Chocolate Therapy

11/11/16 water-soluble graphite

The other sketchers I chatted with this morning all agreed: There’s nothing like chocolate to improve one’s mood. Our outing to Fran’s Chocolates in Georgetown was timely.

When the Friday sketchers visited Fran’s nearly two years ago, I spent most of that time sketching the workers handcrafting elegant chocolate truffles through the viewing window. Today I couldn’t resist one sketch from the same window (the scent in that spot is heavenly!), but I also had another mission.

11/11/16 brush pen

I wanted to find an interior view to use as a tonal study in graphite. It helped that most of the décor at Fran’s is dark brown, which kept me from being tempted to put in color. Facing the main retail counter, I spotted a vintage post with an interesting bumpy texture next to a stairway handrail – a fun and challenging exercise.

With the morning warming up, I wandered across the street to sketch an iconic Georgetown smokestack attached to the brick brewery next to Fran’s.

11/11/16 brush pen, colored pencils

Chocolate therapy works. I, for one, certainly felt better afterwards. I brought home a box of truffles in anticipation of future needs.

Chocolate therapy works.

Solace

11/9/16 Luminance colored pencils

I enjoy making small studies of fruits and vegetables with colored pencils because it’s a good way to practice seeing subtle changes in value on a curved surface and conveying them with layered hues. The exercise requires focus and attention, and yet is also relaxing. It’s also one of my favorite ways to spend a rainy day.

Yesterday morning I reached for the Bartlett on the kitchen counter because I wanted something to calm and quiet my mind filled with sadness and uncertainty. I wanted solace.

Technical note: One of my biggest challenges with these still lifes is conveying that subtle reflected light of the white paper that I usually place under the fruit on my black desktop. It’s just as present as the main highlights but much harder to draw.

11/5/16 Pablo colored pencils

Small Comforts

11/8/16 Winsor Newton watercolor marker, colored pencil, ink

Today is Tuesday, Nov. 8, 2016. By the end of this day, the fate of our country for the next four years will be decided. I think I’ve voted in 10 presidential elections by now, and I’ve never been more concerned about the outcome, nor has an election year been more tiresome. Whatever the results, I will be so relieved that it’s over.

Today, on the eighth of November, it’s also 69 degrees and sunny – pretty much unheard of in these parts. Instead of biting my nails as I watch the news, I went to Gas Works Park. Soaking up this unseasonal, unexpected treat, I felt grateful for small comforts.  

11/8/16 brush pens, colored pencil

September – October Sketchbook Bound

My September - October sketchbook.

On the front cover of my September – October sketchbook is Fairchild, the Minnesota State Fair mascot, and it’s bittersweet to recall sketching that delightful event because it signaled the end of summer. On the back cover, however, is a blaze of maples during the best sketching season of the year for color, which makes saying good-bye to summer almost bearable.  

YSL’s Perfection of Style

11/4/16 water-soluble pencils

If you’ve seen the way I dress, you know that fashion is not a high priority in my life, and clothing as an art form is not of particular interest. But I am interested in the creative spirit, and it was that interest that inspired me to go see Yves Saint Laurent: The Perfection of Style now on exhibit at the Seattle Art Museum. 

Even as a teenager, Laurent’s passion for fashion design was unequivocal. One of my favorite parts of the exhibit was a set of paper dolls and clothes for them (never before exhibited) that he had made as a teen. I am always fascinated when I learn about people who had a strong creative drive at such a young age – and then went on to pursue their lifelong passion.

11/4/16 water-soluble colored pencils

Another part of the exhibit I enjoyed almost more than the garments was a huge collection of his drawings, each accompanied by attached fabric swatches. I’m sure many contemporary fashion designers use computers to help them now, but back in YSL’s early days, he used ordinary pencils and paper. Sketched on yellowing graph paper, the drawings still conveyed the freshness of when he first conceived the designs – that sense of experimentation was evident. And then to see the eventual finished design that came from an initial sketch seemed all the more remarkable.

Color junkie that I am, I was dazzled by the main part of the exhibit that was organized by hue. Walls displaying color-coordinated fabric swatches would be followed by mannequins wearing designs in the same hue family. Scrumptious eye candy!

I was happy that I had arrived at SAM shortly after it opened when the crowds hadn’t yet gathered, because I was able to find a few tucked-away spots where I could sketch without getting in the way. I had to laugh at all the bald mannequins with stretched out, non-human proportions – my life-drawing practice didn’t prepare me for that!

11/4/16 water-soluble graphite pencil and rainbow pencil

Technical note: You’ve heard me go on about water-soluble colored pencils lately, and I have to say that they are an ideal sketching medium for museums. While wet media are almost universally forbidden at museums, I’ve never been to one that prohibited pencils of any kind. As is often the case, the exhibits were very dimly lit, so I could barely distinguish among pencil hues in my bag. Nonetheless, I could get the colors down relatively quickly, and a Technalo water-soluble pencil (my current favorite graphite pencil) put in shadows easily. Later, over lunch at SAM’s Taste café, I used a waterbrush to activate the pencil marks for a bit more contrast and shadow.

While I was doing exactly that, a woman came up to me and said, “Are you Tina??” It turned out to be a blog reader who had caught me in the act! Great to meet you, Carol! I am thrilled to know that you enjoy the blog!

A set of paper dolls Laurent made as a teenager.

I loved seeing Laurent's drawings!

Dazzling color-themed exhibits!

It’s Fountain Pen Day

11-3-16 inks, colored pencils

With my month-long focus on markers and brush pens during InkTober, I’ve been neglecting my beloved fountain pens, and I’ve missed them. In anticipation of today, international Fountain Pen Day, here are a couple of sketches I’ve done this week with my favorite Sailor Naginata fude pen (plus a few touches of dark orange leaves applied with a Pilot Parallel).

11-2-16 ink, colored pencil

In my sketchbook, the trees of each season seem best suited for a certain medium: spring and summer’s lushness seem to cry out for watercolors; this fall I reveled in colored pencils. The balding trees of winter, bleak as they may seem, take on new life when I can observe and appreciate their complex branching structures and elegant shapes with a fountain pen. 

InkTober Backlash: Graphite

10/31/16 Technalo water-soluble graphite

One thing I missed out on while taking part in InkTober was the thing that challenged many other participants: the novelty and challenge of ink itself. My impression is that many people use InkTober as an opportunity to wean themselves from an eraser and face the indelibility of ink. Even when I first started sketching, I didn’t use an eraser with pencil – I just continued the drawing and let my previous marks remain. Ink, marker, pencil – indelibility has been a non-issue for me.

Having missed the challenge of using an unfamiliar or uncomfortable medium, I decided to participate in a new self-challenge: graphite. PencilVember! Just kidding – I have no intention of doing it daily all month. But I realize I use graphite far less than most sketchers do, and there’s a lot to be learned from the medium. So while I won’t make it a formal, every day kind of thing, I’m going to try to focus on using graphite more often this month and see what I learn.

11/1/16 ArtGraf water-soluble graphite

The last time I tried an experiment like this, it was with a ballpoint pen, and it didn’t stick long enough for me to learn. I crave color too much to stick with a monochrome medium for long. Still, I was able to sustain my black-only InkTober sketches because I kept them small. Maybe that’s the trick. These two were both done in my usual A5-size sketchbooks, but going forward I think I’ll try for smaller.