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.
Another pleasant break to be had yesterday afternoon! Tasks and chores shucked and done; dinner to be prepared. In between, back to Shari Blaukopf’s short course on ink and pen and drawing.
I tackled the section on drawing people, and I think I accomplished my task quite well. As always, a few good tips really helped move my sketches into more successful areas – in particular the one about getting the shape of the shoulders correct and then moving up and down the body as needed.
The hands in the above drawing are not at all good, but such is life. The basic drawing was done in pencil, which I did not erase after applying the ink. The line drawing was done using Sailor’s black pigmented ink, and the washes were done with India ink, diluted to make the washes.
From there, we moved on to water soluble ink in color. The color Shari used, and which I bought, is called Ancient Copper. The pen I used is my trusty Spencerian nib in my vintage Edwardian pen hold made of silver (yeah, posh!). The Spencerian nib is great as it provides a very fine line, but with pressure yields a good thick line.
Looking at my signed and scanned image, it looks like there is black ink used here, but there is none. It just shows how scans can mutate color, but also just how variable the ink itself is – from on the nib, to dissolved with a brush dipped in water and applied across the lines.
First a pencil drawing, then outlines and cross-hatching with the pen. Darker areas have more hatching. Then, let the ink dry and erase the lines with a kneaded rubber eraser. From there, a brush dipped in water to create the lights and darks by applying it over the lines. Areas with more lines = darker areas. Then, while the paper was damp or dry, I used my dip pen to apply more ink. In particular, I used it to outline the man, his clothes, and the edges of the bench. This helped emphasize contrast and to help separate different areas of the drawing from other areas.
Bristol paper, 11×14, India ink, Sailor pigmented black ink, Ancient Copper ink, Spencerian dip pen, brush.
It seems as if my life has been in a frenzy with multiple little tasks to be done before the day’s fun can begin! Today is no exception – banking, bills, dishes, housework – and then little petty things that pop up, like buying a bit of something for dinner as we have no leftovers today. Yes, we have no leftovers! And no bananas.
Nonetheless . . . I did complete the second exercise series in Shari Blaukopf’s most recent online class of pen and ink. This time we have a square somewhere in France. I know because she said so! This time it was to be done with a water soluble ink, of which I have none, so I again played with diluted permanent ink. In a few areas I wet the paper and then drew with a permanent pen, but I don’t like that as it seems to mess up a pen’s nib.
This is done on Bristol paper, very smooth but fairly heavy. The lack of tooth can be very nice when drawing with pen and ink as well as washes. My lines are a bit wonky here and there – earthquake? – and people are not well done, but I struggled most with the park bench on the right!! I will say I don’t like my results as much as I did the first exercise, but this is also a far larger drawing, taking up the entire sheet of 11×14 paper. Still, it was fun and satisfying to do.
It’s a nice semi-sunny day this afternoon, and the wind is soft, the temp is about 70F. It’s perfect for spending a bit of time sketching in ink and color some of the remaining plants after the winter clean-out.
These hot peppers are from last year – and it appears they are getting some new ones! The little tiny blobs of orange are this year’s crop – I guess it is time to harvest some of last year’s fruit. We don’t know how hot these peppers are, but we should give them a shot.
I have three different lavender plants. I am not sure which one this is – I have a tag, but am feeling too lazy to investigate. What appeals to me is the bright purple flowers above the soft grey-green foliage. They look like tiny purple butterflies to me.
This is the tulip tree which graces my front yard. It’s a strange tree – not really a good one for a neighborhood. It tends to be brittle and branches can break and fall. We have had some 6 footers and then some fall onto the sidewalk below. And then it oozes sap all over the sidewalk. Birds love it – sparrows, crows, doves, and owls have been known to visit. The leaves are an interesting shape, and while it flowers, they are not showy. However, come autumn, the leaves turn an amazing yellow-gold and drop onto the lawn – and this is what makes it so beautiful to me. Add to that, right now the bare branches and twigs are just lovely against the sky.
Colors here are very limited. For the peppers I used organic vermilion, cad and lemon yellow, a bit of Hooker’s green and cobalt teal. The lavender was carbozole violet, and the foliage was a mix of lavender, Hooker’s, and yellows. The tulip tree is primarily the leftovers on the palette, so who know what the colors could be!
And now, time to head out for some fine Thai food provided by Auntie Am and Uncle Ed!
We were without electricity for two days. We lost a lot of perishables and frozen food in that time period, so I dumped it all and went shopping for a few days’s supply, fresh and dried and canned. We ordered a generator to Josh’s specs that should arrive Monday, but who knows. We need a generator as I think things are not going to improve, and we have put off getting one long enough – I’m cheap. Travel along major roadways is doing okay, but with the winds picking up, who knows what will happen.
So, I got to play with money!
Meanwhile, there are many people who are still with electricity well into Day 5 – and it looks like another 5-6 days of winds are still ahead. Until the winds die down, I am not stocking up with a lot of food – enough for 3-5 days, but with trips to the market as needed. Rather, I am trying to lay in a few things we need – want – to make life more comfortable. One thing is a manual coffee grinder – we use whole beans. Another is a power charger for our phones – 70% charge in an hour seems like a good thing to me. While we ordered a generator, we don’t know when it will arrive, as well as we don’t know when the electricity will be shut off.
No electric lights, only flashlights and battery-powered lanterns. Two days of how to live without the computer, TV, cell phone, oven, or refrigerator.
Our house tends toward being dark, depending on the time of day, so I moved around the house as well as in and out depending on the wind and temperature. For awhile I went to the community center and charged things, drove around and got a pastry and some coffee, as well went shopping a bit.
At home, I pulled out my hand crank Singer 99 sewing machine from the 40s or 50s, and flannel that I couldn’t iron because of no electricity. I started some jammy pants out of a gaudy flannel print, and had a bit of fun. The flannel is wrinkled and rather messy, but they are only jammy pants and who cares? Lay the fabric out, cut out the pattern, and sew away! I decided to do French seams as flannel ravels, and am about halfway done. More on that project later today.
I have made a lot of these jammy pants for winter pajamas. The pattern is now perfected in size and length, and my wardrobe of jammy pants is a bit crowded now. I am looking to lighter weight fabric for summer, but I may stick to nightgowns then for sewing projects. Cotton jammy pants below . . . I’ll have a star-studded derriere!
And then outside . . . when the wind calmed down, the day was warm – about 74F. My garden is rather dreary, but with the warm weather lavender is blooming and a succulent has sent up the most outrageous stalks with flowers. It’s a strange plant, but fun to draw. The flowers, a pale red-orange clusters of bells and the leaves are fat, spiky, and green with black.
I drew them late in the afternoon as the sun was going down with a waterproof ink pen on some watercolor paper. The results were to my liking quite a bit!
I may add some wash to the ink, but for now I like the complexity of the drawing. Since I really like the drawing and did not know if the ink would bleed if I used a watercolor wash, I decided to draw a llama tape measure sitting on my desk. The llama’s tail pulls out and goes back in when you squeeze the critter’s sides. My MIL, Judy, gave it to me, and it cracks me up whenever I use it, which is quite a bit more often than I thought I ever would. He’s not easy to lose, either . . .
His backside needs some of his fur glued back in place – another thing to do!
The completed llama. Below is the painted llama. I like llamas, and silly poems about them, too.
So, I spent my 2 days in the Land of No Electricity drawing, sewing, reading, and mucking about. Yesterday and today I helped the economy.
And now, the silly llama poem, thanks to my fave, Ogden Nash:
Ink, Yarn & Beer 