One Tree And A House

In the morning before heading to the memorial protest on Saturday, I sketched this house on A Street. As is my practice in winter, I colored it in with the watercolor crayons when I got home. Pica suggested I get an aubergine crayon; here I try it out in the shadows of the tree and the vegetation. I like the richness the color adds.

Escoda Ultimo

An Escoda travel brush arrived today. It’s the synthetic fiber Ultimo #12, a large round brush that can hold a crazy amount of water but also holds a very sharp point.

I am not averse to using waterbrushes like the Pentel Aquash, but I’m looking for a little more control. This brush seems to be able to handle all kinds of things I might throw at it. More anon.

Drawing Trees

I have, among other things, set as an intention this year to get better at drawing trees. My plan is to draw a tree a day. I feel like I’ve chosen a bad medium — pen is less versatile than pencil, for trees — but I’m going to keep going.

This tree was drawn a couple of days ago in the early morning fog. Here, the pen wasn’t a hindrance. I’ll be posting more as I go.

And I’m writing about drawing because the events in the world are almost too much to bear.

Sketching Between The Rain Showers

There have been a lot of showers these past several days which has made for interesting sketching outings. Yesterday I walked over to the city hall and completed my ink sketch of some tall trees and a portion of the building before heading back home. On the way back I stopped to photograph a mushroom and then noticed a bit of drizzle on the camera. I put it back in its case and then came the downpour. I scurried the block-and-a-half back home. Our weather station recorded a maximum rate of 4.27 inches of rain an hour during the downpour.

The sketch at left is from today and shows a view looking northwards across a playing field towards the Davis Senior Center. No dramatic downpour, but it did drizzle a bit on the page.

Revisiting Old Art Supplies

I do have a habit of accumulating art supplies, which at this point should probably be enumerated in my will. I broke out the Prismacolors this afternoon to do a slow, inexpert drawing of a persimmon we were left as a gift.

I’m much more of a sketcher than a drawer, but you can get so absorbed in the slow, painstaking process of layering different, contrasting colors onto Bristol board that it’s quite a meditation.

I might do more of this. I should also work on my sad watercolor skills. But this year I have another intention too: I want to get better at drawing trees.

Scoping out the Local Golf Course for a Christmas Bird Count

Tomorrow we’ll be participating in our local Xmas count, and we’ve been assigned the Wildhorse Golf Course (and residential streets).

Four Palms And A Gym

We’ve had the miracle of full days of sunshine yesterday and today, although it has been chilly: Pica was even able to wash and block her new jacket today. For my urban sketch yesterday I walked over to the bus circle near the student union on campus and sketched Hickey Gym and the palm trees in front of it. As is now my habit in winter, I colored the sketch once I got back home, testing out one of my newly added Neocolor II crayons, Sahara yellow, on the face of the gym.

The Artist's Way: Week 12

Much to my surprise I’m nearing the end of this twelve-week journey. (I thought it was 13 weeks, so that was like a bonus.) Here are my thoughts:

a) I am much less pissy about writing morning pages when I sketch in them too. Since hummingbirds are almost as present as cats during daylight hours, they get a lot of real estate in these pages.

b) I don’t care that she says these should be three pages of writing only. It takes me the best part of an hour to get through three pages of longhand drivel; at least I can make it more fun by drawing too.

c) Despite myself, I ALWAYS feel better if I’ve written my morning pages.

d) Artist’s dates are fun and I plan to continue having them.

e) I think I will be turning more to the Danny Gregory visual journal idea than morning pages per se, but without making them too precious.

I made a drawing yesterday about my journal ecosystem… missing even from the list of missing items are my knitting journal and my nature journal. I ought to redo this drawing to include them all.

Sketching In The Fog

It’s been a stormy week in California, with floods in the Mojave region of Los Angeles County, 10 inches of rain in the mountains of Ventura County, and wind gusts of over 114 MPH doing major damage to the Lick Observatory on Mt. Hamilton in Santa Clara County, the worst damage in its 140-year history. The weather was comparatively mild here in Davis, but we did get 2.26 inches of rain over the week.

It cleared last night here and got chilly, which set up conditions for a tule fog in the morning. I went sketching around 10 AM, coping with the chill by only drawing with ink outside and waiting until I returned home to color the sketch. This is the Davis School For Independent Study on B Street.

Illustrating a Journal

I’m playing with what I might do in the new year once I’ve finished with my Artist’s Way session, and this might work. I’m doing more and more drawings in my morning pages — cheating, I know — and here I’m landing, I think. A thick paper that will take a light wash, will stay open flat.

There will be a lot of cats in this journal, I’m guessing.