ink

Last Day of April – Morning Sketches

The last few days have been the quintessential spring days in Southern California – and I have been outside, but never enough. I planted some tomatoes and cleaned up some plants in the patio garden, basked in the sun, and have done very little. Today, though, pen and watercolor beckoned with the morning coffee, and the colors of spring and the outdoors called.

Grape hyacinths are so odd to me! I am used to the big ones, in pinks and blues and flower petals which curl outward. Grape hyacinths make me think of little bells. This is the first year I have ever grown them, and short-lived as they were, they were so much fun to see. Bulbs always make me happy, and I have a variety of them, such as iris, ixia, daffodils. Bulbs need to be hybridized for our warm California winters, so they are not so rare as they used to be, but never seem as exciting as they do when they flower in a patch of snow.

I was poring over some photos I have, taken by me or collected through Pixabay and other free online royalty sources. Palm trees and banana plants. I did this to practice dry brush on a wedge brush – nothing great but it accomplished what I wanted – a soft bit of blending, such as in the foreground.

Once more lavender fields in Provence and other areas of southern France. In particular, mixing lavender that is bluish is a challenge; here, in watercolor, I diluted my purples with some blue and rose, as well as some greenish colors to suggest the lavender’s foliage. The scan didn’t do a great job. Additionally, I wanted to capture the texture in the rocky faces of the mountain, cracks vertically and horizontally in the bare stone.

Finally, a favorite place of mine – Figueroa Mountain in Santa Barbara County. In the spring, lupines and poppies bloom, and the view across the Santa Ynez Valley extends for miles. To me, this is the epitome of a wonderful time of year in California. It is when the rains turn the hills from brown and dull to an intense display of yellow, gold, and purple.

Drawing with ink and watercolor is pleasant and relaxing, and doing it in a sketchbook takes away the desire to create a masterpiece. Here, exploration, play, practice.

Carbon ink on watercolor paper; Rosa pan watercolors.

Besides ink for drawing, a fountain pen and colored ink for writing is also a good thing to have lying around, but contained in a bottle or pen, of course. I am out of homemade iron gall ink and my quills are a bit bedraggled, so I’ve resorted to more modern technologies for awhile.

Abandoned

Yesterday’s splish-splash was fun, and it seems that I need to take time to paint in watercolor and acrylic as I work toward mastery of oils (on some level!).

I love watercolors, and some days I find I have no patience and just do not want to be too serious. This is when play and messing around are best. Because of yesterday’s madcap painting, today I felt calm and inclined to taking time to pay attention to detail and think. Watercolor really does require thinking as you cannot correct a lot of mistakes.

When I draw with ink and then add color, I never use a pencil to create the rough outlines. Ink and I just get along really well, and usually proportions and details are sufficient to get me started. After painting, I go back and add more ink in areas I think need it, but as today was a minimal ink day I used the watercolors to create more details and information. It is also interesting to note the amount of time a painting takes – sometimes hours, sometimes minutes. I spent about 90 or so minutes here, and am pleased with the results over all.

9×12, Hahnemuhle CP 140#, watercolor.

Between Appointments

When you get old, your job, once retired, is to support the medical industrial complex. Our tax dollars are to give us money so we can give them (MIC) money. It’s a really sound, capitalistic plan.

First visit: Dentist.

Second visit: Physical therapy for balance and ambulation to help prevent another broken arm.

Morning and afternoon appointments, with shopping in between. Not a lot of time in between, but enough to watch a video as I drank my coffee and did some ink and watercolor.

Not a really good one, but our trees have some fruit, and how can I not but enjoy the bright orange and greens, all clean and fresh after the rains?

And asparagus from the market. I really do like asparagus, to eat and to draw, and think it also makes a tasty cream soup.

Well, off to PT!

Before Class

Every Monday afternoon I meet up with a class in oil painting. I paint oils at home, too, and they take far longer to dry than ink or watercolor. Hmmm. I really do miss those two quite a bit, so today, before class, I decided to do two quick sketches and use a bit of watercolor.

The first was daffodils – obviously! I have several in pots, some blooming and fading already, and others sending up leaves and stems and buds. Spring flowers for sure. I have some freesias which are just beginning to bloom, so perhaps some of those later on.

And then some saguaros from the Sonoran Desert. Sunset is always fabulous in Arizona, and here we are overlooking the metroplex that is Tucson / Phoenix in the distance. I am still amazed by these wonderful cacti – so tall and elegant, and silhouetted against the sky they are even more amazing.

Okay – time to pack it up and head out to class!