Spring Twig and Tree with Shrubs

Spring Twig and Tree with Shrubs

3 1/2" x 5 1/4" Pocket Moleskine watercolor journal

Pigma Micron 01 (black) and watercolor

Yesterday was my clinic visit and the weather's getting successively better. Enough that I was still functioning well after going down the stairs and could draw! 

My elevator's gone down. There's only one antique elevator in the building and apparently it's going to be months before the replacement motor arrives. This bites. It's going to cut deep into my summer plans. Hopefully if it gets fixed by August or September, I might get a 2015 outing late in the year. But while it's down, my best hope is to stay in for all but essential medical appointments.

I was reading a Claudia Nice book on my Kindle when the van stopped to take on another passenger who was late for the pickup. While we waited I saw this lovely sapling with scanty old dead foliage and its first few new spring leaves opening up simultaneously. Had to sketch that from life.

Then snapped photos from the van window and captured a ridge next to the road with trees and bushes and grass. Later in the waiting room, cropped that photo visually and sketched the tree scene above. Both of those I penciled first, then inked with a waterproof pen and then washed with watercolors. I used watercolor markers in Burnt Umber and Sap Green on the twig and washed, tapping the brush tips with the water brush for lighter color. Then used a little pan set of 8 Daniel Smith watercolors on the tree scene.

A couple of years ago I found that Richeson had a tiny children's watercolor set only an inch and a quarter by under 2" with tiny like quarter-pans round pans of kid color. I bought those for my grandkids as stocking stuffers, I got an extra one for myself, popped out the kid pans and filled the empty little plastic openings with Hansa Yellow, New Gamboge, an orange-red, quinacridone magenta or rose, quinacridone gold, pthalo blue, ultramarine and Paynes Grey.

Weirdly that little keychain set has become so handy. I've always got it in pocket, never have a problem with it other than the ultramarine popping out of its hole, just seem to reach for it and mix those colors easily. Bizarre but it's one of my favorites along with my ubiquitous water brush. Love that quinacridone gold, it's the one color that's wearing down fastest!

Sketches from Tuesday and Wednesday

Doorway sketched Tuesday afternoon on my way to my polling place. My home care worker was checking on his parking meter, so I settled down for a rest and sketch. Nothing else on Tuesday, too wiped out from the hike.

Wednesday went better at least for sketching. I had my semi-annual doctor's appointment so needed to leave early and decided to stay a little late. That turned into two more hours late because the Paratransit van broke down and then the replacement van broke down. Finally another driver showed up and I got home after 5pm while it was getting dark. Got 326 photos of the garden, clouds and so on though, lots of photos including some sunset skies.

Shadowed tree sketched from the van at a stop light. First of Wednesday's sketches, ballpoint in a pocket Moleskine.

Quick watercolor study from the window of my doctor's office, overlooking the spot I usually wait for the van. I had some Daniel Smith watercolors and a travel brush with me so did this in the watercolor Pocket Moleskine.

Still had some time waiting for the doc, so I penciled and inked another view of the same thing with the color study to combine with it. Same view, same scene. Then I went out to the garden for a little while and got some photos.

Sketched this gold leaf with its delicate brown veins, decided to wait till I got home to ink it so I could use the warm brown pen. It came out better with the pen inking, though I might have glazed over it again. The bottom is the actual leaf pressed into the same page of the pocket watercolor Moleskine.

Still waiting, many photos and some time later...

I sketched in pencil and pen, getting these snapdragons from the garden when I got told it'd be another 45 minutes for the replacement van. Painted it in the waiting area out back by the short fat palm again. By then I was exhausted and it started getting dark, so that was the end of Wednesday's sketching.

What a day! But I had gotten way ahead on my Nanowrimo novel, it's at 9,397 words so I'm still ahead of par as long as I get in some writing tomorrow to keep up. So far this month I've alternated. Beware, there may be gaps again on days I write but don't draw... still hoping to get a good day I can do both!

It's just this month, will be back to daily art in December most likely.

Pen and Watercolor Flowers, Life Sketches

Pen & Watercolor Flowers

Stillman & Birn 7" square Zeta journal

I had still more time after working on the pastel landscape and changed mediums to get some distance from its problems. So I opened up my photo collection in my Kindle and found lots of flowers from the SFGH memory garden. Picked out three that I have no idea what they are. "Daisyish" is not a proper species name or common name, it's just the lower left one is in that category. Then there's "red and yellow long trumpetish ones" and "weird shaped one with the two big petals like butterfly wings and a nozzle." Such scientific nomenclature. Anyone who knows what any of them are, comment and tell me!

Then after I went out, I sketched several San Francisco residents just hanging out in the Tenderloin and some beautiful old houses visible from the fifth floor family health center Gold Team clinic. The nurse took a look at it and recognized which buildings they were, so I'm very happy I got the likeness! No pigeons have commented to tell me if I got their likeness though.

San Francisco Residents and Housing

Pigma Micron Pen, Moleskine Pocket Sketchbook (plain)

No, that's not a silhouette, one of the pigeons was black and the other two were different shades of gray or blue/gray. I've seen many different colors of pigeons and even the birds in my city have diversity. Everyone flocks together. There was a pretty shine on the sun side of the black one that I may actually develop later in pastels from memory - he was pretty as a grackle, very iridescent neck, blue sky highlights on his sun side and rich darkness on the shadow side. I watched him walk around quite a bit before I finally got settled and had the sketchbook out. 

So today's been very productive, much more sketching and drawing and painting than usual. I'm feeling good but very tired.