California – Page 3 – Ink, Yarn & Beer

Sketching with Shari, iv

The very last lesson in this delightful class on ink and color sketching by Shari Blaukopf. As soon as I saw it I knew it was La Super-Rica Taqueria on Milpas Street in Santa Barbara, CA. Excellent food – it opened years ago and was a walking dinner destination when I lived in the area.

Anyway, this drawing is a culmination of drawing people and buildings, learning a bit about perspective and thoughts about how to do things. I enjoyed this one a lot even in my moments of frustration. Rather than using Bristol paper, I used 140# CP watercolor paper. The first frustration was the texture of the paper and my pencil – a lot of smudges. Still, I continued and laid down the ink lines after I had it limned out. Then, erasing all that smudging with the kneaded rubber eraser, and it cleaned up very well.

As you can tell by the shadows, this is either early morning or late afternoon – and it is late afternoon. The sun is to the left, which is in the west toward the Pacific. This is an older section of Santa Barbara, and because it is not filled with new and modern buildings, it is charming and pleasant, and certainly a break from modern suburban architecture.

When I started inking the outlines, I began with the stop sign on the right. Can you see how stupidly out of proportion it is? You could knock an elephant out with it! The people and the rest of the drawing are in decent relationships to each other. Unfortunately, I used colors which are rather saturated and did not pay attention to the fact that the ink bleeds a lot. When I painted the major tree to the left of the building, the trunk should have been very light. The same with the mountains above the taqueria itself. Despite that, I like the way it turned out overall. A word of caution – don’t drive the cars as they look quite unsafe.

Ancient Copper ink; fountain pen; 140# CP watercolor paper; brush and watercolors. About 11×13.

Coastal Beach

Where I live there are so many wonderful beaches in our county, to the south, and to the north. Just pop onto Hwy 1 / 101 and off you go! Some are wide and flat, such as in Carlsbad, others are easy to get to even if they have cliffs, and others are quite rugged.

Santa Barbara County has a lot of really great beaches. When I lived there, I had a lot of favorites – Butterfly, Hendry’s, and Goleta Beach. This is a view of Goleta Beach facing north. It is very typical of this section of California – sandy beaches, friable cliffs, Mediterranean vegetation. The coastal range is often right at the ocean’s edge and can create some dramatic views from the shoreline. I really like our beaches!

The biggest challenge here was the water, both waves and the damp water on the sandy shore. Putting people in was not too hard – just a few blobs to make the blobs people shaped. The foreground rocks were a bit of a challenge – I wanted enough detail to make them believable but not too detailed. I am pretty pleased with the cliffs, distant mountains, and sky. Overall, I think this painting turned out pretty good.

Gouache, Strathmore Vision 140# CP paper, 9×12.

Super Bloom

The vernal equinox is upon us, Spring is springing, and a few rains brings greens and oranges and yellows and lavenders to the hills of California. Poppies, more poppies, mustard, lupine. The hills are filled with them – of course, depending on where you are – but when we have really wet winters the hills are alive with color.

Years ago, and other years of yore, we would drive to the back country or the poppy reserve to just look. Lake Elsinore is well-known for its super blooms (what these massive flowerings are called) to the point where they shut off roads and keep people out. Like parts of the world, over crowding and over-touristed. I’ve taken a lot of photos of this bloom-a-thon, and it is always worth it. And, it is a challenge to paint in a ways as the colors are vivid and almost unreal when you live in a water-starved place and it is beige and brown.

The colors here had to be almost pure pigments with little dilution with zinc white. Gouache, of course. Colors include cadmium red, yellow, and orange along with ultramarine blue, zinc white, yellow ochre, and some umbers. Greens include every single one on my palette!! Once I settled the sky I brought out the titanium white for a bit of emphasis.

I spent a couple of days on this one just because it was really hard to paint. I tend to be a dabber, and that is how I began. Later in the process I just mushed all the colors together, and the next day dabbed in the poppies in the foreground.

Gouache, Strathmore Vision 140# CP paper, 9×12.

Back Country, Amargosa River

The Amargosa River is located in Nevada and California, moving into Death Valley National Park of the Mojave Desert. As a river, it flows freely both above and below ground, providing much needed water in an otherwise dry climate. Because of it, there are many rare and unusual plants and animals, some found nowhere else in the world. It is managed by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) to conserve it . . .

This is another gouache painting. I wanted to capture the contrast of the river basin to the mountains it runs through, as well as illustrate the wonderful colors you can see in a desert or riparian area. Dry, rocky mountains, flat areas from flash floods and trails, the occasional tree, low-growing plants adapted to a dry environment. Plant colors are generally pale – sage green being a dominant one as well as bright yellow flowers. Dry air lets you see for miles into the distance and at times you wonder if you will ever see a cloud in the endless blue sky.

Gouache, Strathmore Vision 9×10 140# CP paper.

Out for a Walk

I enjoy walking through the local botanical garden. I decided to head out the other day as it has been awhile, and with the coming of spring, new growth and leaf buds await to be seen. Additionally, the annual – or ongoing? – garden clean up appears to be over, so little things normally hidden are beginning to emerge. All the photos below may be seen on Flickr – just click on one and it will take you there where you can also see other photos I have done over the years.

“Green Thingies” – pretty cheerful and abstract and strange. Succulent? I don’t recall.

“Boogie Woogie” – called thus because they just looked like they were dancing! I used AI in PS to get rid of some unsightly signs in the distance that were a bit distracting.

“Remember the Fallen” – fallen leaves, fallen soldiers, fallen countries, fallen women, fallen in Fall, even though it is close to Spring!

“Do Not Climb” – or shinny or otherwise skedaddle around this tree! There are two in the botanical garden and I can never remember what species they belong to, but think they are fascinating.

I used a macro 50mm lens, which I find to be one of the most diverse lenses to use – close up and personal, to clarity as needed.

Nikon Z6ii, Nikon Z 50mm f2.8 Macro. Post in LR and On1 Photo Raw.