Black Hole of Calcutta Falls

Black Hole of Calcutta Falls:  Sounds like a crazy name for a waterfall, and it wasn't that spectacular, but it was a quiet shady spot with charm. I decided to just use pencil instead of using watercolors, but I might be inspired to do a watercolor later.  Pencil seemed easier when I started, but there are so many subtle shades and colors.  And the water cascading over black rocks...quite a challenge.

I love waterfalls but realized that I had never painted (or drawn) one before.  The water splashing over the rocks is unique compared to the slow moving river that I have been working with. 

The Oak within the Acorn

A quick colored pencil sketch inspired by a talk at Clarity Academy of Spiritual Arts by Dr. Kim, about how the potential of the acorn to become a great oak is within all of us!
Check out the new entry, "Potential", the oak within the acorn, revisited and renamed.

Bridge over the American River

Today was such a beautiful day in Sacramento, I just had to get outside.  I've been cooped up inside because of rain or just being to cold to go out. (Ha, ha! I know I'm talking low 50's here. I'm just spoiled with California weather)  I have just been trying to get over this creative block that prevents me from even getting started.  But the good part of this is that I'm actually caught up on my blogging and I actually did this TODAY! (Not last month or a couple of weeks ago like I normally start) 

 It has been a while since I was out painting along the American River, but I am drawn to this peaceful strip of land amidst the hustle and bustle of Sacramento.  The Watt Avenue Bridge is one of those spots that the two converge.  I particularly liked the pattern of light and dark created by the support beams, and especially the triangles of afternoon light formed by the sun peeking under the bridge.

I've been working on different techniques such as mixing the color directly on the paper and using a dry brush. I like the way the dry brush strokes on the bottom left created the appearance of the sun shimmering off the rapids in the water.  I'm still working on being patient enough to let areas of the painting dry before laying down the next layer. Sometimes the resulting "bleed" creates a nice effect, like the trunk of the tree on the left. Other times its not so good (under the middle of the bridge).  I also feel there are some perspective issues on the bridge...next time I will need to bring a ruler or straight edge to keep my lines and perspective straight!

Model painting January

Back to Patris Art Studio for more figure drawing opportunities!  I'm not much of a plein aire fan when its cold  or the weather is unpredictable so I've been working indoors. There was quite a crowd there, so I know I'm not the only one that feels that way! Plus I can't pass up  the chance to have a free model every second Saturday.  I find the challenge more in the clothing than the figure.  This particular time, the model is wearing a fur jacket and hat (faux fur, I hope). The sheen on the jacket is difficult to capture as well as the texture of the collar. I like the way I was able to capture the "letter" and the bench she was on through negative painting.

dry erase pen  vs. vis-a-vis pen

 
The second drawing was a detail of the face of the same pose (since it was a long pose). I tried the Expo pen again to continue experimenting with it.  I did a little test in the bottom right corner to check how much it would bleed when wet: first with the Expo dry erase pen and then with a Vis-a-vis pen (also by Expo by the way). The dry erase held up much better to the water. The picture turned out a little "cartoony" but I like it.  It is definitely a different style for me. I also felt more confident with my washes without worrying about losing detail.
 I noticed the I've been stuck on profiles so I'll have to get there early next month so I'm in front and not on the side of the model again! Can you tell it's the same model from my December sketches?

That's me on the FAR left! Photo by Patris

Leilani's Competition

It's always fun to try something new. This competition that Leilani Joy put together fell right into that category: use one of Leilani's templates to create a character (full details on her website).  

Definitely not my typical landscape drawings! I thought it would be a good opportunity to get my 15 year old daughter involved in some art, too. I want her to have a chance to explore her creativity now and not wait as long as I did!

 She decided to use colored pencil for her character.

I stuck with watercolor (we all have our comfort zones!) The first one looks like it needed some defining lines so on the second one, I started by outlining the figure with Expo pen just to try it out.  This was an idea I had gotten from David Peterson. He likes using it because the ink doesn't bleed with the water... I like the effect, but I thinkI needed a finer point. 

There was definitely a difference from my regular painting plein air or from a photo. This required me to create it from my imagination, not something I've excersiced recently. I'll have to practice that one...

I also need to learn how to apply make-up to make the eyes pop! Ha,ha! Just kidding

I ended up printing the templates onto plain copy paper and not onto watercolor paper. This was a challenge because the paper's absorbancy was SO poor.  The color ran, the paper warped and wrinkled...I'm sticking with my watercolor paper!

Check out Leilani's website http://www.leilanijoy.com/

Model sketching December

I haven't done a drawing from a model for over 20 years, back when I was in college. So in the spirit of trying new things, I went to Patris Studio and Gallery (formerly Studio S12 but renamed due to moving to a new location on 26th St). The great thing is that every second Saturday of the month, they have a free model sitting from 3-6:00 pm. The host of the event is Patris, a very sweet and artistic lady, that makes you feel right at home.  She has a lot of her artwork displayed in her gallery as well as work from several other artists - quite impressive works!

The model was doing one long pose, but I decided to just do some pencil drawings to start. When I went to look for my watercolors, I had forgotten them, but I had some pastels instead. So I thought they worked well as just a background color. Since the model wasn't moving, I decided I needed to move to get some different perspective.  There were so many other artists at the studio taking advantage of this opportunity that the choices were limited, so I ended up all the way on the side where the model's profile had direct lighting.

I definitely had a good time at this studio. I'm going to put this on my calender for next month!  Patris offers classes, other model sessions, and more...check out her blog  at http://patrisstudiogallery.blogspot.com/

Wet on wet (on wet!)

On a cold winter Saturday morning, I went down to the American River to practice some wet-on-wet techniques. The sky was more of a dark grey, and the trees were probably not as green as the color I picked, but I was just laying some background color in to represent the far bank of the river. The near bank was just mud and grass so I started with laying down brown and some green highlights.

At this point, I've been wetting just the area of paper that I'm going to color and then laying in the color, moving it around to cover the space, tilting my pad slightly to allow gravity to help. I tried to keep a thin area of dry paper between each section to keep it all from bleeding together (had some trouble with that on the far left). 

And then it started to rain! So my very wet paper started to get even more wet, but each raindrop was creating a nice effect on my painting. (I wonder if I could recreate the effect in a controled environment?)  At some point though, I had to cover it for fear of complete destruction of the peice, but in the process of trying to protect it from the rain I touched the wet paper causing blemishes on the left side.

So the question that I have now: Where do I go from here? Add in details- trees, reeds -to cover the blemishes and finish the scene I started? Or, as I look at this scene now, I'm more reminded of a starry night on Lake Tahoe.  Or just paint the Golden Gate Bridge and make the foreground San Francisco and the background Marin County. What do you think?