From my sketch book

This sketch is from my watercolor sketchbook of my grandson. He is crazy about baseball and I think a great all around player. I love to watch him pitch. He's so in control of that ball and has such great focus for a 12 year old.

Another Contour sketch

This time I found my prop in the pantry. I chose this Folgers Instant Coffee jar because of the bright recognizable container . To keep this from getting too serious I decided to do this sketch standing up with the sketchbook in one hand and my pen in the other hand. I didn't spend time with measurements. I wanted to get down some lines, keeping my pen on the paper as much as possible and not trying to make this a "correct" drawing, yet, as Charles Reid says, make it an expressive drawing. I think while it may not be accurate I've accomplished what I set out to do.

I find contour drawing so freeing. In researching contour drawing the other day in my art books I didn't want to sit down and work in my Nicolaides - The Natural Way to Draw book or my Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain or my Key's to Drawing book .... but I did remember seeing in my books by Charles Reid's his wonderful contour drawing approach. A year ago or maybe two now I purchased his "Pulling Your Paintings Together" . In the beginning on page 9 he says "When you do a contour drawing, you must think of your pen or pencil as being on the model, not the paper. You must concentrate totally on the model, the drawing itself, good or bad, doesn't matter. This doesn't mean that you're slashing about with your pencil. On the contrary, you're working slowly, with great care, totally absorbed in your subject. For once this communion is gone, you will never have more than a passable drawing." "In contour drawing, it's also important to attach the subject to background shapes with out explaining all the subjects boundaries. " In this sketch above, I decided afterward to show some magazines and binders that were on the table .. as well as the edge of the table. All too late I think. I'll take note and try to remember this in future contour drawings.

For now, I am thinking I'll work through this book. Maybe you can expect a book review in the future.

I have a lot of trouble getting my scans to show the light colors in my sketches and watercolor paintings. For instance, the light shadows past the shadow you do see ... I've tried just about every thing I can think of. Do any of you have this trouble?

Sketch: Another House

Another House - using aquabee

6" x 9" sketchbook

I'm still enjoying the 'no pressure' sketching. I decided I'd once again to use my sketchbook for some watercolor sketches, but each time I'm sorry because the paper isn't made for a lot of washes. I think I need to write this in the sketchbook in large letters because I always forget that.

Ode to a Lemon

Today I decided to do a series on the Lemon, I thought I'd call it "Ode to a Lemon". Odd, but I guess I didn't know what the word ode really meant? Dictionary.com says an ODE is: A lyric poem of some length, usually of a serious or meditative nature and having an elevated style and formal stanzaic structure. Then I googled "Ode to a Lemon" and up pops entry after entry on a poem by Pablo Neruda titled "Ode to the Lemon".... I'll share a small part of that poem at the end of this blog entry, if you care to read it.


#1 Pencil in Sketchbook

I decided today that I'd do a study with my one lone lemon. The first photo is done in pencil

#2 Dip pen and Noodles Ink on Card stock.

I have long admired those of you who do pen and ink and all that wonderful cross hatching. I'm not patient enough. Or, to be more accurate, I wasn't patient enough today. I may give it another try some time.

#3 Watercolor on Stonehinge Print Paper.

I had some left over 5" x 7" pieces from some lino print projects and thought I'd try it. Turned out I was satisfied with the way it handled the water. It was a good experiment.

#4 Pastel on Mi-Teintes Pastel paper.

I don't think I'll ever get use to having my fingers all dry and chalky. I clean my fingers constantly because I can't help but use my fingers to blend.

#5 Is Charcoal on brown craft paper.

I wasn't happy with this either... How do you get a bright lemon to look that way with charcoal? I couldn't get it to look the way I wanted.

#6 is Oil on some Canvas paper

Or anyway I'm assuming it's canvas paper..... I seem to accumulate single papers, a sheet at a time. I should have written what it was on the back so I'd know. Another lesson learned.

Odd, I just noticed that the two mediums that I enjoyed working with the most, the watercolor and the oil, both had more detail or depth to the paintings. I must have felt more comfortable working with them.

Ode to the Lemon

by Pablo Neruda

Out of lemon flowers

loosed

on the moonlight,

love's

lashed and insatiable

essences,

sodden with fragrance,

the lemon tree's yellow

emerges,

the lemons

move down

from the tree's planetarium

Delicate merchandise!

Major League Baseball

Last night we were privileged enough to attend a major league game between the New York Yankee's and the Seattle Mariners. The Mariners may have lost, but if you've ever attended a Major League ball game, just being there is thrill enough. This is a watercolor sketch of a major league baseball player ... though no particular player at all, just the essence of the game.

Mostly with this watercolor sketch I concentrated on shapes. I wanted to show the action of the player -I wasn't focusing on color... If I were to do it over again, I'd pick some blue-greys along with some warm sienna's.

On another note.... some of you who have subscribed to my blog and hope to receive the updates in an e-mail, are not receiving them. Mostly this is because you have not yet replied to the verification email sent to you by Feedburner to complete the subscription process. Unverified subscriptions are not active subscriptions. Because Feedburner verification emails get sent from this catchy (not) email address: "donotreply@emailenfuego.net", people sometimes miss it or it goes into their spam box. So, please check your spam and junk mail. If by the end of the week you have yet to receive an update I'll e-mail you personally incase you have already deleted this information and we can start over again.

Oregon Junco

Another sketchbook watercolor . I seem to be doing everything but the important things I want to accomplish. Maybe soon I'll get back to my full sheet that is sitting on my easel with a little bit of color on it. It could be the weather that keeps me distracted... spring seems to be here in full swing. Sunny one day and rainy the next or rainy in the morning and sunny an hour later.

More spring sketching

Spring rhododendron's are showing up all around now, giving me yet another flower to watercolor in my sketchbook.

I'm really happy with my new "subscribe" link over to the right of the screen. One subscriber tells me it really works great. Once you subscribe by placing your e-mail address in the box, the next day after I update my blog you will receive an e-mail from me, Nancy Van Blaricom: fine art, showing the new post to my blog.

Spring

Watercolor sketch in sketchbook.

Flowers on my deck

With the signs of spring all around I couldn't resist buying some geraniums for my front deck. I purchased 6 a couple of weeks ago ... they have a very pretty hot purple-red flower. The colors of the foliage is not as sick and washed out as my sketch/watercolor shows. I found it hard to make up a pretty green with my small watercolor palette I use for sketching. I guess I should just stick sap green in there an use that, changing the value as needed with either water or another color, but I really would like to mix my own - then again, half the problem seems to be that I use my water-brush, so very little mixing is done on the palette it's self.

Lavendar Iris

Its the time of year when most of us are so looking forward to doing some gardening after being house-bound through the long winter months.
This small watercolor is from my sketchbook. The book is approximately 5.5" x 8.5" and the paper is somewhere between smooth and having some tooth. So although its takes the watercolor fine, the page buckles a little. At first I didn't care for that, but now I've grown to like it ... feeling the familiarity pages filled with sketches and odds and ends taped/glued to the pages.
Have you noticed that I seem to vacillate between a loose painterly watercolor style and more realistic ... I enjoy them both, but this doesn't help sell paintings to go back and forth.

Vinca Minor

I had a very creative enjoyable day. I was able to get two more greeting cards printed ( that means 12 of each subject ), also being full of creative energy I was able to get a wash on a full sheet painting I'm working on. It will need a few more washes to get the perfect color I'm after, but I'm starting out very light and will end being a nice soft even light foggy wash.

With the sun shining and all the signs of spring around, I couldn't resist getting out and doing a little gardening. One of my favorite ground covers is Vinca Minor - Common Periwinkle. It is a pretty evergreen, with little blue flowers. It makes a nice ground cover in shady locations or under woody plants. Some people have said that the Vinca Minor plant can be pretty invasive, but when I've planted this before, it did just what I had in mind... being a ground cover under huge Cedar trees where nothing else would grow. Also, I was able to get some geraniums planted in some pots by my front door.

Maybe my daily 2 mile walk is finally giving me some energy.

A little birdie ...

This little ceramic bird has been in my possession for so long that I can't remember exactly when I got it. It was in a secondhand store, and seemed to be calling my name to buy it. Its a very plain little bird with very few details, drab in color ... and yet so very sweet looking. I always keep it in my studio perched on the speaker to my computer. I used an HB mechanical pencil and watercolor, in my nearly completed sketchbook. It was a great day, very much looking like a perfect spring day. The bird and the weather were a natural go-together.

Huckleberry Branch

Today I surprised myself by remembering to pick up something to sketch while on my daily 2 mile walk. After walking most of the way with friends, I walked a couple of blocks by myself. I found myself with only a few bird sounds as background chatter. The Huckleberry bushes are profuse around here and lately I've noticed there are a lot of tiny pink blossoms on most of the bushes. This is exciting news ... possibly some Huckleberry Jam or pies in my future. So naturally I felt compelled to bring home a very tiny, wee, small branch.(do you notice the guilt in my voice for having picked some possible berry's in the making?)

Also, I think I'll admit to you all that I realize sketching and painting with the cat laying on my lap in dim light watching Jeopardy isn't giving me the best results.