I did, but I go back to work tomorrow and things like the necessity of clean clothes and a tidier house sent me home. I did spend some extra time once I got there to watercolor my drawings.

I started this drawing from the top left down, and after I put in the lady hipster, and fatally drew the table in front of her (pen, you know, so no erasing), I realized that there wasn't enough vertical space to place her husband and baby where they belonged--so they appear to be somewhat embedded in the table instead of sitting a foot higher behind it! I do like the palm trees.

I was happier with this one--this was a view of one of the merchants from behind the scenes, since that section of the market backs up to the open area with the tables. I like the variety of people I captured, and I love drawing the wickie-ups (tent tops).

My favorite part of the morning? There is a really talented busker who works the market every Sunday--he's probably my age or older, and my theory is that he's a vet, because he has one metal leg. He plays guitar really well and sings musically, usually a variety of songs from "my" era--the '70s--including the Beatles, Crosby, Stills & Nash, etc. This morning, though, he surprised us all with a skillful acoustic rendition of "Hit Me Baby One More Time." Move over, Britney Spears!