Costco Lady

When I came out of Costco last Sunday, I saw this lady sitting on the bumper of a van, reading the newspaper whiling away the time, waiting for someone who probably “just ran in” to the huge store. What attracted my attention at first, was her patience; then, I noticed that the sprig of leaves on her hat exactly matched the color of the van. I loved the shape and color of her hat and how the hat highlighted the colors of her floral skirt. I knew that I would have to try to draw her and that would require taking a photo.

Uh oh, I thought. Courtesy would require that I ask her permission before photographing her. I knew, however, that if I did that, I would lose the picture to self-consciousness. So, I “stole” the photo with the 3x telefoto lens on my digital camera as I drove out of the parking lot. Dear lady, wherever you are in the desert, I apologize for my rudeness; I hope you would be appeased by knowing that I found you lovely enough to paint.

Derwent inktense pencils with water in Canson sketchbook. I am not happy with how I used the pencils and with how the paper reacted when wet. I look at the talented watercolor artists who post to the Everyday Matters blog and love the simplicity of their watercolors. I always end up opting for too much detail and ruin the feel of water color. I will have to try to do some drawings and just apply a light wash for color. When I use the Inktense again, I will try another surface.

Favorite Chair

This is my favorite chair. It wasn’t expensive, only $35. I saw it in a CHOC (Children’s Hospital of Orange County) Thrift Store about 3 years ago and knew at first sight that, although it was a little frayed around the edges of the arms, it was the chair for me. When I turned it over, I discovered that it was a hard-wood framed, down-stuffed chair from a premium furniture manufacturer. And it was comfortable! I could picture myself spending hours reading in it in my desert home. I resolved a long time ago to only have furniture and “things” that “spoke” to me–this chair speaks “home” to me.

Alas, I’m not living in my desert home–but my chair is. I visit it now and then and try to spend a little time sitting in it. People who rent the house love this chair and comment on how comfortable it is.

Koh-i-noor and Derwent Drawing Pencils. Colors blended with blending stubs and Splenda blending pencil in Canson notebook on ecru paper. The Koh-i-noor woodless pencils are my favorite implements for the vibrancy of their color and for the ease and smoothness with which they blend. The picture is fixed with Krylon spray fixative to protect the pencil from smearing.

I bought a new computer with the Windows Vista Operating System. The scanner that worked beautifully with my former computer that ran on Windows XP does not work with Vista. Instead, I used the digital camera (7.1 megapixels) to photograph my picture; the flash reflecting on the fixed surface of the artwork may have caused glare.

Buster’s? Or Someplace Like It

Sitting in the doctor’s waiting room the other day, I realized that it had been awhile since I’d done any drawing. I dug my Canson notebook and a Uniball gel pen out of my purse and decided to draw. I’ve wanted to draw a coffeehouse based on Buster’s in South Pasaden, for quite a while, so decided to tackle that. Buster’s is characterized by a colorful linoleum floor and colorful walls displaying local art. When I used to go to Buster’s more frequently during the year I lived in Pasadena, I used to wonder if, during the renovations for the coffeehouse, someone actually ordered multi-colored tiles, or if the plan was to save money on flooring by buying end-lots left over from other jobs. . .hmmm, I still wonder.

This is what I came up with. I used Koh-i-noor woodless pencils to add color. I love their soft, waxy feel and the deep pigments which blend nicely. I used a Splenda blending pencil. On ecru paper in a Canson sketchbook.

Marion

While I was away in Vt, I began a portrait of my friend, Noreen’s, mother, Marion. Marion passed away several years ago, but I was lucky enough to get to know her well and to be with her and Noreen as Marion passed through the various stages of Alzheimers. I drew the portrait from a photo I took of Marion and her friend, Hilda. Both Hilda and Marion were then in the middle stages of their disease, although Hilda was slightly more progressed than Marion. Hilda lived in an assisted living facility and we were just getting Marion ready to move to that same facility. We were happy that she would have her friend Hilda just down the hall.

Colored pencil in Canson notebook on cream colored paper.

Imported from theredstonechronicles.blogspot.com

Bathing

>My project over the last two days has been to add color to pencil drawings that I started a while back and that have been sitting unfinished in my sketchbook. I’ve been using watercolor pencil, watercolor paints and various types of paper and have been with experimenting with the properties of each.

I also collected the pictures that I had done in the past from their various hiding places, in drawers and boxes and among various sketchbooks. I realized,then, that there was no way to track (and analyze, of course) any improvement or change in how and what I was drawing, so I scanned everything that I’ve drawn to date and uploaded the pictures to a file on my computer.

Despite my analytic temperament, there is something that makes me feel somewhat bohemian and adventurous when adding color to drawings. I always feel apprehensive when I begin a picture, even if it is in pencil; and then, even more apprehensive as I add ink and color (Oh my god, what if I ruin what I’ve already done)–but then, I just get into the color.

 

That is what happened with Bathing. I drew the pencil outline of it several months ago after watching a friend dry herself with a towel. Never having attempted to draw an entire body before, I was nervous–but as the body flowed from my pencil, I remember thinking of how wonderful it would be to take a dip in a pond under the light of a full moon, wonder if the shimmer on the surface of the pond was from the water or from the moon above, and ponder on the mystical qualities of the solitude and the light of night. I pictured a body glowing with the white of the moonlight. Later, as I added color, with water color pencils, then a clear wash to blend the pencil colors, and finally with watercolor paint, I felt my strokes getting larger and larger as I fell deeper and deeper into the picture and could feel the water dripping from my hair, the softness of the towel on my body, and the silence of the moonlit evening . . . .

Imported from geocities.com/c.redstone August 7, 2007–first attempt at blogging