28 September 2016
BBW Shelf-talkers
Here are the last of the Banned Book Week shelf-talkers that I'm going to have time to make. But I'm enjoying making these, and am going to focus on doing one or two every week to put up in my Young Adult Fiction section for regular books that I like and want to recommend. They're pretty fast and easy, and fun!
27 September 2016
More shelf-talkers
Tonight, I had a program at the library, but since someone from the outside was actually running the program (an SAT Essay Writing seminar), all I had to do, after checking in all the participants and doing a couple of announcements, is sit at the back of the room and make sure everything ran smoothly. Not wanting to be bored, I brought myself some busywork--some shelf-talker forms, some micron pens, and my Altoids mini watercolor kit--and made half a dozen shelf-talkers. The only problem I had was, I had only a hazy idea or memory of some of the books for which I wanted to make shelf-talkers, so I made headlines and artwork for a bunch, but only completed two. I'll finish the rest tomorrow, when I have access to the books (or to a computer) for a summary, and then I'll share those too. I really enjoy making these shelf-talkers!
04 September 2016
Plein air breakfast hangout
My friend Carey has moved to Monrovia--both her household and her job (she used to be the head of the Reference Department at my library, and now she is the library director for the Monrovia Public Library, la di dah), and we miss lunching together a few times a week and talking librarian. So we decided to meet up halfway for breakfast yesterday. There are lots of places we could pick, between Monrovia and Van Nuys, but I suggested Montrose. I took an art workshop there once, and remembered it as a cute little town, eminently drawable, and with lots of restaurants, and I figured we could have breakfast and then I could stay to sketch, if the weather didn't turn too hot. So that's what we did.
We met at a neighborhood favorite called The Black Cow Café, and it is deservedly a hot spot--the food was great, the service was great, and even though they had a pretty full house, there was no hurrying us out the door so they could turn over the table--they let us sit and tell each other stories for two hours. Afterwards, Carey headed out with a to-go order of cheese-and-jalapeño biscuits (she had them with gravy for breakfast and pronounced them irresistible), while I moved directly across the street to a shady bench, to set up and paint the café. It wasn't what I had planned on painting, but I wanted to commemorate our morning. I think we have found "our" place to meet for future breakfast dates! (I wonder if Carey's boyfriend got a single one of those biscuits...)
We met at a neighborhood favorite called The Black Cow Café, and it is deservedly a hot spot--the food was great, the service was great, and even though they had a pretty full house, there was no hurrying us out the door so they could turn over the table--they let us sit and tell each other stories for two hours. Afterwards, Carey headed out with a to-go order of cheese-and-jalapeño biscuits (she had them with gravy for breakfast and pronounced them irresistible), while I moved directly across the street to a shady bench, to set up and paint the café. It wasn't what I had planned on painting, but I wanted to commemorate our morning. I think we have found "our" place to meet for future breakfast dates! (I wonder if Carey's boyfriend got a single one of those biscuits...)
It's challenging to mix all the colors I need from my portable palette, which is my Altoids tin with just five colors in it that I made last summer with the teens at the library. But I managed pretty well.
28 August 2016
Musical Interlude
I ended up working on Saturday this week, because we had a double program, one in the morning and one in the afternoon, and Anarda is on vacation (she works Tuesday-Saturday, so she takes the Saturday ones and I take the Monday ones).
Bay area jazz band Charged Particles came to our library to do a workshop for teens in the morning and a concert for everyone in the afternoon, so I hung out in the auditorium for most of the day, "running" the programs, which is to say, I did announcements, I welcomed people, I seated latecomers, and I sat myself for a couple of hours in the morning and a couple more in the afternoon while the performers did their thing. Not a bad way to spend a day, although being the introvert that I am, all that face time with actual people tired me out by the end!
The workshop for the teens was both a success and not a success: Jon, the band member who coordinated these programs with me, had the brilliant idea of getting in touch with all the music teachers at the Burbank middle and high schools and asking each of them to invite a couple of teens who were outstanding musicians to come specially to the program to "sit in" with the band. The music teachers all came through...but somehow, I'm afraid the idea was conveyed that the program was only for these students, when in reality it was for everyone with an interest in music! (The flyer was addressed to a general audience, but...maybe not clear to the teachers?)
So we had 10 exceptional young men (don't know where all the girl musicians were) who came, played, tried things out, learned some stuff about playing jazz, and had a great time, and other than that we had a couple more non-playing teens, and the proud families of the participating musicians, and that was it. I'm so sorry that more of our teens didn't come...but I'm also so happy for the ones who did, because they got a lot out of it. Live and learn--next time we will make sure the promotion is crystal clear!
If you'd like to see an album of photos, it's up on our Facebook page. But one way I kept myself entertained while everyone else was playing music and having fun was to do a few quick sketches.
This is Aaron, the bass player/guitarist, and Jon, the drummer. They sit so spread out that I miscalculated and couldn't get Murray, the keyboardist, into the picture (my sketchbook is square). I'll have to do another one of them from a photo so Murray isn't excluded.
And these are three of the young musicians who came to play--two alto saxophones and a trombone! I must say I'm partial to saxophone and can't imagine a jazz band without one...
These were all quick and rough, and you can tell that I have absolutely no knowledge of how these instruments are actually constructed and supposed to look! But it kept me entertained.
Bay area jazz band Charged Particles came to our library to do a workshop for teens in the morning and a concert for everyone in the afternoon, so I hung out in the auditorium for most of the day, "running" the programs, which is to say, I did announcements, I welcomed people, I seated latecomers, and I sat myself for a couple of hours in the morning and a couple more in the afternoon while the performers did their thing. Not a bad way to spend a day, although being the introvert that I am, all that face time with actual people tired me out by the end!
The workshop for the teens was both a success and not a success: Jon, the band member who coordinated these programs with me, had the brilliant idea of getting in touch with all the music teachers at the Burbank middle and high schools and asking each of them to invite a couple of teens who were outstanding musicians to come specially to the program to "sit in" with the band. The music teachers all came through...but somehow, I'm afraid the idea was conveyed that the program was only for these students, when in reality it was for everyone with an interest in music! (The flyer was addressed to a general audience, but...maybe not clear to the teachers?)
So we had 10 exceptional young men (don't know where all the girl musicians were) who came, played, tried things out, learned some stuff about playing jazz, and had a great time, and other than that we had a couple more non-playing teens, and the proud families of the participating musicians, and that was it. I'm so sorry that more of our teens didn't come...but I'm also so happy for the ones who did, because they got a lot out of it. Live and learn--next time we will make sure the promotion is crystal clear!
If you'd like to see an album of photos, it's up on our Facebook page. But one way I kept myself entertained while everyone else was playing music and having fun was to do a few quick sketches.
This is Aaron, the bass player/guitarist, and Jon, the drummer. They sit so spread out that I miscalculated and couldn't get Murray, the keyboardist, into the picture (my sketchbook is square). I'll have to do another one of them from a photo so Murray isn't excluded.
And these are three of the young musicians who came to play--two alto saxophones and a trombone! I must say I'm partial to saxophone and can't imagine a jazz band without one...
These were all quick and rough, and you can tell that I have absolutely no knowledge of how these instruments are actually constructed and supposed to look! But it kept me entertained.
22 August 2016
Weekend prompts
Friday's prompt was "favorite restaurant." That's a hard one--can you ever say definitively that just one place is your favorite? I think it depends on so many things...mood, time of year, expectations. But I can say this is ONE of my favorite restaurants, for its ambience, its wonderful Italian food, and the brewed-from-scratch Belgian hot chocolate that we often order in lieu of dessert!
LePen and watercolor.
Today's prompt was "favorite book." Well, if you know me at all, you know how impossible that one is! I could draw 40 and still think of 40 more. So I arbitrarily picked one for which I have a long-time soft spot. It's an old-fashioned romantic book about a house, a family, and a particular time and attitude, and I re-read it probably once every couple of years.
Today's prompt was "favorite book." Well, if you know me at all, you know how impossible that one is! I could draw 40 and still think of 40 more. So I arbitrarily picked one for which I have a long-time soft spot. It's an old-fashioned romantic book about a house, a family, and a particular time and attitude, and I re-read it probably once every couple of years.
Pencil and watercolor. This was a tough one to paint! I have to admit to a tiny bit of touch-up work on the lettering afterwards in Photoshop Elements.
Saturday's prompt, "favorite person," is yet to come. I tried a portrait and it was a big fat fail. I'm going to give it another shot soon.
21 August 2016
More favorites
I'm running behind on the WWG prompts, but here are three more:
Favorite article of clothing
Here's my favorite skirt. It's a thin white cotton with another thin cotton lining, on an elasticized stitched waistband. It's in primary colors plus green and pink and gray, so you can wear a lot of different stuff with it. But mainly, I like it because it's patterned with urban sketching! I did an inset vignette so you could see the kind of thing. I'm thinking they're meant to be Miami, or Cuba, because of the cars, palm trees, and style of houses, but it always makes me feel très Française when I wear it, for some reason.
Favorite article of clothing
Here's my favorite skirt. It's a thin white cotton with another thin cotton lining, on an elasticized stitched waistband. It's in primary colors plus green and pink and gray, so you can wear a lot of different stuff with it. But mainly, I like it because it's patterned with urban sketching! I did an inset vignette so you could see the kind of thing. I'm thinking they're meant to be Miami, or Cuba, because of the cars, palm trees, and style of houses, but it always makes me feel très Française when I wear it, for some reason.
Favorite place in your home:
My rocking chair. Because reading.
Favorite family keepsake:
There are many, and I painted this quickie a while back. This is a wall pocket I inherited from my mom, who had a large collection of them. She got me started collecting too, so now I have more than 40! They are not all up on the wall, but at least half of them are. This is from the McCoy Pottery in Ohio, probably circa about 1920. It's a birdbath.
More to come--the weekend isn't over yet!
14 August 2016
And the following weekend...
I've given up on Every Day in August. Plus, I like the prompts from World Watercolor Group better. So here are my three from the weekend:
Favorite Beach
It may not be my favorite (too crowded, too hard to find parking), but being an Angeleno, what else could I do for this one but the iconic Venice Beach?
This is Micron pen and watercolor. I bought this long skinny sketchbook to get myself to do more panoramic views like this, but you have to work pretty small (it's 6x12 inches). It may take me a while to fill it.
Favorite Cup or Mug
This is my favorite mug aesthetically (a gift from Anarda, who has excellent taste), but I don't drink coffee out of it much because it's so big and wide open that the coffee gets cold too fast. But it's great for drinkable soup! I decided to try this one à la Liz Steel--I made a faint pencil outline of the cup, and everything else was painted spontaneously without drawing it first. I was hoping for a little more control, but I hurried through it and the red got away from me. Should have given it a lot more time to dry between colors. But it gives the flavor of the mug.
Favorite Beach
It may not be my favorite (too crowded, too hard to find parking), but being an Angeleno, what else could I do for this one but the iconic Venice Beach?
Favorite Cup or Mug
This is my favorite mug aesthetically (a gift from Anarda, who has excellent taste), but I don't drink coffee out of it much because it's so big and wide open that the coffee gets cold too fast. But it's great for drinkable soup! I decided to try this one à la Liz Steel--I made a faint pencil outline of the cup, and everything else was painted spontaneously without drawing it first. I was hoping for a little more control, but I hurried through it and the red got away from me. Should have given it a lot more time to dry between colors. But it gives the flavor of the mug.
Favorite Ocean Creature
I love sea otters. I think they must be the cats of the ocean--fuzzy, cute, playful, mischievous. I guess you could say the same thing about dogs, but I'm a cat person, so...cats.
This was hard to paint, especially on sketchbook paper. Fur is hard enough without trying to convey the difference between wet fur and dry fur, and fur that is under the water! Props to pet portrait artists--who knew it was so tough?
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