Despite the rain I had a great walk to the Farmers Market at El Cerrito Plaza last Saturday. When the rain stopped I sketched and painted at an outdoor table at Peet’s Coffee across the street. Then I continued my walk to do half a dozen errands. One was to pick up the second disk of “Five Days” from the video store.
I’d rented the first disk from Netflix and couldn’t wait for it to go back and part two to arrive. I had to find out what happened. Five days is an incredibly suspenseful, well-written and perfectly acted British TV mini-series about a woman and her kids who go missing. I’d had this movie sitting around for two weeks when I finally sat down to watch it and then couldn’t turn it off. If you like suspenseful police procedurals with great character development, this one is great!
Ever since I saw a crow repeatedly drop a walnut onto the street from its perch on a wire above, fly down to check it, pick it up and drop it again, I wanted to learn more about them. So I’m reading Crow Planet: Essential Wisdom from the Urban Wilderness, a sort of “how to” for amateur naturalists who want to explore nature where it lies (or flies) without having to journey out to Nature with a capital “N.” I learned that crows drop nuts on the road, hoping a car will drive over it and crack it open.
The crow in the sketch above had been hanging out with some crows and a few squirrels on a neighbor’s front porch. This odd group was bickering over who got the peanuts and who got the walnuts that my nutty (pun intended) neighbor lady puts out daily (hourly?). When I showed up he took this more watchful stance.
I used to dislike crows because they seemed to overwhelm the landscape when they showed up and their noisy caws drowned out the softer, sweeter sounds of smaller birds. But I’ve learned to appreciate these fascinating birds.
Crows mate for life, have strong communities who help care for the young and sick members, and are quite smart. They play games with each other, can recognize individual human faces, can reason and use tools as this video demonstrates:
Crows are helpful too, since as omnivores, along with plants, they eat insects considered as pests by gardeners, and enjoy fresh roadkill, thus tidying up the neighborhood. They are well-suited to our increasingly urban, concrete jungle, which is why their population has increased. It is estimated that in the U. S. there are as many crows as households—about one crow per family.
If you want more information about crows, there is a good Crow FAQ here by a Cornell University professor who also seems to find them endearing, despite their usually undeserved bad reputations.
Signs of spring were sprouting everywhere on my walk and I couldn’t resist stopping to sketch and paint. But I stopped so many times that before I’d gone half a mile I was so hungry I had to return home for lunch before heading out again.
The sketch above graces the first page of my new sketchbook, bound with Arches 90lb cold press watercolor paper. It’s quite different from the Fabriano Venezia sketchbooks I’ve been using the past year.
Princess flower bush blossoms, ink & watercolor
I’m really enjoying the way the book opens flat, it’s size (7.5″ tall x 5.5″ wide) and weight, how comfortable it is to hold and to hold open for working across the spread, the texture of the paper for painting and the way the pages don’t ripple, pill, or show through to the other side. The paper takes a lot of abuse and layering, which is both a good and a bad thing. Good because it holds up, but bad because it allows endless diddling around which isn’t really the point of sketching (but is a bad habit of mine).
Peets people, ink & watercolor
And what’s a nice walk on a spring-like day without a stop at Peets for a Cappuccino at a sidewalk table and a bit of sketching/painting. I’m still finding my way with this paper, trying to get a sense of how much paint to use, and which pens work best with it.
One thing I’ve determined for sure is that I prefer painting on site when I go out sketching, as I did with these, and not just drawing on site and adding paint later as I did last week with my sketching group. I just spent the evening painting the drawings from last week’s outing and it just didn’t have the zing that painting from life on site does.
You can make many more sketches and have more control of the paint when you save the painting for later, but then you either have to work from memory (of which I have too little) or photos (which never capture what you really see in person) or by using a pencil to softly write “Y” in areas that are yellow, “B” for blue, etc.) While I loved those “paint by number” kits when I was a kid, I’m not crazy about painting by letter now.
Last page self portrait. Ink & watercolor, drawn from life
In Louise Stanley’s “Rules for Keeping a Sketchbook,” her rule number two is “Start on the third page to get your courage up.” Number three is “Go back to the first page and do a self-portrait when you’ve got the nerve.” At her exhibit it was great seeing some of her (often comical) self-portraits from journals spanning decades.
For my own journals, I preferred the idea of making the last page a self-portrait instead. That way it still creates a record of the YOU that put all that stuff in the journal, but it’s not there staring back at you every time you open the book. So this is my self-portrait on the last page of the Fabriano Venezia sketchbook.
BART Riders, ink and watercolor
And this is the second to last page. Just a couple of subway riders with a bit of watercolor added later. I’m about a quarter of the way into the new journal I bound myself and am really loving it. My next posts will be from that journal.
And now it’s Friday night and what has felt like a very long, exhausting work week is finally over and I get to transition back to my art life. But that will be tomorrow. Tonight I’m just interested in a good night’s sleep.
I was actually on time for once, but couldn’t remember how to get where I was going so I plugged my GPS into one of the outlets in my car. When I pulled it back out to move it to another outlet, the charger thingee seemed to explode, flying to pieces.
Using my key chain flashlight I found something that looked like a fuse, and a spidery silvery thing that seemed to fit atop the cylinder but everything else was missing. I searched the floor and the seats but it was dark, getting late and I had to go.
I quickly checked the GPS to see the route from Highway 80 to 580 to 24 to the Claremont Exit. Then I turned it off, saving the last bit of battery for it to guide me on the final confusing steps around the one-way streets that would take me to my destination, where I arrived, late as usual.
Buying a new charger unit would be expensive because it has a built-in traffic receiver. So the next day I searched my car again and found two missing pieces in one of the many storage compartments, and another two pieces hiding on the floor (easier to see in the daylight).
Amazingly, for spatially-challenged me, I figured out how to put it all back together. And even more amazing: it still works!
We began last Tuesday night’s sketchcrawl at Louise Stanley’s journal exhibit at the California College of Art in Oakland. Lulu’s paintings and sketches are amazing. She combines classical subjects and a great sense of humor with images of modern women on a grand scale in her paintings and in brilliant ink and goauche in her handbound journals. If nothing else, visit her website to read her bio for a peek into her studio and funny writing, and be sure to check out “Lulu’s Rules for Sketchbooks.”
Her journals are full of travel sketches, copies of museum paintings, and lists of things like pen preference rankings, and titles for paintings. I loved the list “Paintings that Matter” that included titles like ‘When Hell Freezes Over,’ ‘Routine Inspection,’ ‘Unintended Consequences,’ ‘Road to Ruin’ and ‘Dressing the Turkey.” The show at CCA will be up through March 5 and on February. She will also give a talk at the Berkeley Art Center on Saturday, February 20, 2010 at 4:00 p.m.
Next we headed down College Avenue for more sketching.
Dinner at Cactus Taqueria, ink & watercolor
It was nearly 8:00 p.m. and I was hungry, having skipped dinner, so I voted to sketch indoors at Cactus Taqueria. After eating (and sketching) some black beans, grilled veges and a tiny salad I made at the salsa bar from their coleslaw salsa (?!), I was ready to tackle the cactus (well, on paper anyway) that sat on a shelf above my table.
Cactus Basket, ink & watercolor
Then it was back out to College Avenue where we were both inspired by the display at Annie’s Vintage Rack.
Annie's Vintage, ink & watercolor
Cathy liked the old suitcases and I liked the old clothes. I probably should have skipped that unfortunately placed sign that seems to be projecting from the skirt. I think it was supposed to look like a megaphone and said “Back to School Sale” on it (though it was just as nearly unreadable as in the sketch).
Berkeley, California is known as a nutty town, and this morning even the wildlife seemed wacky. I don’t usually post photos, but just couldn’t resist sharing these pictures from this morning’s after-breakfast walk in the hilly neighborhood above Berkeley’s “Gourmet Ghetto.” This deer couple above were camped out in a secluded front yard. One had a strange floppy tongue, retracted only when she chewed an itch.
OCD Bird
This bird was stuck in a loop of peering into the mirror of a parked car, attacking his image, jumping atop the mirror, and then coming back to see if the bird was still there, and attacking it again. I tried to shoo him away, but he started the loop again when I walked away. Do birds get OCD?
Chickens on a log
These chickens had a huge yard to themselves but gathered together in one tiny corner, all trying to all perch on the same chunk of log. Makes you wonder about how important “free range” really is to chickens.
Catwalk (see below)
And then there are the people. These neighbors built a second story bridge between their two houses for their cats. (above and below)
Cat crossing between two houses
And these humble homeowners hung this on their modest bungalow in a neighborhood where even a 3-room shack is worth half a million dollars.
Happy Hovel
And then there were the bird lovers…
For Birds
…and goose lovers…
Window Goose (I hope it's plastic!)
and Monkey madness and…
Surprised Monkey garage ornament
and just plain madness…
Australia: One hour time limit
That’s a dismantled parking meter below the Australia sign. Their whole front yard was filled with similar flotsam and jetsam.
Welcome to Berkeley
Of course I would have preferred to sketch these sights, but I was walking with a non-sketching friend whose patience was already tried by my taking photos, let alone stopping to sketch. And now I’m even further behind posting all the sketches and paintings I’ve been working on.
…but my son Robin did instead. And he took wonderful, soulful photos that he shared with me. So of course I had to sketch them, starting with this otter whose expression really struck me. It came out a little different in each sketch.
Worried Otter, drawn with icky Pigma Brush Pen
I finally threw away the Pigma Brush Pen I used for this sketch. The point seemed to fray on first use and only got worse. The Pitt Artist Brush Pens seem to hold up better.
Perplexed Otter, Sepia & Black Pitt Artist Pens
I think this one is my favorite either because of his expression (why am I assuming it’s a boy?) or because the drawing reminds me of a series of children’s books I used to read to my sons when they were little, about a little badger named Francis.
And here is Robin’s original photo:
Otter, photo by Robin Bouc
I wonder what this cute little guy was thinking. Doesn’t this just call for a caption? What would it be?
Did you know that organic carrots with the greens still attached are sweeter than the big chunky ones in the grocery store without tops or the little shaved ones known as baby carrots? They’re also more fun to draw. Except for the feathery greens which confused me when I tried to draw them.
Carrots in cellophane, ink & watercolor
And they’re even more challenging to draw when wrapped in a cellophane bag (above).
Carrot greens and label
And they felt even harder because I was feeling tired, spaced out, catching a cold, and needing to go to bed. So despite really wanting to figure out how to capture the feathery greens in ink and wash, I gave up, glued the label in the book instead, and went to bed.
I’ve been sketching the several days, but have been too tired and/or too busy with or from my day job to post so now I have a bunch of catching up to do, starting with carrots.
Just a few recent sketches on our subway system, BART, that I ride twice a week, in a 13 minute ride to the office. (I work from home 2 days a week and in the office 2 days a week).
Late for Work Again
It seems so decadent to be sketching while really late for work. Fortunately I make my own schedule and can stay later to make up the time and get everything done. I usually work from 10-6 so at 10:40 on BART I was really late!
Late for Work Again!
What can I say? Being late seems to be a common theme. I like to take my time in the morning and not rush and given my slim grasp on time to begin with, it’s easy to get late. I’ve vowed to mend my ways and start getting up earlier which seems to be the only solution. But then I need to go to bed earlier too. That’s harder.
Here is the lion that guards the door at the hotel beside the chubby cherubs on Harrison Street. I love his big nose and stylized fist. I sketched this from the photo on my monitor from across the room, to simulate drawing from life as best I could. I did a complete pencil sketch with shading and then drew over that with my Pentel Pocket Brush Pen and then decided to erase all the pencil shading and paint him with watercolor. Here’s a photo of the building.
Cherubs & Lions on Harrison
A couple weeks ago when I posted my sketches from the library and Peet’s Coffee I mentioned the old man in a weathered, WWII leather aviator cap and his 1940s era bicycle that Cathy sketched. I adored the way she captured this funny old character who was selling bike parts to a young man so I asked her to send me scans. She did, and now I get to post them below.
Jerusalem Lemonade and Lentil Soup, ink & watercolor
Last Tuesday night we met at Zaki’s Kabob House in Albany for some delicious Mediterranean food and sketching. It was a cold rainy night but the restaurant was busy. Sonia had called ahead to confirm it would be OK for us to spend the evening there sketching. We were further encouraged by the bumper sticker on the door that said “Make Art Not War.”
Condiments & Empty Bread Basket
If you wonder why this sketch has a note saying “Paste Menu Here,” it’s because when I said I’d ruined the composition (pre-watercolor) by adding that glass on the right, Cathy said, “Just paste a piece of the menu over that spot.” I solved the problem by just not painting the glass and leaving the note instead.
Sonia and I painted at the table but Cathy didn’t like the dim restaurant lighting for painting so made many more sketches instead. I was happy that my colors turned out well despite not quite being able to see them while working.
Diners at Zakis
Usually when we’re sketching in cafes we are unable to avoid eavesdropping on nearby conversations, always a source of amusement or amazement at what people say in public. But shortly after we sat down, Ellen, a member of our plein air painting group, arrived to join her realtor for dinner at the next table. After some introductions, and passing around of sketchbooks (including an invitation by the realtor to show them in their office “gallery” which we declined), we returned to sketching while they dined and chatted.
It was odd eavesdropping on someone we knew. Cathy appreciated it though, since they were talking about sofabed shopping, and Cathy is in the market for one too.
In 1998 when the movie The Big Lebowski first came out, my father, who considered himself an intellectual, raved about this movie. So I went to see it on his recommendation but couldn’t figure out what he saw in it.
Now the star, Jeff Bridges, is in a new movie and people are again talking with great reverence about his role as “The Dude” in The Big Lebowski, which some critics rate in their top comedies of the past 25 years. My son even had this movie in his collection, so I borrowed it, thinking if its popularity spans that many generations, I should give it another chance.
I watched it. I still don’t get it. At the end, when “the stranger” (Sam Elliot) who begins the movie with his narration returns to the bowling alley for another sarsaparilla and concludes the narration, I decided to sketch him so at least I had something to show from spending two hours with these morons.
Is it a guy thing? Is this a movie that makes guys feel good because they’re not as bad of losers? Do people really think the Dude’s pothead approach to life known as “The Dude abides,” was worthy of worship (there is actually a church based on his character, called Dudeism)?
I loved the Coen Brothers’ movie Fargo (mostly because of Francis McDormand) but even she couldn’t save their most recent movie, Burn After Reading, which, after renting it accidentally, I thought had to be the most pointless movie I’ve ever seen.
If only the millions of dollars spent on making stupid movies (much of which goes to already obscenely wealthy movie stars) could be spent on feeding people, funding education, the arts, or making the world a better place.
I painted this from a Google Earth street view photo for the Virtual Paintout blog. For the month of January they are painting Corsica, France from images on Google Earth. I’d heard of Corsica but had no idea where it was so it was fun to learn a little about it. And I’d never really explored Google Earth before (except for looking at my house) and was amazed. You pick a spot and then click the arrow to move further down the road, not knowing what you will come to until you get there, just like real travel. You can also swivel the view to see what’s off to either side. A town named “Mute, Corsica” intrigued me so I started there for my virtual travel.
I spent way too long exploring Corsica and only had a couple hours left to paint last weekend once I’d picked an image. But the painting went really well and I probably should have just left it as it was. But I came back to it today to do some “finishing.” But I’d lost my focus so did some painting, wiped it off, painted, wiped off. Finally I gave myself a pep talk: Focus and Finish! I did.
Most of their decorative squash buddies had grown unsightly fuzz and gone off to the compost bin. But these three were still pretty and when I looked around for something to sketch last week, they cried out “Choose Me! Choose Me!” So I did.
I wanted to paint today. And I didn’t. I had a headache that wouldn’t go away and a bunch of boring, annoying chores to do. I had to return a jacket to Costco that was so wonderfully, fuzzy green but unfortunately, also oddly misshapen). The gas tank “empty” light in my car had been on for days (my least favorite chore, second only to dragging the trash cans out to the street, which I pay a neighbor boy to do).
I needed to go to Target for cat litter (and since Fiona only recently decided to start using the litter box again for ALL of her needs and not just some, I didn’t want to discourage her with a dirty box.) And I wanted to take a walk before the predicted week-long deluge of rain started.
So I sacrified a day in the studio that probably would have been a struggle anyway, feeling crummy as I did, and took off on a long walk to Radio Shack in Albany to buy new ear bud covers for my iPhone since one had disappeared.
Hints of tobacco and toilet?
On the way home, I stopped at Peet’s Coffee to sip and sketch. I saw this sign from across the room and thought “that can’t be right!” It was advertising their new coffee, Sumatra Blue Batak, claiming in fancy script that it was “Smooth and full-bodied” and had (what I thought I read) “…hints of tobacco and toilet…” . Huh!? I squinted and looked more closely and saw it said “hints of sweet tobacco and toffee” Even with the toffee though, I’m not sure I’d want to drink coffee that tasted like tobacco. Ick.
I completed all my errands, the headache is almost gone, and with Monday and Tuesday off, I still have two days to paint and enjoy being cozy in the studio while it rains.
Sorry to bore you with my stupid day and list of chores. Maybe I should have just posted the picture and then shut up?
Most artwork shown here is available as prints or originals. Email janabouc@gmail.com for more information.
Website
Visit Jana's painting website:
Comments & Contact
Please let me know that you stopped by and tell me what you think: Click on "Comments" under any post's title to leave a comment. You can also reply to comments made by me or others by clicking a comment's "REPLY" button, making it into a discussion.
You may also send an email to janabouc@gmail.com
