Grandpa

I recently went to see my family in northern California. One morning, my parents had to go out for some appointments and I jumped at the opportunity to sketch. I wandered around the house and came across a photo of my grandfather. When my parents returned, I showed them my sketch and asked if they knew who it was. Immediately my mom said, "It's daddy." Later in the day, both of my sisters came to visit and when I showed them, they immediately said, "It's grandpa." So, though I know where I goofed, it apparently DOES look like he did. He passed away 42 years ago this past Christmas and the photo was quite faded. It was probably taken of him when he was in his 40s which makes the photo about 65 years old. He was a farmer in Oklahoma. I was only 10 years old when he died, but I remember him very well. He was a very loving and sensitive man. I remember how he tilled the soil with a one-horse plow and oh how I loved to walk along behind him! In the evenings he would sit on the front porch and play his harmonica. To this day, when I hear a harmonica, I think of my grandpa. What a lovely memory to start my 2007 art with.

2007 Art Goals. I've been pondering. . . and ruminating. . . and just plain thinking for WEEKS about what I'd like to set up for personal art goals for 2007. In March of 2006 I met an online art friend, Lin Frye, who had made a committment to sketch every day of the year. Through thick and thin and all her busyness, she accomplished the task beautifully! Well, it is from her wonderful example that I decided to set goals for 2007. Here they are: 1 - Sketch and/or Paint Every Day 2 - Do All the EDM challenges (this means starting with #1) I'm going to dedicate one journal just for EDM challenges. 3 - Work through the art books in my personal library - "work" them, not just read them. 4 - Start a nature journal. 5 - Use Calligraphy in journals. (I need to restore my old skills!) 6 - Attend at least one Workshop - probably the one in Burbank in October. This list has challenge (every day) but it also has some flexibility. For example, #2 through #5 can really apply to #1. I'm not going to necessarily complete one work each day, but I'm going to WORK on art every day.

Gazebo in the Children's Garden at Huntington Library and Gardens

This was primarily done in watercolor. Derwent Graphitint Pencils were used on the gazebo and the bench. I went to the Huntington last Thursday and had never gone through the Children's Garden -- what a tremendous job they did constructing this area! To get to the garden, you walk through a conservatory. The garden was just delightful!! There were a couple of these gazebos, constructed from iron. The red hearts near the top look like red glass, and they add such a beautiful touch.

Chiaroscuro Lion

This is my first chiaroscuro. It was done for my online sketching class. It was fun and now I'm eager to try another one, but I'll wait for Kate's critique as I'm not sure this is correct.

Young Koala The wonderful photo for this young koala was taken by Susan at http://www.flickr.com/photos/tiger_empress/ who so graciously gave me permission to sketch this little cutie! He/she is now sleeping on his own, without the arms of mama around him. Thank you, Susan! Your photos are SUPERB!!

Koala Mama and Baby Sleeping

Isn't this just the cutest pose! I found the reference photo on Yotophoto and couldn't resist drawing it. This is still a work for lesson 2 -- I drew upside down again (LOVE that method!!), plus there were some negative spaces that I watched for and measured against, I used a variety of ways of holding the pencil, and blended in a circular motion using a tortillon to get the look of dense fur.

Tiger

This was drawn upside down - no, I wasn't upside down, the photo reference and my sketch pad were upside down. The object of this lesson 2 exercise is to train one to draw what is seen - not what the brain tells us something should look like. An excellent exercise to stimulate the eye/hand and bypass the brain. I found the photo reference on WetCanvas--such an excellent source for photos!!

Meerkat

I just love these little creatures! I'm so addicted to the Animal Planet show, "Meerkat Manor." LOL!! I found the reference photo in WetCanvas. This was originally done first as a sketch for my sketching class, then I added light watercolor. This was done in an Aquabee Sketch Pad and it's the first time I've used watercolor in it so I wasn't sure how well it would take water -- it did great, but I did work with a light touch and very little water. The original sketch was a practice with gesture sketching and also negative space (the triangular spaces within the legs). I'm still getting accustomed to my new scanner, the pigments on the meerkat came out pretty true, but the dead tree in the background has a little more detail in real life and the spatters on the foreground are more pronounced. For the spatters, I used watercolor pencils -- just dabbed some random dots and then used a wet brush on them. This technique worked pretty well! I didn't have to worry about getting spatters on the meerkat.

Yupo Sunflowers

My second Yupo experience. I drew the sunflowers with a rapidosketch fine point pen with permanent ink. The blue background is watercolor that I gently dabbed with a tissue for some texture before it was dry. The lighter version was done with Derwent Inktense Watercolor Pencils applied dry and gently blended with a wet brush. I thought it was too pale, so the darker version is where I added a layer of watercolor pigments. I was very careful with this layer as I wanted the lighter pencil pigments to show through.

Hibiscus On Yupo
Well this was fun!! I've seen some watercolor work done on Yupo on the WetCanvas site and have been quite intrigued with it. It is not paper at all, but plastic with an extremely smooth surface. It IS sold as "suitable for all watercolor techniques." Since it is plastic, the paint and/or water does NOT penetrate it - it just kind of floats around until it dries. If you don't like something, you just wipe it off with a tissue - ha. Of course, if you want it to last, a fixative would have to be used on the finished work. I bought my Yupo from Dick Blick, but it is available from other suppliers as well. Because I have a tendency to be the controller, this was really a step out of my comfort zone as the watercolor is the controller and I became the controllee. Some Wetcanvas tips I remembered as I was going along with this are 1) Do NOT touch the area you will be painting. Skin oil puts a protective shield on the plastic and the paint will not adhere--you can see the white areas on this where my fingers touched the surface, but it was a happy goof because I rather liked the splotches! 2) Lay down the paint and move it around with a brush, or tilt the paper this way and that and let it run 3) To layer, make sure undercoat is completely dry, with a light touch apply the next layer. Once liquid is applied, the undercoat will become liquid again so much care needs to be taken. 4) If you totally goof, wipe it clean with wet tissue, Qtip or just dunk it in the sink and completely wash it off. 5) Do NOT use a blowdryer to dry it - Yupo can and will melt. A blowdryer on cool setting would probably not melt it, but it might make the paint run in places you don't want it. All in all, this was quite a liberating experience for me and I am eager to try this Yupo with some other mediums--wonder how permanent ink sketching would look - hmmmm.

Morning Quiet Place

The November theme in Kate's alumni group is things we are thankful for. I have a chair in my living room where I read my bible and pray in the mornings. There are many objects in this painting that are symbolic for things I am thankful for in my life. I love America, I am so thankful I live in a country where I am free to own a bible and I am free to read it. I'm thankful that the word of God has been preserved for us and that the wisdom found in it pertain to all times, all generations and all situations. I'm thankful my husband shares my faith and respects my quiet place. I'm thankful I have raised my children and I no longer have to hurry through my morning quiet time. I'm thankful for electricity and while I love my oil lamp, I'm very thankful I don't have to rely upon it for light to read! I love the doily the lamp sits on and I am thankful for an aunt who taught me to crochet when I was 12 years old. One final note. . . the colors in this did not scan true, IRL the chair is a merlot color.

Leaves on Stairs.

Here's another Autumn scene. I think this may be my first work that included some architectural design. It was from a photo reference.

Autumn Pond.

This was just another quick exercise in trying to get a looser style going. There was a really nice photo in our local paper this morning of a tree at the edge of a pond. There were ducks in the pond and more ducks flying in for a landing. OBVIOUSLY, I didn't paint from that photo - LOL!! However, it did give me an image in my head that I painted from. I guess this was simplification to the max. I'm just so happy to have some time to paint lately!!

June Lake Aspens.

June Lake is on the eastern side of the California-Nevada Sierra Mountains. Along one side of the lake are aspens that have glorious color in the autumn. When my children were growing up, we went camping at June Lake every year and have many fond memories of our time there when we would fish and hike. One year as we were hiking, our Alaskan Malamute, Nikki, thought she could ford a rapidly moving stream. She was caught up and went down a very steep, boulder strewn waterfall! We all went tearing down the mountain after her (I don't know why we did this as there was no way any one of us could've gotten her out of that predicament). She got herself out with only one minor cut below her eye. She was very stiff and sore the next day, but handled it all rather well. We still think of that time and know it was nothing short of a miracle that she survived! Bears from nearby Yosemite would visit this campground frequently. One time we were sitting around our evening campfire and I actually smelled the bear that walked past our camp - a very musky odor! The next day we heard from fellow campers that this particular bear had sat near their tent and watched as their tethered dog barked at him. He must've known the dog couldn't charge and was quite arrogant about it. My memories are so vivid of this place and this painting does NOT do it justice. Maybe someday I'll be able to really capture the magnificence of it.

Red Apples. I wanted to do something really quick and also a bit loose -- I REALLY need practice with "loose!!" This was a good exercise and was fun to work on.
It is apple harvest season and my DH and I went to Tehachapi yesterday afternoon for a BBQ with some friends. I'd hoped to go early enough to buy some apples at one of the orchards, but time didn't allow. I guess that's why I had apples on my mind today and decided to paint this from a reference photo.

Autumn Stream.

Well, here's another autumn landscape for this month's theme. I'm just not happy with this, but posted it anyway because it's good to see improvement later on - ha. I just really, really want to get to the point where my watercolors are more washy. Maybe it's a "control" issue and I want to control the paint instead of just letting it flow where it wants. I think the palette is okay and there are lights and darks, maybe there should be more of those though. Ugh! Reference photo is from Zion National Park and I left out the big Watchman Mountain in the background -- I like challenges, but that was a bit much.

Autumn Tree.

Continuing with the autumn/harvest theme in Kate's Alumni group, I found the reference photo for this on Flickr. I'm especially happy with the little stream and how it really does appear to be fading away into the horizon. The pigments used on the tree trunk are darker than they appear on the scan - actually, the whole thing is darker than scanned! I enjoyed doing this little landscape and still want to do some more this month.

Cabernet Revised. I've added more leaves and grapes and also shaded the right side of the clusters to create the light source. It's still not what I had in my brain, but I think it's an improvement.

Now. . . back to my book studying to prepare to do a autumn landscape.

Second Cabernet. I struggled BIG TIME with these clusters. I like the leaves, but the grapes. . . especially the second cluster from the right - it's really wonka. I'm going through my art books for pointers on landscapes. I REALLY, REALLY want to do an autumn landscape for this month's theme.

Cabernet Harvest. The October theme for Kate's Alumni Group is Autumn/Harvest. I grew up in a small town in Northern California grape and wine country. A vivid memory I have is the harvest of the grapes in the fall. There was a winery near the elementary school I attended and I remember getting off the school bus and the pungent, sour aroma of the fermenting grapes permeating the cool, crisp fall air. All of us kids would wrinkle up our noses and say, yuck! Although I now live in Southern California, we have cool mornings in the fall and that special smell that comes with cooler weather always reminds me of the wineries of Northern California. This was done on Cotman paper, it is 7 x 9 and the paints are WN.