and sundry creative explorations
A record of my artistic journey
I have a super busy week and , going in, I did not expect to complete the challenge 100%. I wanted to do the best I can and join in the fun.
Two days in, and I am 13 behind, but that's okay. That's 27 more people I drew than I would have done this week! Some of them I drew in coffee shop, and a the rest I drew from TV.
Tomorrow is the kickoff day for the first One Week 100 People challenge started by Liz Steel and Marc Taro Holmes.
The challenge runs from March 6th to March 10th and the idea is to draw an average of 20 people per day. There is no limit as to what qualifies as a drawing of a person. To starts things on the right foot, Liz Steel just posted this blind continuous line self-portrait that she did.
Anything goes, as long as it is a drawing of a person!
I am participating and have been doing little super-quick warm up drawings of people around me whenever I get a chance. Here are some portraits I did of fellow-gamers at our weekly game night.
I will share my daily drawings here and on my instagram. Join us, it will be great fun (and a lot of much needed practice too!)
As I was wondering what to paint this evening I realized that there is Olympics on on TV and that might afford some interesting gestures to paint. Unfortunately it wasn't yet 7:30PM and only soccer was on, but I decided to go for it anyway. My sweet husband found me nice shots to sketch from, paused the TV at just the right moment and .... this happened :-)
soccer in watercolor
California weather is almost always beautiful, and it was especially lovely today. It was about perfect for an outing to the marsh to sketch the landscape and observe the birds at the bird refuge. It had also been a few weeks since Iva and I got a chance to sketch together, it was so nice to be able to enjoy the landscape with some lovely conversation with a good friend. What's better!
I am not very comfortable with painting landscapes. I don't get a chance to do it enough, and it is not the subject that I am usually interested in. The recent train ride across the country got me excited about trying out landscapes and here I am :-)
I couldn't help wanting to do a quick sketch of Iva. I am much more comfortable and enjoy myself so much more when I am sketching people. The sketch is not at all good likeness to my beautiful friend, but it captures the essence of the sketcher I think :-)
You will likely see a whole bunch of sketches here for the next few days with a travel theme. Yes, I do have a lot to share from my trip.
Here is one from the train. I painted the scene directly in Watercolor, and when I noticed that the painting wasn't drying as fast as I would like in order to add definition, I decided to add the definition with a sharpie.
train nap in watercolor
I like that the picture reads clearly even know there is not a whole lot of detail. I am quite proud of this.
Hang tight for more travel sketches in the coming days.
Here's a quick sketch before the day is out. This one of my nephew who is learning to play the violin. I am constantly amazed at the things these kids can do, and I am happy to capture their many talents in the one medium I know how to :-)
More catch up sketches from my trip.
Here is a sketch of my mom and dad in the kitchen, cooking and enjoying each other's company. I am very proud of this painting and I am thankful for this time I have with them.
I am travelling this week and I am a little behind my posting, but I will try to make up if I can.
Here is a little sketch of my nephew and nieces at play. It was fun to sketch them without their knowledge and listening to their make believe play.
A quick gesture drawing in watercolor for today's entry. I used Yellow Ochre and Burnt Sienna for the skin tone, and Indigo and ultramarine blue for the outfits.
I would have liked it to be looser still, but happy with it anyway.
After a long time I had the opportunity to sketch with Iva. It was a lovely day for it too, and we all spent the afternoon chatting and sketching at Santana Row.
Here is a sketch of the men planning an epic trip :-)
Thanks to Hazel Soan's books, I am beginning to focus more on making expressive marks with the brush and not so much on drawing contours and filling in color. I am happy with the results I got today.
I am learning that doing loose gesture drawing with watercolor is not as effortless as Hazel Soan makes it seem. Practice, practice, practice ... that's the mantra.
This month is going to be all about practicing and honing my watercolor skills. It is wonderful to have the company and support of hundreds of fellow artists all working on this challenge together.
I did a little exercise from Hazel Sloan's book I downloaded on kindle. She knows her stuff and is a wonderful teacher. Her quick watercolor sketches are easy to follow. Here is one of people in silhouette.
I feel like ever since I started posting to this blog I have become very precious about my art - this idea that it needs to be something substantial for it to be worth sharing, and because I would like to share my work that I have to produce substantial stuff. This is beginning to take the joy out of my art, and I am glad that I realized this.
I want to go back to making this spontaneous, scribbly, full-of-energy art that I so enjoy, and not worry so much all the time "good" art.
After all, "good" is killing my art, and that is no good.
Here is a sketch of my husband done in 10 mins while he does his daily Hindi lesson.
Dear hubby and I decided to spend this lovely summer day out and about. We are currently enjoying a nice cup of tea and some sketching time together at Cafe Frascati.
cafe frascati sketch
I did a pen drawing first with my Duke bent nib pen, and followed it up with some watercolor done with water brush. I am quite happy with how this sketch turned out.
We spent the evening with good friends over coffee/tea at a couple of coffee shops, and I enjoyed chatting and sketching the people.
At the second coffee shop I spotted this man at the next table who was fast asleep, so he was a PERFECT subject. I worked directly with watercolor, and I am especially happy that I stopped before I overworked the thing. I really enjoyed painting this.
man at peet's
And just to show that not everything quite works out the way you want it to, and that it is okay to fail ... I am posting the other sketch I did that I am not happy with. Everything feels like a win if we remember that, if nothing else, it is a learning experience.
I am trying to keep a regular art habit during busy days. This means making use of any all or all downtime.
I carried my sketch supplies with me for lunch and drew the fellow patrons of the restaurant as I was waiting for my lunch to arrive.
This sketch is done direct to watercolors using a waterbrush.
Don't have time for an elaborate post today, but just wanted to quickly post these watercolor people sketches that I did at Starbucks while shooting the breeze with my dear friend. I was so inspired to try this technique after seeing Lynne Chapman's direct-to-watercolor sketches, that I just had to try it out for myself. I ran the experiment on some unsuspecting Starbucks dwellers.
Watercolor people sketches at starbucks
I look forward to doing more of these this week. All you need are sketchbook, watercolor and brush and you are good to go. Give it a try!
This was my very first time attending one of SF Sketchers meetups! They are a fantastic group of artists and I have always enjoyed looking at their sketches on the meetup group. It was one of my resolutions this year to make it to the city for some urban sketching on a regular basis and I am so happy to have gotten started on it.
We all met at the Workshop Cafe at around 3:00PM, said hello to each other and spent a little while chatting and drawing at the cafe.
Fellow sketchers make perfect subjects because they are captive subjects and they don't mind being sketched.
A quick portrait of a fellow sketcher in pen and water-soluble crayons.
By about 3:20PM everyone setoff in different directions to find sights of interest at the parade staging area. Everything was still relatively quiet at the point. The floats were setting up, the bands were lining up and practicing their bits, the dragons and lions were being readied etc. etc. The parade goers started to show up in earnest by 4:00PM and I took that opportunity to do a quick sketch of a large group of teenagers hanging around and waiting for the parade to start.
There is a lot to capture in a scene like this but it is best to keep things gestural and simple and not be bogged down in details.
I was walking and sketching most of the time, but toward the end I was incredibly lucky to find a spot along Market st, right alongside the parade, where I could stand and sketch with my sketching supplies spread out in front of me on a little platform. I welcomed the opportunity to add a bit of color to my sketches and pulled out my watercolor palette.
The crowd in front of me was blocking my view of the parade. I turned it into an opportunity and sketched the parade goers instead.
There was a toddler, in her father's arms, right in front of me who was so thrilled with the parade that I just had to sketch her. She noticed me and also acknowledged that yes the sketch is of her indeed. It was very gratifying.
My favorite part of the parade was being able to see it and enjoy it through the eyes of this little one. She was absolutely thrilled by the crowds, the colors and the music.
There were many people milling about with their large cameras, and a bunch of them took a picture of me while I was sketching. It is interesting to be featuring in another person's narrative about the parade while I was there capturing my own. Full circle!
Date : March 11, 2017 (FULL)
Date : March 12, 2017 (FULL)
Time : 1:00PM PST - 4:00PM PST
Venue : Meet in front of Hanahaus, University Ave, Palo Alto, California
More info here
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