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I made it through three shows and two sets of houseguests (all delightful to see) in a week and a half period, and I was due for some serious vacation. I’m out in Washington state, sleeping late, reading lots of baseball news, hitting some truly great thrift stores, and revisiting some favorite places in an unexpected streak of sunshine. I’ve managed exactly one sketch so far, and I’m trying not to put too much pressure on myself. It’s sometimes good to take breaks.
I have been taking photos as I walk though. The frost is amazing, especially since I stay right along the Skagit River. I’d always heard the term “hoar frost” in the British novels I read, but I hadn’t been sure what exactly it was. It turns out that mist and fog rising off rivers in cold conditions can freeze in almost sculptural ways. I’ve had fun taking some photos.
I have been taking photos as I walk though. The frost is amazing, especially since I stay right along the Skagit River. I’d always heard the term “hoar frost” in the British novels I read, but I hadn’t been sure what exactly it was. It turns out that mist and fog rising off rivers in cold conditions can freeze in almost sculptural ways. I’ve had fun taking some photos.
The frost in the great meadow at Rasar State Park (one of my magic places) extends only into about a third of the meadow and burns off as it gets further away from the river. Part of that is the deep valley that keeps out most of the sun. The bottom right photo above is just about noon. I can see why fairy tales so often came from the northern regions. It’s not a little uncanny to walk out of strong sunshine and into blue dimness in the middle of the day. It feels like entering Narnia and the land of perpetual winter, where you walk over an invisble boundary into fairyland. My dad brought me a book of Scandinavian fairy tales when I was little that was one of my favorites for years. I’m feeling its echoes on this trip.
I also went down to the pebble beach at the end of the park, which is one of my favorite places. It’s stunning in winter in a completely different way. It was a gorgeous way to spend a morning, and then I headed back to the land of heating and good, local pizza after being out in the cold for a couple of hours.
I also went down to the pebble beach at the end of the park, which is one of my favorite places. It’s stunning in winter in a completely different way. It was a gorgeous way to spend a morning, and then I headed back to the land of heating and good, local pizza after being out in the cold for a couple of hours.
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Even though I'm primarily a painter/printmaker, I listen to a lot of writing podcasts. They translate well into a verbal medium, deal with creativity, and teach me some the publishing industry as I'm working on my Mr. Darcy picture book. There's a bit of talk about "morning pages," the early morning writing you do for yourself, not part of your regular work, just to loosen up in the mornings. This week I've been doing the sketcher version of that, drawing my morning tea.
It's been a week of some drawing, but mostly fiddly computer work, as I scan in drawings and text and assemble them in photoshop as pages for my book. I've wanted to have some bit of actual creative, painterly fun in the midst of it, so this has been a good way to start my mornings lately. I'm always trying to balance the journal/blog/social media/printing and packaging time I spend against painting or carving time, so this may not be a good fit for me daily. Often I wake up with a painting just dying to push its way out, and all I want to do is dive in. Doing a daily anything can be constrictive for me creatively. But I do enjoy these meditative sketches, so I'm leaving a paint box out on the counter at my breakfast spot for now (one of many advantages to living by myself), and I'll see if I can be more mindful about sketching instead of just looking at a screen when I am having some down time at meals.
It's been a week of some drawing, but mostly fiddly computer work, as I scan in drawings and text and assemble them in photoshop as pages for my book. I've wanted to have some bit of actual creative, painterly fun in the midst of it, so this has been a good way to start my mornings lately. I'm always trying to balance the journal/blog/social media/printing and packaging time I spend against painting or carving time, so this may not be a good fit for me daily. Often I wake up with a painting just dying to push its way out, and all I want to do is dive in. Doing a daily anything can be constrictive for me creatively. But I do enjoy these meditative sketches, so I'm leaving a paint box out on the counter at my breakfast spot for now (one of many advantages to living by myself), and I'll see if I can be more mindful about sketching instead of just looking at a screen when I am having some down time at meals.
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I've been mostly DOING Inktober even though I've been bad about posting here lately. Most days I've managed one ink sketch, but the majority of my work this past week has been tons of computer work (taking my attention from scanning for other purposes) to get the Mr. Darcy Goes Home book and the related counting book ready to send out. I've got a mid November deadline to be able to submit to my dream publisher without needing an agent first, so I'm working flat out to get it ready. I'll show a couple of reject sketches from that process here, but for now, a few more Inktober sketches to show what I've been up to around the edges.
Above is the Side Street Steppers. Below is one sketch as I was stopped at a train on my way to a printmaking demonstration at Dixon (I'll be doing several more of those) plus a quick sketch waiting in line at Home Depot, buying materials to shore up my floor to receive the type cabinet (see the last blog post).
Above is the Side Street Steppers. Below is one sketch as I was stopped at a train on my way to a printmaking demonstration at Dixon (I'll be doing several more of those) plus a quick sketch waiting in line at Home Depot, buying materials to shore up my floor to receive the type cabinet (see the last blog post).
I've been still practicing people when I get the chance, so at right are a handful of sketches from lunch at the Majestic downtown. Below is one quick page during last weekend. I almost never draw at dance weekends -- my only real vacation from art, complete and total, but I did do a few on Saturday, knowing it was Inktober and trying not to flake out completely.
Plus I always enjoy drawing treats, as a way to keep enjoying them, and also remember nice days I've spent with other people. Here is one of those, just to round things out.
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I’m having a quiet day today. It’s hot, the Orsay is closed, and I’m on vacation. So lots of sewing on my next to last quilt block going on, and a couple of around the house sketches. I found this new teapot at a pop up street flea market yesterday, and careful readers of my blog will know how much I adore drawing teapots. I’m also on a self portrait jag, so here’s one more of those. I was trying to get a little more facial expression. I remember the artist who did pastel portraits of my sister and me as kids alway said that “a portrait is a picture with something funny with the mouth.” Nothing could more encapsulate my attempts to branch out into figurative work.
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I’ve been out and about sketching in Paris the last few days. I’m not trying to bring home a full show, which frees me up to follow my nose each day and do some experimenting. And also to sketch baked goods for future enjoyment. I’m using my normal 5.5” journal on this trip, but I also brought a larger square watercolor journal with real watercolor paper (above and below), which opens out to a landscape shape. It’s nice to push myself to paint a little larger and let the paint swirl. I’m using a selection of fountain pens with different colored inks on some of these (green above and brown for the pain au chocolat), and I’m also having fun with the brush pens that have two different strengths of sumi ink.
Today I thought back to the direct watercolor challenge of June and decided to paint Luxembourg Palace with no line drawing first (second one below). It’s a brain stretcher but also kind of fun.
Today I thought back to the direct watercolor challenge of June and decided to paint Luxembourg Palace with no line drawing first (second one below). It’s a brain stretcher but also kind of fun.
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I got behind on my scanning coming back across the country. Here are some of my last week sketches. I went to the Cascadian Farms roadside stand for my favorite ice cream on my last day. I also realized I hadn't scanned a previous sketch of that place. I've been enjoying the direct watercolor, but I also am still in love with this green ink and pulled it back out for the garden. It's a lovely place to go and sit.
I did more driving and less front seat sketching than I had going across in the spring, but I did stop at a couple of the parks and sketch. Here is Pompey's Pillar, a place with Lewis and Clark history and also a beautiful spot in Montana along the Yellowstone River. I met a neat couple there. It's fun traveling with a dog and a sketchbook -- both are introductions to people you wouldn't otherwise meet.
My other stop with my sketchbook was at Theodore Roosevelt National Park, a beautiful place to spend the morning of the 4th of July. We had 9 hours yet to drive after leaving the park, so I only did one sketch, but it was fun to see the moon setting over the rock formations and have a bit of memory of that in my journal.
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I've been on the road a lot and out of my normal routine, which makes it harder for me to stay disciplined about what I'm putting in my mouth. It gets easy for me to graze without paying attention as closely when it feels like I'm on vacation, and I was beginning to creep up a little bit on the scale. It wasn't time for a full fledged diet, and I'm not a big fan of feeling deprived. That seems to sabotage me over time. But I decided it was time to be more mindful and intentional about what I ate. Also the direct watercolor challenge had just started, and a sketching food journal seemed like one good way to participate. So I decided to keep a week's worth of food journal in a large watercolor sketch book. I've also been trying to up my watercolor painting size, so this was a good project across the board.
It's less fun for any dinner companions you might have, so I only did it for a week or so, but it did help me. If I have to want a snack badly enough to get out the paints and add it to the journal, I really am hungry. It was fun, and when I'm back to my solo living life, I may do another week. In the meantime, here are a few of the days. You can see that I was more painting for the moment than trying to keep a list of my intake for future reference. Chicken or lasagne aren't always that easy to tell what they are in a quick sketch done before food goes cold. But it served its purpose for the moment. It was also a good exercise in composing a large page of multiple images. I had fun and am overall pleased with the big, colorful double pages.
It's less fun for any dinner companions you might have, so I only did it for a week or so, but it did help me. If I have to want a snack badly enough to get out the paints and add it to the journal, I really am hungry. It was fun, and when I'm back to my solo living life, I may do another week. In the meantime, here are a few of the days. You can see that I was more painting for the moment than trying to keep a list of my intake for future reference. Chicken or lasagne aren't always that easy to tell what they are in a quick sketch done before food goes cold. But it served its purpose for the moment. It was also a good exercise in composing a large page of multiple images. I had fun and am overall pleased with the big, colorful double pages.
One day was busy enough I decided to do just line drawings instead, which had a different feel. That was fun too.
My knitting group out here is from 5-8, and I don't do late dinners very well, so I was eating early and in a hurry. That day I let myself just do breakfast and lunch, but I kind of liked this one. It's the last one I'll put here. I don't switch my food up that much, so they got a little repetitive, but it really was a fun project.
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I've been doing some sketches along in my journal, but I'm behind scanning them in, so here are a bunch of recent sketches. Above is the view from the table in the window of my favorite diner. Below is the view from the front porch (looking over the houses opposite, anyway).
There was also tea in my favorite coffee shop and a trip to Rasar State Park, one of my favorite spots out here. I've been making some good rounds lately.
There's a 30 day "direct watercolor" challenge online right now, and I'm mostly playing along, trying to do watercolors with little to no line drawing first. These are a couple of larger journal sketches as practice.
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I've never been a wild night out on the town kind of girl, so date night this week was a series of movie shorts by my friend Mark Jones (local filmmaker who once shot a movie in my house), followed by an impromptu run to the river after getting out of the theater and realizing how great the sky was, followed by hot chocolate at my local coffee shop. A lovely evening. I had fun sketching the sunset. It was almost dark, so I couldn't see color as much as just some bare form. I know largely where the colors are in my kit, so it's fun to come back inside later and see how it's turned out.
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I like to have special days and memories in my sketch journal, and it was my birthday last week. My friend Melissa Bridgman left these lovely flowers on my doorstep in one of her handmade vases (I love polka dots!), and they were so lovely I had to draw them. I also had cake at Muddy's (my very favorite) with a marvelous friend, and it was fun to have both of those occasions in here. Plus I get to enjoy cake again later without the calories if it's in my sketchbook. I get a great deal of pleasure from dessert sketches. There was a creme brulee in Asheville years ago that lives on my in my memory and my journal because I was so pleased with the sketch.
