A Choice, Not a Default

 

9/26/23 Derwent Drawing pencil in Stillman & Birn
Nova sketchbook (reference photo by Rick Clark)

If you’ve been reading my blog for a while, you know that one of my ongoing struggles is learning to grow into “looseness.” We probably all have some idea about what “looseness” is – or at least we know it when we see it. A loose drawing has the illusion of being an easy and casual gesture, but I’m willing to bet that any artist who makes a drawing look easy and casual has many, many years of experience during which that “easy” look has been earned.

Last week when I made the carefully rendered still life for my watercolor class, I called it “competent” – the thing I do that has become my default – but I said it somewhat self-disparagingly because, you know, who wants to make “competent” art? Besides, if I wanted to make a carefully rendered still life, I would much rather use colored pencils, which are so much easier to control (if control is important).

10/23/23 ArtGraf watercolors in Hahnemuhle sketchbook (photo reference)

Then when I tried the version without an underdrawing, I liked the result much better, but it’s clumsier than I would have liked. I guess what I’m looking for is somewhere in between – more expressive than competent but with enough accuracy that the forms are clear. I’m happy, though, that I know it’s there to reach for (and it has become obvious that I have an easier time reaching for it with a brush than a pencil).

Perhaps one reason for my ongoing struggle is that it represents a direct conflict in what I love about sketching. My InkTober noses and now my Pencilvember ears affirm for me how much I enjoy making closely observed and carefully rendered drawings. If I didn’t, I wouldn’t have spent years investing in classes at Gage Academy to develop classical rendering skills. At the same time, I am thrilled when I am able to pull off a still life or urban scene with direct watercolor that conveys more liveliness and energy (if not accuracy). I want to be able to do both, and I want the result to be my choice – not a default setting.

Maybe that’s a tall order, but going into my 12^th year since I began this journey, I’m ready for that challenge.

Ears Big News: It’s Pencilvember Time!

Ear are the 30 pencils I'm using this month!

Immediately on the heels of InkTober, I decided to try Pencilvember – 30 days of pencil drawings in the month of November. Unlike InkTober, Pencilvember doesn’t seem to have a clear genesis (if anyone knows how it was initiated, please let me know), though it seems to have been going on for a while now. I mentioned it in my blog seven years ago, but I was kidding and didn’t even know it was a thing. Maybe it began with a hashtag that simply caught on. In any case, I’m in – and the ears have it!

Several days into nosey InkTober, I kicked myself that I hadn’t thought to focus on ears, which I routinely give short shrift to in portraits. Maybe because ears are not much involved in facial expressions, and therefore don’t affect resemblance, they are easy to ignore. Right on Day 1, though, I realized what I had been missing: Ears are fascinating structures with all those canals and channels that begin and end mysteriously. Why had I ignored them for so long?

11/1/23 Hokusign 4B (all reference
photos by Earthsworld)

With a shiny, metallic blue barrel, the 
Hokusign has a typically excellent Japanese core
and the delightful tagline, "Hardly broken pencil."

I used only five different types of pens during InkTober, but I own so many pencils that I knew I’d have a hard time choosing. Initially, I considered using both graphite and color. Then I realized that I’ve given all of my colored pencils at least cursory sketching attention at one point or another, but I had many, many graphite pencils that I had never even sharpened, let alone used. It was a prime opportunity to give graphite the attention it deserved (like ears, worthy of attention but neglected).

I didn’t want the burden of choosing a pencil each day to be part of the challenge, so instead, I took a ridiculously long time pre-selecting 30 pencils before Nov. 1. Now all I have to do is randomly pull one from the mug. A few are favorites, but most are unfamiliar to me. My only criterion was a tolerably soft grade for drawing – at least HB but usually softer.

11/2/23 Faber-Castell Goldfaber 6B

This Goldfaber is the hardest 6B I have ever encountered! I hate to imagine how hard an HB might be!

Without being an active collector of graphite pencils, I have accumulated a hefty collection (the 30 I’m using are only a tiny part of the lot). How did that happen? Almost all came to me as gifts or in swaps with generous members of the Erasable group on Facebook. I’m having a ball getting to know new pencils as I get to know the human ear.

11/3/23 vintage England-made Eagle Draughting 

I know and love the vintage USA-made Eagle
Draughting pencil, but this England-made version
was new to me. They both have the same Eagle logo, so they must have been made around the same era.
The USA-made is slightly softer.

11/4/23 Field Notes pencil

Field Notes gives me one of these in every order.
It's worth every penny I paid for it -- possibly one of 
the worst pencils I've ever sketched with. I already
knew it would be bad, so I'm happy that I got it over
with early in the month so I won't have to continue 
dreading it.

Sketchwaiting Stories

10/4/23 Even with appointments, we had to wait
an hour to get vaccines. 

When I resort to sketching the drinking fountain, I'm getting desperate.

11/1/23 Long lines at the pharmacy have 
become routine... plenty of time for sketchwaiting.

Founded in 1890, Bartell Drugs was the oldest, still existing, family-owned pharmacy chain in the country. With stores in three western Washington counties, the chain promoted its localness by offering merchandise produced by smaller, local businesses.

When the chain was purchased by Rite Aid in 2020, I knew it was bad (and sad) news. Customer service has been declining at Bartell ever since, and the understaffed pharmacy has had long lines that I had never seen before the pandemic. Now I always have time to sketch while I’m waiting there (which I’m not complaining about, but it’s not a good sign for the store).

Rite Aid recently filed Chapter 11, and several Bartell stores will close soon. The one in the Roosevelt neighborhood that I’ve been going to for 35 years is on the chopping block. A couple of other Bartell stores are relatively convenient, but they are likely suffering from understaffing and other related problems, too. I’ll probably have to find a new pharmacy.

Still Lives in Watercolor (Pushing Past Competence)

 

10/30/23 watercolor in Hahnemuhle 100% cotton sketchbook

This week’s lessons in Kathleen Moore’s sketchbook watercolor class focused on still lives made with autumn elements. Since much of the weather was not hospitable for sketching on location, I was happy to have things to draw from life in the comfort of my studio.

The first lesson was to find a twig covered with moss and lichen (we did the same lesson during the winter sketchbook course). I spotted plenty of beautiful moss and lichen on my walks, but it was all still attached to living trees. The stuff I found on broken twigs was wimpy at best, but I did the best I could with what I found.

When painting cast shadows, Kathleen recommends avoiding hard edges, especially as the shadow and the object get farther apart, diffusing the shadow. This was the hardest part for me – I tried to soften the edges quickly before they dried, but I still got blooms and blotches, which look unnatural for shadows.

I was thrilled, however, by the subtle, natural hues I was able to mix with my current CMY primary triad (Winsor Newton Phthalo Turquoise, Daniel Smith Quinacridone Pink, WN Lemon Yellow), which looks so saturated and nearly garish straight from the tubes (see below). I also used a bit of Caran d’Ache Museum Aquarelle pencil (212) to give texture to the lichen.

The next lesson was to set up an autumn still life to paint from direct observation. We were also to do more memory sketching practice. I was OK with the still life until I got to both the form shadows (especially on the pumpkin) and the cast shadows, all of which I fussed with too much. The second hardest lesson to learn about watercolor is to put it down and then leave it alone. The first hardest lesson is to be OK with that, because every time I put the brush back in, it leaves a mark that I will likely be less OK with.

11-1-23 watercolor in Hahnemuhle 100% cotton sketchbook

After I finished painting the still life, I took it down and put the elements out of sight. I took a short break, then sketched the individual leaves from memory (I used Museum Aquarelle pencils for efficiency). Compared to last week’s memory practice, these were a piece of cake because I had just finished observing them carefully to paint the still life.

11/1/23 Museum Aquarelle pencils in Hahnemuhle 100% cotton sketchbook (from memory)

Over the next couple of days, I kept thinking about the still life. It is what I would call “competent,” but I was not happy with it. One of my goals with this class is to get away from the accurately rendered look, which I have become competent with, but it’s not always what I want to do. The 30x30 direct watercolor challenge taught me that the only way I can get away from the rendered, competent look is to skip the underdrawing. Shortly before class yesterday, I tried again, this time directly with watercolor, and I also used the same primary triad that I used with the twig. I like this painting better, and I especially like the cast shadow much better – painted with one wet stroke and left alone – the way watercolor wants to be.

11/3/23 direct watercolor in Hahnemuhle 100% cotton sketchbook

Sunrise, Sunset

Maybe the only good thing about the shortening days, which we really start to feel by early October, is that I can sketch sunrises again (at least until we have to turn back the clocks). Looking southeast from a small livingroom window, I can’t quite see the sun itself as it breaks the horizon, but enough of the color leads the way.

A glimpse of Mt. Rainier behind the house across the street.

Mixing complements in the sky

Most intriguing to me was the sky on Halloween morning (at right), which was peachy yellow-orange until it blended with the lavender clouds: It was a live lesson in mixing complementary colors. In Kathleen Moore’s watercolor class, she is constantly encouraging us to experiment with complements to find neutrals that are far more beautiful than straight-from-the-tube grays and browns. Mixing violet with orange in secondary triads is one of my favorite ways to make a lovely neutral, so I was delighted to see it on nature’s palette.

Sunset, on the other hand, inconveniently falls around dinnertime, so I often miss it, but I had two hasty opportunities last month. While a solid, formidable wall of dark blue was against the horizon, the dusk sky above it was clear with a sharp, bright line edging the clouds (below). The dark blue bank looks more like mountains than clouds in my sketch, and I wished I had taken a different approach.

The next evening, I had another opportunity when the sky showed a similar effect. This time I used the idea I got right after I had finished the sketch the previous night: I grabbed my dark blue Uglybook, which gave me a color shortcut. 

Inktober Finale: Instructive as Always

 

10/27 - 31/23 Uni Pin technical pens and Posca marker in Uglybook sketchbook

As has happened almost every year I’ve participated in InkTober, I started out with a relatively unambitious plan but ended up learning from the challenge anyway. Compared to sketching from life as I’ve often done in previous years, using photo references and a single theme was easy. On the other hand, I again explored hatching, still a challenging technique for me (that always benefits from regular practice). I also tried to plan and design attractive compositions on the page spreads.

White Uni Posca paint marker and black Uni Pin
technical pens, sizes 0.2 and 0.8.

I considered the first week a warm-up by using beloved Bic ballpoints. After that, I chose a different pen for each page spread. It was an opportunity to become reacquainted with pens I hadn’t used in a long time or that were completely new to me to draw with.

The biggest surprise was using Uni Pin technical pens during the final five days (shown here). Like a lot of urban sketchers, I started out using technical pens by various brands for initial sketch outlines that I would then paint over with watercolors. Technical pens and fineliners are valued for their consistent lines, but for sketching, I found them to be too consistent. After discovering the line variations in fountain pens, I never looked back. I didn’t think I would enjoy sketching noses with the Uni Pins, but other than one or two exercises during France Van Stone’s crosshatching courses last year, I had not done any hatched drawings with technical pens. It was worth a shot. I was especially delighted by the 0.2 size, which is way too fine for me to write with, yet it somehow made my sloppy hatching look better.

To soften the reflected light on the left,
I hatched through the white lines with the black Uni Pin.

Along with the Uni Pins, I used a white Posca paint marker for highlights. Poscas have no ability to subtly modulate tones (one of many characteristics I love so much about pencils). On one nose, I didn’t want the soft, reflected light to be as bright as the highlight, so after making the white line, I hatched over it lightly with the 0.2 Uni Pin. The two work well together.

As I did last year, after abusing the noses of strangers for 30 days, I thought it was only fair to end InkTober with a selfie (below). (All reference photos by Earthsworld, except the selfie, of course, which was done in the bathroom mirror.)

Ahhh... the satisfying scent of another InkTober completed! (selfie)

Giving the Brain an Opportunity

 

10/25/23 Prismacolors in Uglybook

10/24/23 unfinished

My sporadic portrait practice continues in different media and approaches. Earthsworld’s seemingly endless supply of portrait reference photos makes it too easy to try a new medium or idea with a portrait. Sometimes I just want to feel productive when I’m tired and would rather eat chips while I view silly YouTubes. All of these shown here were late-night works of the latter type.

All were made from Earthsworld reference photos except the first one (above), which has an interesting process story. Christophe Swijsen, a French cartoonist and caricaturist, is the tireless moderator for the Facebook group dedicated to artists who are fans of working from Earthsworld portraits. Every day, he selects and posts an image from Earthsworld’s vast catalog, and group members respond to his challenge by sketching the selected reference and sharing in the group. The group is such a fun, inspiring collection of wildly different styles and skill levels.

9/11/23 Prismacolors in Uglybook

On the occasion of his birthday, Christophe posted his own selfies and challenged members to draw from them! It was late, and I was tired, but I couldn’t resist honoring Christophe with a portrait. Unfortunately, all of the images he offered were taken in the shade with flat, mostly consistent lighting on his face – the hardest kind to draw. Although I knew it wasn’t ideal, I gave it a shot anyway.

The next morning when I was going to share it on the Facebook group, I realized I was dissatisfied with my tired, half-hearted attempt the previous night. That same week, I was working on sketching from memory in Kathleen Moore’s class. I had been thinking about how different the experience of drawing is when I don’t have a reference to observe as I draw. Instead of going back to the reference photo of Christophe, I just gave stronger contrast to the sketch where I thought it should be, even though it wasn’t in the photo.

10/4/23 AmazonBasics colored pencils in
Field Notes Streetscapes sketchbook

I know many painters use reference photos only as inspiration and a point of departure, and eventually they stop looking at the reference while they turn their painting into something that is much more than a copy of a photo. But because I’d done nothing but draw from direct observation for so long, it is taking me a while to learn not to depend so exclusively on my eyes. I should give my brain more opportunities to show that it knows what to do, even without having something to observe. This isn’t much, but it’s a start.

Since I’ve just wrapped up InkTober (final post coming soon), this is an ideal opportunity to again acknowledge France Van Stone, whose online courses in crosshatching a year ago gave me the confidence to take on portraiture like I never had before – and gave me the skills to keep right on going beyond InkTober. Even when I’m not crosshatching, the principles she teaches still apply. I think about them with any medium or technique. 

9/15/23 Derwent Drawing pencil in Uglybook

10/29/23 Bic ballpoint in Moleskine sketchbook