Watercolor in Moleskine large watercolor sketchbook
This week’s Illustration Friday challenge is “Twist” — there’s nothing like a nice twist of lemon in a glass of ice water (or in something more exciting, like a lemon drop martini, which I’m sure sounds better than it tastes, since I’m not a fan of martinis). And last week’s [...]
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Posted in Flower art, Gardening, Landscape, Moleskine, Outdoors/Landscape, Pen and Ink, Plants, Plein Air, Sketchbook Pages, Watercolor on June 28, 2007 | 8 Comments »
Serpentine Cone Flower
Ink and watercolor in large Moleskine watercolor notebook
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Today I went to Berkeley’s Tilden Park Botanical Gardens with Richard. It’s a lovely, serene place filled with California native plants and trees from giant redwoods to wildflowers. He hiked around the hills, fields, bridges, creeks and wooded areas, enjoying the quiet [...]
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Ink and watercolor in Moleskine large watercolor sketchbook
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This is the Patterson House at Ardenwood Farms, an historical, working Victorian farm in Fremont, California. They have a blacksmith shop and people dressed in period costumes using the tools of the time to cook, churn butter, wash clothes, and other chores; a horse [...]
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Ink in Moleskine sketchbook - Peaberry’s Coffee in Oakland’s Rockridge District, land of yuppies with strollers
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Today was my first official day of vacation. There’s something about a week off that makes me want to hoard every moment and then I start worrying about it ending before it’s even gotten started. It usually [...]
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Watercolor on Arches paper 15 x 22″
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This was a painting that was going well–it was commissioned by a friend as a gift for her husband for their anniversary. She wanted me to paint their home and cats in their favorite spot at the front window with their tulip tree in [...]
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Posted in Flower art, Ink, Life in general, Painting, Pen and Ink, People, Plants, Portrait, Still Life, Watercolor on June 20, 2007 | 12 Comments »
Watercolor painted quickly and directly on Arches hot press watercolor paper without preliminary drawing and then when dry, Pentel brush pen to draw/paint the lines. 7.5″ x 11″
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My wonderful next-door neighbors brought this potted azalea for me as a birthday gift yesterday, along with a nice card and a hug from [...]
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2 unfinished sketches - ink in Moleskine
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Today is my birthday but instead of celebrating I went to see my back doctor and then to the hospital for a hip xray. They aren’t sure if my hip pain is sciatica from a flare up of an old herniated disk in my back or [...]
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All were drawn in pencil and then ink in my dream sketchbook, then scanned and digitally colored in Painter.
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(Above) Dreamt that my painting group turned into a dance group.
(Below) Click here to see enlarged. Dreamt I was standing in line to sign up for a race. A big sweaty bald [...]
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Oil on canvas, 16 x 20″
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Yippee! I finally got back to oil painting and I think that everything I’ve learned in acrylic and gouache and from reading books on landscape and seeing other people’s instructional photos and videos on the web and especially the great advice I’ve gotten from other [...]
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All are ink in Moleskine sketchbook.
This is the busiest week of the busiest month of the year at my day job. We’re holding five institutes in the next few weeks across the country and 10 hour days are norm.
As a result these drawings done on our subway system known as BART are the sum total [...]
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Posted in Photos, Studio on June 12, 2007 | 7 Comments »
Finally I have my new Workrite Sierra electric sit-stand desk. This is it in lowered position for sitting in a chair. If you click on the picture above, it will take you to Flickr where I’ve annotated all the different items (just mouse over the little boxes and the descriptions appear). Flickr also has [...]
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The Illustration Friday challenge “suit” really didn’t grab me until I remember it was my birthday this month…
(above) I scribbled the idea for this on a handy notepad with pencil at midnight while I was waiting for my neighbor’s party to end so I could get some sleep. Then I inked over the outline today [...]
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Gouache on Arches hot press watercolor paper, 10×7.5″
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I meant to paint in oils this afternoon and I meant to go to bed early tonight and I meant to get some good exercise in today. Oops.
Instead I spent the afternoon with the president of my neighborhood association touring the former [...]
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Gouache on hot press watercolor paper, 7×10″
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I painted this from a photo I took of a little girl at my niece’s high school graduation. I’m learning a lot from working with gouache–it’s a great way to experiment with seeing values and color temperature which is so important, especially [...]
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Gouache on hot-pressed watercolor paper, 7″x11″
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I’ve been wanting to experiment with painting in gouache (opaque watercolor) and today finally got the chance. I so adore the artwork of Maira Kalman and the painterly, juicy way she uses gouache….which reminds me a lot of the kind of oil painting I want to do–John [...]
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