Bits of Color

 

10/1/20 Wedgwood neighborhood

The minute the smoke blew off last Thursday, I was out on my leaf-peeping tour again, this time through the Wedgwood neighborhood. The color show wasn’t too impressive yet – just bits and pieces here and there and a haze of rusty-red on some trees. At least it was trash day.

Sketch Inning with Kate and Roy

9/30/20 Kate 

Roy had proposed that we decide on an image to sketch together on Zoom. Kate offered a photo of the Mackinaw Bridge in Michigan. The five-mile-long suspension bridge is an interesting subject, but rebel that I am, I decided to sketch Kate and Roy instead (in the secondary triad palette I've been thinking about lately). Roy did both: He sketched the bridge, then put us into the same sketch! Good friends, good chatting, good fun.

It was not a sketch outing but an "inning." Get it? 😉 

9/30/20 Roy

Debacle

 

9/29/20 TV broadcast of the presidential debate

Four years ago I viewed and sketched one of the presidential debates from “the throne” while I prepped for the following day’s colonoscopy. Last Tuesday, I had no such medical procedure to help express myself as I watched the travesty on TV. Sketching the debacle helped somewhat, but I will not be putting myself through that again unless better moderation is provided.

9/29/20

Inky Hands

Every year since 2015, I’ve participated in InkTober, an annual online challenge that encourages artists to draw with ink every day in October. The philosophy behind InkTober is to commit to a drawing by inking it instead of leaving it as an easily erasable draft. Better yet, make the initial drawing with ink – skip the pencil draft altogether (something I started doing after my first few months of sketching and have done ever since).

This year some controversy surrounds InkTober (Google InkTober and plagiarism to learn about it), and I don’t know enough about it to judge or take a side. But the part about InkTober that I’ve always appreciated is that attitude of indelibility – making a commitment to a drawing with ink. It takes a bit more courage – ink offers none of the equivocation or tentativeness of pencil – but that very boldness is what makes us more confident drawers. And leaving the unerased, restated lines visible helps us learn.

Devoting a month to ink also refreshes my appreciation for the marks that can be made with various pens – the variable line widths of fountain pens and dip nibs; the unpredictable, organic beauty of brush pens; the pencil-like shading properties of Bic ballpoints. So although I’m not using the InkTober hashtag this year, I decided to celebrate the parts of the challenge that are meaningful to me simply by drawing in ink all month.

I did not, however, want yet another thing to do every day, so the ink drawings I am doing are part of my daily hand series. After more than two months of drawing with my right hand, I’m relieved that my left is back at work. And although I started this series with Bics, I’ve been using mostly pencils and other dry materials since May, so it’s a refreshing change to use ink. I started a fresh sketchbook with multi-colored pages – also a fun change. I’m not sure whether the paper in it will hold up to all the inks and pens I have in mind, but I guess I’ll find out. (No testing ahead of time – another bold move!) Ink on!

Ink boldly!

Ravenna Encampment

 

9/29/20 Ravenna neighborhood

Tuesday was another summer-like day (the second of 10 promised to us before fall sets in for good), so I went out leaf peeping and to find a sketch. Driving through the Green Lake and Ravenna neighborhoods, where many old deciduous trees line the streets, I saw plenty of beautiful color getting started.

To my shock and sadness, I also discovered a large homeless encampment on Ravenna Boulevard on the tree-lined, grassy strip between the two directions of traffic. It’s possible it’s been there a while, and I just hadn’t seen it. When I used to go out sketching downtown and in other parts of the city, homeless encampments were a common sight, so I was faced with this distressing reality more regularly. While I’ve been cocooned at home for the past six months to protect myself from the coronavirus, I’ve also been sheltered from other sad realities. Homelessness was a problem long before COVID-19 showed up, but the pandemic has certainly worsened the situation for people living on the streets.

Spoiled Again

 

9/27/20 tomatoes and squash

Our friend and neighbor Alice keeps spoiling us with the bounty from her garden. (How will we ever be able to go back to grocery store produce?) This time it was grape tomatoes, sweet, green Zebrina tomatoes and a Delicata squash. Bonus: Sitting on a purple plate, my still life was another study of the secondary triad and shadows on light objects, too. I think I could have kicked the Delicata’s shadows up a notch, but I’m a little shy about using purple for complimentary shading. But I have a lot of still lives yet to come.

Second Summer

 

9/28/20 Maple Leaf neighborhood

After a week of rain, wind, socks and putting the flannel sheets back on the bed, we have been promised 10 more days of summer! Not one to squander a gift like that, I made a point of interrupting my walk on Monday for this tree. All spring and summer, its tiny leaves are lime green, but then in the fall, they turn lemon yellow. In general, it seems like the color will be late this year – several trees I regularly watch for and sketch are barely hinting at turning – but this one has no hesitation.

Very disappointingly, yesterday a new cloud of smoke appeared from another distant wildfire, ruining our week of sunshine. The sun rose above the treetops with a coral-red glow that has become all-too-familiar here. At least this time we're prepared with an air purifier.

9/30/20 7:41 a.m.