This is my post for Saturday, October 17. I got home last night too late to post.
It is a wonderful thing to be a passenger with vistas such as this to draw. Saguaros, mountains, dramatic clouds, so much to sketch and such a great way to make the driving time fly by. This is an in-the-moment composite sketch of a rapidly changing landscape. I use pen and watercolor.
I am doing quick sketches everywhere these days. This one is from the food court at Costco in San Diego. A sweet little family shared some ice cream just long enough for me sketch them. I liked the way the four heads make stair steps down the page. I don’t know why I have such flimsy paper in my purse, it was hard to work with when I added watercolor. The paper just withered up at the touch of water. I used pen, pencil and watercolor.
When I saw today’s model for the open studio group, I was quick to decide that the model looks like a character from a novel I have been reading this past week or so. I just finished My Brilliant Friend, the first of the four Neapolitan Novels by Elena Ferrante, and I imagine that the character Lila may have looked very much like today’s model. The model had wonderful facial expressions that included suspicious scrutiny,resentment, brooding, and pride. The narrator in the Neapolitan novels often described how Lila’s eyes narrowed as she tilted her head back and stared at someone and this is what I saw in this pose. I limited the colors and used them sparingly so as to keep attention on the eyes.
On most Wednesdays my young neighbor comes by for help with his homework and some games if time allows. It takes such focus for him to complete his school assignment of writing each word five times that it gives me a lull in which to sketch him. At this point I have sketched him unsuccessfully a number of times. He is so blond that I have trouble finding defining features to draw. I am used to the dark lashes, brows, and glasses of my family members and much more at ease in conveying these with line and color. I continued to experiment with the anime/manga look and I used two shades of markers to try to give his fair skin some definition. I also used pen and watercolor. I think I caught something that shows his attention to forming each letter of each word correctly.
It was hot today in San Diego. I paused for a drink and my eye was caught by a woman with a cell phone at a window overlooking the parking lot. I have been trying to get the bold anime/manga feel in my sketches and the setting in front of my eyes lent itself to this goal. I was also caught by an implied story of coming action that this accidental composition conveyed to me through the cell phone, somewhat lonesome body language, window, and car. I simplified the shapes, included only one car outside the window, used outlines, and applied flat color with markers. I think it is too dark overall.
We drove up to Berkeley for a long weekend. I was able to get several sketches along the way from the vantage point of the front seat. The dry conditions combined with sunset made for wonderful browns and oranges. The wide open eyes, slightly open mouth and somewhat hunched shoulders capture that ‘end of a long drive’ feeling for me. I used pen and watercolor.
Although I sketched on the way to Berkeley, the image will not post from my phone so I will update early next week.
October 12- Here is the sketch I was trying to post.
Deliberate Sketching 