Sketchbook Wanderings

 

I've been enjoying Koosje Koene's YouTube channel & book, and find that she's right in saying that even the most mundane thing becomes interesting when you draw it.  

Here are a few simple subjects I picked to draw, just for practice and the joy of drawing!

I hope you find a cozy moment to sketch your pet, your snacks, or anything in your life!

Osher Figure Drawing with Model Jamie

We had a new model last Friday in Osher Figure Drawing class named Jamie.  She's quite skilled and creative, and she helped us to sharpen our ability to draw foreshortening.

We started with two-minute continuous line drawings of Jamie's expressive gestures.  Her poses were alive and sensitive, and we could see her background as a dancer shining through in her movements.

We moved on to two-minute foreshortening gestures.  Our goals were to

1) Find a foreshortened limb to focus on.

2) Draw the bone structure underneath the foreshortened limb and supporting area, 

noticing the shortened appearance of the foreshortened bit.

3) Draw the outer body around the bones.

We built Jamie's foreshortened body from her skeleton up.

We were warmed up and ready to deal with more complexity.  Jamie took an hour-long pose, with breaks of course, and we delved into expressing her pose, foreshortening and all.

Many thanks to model Jamie. I could see the way her creativity inspired my students to draw lively, fresh compositions.

Watercolor Flowers Class: The Power of Play

 

The sight of fresh, colorful blooms and foliage inspired my students & me in my Watercolor Spring Flowers class at the Community College of Beaver County. 

We began the class by playing with our new watercolor supplies.

The painting above is a demo I made in class, to show how to pick up paints and lay them down, how to create the background after the first washes had dried, and to show the power of putting color opposites next to each other.

I wasn't trying to make anything in particular.  I was just playing.

After class, I added more watercolors and used Posca paint pens for details.  I plan to make color copies of this painting to create greeting cards with.

Below is another demonstration painting I made in class to show the steps in painting flowers. I notice I like the parts best where I was just messing around and listening to the little voice of my intuition.

Color at this gray time of year (for those of us in the Northern Hemisphere) can lift the spirits and give us a way to express our feelings. 

I hope you take the time this week to pick up your art supplies and play with color!

Figure Drawing with Amelia

Model Amelia kicked off our first class of the semester at Osher with athletic, artistic poses.  

We jumped right in with rapid 5-line drawings to warm our hands and eyes up.

 

Turning our charcoals on their sides, we created mass gestures from Amelia's expressive poses.

As we warmed up, we added a few contour lines.

We finished the class with a lovely pose for our long drawing.

It felt good to be back in the studio drawing again.  

Many thanks to model Amelia for her inspiring poses!

Daffy Down Dillies for Self Care

This time of year, you find potted flowering bulbs like daffodils and tulips in the stores, offering a taste of spring at the end of winter.

I use these flowers in my artistic self-care routine by sketching and painting them.  When I draw or paint something, I connect with it deeply, and connecting with the vitality of fragrant daffodils lifts my spirits.

I started this painting by mixing the colors I saw in the blooms, and choosing a composition.  I sketched with my watercolors rather than using a pencil.

After letting the first washes dry, I added shadows in the yellow blooms by mixing Permanent Blue Violet with Cadmium Yellow Hue.  I used Permanent Rose mixed with Viridian Hue to make leaf shadows.

Orange yellow and blue violet are opposite each other on the color wheel, and so are rose and green.  

Whenever you mix a color with its opposite, you create neutral browns & grays.  

When you place two color opposites next to each other, they create bold contrasts that catch the eye.

At this stage, I thought about leaving the negative space around the flowers white, but I decided to add a bit of drama to the scene using color opposites.

I painted the area around the flowers with clear water, then touched in a brush rich with color, working quickly and using Permanent Blue Violet, Permanent Rose and French Ultramarine Blue allowing the colors to blend on the page. 

Before the washes had dried, I sprinkled in table salt to add a feathery texture.

After the painting had completely dried, I brushed off the table salt.

Playing with color opposites is a great way to liven up your artworks. 

Why not play with paints, markers, colored pencils or whatever you have on hand for creative self care?

You're worth it!

Art at the Beach, Part 3

The ocean waves rolling into the beach where David and I visited were stronger on the second day of our stay. I could hear the pounding surf all day long as we sat up by the dunes.  We could feel the energy of the waves washing over us, & scouring the grayness of winter from our bodies.

Our first day on the beach happened to coincide with low tide, and the beach was littered with beautiful shells.  I gathered a handful and made pencil sketches.

 

I enjoyed following the delicate lines of the shells, looking mostly at the shells sitting on the sand, and only occasionally at my drawing.

You can begin a journal with any theme you like, from nature observations, to your travels, to journals of imaginary characters.  

I hope you'll give yourself the gift of time sketching this week!

Art at the Beach, Part 2

The beauty of a travel journal is that you can quickly capture the scenes and mood of a place to lock it into your memory.

On our recent Florida beach trip, the gorgeous turquoise and cobalt blue of the Atlantic Ocean caught my eye and inspired this quick watercolor sketch of a fishing boat motoring down the beach.

A friendly beach-goer wearing an Army sunhat sat for me to sketch him in my journal.

A first sketch - like this one of the dune - may not look "pretty" or perfect.  It's helping you to see the scene before you and figure out how to draw it.

Here's the second attempt.

And below is a study of the Sea Oats at the front of the beach dune.

As easy as it is to snap a cell phone picture, research shows that making a sketch instead will help you recall more details about your experience -- the people, the colors, the conversations, your feelings, etc. 

Each of these sketches were made at the beach, in the moment, and each one carries with it memories of those moments. 

All you need to lock in memories like this is a small journal -- mine is 6" x 8" -- and a drawing implement -- a pencil, a marker or even a ballpoint pen. Keep these items handy for a quiet visit to a coffee shop, while you're talking on the phone, or to take with you on a short "art date" by yourself. 

Happy Sketching & Memory Making!

Beach Postcard Painting Inspiration

One way to keep enjoying your vacation once you return home is to create from your photos. 

 I have been diving back into pics from our recent Florida trip.

 The beauty of the wild dunes and the clean ocean sand made me wish I had more time to paint the scene while there in person, so I snapped this photo with my cell phone.

I've used this photo to create a little postcard.  This one is roughly 3" x 6".  The first washes were made with a number 8 round brush.

I finished the card with a number 1 rigger brush (shown in the top picture). 

Why not dig out your favorite photos from a past trip and immerse yourself in them artfully?  

Or find a photo of a place you'd like to visit and make a journal entry, a post card or a painting. 

 Follow your intuition!

And remember that you're not a camera, you're not trying to create an exact replica of the scene in the photograph.  Your goal can be to simply experience the beauty you see in a photo.