Bruges

I'm a bad blogger. Sorry to u folks who signed up to follow me, then got nothing but dead air. I instagram all the time and cross load to twitter and fb, so u can go follow me there for a lot more content. Not sure why the blog doesn't grab me any more.
But anyway, here's a grim version of a bridge in Bruges, sketched from a pic in a book. I really need to practice cause my perspective is dreadful.

altoids tin

Ran out of fruit to draw so did the Altoids tin. Need to move on to flowers or at least stuff from outside cause it appeals to me more and I take more care.

persimmon season

I didn't even know I liked persimmons until last autumn when I tried one at the farmer's market. I loved the solid crunch and different flavor. I ate them two or three a day until they were gone from the market, and missed them, like I miss nectarines when they're out of season. So a couple weeks ago they were back and I stocked up that day and each Sunday since, eating them diced into my cereal, sauteed in butter, brown sugar and chili sauce, and just chunked up as a snack.

I'm taking Jane La Fazio's art journal sketchbook class online and the first lesson was this past Sunday. Not quite as much to it as I was hoping for but I expect it'll get busier and then I'll be complaining that I can't keep up. Never happy. I haven't sketched in a while, since whenever I last posted one, so I grabbed a persimmon and spent about 20 minutes doing this sketch.

This is a sketchbook I made from my mom's old pad of paper, prolly from the early 1940s. I instagrammed the book but don't think I blogged about it yet. The paper is cold pressed and very textured. I had to work to get decent paint coverage.

I'm still pretty happy with my work and hope to improve a bit with Jane's influence and instruction. There should be a fair amount of sketching posts during the next 6 weeks of class.

Not sure what I was thinking when I did the date.
Maybe the British method of putting the day first.
Anyway it was Nov 9th.

it was that or nothing

Went to Oakland airport recently to pick up my stepson who lives in Africa. We were a bit early so parked in the cell phone waiting lot. Knowing we'd probably wait, I'd brought a book to read and my sketchbook. Didn't feel like reading so looked around for something to draw. Big boring buildings and lots of cars. <snore> By sitting sideways in my seat, I was able to see the hillside across the road. Still not terribly fascinating but it was that or nothing so I sketched it.

Took a photo of it before we left so that I could paint it later. Just got around to that this morning and once again, I'm pretty happy with it, considering it's a hillside devoid of flowers, with a guardrail along the top and pavement below. The yellow part coming down thru the grass is where they must have re-seeded or something. It was dry and scruffy looking, much like I painted it. As I said, little to choose from.

But yay for the continued sketching!

more dog park sketching

Hit the dog park again on Monday and while Maggie ran her legs off, I sketched the trees in front of my bench. Didn't have my paints with me so finished it off this evening using memory and artistic license.

I've realized that I'm a lazy sketcher. I don't wanna scribble in enough pine needles beneath the trees to make it actually look like pine needles. So after I did the tree on the left, I didn't even bother with the tree on the right, but it needs it so I may add them in.

My shadows need work too. It all needs work but I'm enjoying it and the more I do, the less I care about the small stuff like pine needles. And maybe shadows. 

So my work will prolly always look something like this and amazingly enough, I'm ok with that. Which is a huge step forward from where I was before Mary Ann's class.

I got impatient and painted over the letters before the ink was dry. <sigh>

sketching at the dog park

So I signed up for Sketchbook Skool and wasn't super impressed with the first batch of videos, so signed up for Sketchbookery by Mary Ann Moss. Her goofy teaching methods are much more my style. And, throwing caution to the winds, I began to sketch willy nilly, not worrying about how straight my lines were, just kept going, as she instructed. I've posted a few things already, most of what I've done actually, and am really happy that somewhere along the way, I became pleased with what I was doing. Not too critical, like I usually am, just happy that my drawings looked enough like what they were to be recognizable, and that they had some character.

I'll do a more thorough review of both classes soon. Need to watch the last couple Sketchbook Skool classes to see if it got better. But for now, here's a quick sketch from the dog park. I had to take Maggie to the vet for shots and figured she needed a treat afterwards. I was sitting on a bench drawing while she ran around. The dog park isn't terribly interesting so I just drew the scene looking toward the back of the park.

It's in a small Moleskine sketchbook, so the spread is about 7"w x 5.5" tall. I water colored it after I got home. It got the most hearts on Instagram of any pic I ever posted.

Sketchbookery Class

As I mentioned last post, I signed up for Mary Ann Moss's Sketchbookery class and am really enjoying it. For the first time ever, I'm sketching and painting with acceptable results. The most useful part of the class (for me) are the videos where she shows an object and then films herself sketching it. Just watching someone draw something has been more helpful than anything.

I made a sketchbook for class, using the cover from a hardback book, reinforcing the spine with duct tape. For the first time I used hot press watercolor paper - which I had to order online, nobody around here had it - for the signatures. Started with 9x12 paper simply folded in half so my book is about 6x9, a good size. A Goldilocks size, not too big, not too small.

Quite like the smoothness of the hot press paper. First time I used it was for my hydrangea drawing. That was before I made the book, so I just bound it in as the first page.

I didn't use the binding stitch she shows for the class cause I wanted to try long stitch. I perused a bunch of pics on Google images and then played with dots and lines on a piece of scrap paper before binding my book. I wasn't terribly on center when I punched the holes but I like the basic idea.

I may rebind it paying more attn to the top and bottom rows of stitches. I wanted a thicker looking line there and meant to make loops instead of stitches, but forgot.

Inside front cover.
Not finished doodling, I don't think.
Love that turq and orange together.

Wanted to do some lettering but wasn't into finding a quote
so I just did the book I'm reading.
Then added a leaf from my coral bells out front.  

Testing the colors of the little box of pearlescent paints
I bought at Nasco when Julie was here.
So lucky to have that place nearby.
They have only 3 retail stores nationwide
and one of them is 30-40 minutes from me.
Will draw some more bugs, then paint them. 

pink hydrangea drawing

I signed up for Mary Ann Moss's Sketchbookery class, in the wild hopes of learning to sketch and watercolor just well enough to satisfy my own fairly low expectations. Unfortunately, I'm not really patient enough to go thru the drill of many blind contour drawings, many more semi-blind contour drawings, etc, etc.

I just wanna be able to draw. Now.

But that's not how it works. That's not how any of this works.    (how I love that commercial)

But I forged ahead and last night sat down with a will and a purpose - to draw and paint something recognizable. I went slowly (sooo difficult) and drew what I saw, not what I thought I saw.

Then I painted it, again going slowly and really looking at my subject, changing my paint colors little by little as I layered.

And a crazy thing happened. I drew and painted something I'm happy with.

Behold.

It's not a Monet but it's way the hell better than anything I've done before.

So thanks, Mary Ann! I may end up being able to sketch after this class.