Belgium House

Posted on February 3, 2016 by Sarah Sullivan

 

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The Belgium House at the Hebrew University is a great place to get a cup of coffee, some sunshine and a sketch. The gardens are lush, inviting and set up for groups and individuals. I started off drawing the canna lilies but noticed a nearby writer’s enthusiastic interactions with his computer and soon drew him instead. I am fascinated by the body language of learning and it appeared as though the writer and computer were collaborating on an exciting new idea. He seemed to treat his computer like a person, smiling, gesturing, listening, pausing, and encouraging it to say more. He would rock in his chair and then write with a pounding rush. I wish I knew what he was working on.

This is an ink and watercolor sketch on mixed media paper.

 

Posted in People Learning, Telling a Story | Tagged , , | 2 Comments

Damascus Gate Bus Plaza

Posted on February 2, 2016 by Sarah Sullivan

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I am beginning to feel more comfortable sketching in pubic here in Israel and did a first pass of this sketch while waiting for the tram near Damascus Gate, one of the entrances to the Old City of Jerusalem. One of my goals for this blog is to tell stories through image and the story of people hurrying home in the late afternoon light caught my eye.

Later I took a photo of the ink and watercolor sketch and then in Procreate strengthened the greens on the bus and the contrast between lights and darks.

Posted in Telling a Story | Tagged , , , , | 2 Comments

Reconnecting with a friend

Posted on February 1, 2016 by Sarah Sullivan

 

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In the late 70’s we stayed in Israel for 17 months. Now back in Israel for a few months we are happily reconnecting with old friends and taking lots of photos, two of which I used for this sketch- one for the hands and the other for the face. Our friend has a penetrating gaze and age has not diminished it. The tilt of her head and her intense eyes reflect her openness to learning and I wanted to capture this in this sketch. Her hands are important because they symbolize capacity for living and the flowers show an appreciation of the here and now of life.

I began with an ink and watercolor drawing and then imported it into Procreate to further developed the sketch. I made extensive use of the Gaussian Blur tool in an attempt to indicate age, but kept the figure’s eyes clear to indicate her brilliant, thinking mind.

 

Posted in Body Language, Facial Expression | Tagged , , , | 2 Comments

At the Dead Sea

Posted on January 31, 2016 by Sarah Sullivan

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Our friends said a day of sunshine is the best antidote for jet lag so off we all went to the En Gedi Nature Reserve, on the shore of the Dead Sea, for a long sunny hike.

This sketch is based on two photos I took along the way, one of the Dead Sea and the other of the canyon walls above it. I began with a line and watercolor sketch but ran into difficulties with accurate color reproduction when I tried to import the finished sketch into my blog by using the photo app on my iPad. The reproduction photo came out too blue, as did yesterday’s photo for the blog as well. This led me to finally tackling the mysterious color features of hue, saturation, brightness and color balance in Procreate, an app on my iPad, and I now understand how to control color a bit more.

 

Posted in Deliberate Practice, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , | 7 Comments

View of Jerusalem

Posted on January 29, 2016 by Sarah Sullivan

 

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This is the view from the balcony where we are staying in Jerusalem. Hebrew University is in the distance and there are many more buildings in a valley between it and our apartment that I did not include. It is a cold, partially overcast afternoon and I stood inside and looked through the balcony window, a very different experience from sketching in San Diego.

It felt good to unpack my watercolors and pens and sketch on paper again with a bold marker and strong colors. I spent some time trying to understand the view and its color by sketching it several times. After I finished this sketch I took a photo and then made some adjustments in Procreate.

 

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Over the Atlantic Ocean

Posted on January 28, 2016 by Sarah Sullivan

 

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At some point as we crossed the Atlantic it was morning local time. The sky, clouds and sea seemed to have uncertain boundaries.

This sketch was done on my iPad using Procreate, a perfect tool for a window seat artist.

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Doodling

Posted on January 27, 2016 by Sarah Sullivan

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This began as a simple doodle of the Anthurium plants on the hotel patio. It slowly took over and dominated my attention, leaving no room for other sketching today. I became too focused on all the details and so had trouble with shape, color, depth and a center of attention. This is the sixth version and in it I enlarged a central flower and then rotated it about 60 degrees to add contrast. I distorted, darkened and blurred several of the leaves and this seemed to help give depth to the sketch. I don’t often draw plants and feel my unfamiliarity of this subject caused me to think more than normal about the choices I made.

I worked completely on my iPad in the Procreate app.

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