Tuesday is painting class day, generally oil or acrylic, but for the time being I am working with artists’ gouache, a water-based medium. It can be reworked, and thus, perfect for practice, quick drying, ease of use, and so on. Also, I can travel light. I don’t need to lift things up and down – I have a heavy cart on wheels for my oil paints – and that is another reason I am currently using gouache. I pulled a muscle in my back and don’t want to push it – the flood did that, so let’s be lazy. Like a cat.
You can see I used the basic elements of proportion and design from Willshire’s book I mentioned in my previous post. Reference photos for ginger cats were used for fur patterns. The ears are a bit wonky and the muzzle is not the best, but this is also my first foray into cat painting in gouache!
After this, I did a silhouette of a cat. While I remembered the overall proportions of a cat, I referred to general sizes and proportions for this view of a cat. I rather like it. Again, gouache.
This painting is less fiddly than the first one, and it was fun to just be expressive about the critter. I like it pretty well.
And now we come to Mr. Grumpy Britches! This is a work in progress and I hope to do more on it later today and post the final painting when it is done. This is a very fluffy, furry cat. Cats just crack me up!
The inky black cats have evolved. I decided I needed to invest in a bit of education about the build of cats and their proportions. I found some good resources to learn from, such as ones on YouTube, but since video does not play well outdoors in the sun, I opted for a book. I downloaded one for Kindle calledDrawing Cats: A Step-by-Step Guide for Artists by Aimee Willshire. It had what I needed – a basic skeleton and a bit of a formula in proportions to make a drawing that can pass as a cat if I am lucky. As with portraits or people, or anything, there are essential dimensions upon which you can place individual features. I found it helpful and simple, which is really what I wanted.
So, sitting in the sun, I looked at the Kindle book and used pencil and ballpoint pen. Here are the results.
There is more in Willshire’s book, such as facial proportions, as well as specific exercises and suggestions. For basics, I am pleased enough to continue with more kitties, time permitting.
One thing about having to clean up and discard damaged items from the flood is that I found a lot of things I had lost, buried in the debris. I also cleaned out the garage for 4 hours the other day, reorganizing my loads of loads. My muscles are sore and my mind is blank. There are still some things in the living room, but as the bins are full, I am forced to take a break. That’s good.
One thing I found was some sumi-e ink and thin paper for practicing traditional painting strokes. I still had a bit of a knack for ink painting – one of the founding subjects of this blog, too – but don’t have quite all I need. Nonetheless, I decided to try my hand with my ink stick, suzuri, brushes, and rice paper.
Nothing spectacular. I managed to remember a few things. I also realized I had to find a few other things, like a felt mat and some paper weights to hold my paper steady. Easily done.
From there, I drew a cat in purple ink, thinking about painting cats could be fun.
And easy.
And I found out they are not easy!
So, I tried to follow a few “how-to” videos on YouTube, I got frustrated and had an epiphany: I much rather paint in my own way, not following traditional formulaic representations. And this is not to put these traditional ways down – they are amazing in their own right – but I find it very frustrating to paint like someone else. Learn from someone, from tradition, but ultimately go on my own path.
So, I painted some cats. I copied some, I looked at photos of cats, and that is when I realized I need to learn more about controlling my brush and the shades of grey and black and manage the moisture on the paper. So, inky black cats, some of which may give you nightmares, but working on their shapes and using my brush has opened my mind to a lot of potentials. That is the exciting part!
Today I have to head over to Simi Valley, where the fire I wrote about yesterday is still burning. Because I have to go there to get a crown fitted, I just checked out the situation online.
It’s called the Sandy Fire, and while still uncontained, a number of back fires have been lit to help do so. The fire is moving south of Simi, into the hilly country of the mountains on the southern edge of the city itself. There are homes here, but because of the nature of the place, it is difficult to build as well as remote. Unfortunately, though, some structures have been lost. Damage to wildlife is not to be dismissed, either, as the hills are home to many critters.
2017 Thomas Fire taken from the Reagan Library
Above is a photo I took years ago. The fire spread from the mountains to about 20+ miles west to the sea. My in-laws were evacuated from Ventura in the middle of the night. No one thought the fire so far away could spread as fast and fiercely as it did, and in so short of time.
The wind is what is often the most devastating element involved in the fires of Southern California. We get what we call variously “sundowners” and “east winds” and “Santa Ana winds” and “Santanas” – sundowners because as the evening sets in, the cool air from the ocean draws the heated air from inland. East winds because the land is east, the ocean is west. And there are a lot of other reasons for these winds of which I know nothing!
At times, these winds can be over 50 mph. Yesterday’s winds in my area were only 15 mph, but enough to make me uneasy. I always have my nose sniffing out smoke and my ears pricked for sirens. The rugged terrain means chasing fires is very difficult to impossible on foot. Helicopters with fire retardant and water help, but when the wind blows embers ahead of the fire, from mountain top to the next across an arroyo or canyon, the chase is on. It is this element – the embers – which can lead to large and devastating fires and damage.
Ironically, much of California and the west are environments which depend on cycles of fire. Native Americans often used fire to control the fertility of the landscape, and only recently has the Forestry Service begun to use their knowledge. Plants flourish in the burnt land, and many depend on fires for propagation of the next generation of plants. Human settlement disrupts this cycle. Thus, years of dried debris and overgrowth provide fuel. Wet winters giving way to dry summers do this as well.
Today, the winds are down from yesterday. Usually, a light steady prevails in my area, but even that can have its effects. I’ve lived in California most of my life, but I never get used to fires as a normal part of life. I loved the wind until I came fear its effects. Today the Sandy Fire is likely to be contained, but there are fires elsewhere that need attending, and more to come. Fortunately, family and friends offer us places to stay should we need to evacuate, as we have offered them.
And famine, too, with drought, fuel and fertilizer costs rising, and a lack of people to bring in the crops. Bankruptcy, permitting foreign countries to buy up fertile farmland and watersheds to feed their own is not right. We won’t discuss healthcare and skyrocketing insurance. Capitalism at its finest. I love being a commodity.
About 3 days ago a sprinkler head broke and sprayed a ton of water into an open window – the window into my studio. Paper loss, book loss, furniture loss. Hours spent cleaning up the water and discarding unsalvageable things. Fortunately, all can be replaced. I put my clothes into plastic bags, threw away art paper and books beyond redemption. We bought a new dresser at Ikea and the esposo put it together for me. The bright part, though, is I am being forced to clean up and sort out my stuff – junk – crap – whatever. High time.
And today, the wind is up, and there are fires here in my neck of the woods. Hopefully we will not experience the devastating losses of Malibu and Altadena and Camarillo and Ventura and other parts of California, the US, and the rest of the world. All this makes for a sense of life being precarious and unpredictable – which it is – but which I don’t find especially enjoyable.
Okay, enough about this and that. At least I am not mentioning locusts . . .
Ink, Yarn & Beer 