Tag: pen

Miner’s Lettuce

Yesterday I went out for a bit of a hike, through one of my favorite trails, the Chumash Trail.  Last year we had massive fires, and what I saw was the remnants of that fire.  Burnt mountainsides, devoid of brush and the usual cover (like poison oak!).  Bare and burnt oak trees, rocks.  So many things were revealed by the fire as plants were burnt away.

Sounds pretty awful, doesn’t it?  Here in California, much of our landscape and plants are fire-dependent, meaning that fire is a normal part of the season.  With the drought and firefighting measures – like not letting entire neighborhoods burn down – brush becomes overgrown.  With a drought, you have kindling.

Now, with everything burnt away, new growth is beginning to emerge.  Flowers, weeds, leaves on the oak trees.  I was able to hike into an area that I normally avoid – too much poison oak and a lot of rattle snakes.  It is along a creek into a narrowing canyon.  And, sitting on a rock, listening to birds and the sound of water, I looked around.  That is when I found the first-ever Miner’s Lettuce I have seen in this area.  I took a picture, and this is what I painted.

A perfect spring morning!

A Matter of Perspective

Still working on my buildings!  And in the process I realized I am dreadful when it comes to both depth of field and perspective.  If you look at the roof of the building centered in the sketch, the line for it is much, much steeper than the building adjacent to it.  The same with its door.  It was that steep angle of perspective I was trying to follow – and failed.  I have a few books on perspective – time to dig them out and study them quite seriously.  I don’t think it will be that difficult, but I need to learn a few tricks.  On the other hand, I am rather pleased with the sense of shadow and sunshine . . . there is still hope!

A Few Paintings

No joking when I said my “new job” was watercolor painting and drawing!  I’ve been getting daily life stuff done, but somewhen in between, I manage an hour or two a day with paper, pen, and paint.  It’s paying off (that’s what jobs are supposed to do, right?) I think.  Still a lot of goofs, but some progress, too.  Mud is now something I decide to paint more often than not.  Below is a gallery of the work I’ve done in the past few weeks – not all of it, just some of it.  Click on one picture to begin scrolling through them.

I have been using two different types of paper for the watercolors. One that is inexpensive, 100% cotton is Bee Paper, in 6×9 inch format. The other is Fabriano, in block format. 11×15 inch Artistico; this is a higher quality 100% cotton that is still affordable. Both papers are really good for heavier washes. The Artistico has more tooth than the Bee paper, but the smoother surface of the Bee really lends itself well to ink-and-watercolor drawings.

So many plans with impending retirement, and I am finding I certainly will not be able to do everything I want to do – just not enough time! I used to give myself 30 minutes to paint – now I can give myself whatever time I want. Thus, first loves take over other loves, but the sewing and the photography and knitting and, and, and will get in there. Time will be dedicated!

So, on this rainy Saturday morning, the studio will get cleaned up again, and the fun continue.

Sketch of a Rose

Yesterday was another run-around-and-get-things-done day.  Whew!  Taxes, appointments, scheduling, ya-da-ya-da.  It’s boring stuff, believe me.

Anyway, today was drawing day.  Eating lunch between all the craziness, I clicked on Alphonso Dunn (my hero!) on YouTube, and his tutorial of a rose popped up.  Very simple way to look at a rather complicated subject.  Essentially, a rose is a cylinder with layers peeling back.  Voila, there it is.

I did use a pencil to create the shape, and erased it multiple times.  If you enlarge the picture, you will see the paper is pretty dirty after 3 and 4 erasures.  However, the paper held up (Bee), the ink went down (Micron 0.3), and so did the paint.  I’ve never really done a rose well before, so Dunn’s tutorial has, yet again, explained things I never thought about.  Go watch him!