Fall Skyscapitos

 

11/10/22 Sunrise as my coffee drips.

The time of year I dread most is right after we turn back the clocks, and our days suddenly become so much shorter. The only upside is that sunrise once again coincides with the few minutes that my coffee is dripping – just enough time for a skyscapito if the colors are inspiring (at right).

My favorite skyscapito in this post, though, is not either of the sunrises but the striking crack of light that appeared a couple of weeks ago (below). At dusk, most of the sky was dark blue with a heavy cloud cover. Of course I have an Uglybook of the right color that made the task quick and easy.

10/22/22 Just before sundown.

9/26/22 The sun was already up, but I caught the last of the color.

10/27/22 Another strange sky effect at dusk.

Rusty at Javasti

 

11/8/22 Cafe Javasti patron

Sketching at coffee shops used to be an inclement-weather routine for me (that’s one part of my blog’s name, after all!). I spent many fall and winter mornings happily sketching people and interiors at one of my favorite spots, Zoka Coffee. The pandemic changed all that, and the first time I ventured back to Zoka post-vaccine was last December. Then the delta and omicron variants made me skittish again.

Greg and I sometimes stop at our favorite coffee shops along our neighborhood walking route, and we enjoyed taking a break outdoors all summer and early fall. Last Tuesday was the first time it was too cold (barely 40 degrees) to sit outside, so we had our coffee inside Café Javasti. I pulled out my pocket-size Uglybook for a couple of quick sketches of other patrons. Whew – did I feel rusty! Freshly boostered, I hope to get back into more regular caffeine sketching this winter.

Eyeballing It

 

11/9/22 Bic ballpoint in Stillman & Birn Alpha sketchbook

I’ve been doing these crosshatched portraits – both human and critter – long enough now that it’s time to crank up the challenge level. For any kind of study like these where realism and accuracy are objectives, my habit is to take relative measurements for proportion and placement. It’s the first thing I do – block in measurements. Watching so many of France Van Stone’s crosshatching demos, however, has made me aware that she rarely seems to measure, at least in the visible way that I do. She sometimes thinks aloud about how she’s comparing where an ear is relative to an eye or mouth, but her method mostly seems like eyeballing. Surely eyeballing skills are something that we can all gain with experience and practice. So that’s what I’m doing now – eyeballing instead of measuring.

Reference photo provided by France Van Stone

I started with the purple cow shown in the post a couple of days ago. The portraits here were also done without measuring. The pug’s profile was relatively easy. I suppose one reason that resemblance is not an issue with animals is that many animals of the same breed look nearly identical and would be difficult to tell apart (although perhaps this pug’s human would be able to tell).

11/10/22 Bic ballpoint in Moleskine sketchbook

It’s the opposite with humans: Every individual is absolutely unique (even identical twins), and we instinctively learn how to distinguish one face from another. The individual features of this man are close, yet overall proportions are off enough that he doesn’t look like the same man. Perhaps the man’s son or nephew? (I made that joke with Ching when I drew her portrait: It looked somewhat like her but not exactly – perhaps a sister or another relative!)

Reference photo by Earthsworld

Color is the New White: Three Ways I Use Toned Paper

10/17/22 Maple Leaf and Green Lake.
Now that I've discovered Uglybooks, I have
a wide range of colors I can use as the midtone with black
and white for shadows and highlights.

 Traditionally tan or gray, toned paper can be much more exciting when we consider other colors (basically, anything besides white). For years now, I’ve loved using red Field Notes Sweet Tooth books with black and white – the first time my eyes were opened to the potential of toned paper. Even better than pale tan or gray, which I’ve often felt do not make white pop as much as I want them to, red strikes just the right midtone balance between black shadows and white highlights. Now that I’ve discovered Uglybooks in a rainbow of colors, I am delighting in the midtone opportunities.

Black, the most extreme tone, has unique and exciting potential. When I use black paper, I forget about any midtones and head straight for the extreme notan look of black and white. Making nocturne sketches with white colored pencils and gel pens is so much fun – I’m looking forward to more this winter. I have also enjoyed doing video life drawing on black paper, especially when the model was lighted dramatically. When I was working on my daily hand series, I filled most of a black Stillman & Birn Nova sketchbook with hands drawn only with white.

11/6/22 General's Primo Bianco white charcoal pencil
in Shizen Design sketchbook. (Reference photo by Earthsworld)

During InkTober when I was looking through all the intriguing portraits photographed by Earthsworld, I found many that would be ideal for sketching with white on black. Shown at right is my first attempt; I have plans for more.

Finally, the third way I have found to use a colored base is the way many oil and pastel painters and even some colored pencil artists use it – as an “underpainting.” Inspired by Uglybooks, I started thinking about this concept a couple of months ago, when I sketched some grapes and a Steller’s jay from life. Around the same time, I used a tan Uglybook to sketch a squirrel that was taking advantage of the peanuts we were feeding to the jays (below). Prepared with pencils in squirrely colors in the small sketch kit I had been bringing out to the deck, I was delighted that this guy stood there eating long enough for me to sketch him. In all of these color-on-color experiments, I covered most of the drawing with colored pencil, but the transparency of the pigments enabled the paper’s hue to show through subtly.

9/25/22 Prismacolors in Uglybook

11/8/22 Prismacolors in Uglybook (photo reference)

Now that winter seems to have arrived prematurely (it was 29 degrees when I woke on Wednesday morning), I’m taking advantage of photos I took during the summer to continue my experiments. In the one shown here, I used a mustard yellow Uglybook as the “underpainting” hue with the hope of capturing the Golden Hour light in this neighborhood photograph. Inspired by the works of painters who use a complementary underpainting, I used violet as the main shadow color.

I see lots of potential for more experiments! And I’m tickled that this lazy girl has found Uglybooks: No underpainting necessary. Color is the new white!

Bovines and Bassett

 

11/5/22 Graphite in Stillman & Birn Zeta sketchbook

My next three crosshatched sketches from France Van Stone’s “critters” course were especially challenging because the reference photos were taken in flat light: Neither strong shadows nor highlights could be seen easily. I did my best to squint out the values. It was informative to see where France pushed the darks in her demo drawings made from the same photos.

I took longer (45 minutes) than I typically would with the first cow (at right) because I drew it during another live draw-along session with France. It’s a bit fragmented to observe her while also trying to draw, but it’s fun to be “there” with other participants. I appreciate the effort she makes to interact with her students, some of whom have been drawing along with her since the early pandemic days. Then on the Sktchy platform, France used to offer weekly live draw-along sessions, which I can imagine were a wonderful opportunity to connect with a community during those difficult, isolated times.

For the Bassett hound, I tried using a Stillman & Birn Alpha sketchbook, which has a lot more tooth than the Moleskine I have been using with ballpoint. I didn’t notice a signficant difference in the result, but France encourages us to try various papers and media.

11/7/22 Bic ballpoint in S&B Alpha sketchbook

11/8/22 Bic ballpoint in Moleskine sketchbook

When I began the purple cow, I started to measure in my usual way, but I stopped and challenged myself to eyeball the proportions. (I’m not brave enough to do this with portraits of people, but cows are more forgiving.) I know there’s nothing wrong with measuring for accuracy, but I think it’s also good practice to be able to do this only with my eyes.

After a nice run of graphite and colored pencils, I switched back to Bic ballpoints. As good as pencils feel, my results look less like crosshatching and more like sloppy penciling. On the other hand, France’s messy crosshatching techniques have shown me how to use a Bic in a way that I enjoy more than other ways I’ve tried with ballpoint. It has taken me a while, but I have a better appreciation for using this humble medium in a satisfying way.

Plywood Delivery

11/7/22 Maple Leaf neighborhood

 I’m always looking for action across the street, where something interesting is still happening behind the house – most of which I can’t see. Sometimes I get lucky. The sun was barely up on a cold, wet morning when a flatbed truck showed up with a load of plywood. It’s a very narrow space between the house and a fence where huge vehicles must maneuver. I had never seen before how something like lumber gets unloaded: The bed was tilted back, and suddenly the truck pulled forward quickly – boom! Gravity did the work. It was over in minutes. (Ouch – tricky foreshortening and perspective on that truck!)

Color (and Rain) in Wallingford

 

11/5/22 Wallingford neighborhood

Urban Sketchers, the global community that Gabi Campanario began with the click of the Flickr button to create a group, turned 15 years old on Nov. 4. That day was also Fountain Pen Day, which I usually observe by making a sketch with a fountain pen or at least by drawing a pen. This year I did neither, nor did I make a sketch on location (Ching’s portrait hardly counts). Thinking about what a slacker I had been that day, I went out Saturday afternoon to correct both omissions.

Belated happy Fountain Pen Day, too!
(Sketched with my Sailor Naginata fude de mannen)

Scouting a USk Seattle meetup location in the Wallingford neighborhood, I was happy to be wearing my down jacket and regretted not having gloves. I thought I had enough time to make this quick sketch of a nice corner house surrounded by fall color, especially that brilliant Japanese maple, before the forecasted rain arrived. I didn’t quite make it, so my sketch shows a few raindrops. But that’s a fitting addition to my commemorative sketch, for urban sketching is nothing if not the fearless scoffing at a few raindrops.

Belated happy 15^th birthday, Urban Sketchers!