Tag: people

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.

Sketching with Shari, iii

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.

Morning at My Desk

Today there is a bit of running around to do, so this morning I was in a blithery mood. Things to do – like the usual morning stuff – but I also know I won’t feel too focused on any one thing, so sketching with ink and watercolor seemed to be the best of all choices. (After all, life is not all about dishes and making the bed!)

On my desk is a small hand weight and roll of painter’s tape. Warm-up. And now immortalized.

Next, the great outdoors. Mountains and trees. I would love to be walking around here, but sadly my ankle is keeping far more stationary that I want to be. I am getting better, but I have to just keep all to a minimum. I can go to the store and walk a bit, but I need my heel to get better more than anything.

So, the painting. Goal is to get a sense of distance with the gradations of the mountains as they recede into the distance. Accomplished!

Finally, a scene with some complexity. I figured my warm up and splashing of paint were ready to meet my next challenge which is to paint buildings, people, perspective. Landscapes are comfy but I really want to push myself a bit more, as I did the other day, with direct painting and more patience and planning.

The first two sketches were done in very short order, but here I pulled out my pencil, limned in lines and worked on perspective and size. I think my people are a bit too tall, and I put them in before I did the painting of the buildings and the road. The buildings, too, are a bit wonky, but they work fairly well. I painted everything and then, once okay with the picture itself, I decided some black lines here and there would be good to help pull the painting together. Not perfect, but pleased with the results as I did meet my challenge.

Pentalic Aqua Journal, about 7×10, watercolor, Uniball micro pen.

A World of Calibans

Well . . . I prefer the land, the tree, the ocean, the field. I prefer not people or buildings.

But, I must put aside my prejudices to progress in painting. Andy Evansen’s watercolor course has challenged me to such. I did people, reviewing proportions and where the elbow ends and the knee. People are 7.5 to 8 heads tall, depending.

Buildings and people – crowds – hmm. I usually avoid them, being the reclusive and exclusive and somewhat misanthropic. Nonetheless, they exist. So do buildings. And value studies! This is like trying to fit my tiny foot into a tinier shoe – painful, painful.

I tried this painting in watercolor by starting out on used paper – the reverse of other studies or failed paintings. Cheapness does not do me any good. I was not getting anywhere except PO’d.

I do not like being PO’d.

A new sheet and voila! Life, while not sweet, definitely improved. And I did a crowd of people, and buildings in a plaza, and only one solitary, lonely tree suffocating in the midst of civilization.

This was probably the most challenging painting I have done so far in any class . . . but I lived! Any good? Who knows.