Smoky Lake (and Secondary Additions)

 

10/14/22 Green Lake

Have I mentioned how tiresome the smoke is? We had a brief reprieve, and then it was back to an “unhealthy” rating again. On another otherwise gorgeous day, I stopped briefly at Green Lake to peep some leaves. The red sweet gums in the distance are the same ones I have sketched close-up in previous years, but I knew that composition would take longer to do. On smoky Friday, I settled for this distant view that I knew I could do quickly.

Two additions to my secondary triad palette

Palette notes: I’ve been feeling that the basic secondary triad I’ve been carrying in my fitness-walking bag isn’t pulling its weight. To the warm orange (Caran d’Ache Museum Aquarelle 030), warm green (Museum Aquarelle Light Olive 245) and Kalour Heather Purple Deep (058), I added two cool hues: Museum Aquarelle Dark Sap Green (739) and Museum Aquarelle Crimson Aubergine (599), which is a very dark reddish-purple. I wanted to stay within a secondary palette while widening my range of options. I especially wanted to fill the red gap I was feeling, which I think Crimson Aubergine will do.

All colors are Caran d'Ache except W058, which is Kalour. 

One thing I’m learning from this fall’s secondary experiments is that it does help to have a warm and a cool of each of the three basic hues. My larger sketch bag includes exactly that range, and I haven’t felt a need to supplement it; in fact, I’m pleased by how well it is meeting my needs. Let’s see if the two colors I’ve added to my walking bag will do the same.

Metropolitan Market Maple

 

10/13/22 Bryant neighborhood

The next stop on my leaf-peeping tour was the Sand Point Metropolitan Market, where a few slender, nicely placed maples give color to the parking lot each fall. Some years, they truly blaze. This year, they seem more subdued, with darker hues instead of brilliant red-orange and gold as they were at just about the same time of year in 2017. Instead of trying to put all of them into one composition as I often do, I picked out only the showiest one (and despite how conscious I try to be of composition, I got so dazzled by color that I ended up putting the tree smack-dab in the center).

Incidentally, this may have been the first time it was warm enough to sketch this tree from the sidewalk instead of from my car as is my usual practice by mid-October. We are breaking every record this year.

Missing Red at Green Lake

 

10/12/22 Green Lake

Between appointments last week, I made a quick stop at Green Lake for a little leaf peeping and sketching. The color seems late this year; even the sweet gums started later than usual. I hope to get to the whole stand of those soon, but for this quick sketch, I stopped on the south end where the crew teams launch their shells. Four years ago but several weeks earlier, I had sketched from the same spot. All the trees began turning much earlier that year.

For the most part, my secondary triad has been working out well, but sometimes it falls short. When I sketched the Dayton maples, I missed yellow. At Green Lake, I didn’t miss blue for the water, as violet is a good stand-in, but I missed red. This tall sweet gum is turning an intense reddish-purple, not orange (see the 2018 post linked above). I can see that I’m going to have to tweak the palette a bit for the rest of leaf-peeping season.

Capturing the Essence

This week's InkTober tools: a Bic 4-Color, Uni Pin fineliners and
a Stillman & Birn Epsilon sketchbook.

InkTober is almost half over, and I’m beginning to hit my stride – not necessarily in visible progress but in responding to the challenge I’ve given myself. Like the 30 days I spent studying composition, I’m surprised by how much I am enjoying portraiture from photos. Both portraiture and using photo references are unfamiliar practices that I have resisted in the past, but I’ve embraced both, and I’m having so much fun as I learn.

Although the 15-minute portraits I tried last week were instructive, I felt they were encouraging sloppiness, so this week I stayed with 30 minutes. Maybe after I’ve given these a solid go, I’ll try 15 minutes again with better results. In 30 minutes, I can’t finish the whole head with the same degree of completion everywhere, so I’m learning to scan the reference photo quickly to identify which features and facial planes I want to emphasize. If I can’t capture resemblance, can I at least convey the person’s age and mood accurately? In her 30-minute sketches, France Van Stone pays little attention to hair or facial hair other than their general shapes and where they meet the face. She says that the point is not to duplicate the reference photo exactly but to focus on overall proportions, values and form.

Roz Stendahl is another role model for portraiture that I’d like to emulate, not necessarily in style, but in her approach. A huge proponent of process over result, she rarely, if ever, talks about whether she has captured resemblance in her portraits (which are often from paused streams of her favorite TV shows). Instead, she strives to convey the mood or attitude of the model and what I call the “essence” – the thing that identifies a face as a living individual, not a generic human or a mannequin. When I finish each portrait, that’s the question I ask: OK, so the face is too short again, and the head is not slanted, and the pupils are creepy, but did I capture this person’s essence as a living, breathing individual?

As for materials, I’ve been much happier since I switched from a Bic 1.6mm bold point to a Bic 4-Color, which has a medium point. I like using a Bic because of the ink’s similarity to graphite in pressure sensitivity and ability to layer, but the resemblance stops with 1.6mm, which blobs like a badly treated dip pen. The need to constantly wipe off ink drool was annoying, even with the benefit of laying down lots of ink quickly.

A few sketches this week are do-overs of reference photos I had drawn from previously. France strongly recommends practicing from the same image multiple times. I find it highly instructive: The second time, I notice details that I had missed previously, or I’m more careful to preserve a band of reflected light that I didn’t quite get the first time.

10/8 I’m not sure why I had such difficulty getting the skull shape right – it seems like that should be the easy part!

10/8/22

10/9 I had originally drawn from this reference photo in 15 minutes. This time I took 30. I also got the idea of pairing red and black Bic inks, reserving black for the very end to bring out the darkest areas.

10/9/22

10/10 When I sketched this man the first time (shown in the previous InkTober post), I noticed at the end that I did not get the angle of his head right. On the second try, the proportions are better, but I still didn’t get the angle right. Note to self: Pay attention to this!

10/10/22

10/11 The first time, I sketched this poor girl with a harsh, unforgiving fountain pen (see last week’s InkTober post). For my second try, I used a Bic, which resulted in a softer look, and it was easier to convey rounded, young skin.

10/11/22

10/12 I picked a fresh reference photo and fresh pens: Uni Pin 0.5mm fine liners in light gray and dark gray. After the previous day’s teenage model, it was a relief to go back to a craggy old guy with angular facial planes and plenty of “character” (not to mention a great head of hair). I strongly prefer the tip on these Uni Pins to the gray Copic Multiliner I used once last week, and the two shades of gray are a useful pairing. I’m using them in the same way I’ve been using red and black Bics: Light gray for most of the work, then dark gray for the darkest points I want to emphasize. France is a champ of observing and also reserving small highlights and reflected light, but I sometimes obscure subtleties when I hatch too quickly, even when I see them. This time, I was pleased that I caught those tiny strips of reflected light under the tip of his nose and upper lip.

10/12/22

10/13 I chose this reference photo specifically because the model’s head is both at an angle and also rotated slightly – a good challenge for me, based on previous angled heads. My brain wants to straighten out the features, and distortion is an easy result. I began by making a guideline for the eyes, checking the angle multiple times, and another for the nose. I’m close, but the eyes still seem off.

10/13/22

10/14 The full-frontal lighting was harsh in this reference photo, and I knew it would be difficult, but since the month is nearly half over, it was time to push myself to do the ones I would typically avoid. The pupils, almost completely in shade, were the hardest. The only thing I’m pleased with is that tiny strip of reflected light I reserved under her nose.

(All reference photos are by Earthsworld.)

10/14/22

Dayton Avenue Maples

 

10/11/22 Crown Hill neighborhood

After more than two weeks of smoky skies, the air finally cleared on Tuesday. To celebrate, I threw open all the windows and doors, even though it was still a bit chilly in the morning, and inhaled deeply. Ahhhh! Then I took the top down and headed for the Crown Hill neighborhood: My annual leaf-peeping tour was on!

You’ve seen these trees on my tour many times. Nearly every year, I sketch this traffic circle at Northwest 83^rd and Dayton Avenue North, where three slender, tightly packed maples stand. (I can only ever see two at a time; I only know there are three because of the trunks.) The one facing south always turns first, and it’s usually done by the time the other two are at peak. I try to sketch them at various times of day, different times of year, and from different directions.

A fast line worker... I hardly had time to sketch him.

Of all the times I’ve sketched there, I’d never seen human activity nearby. What a treat: Halfway through my sketch this week, a line workers’ crew showed up, including flaggers directing traffic at the circle. I quickly put one guy in, but they moved around quickly, so I made a separate sketch. Then I caught the line worker – barely. He was up there for only a minute or two, then the team moved on down the street.

Just for fun, I’ve included below a few sketches from previous years. I have more than these, but I chose the ones sketched closest to Oct. 11, the date I made the sketch above, to compare the difference in coloring. It’s also fun to see how my media have changed over the years (and hopefully my skills).

Secondary triad note: Although I’m mostly happy with the secondary triad I’ve been using the past few weeks, I sometimes miss yellow. I haven’t missed blue at all, and red is easily improvised with the red-orange I’ve been using as part of the triad. Yellow, however, is impossible to fake (Caution/SLOW sign yellow, which I used above, doesn’t help, as it’s more yellow-orange). When I compare this year’s sketch to previous years when I had a full palette, I wish I’d had a true yellow to put more light on the very tops of the trees. Maybe I’ll put yellow back in.

10/14/15 watercolor

10/5/17 watercolor pencils, marker

10/19/18 watercolor pencils, wax pastels

10/22/20 watercolor pencils

Graphite Crosshatching (and Quick Look at Zebra MLP2 Mechanical Pencil)

 

10/3/22 Zebra MLP2 graphite pencil in Stillman & Birn
Epsilon sketchbook (30 min.)

Although most of the exercises in France Van Stone’s “How I Crosshatch, Part 3” course are done with ballpoint pen and other inks, graphite is suggested for a few assignments. One demo was based on a photo of her Basset hound, Boris (a bonus lesson that she sent to students of any of her crosshatching courses). I loved his image so much that I used it right away to draw with ballpoint on Day 2 of InkTober.

I looked forward to eventually drawing Boris again in graphite, but I was waiting to get my Zebra MLP2 mechanical pencil with “square” leads, which France used in the demo. Yes, of course, I could have used any graphite pencil I already own (because, you know, I have a few), but for $2, this Zebra sounded like an interesting novelty.

The “square” leads are actually rectangular in cross section, like a carpenter’s pencil. The leads that came with it claim to be 2B, but they feel a bit harder than that. France uses the broad side to lay in thick, dark layers of graphite quickly, which she then finesses with crosshatching by using the point that results on the narrow side. It does make an interesting double-pointed implement, but my objection is to the mechanical pencil’s oval-shaped barrel. The oval shape is designed to orient your hand to the position of the lead, but I became distracted by my grip on it, which wasn’t comfortable. If I practiced using it more, I would probably become accustomed to the weird barrel. Or not.

Unusual oval-shaped barrel

Broad side of rectangular lead

Narrow side of rectangular lead

10/8/22 Blackwing pencil in S&B Epsilon sketchbook (30 min.)

Another graphite assignment was to make a 30-minute portrait. I had already used that lesson’s photo reference for an ink drawing, so I chose a different image for the assignment – a profile of a man I had drawn previously in gray brush pen. The brush pen I had used resulted in such a hairy Wolfman look that I cringe whenever I look at it. I wanted to give it another try using graphite (I used a Blackwing pencil this time). I like this one much better than Wolfman, and I think I got more accurate proportions and a closer resemblance, too. (Wolfman and both photo references are shown in my InkTober post.)

Although I’m thoroughly enjoying the challenge of learning crosshatched portraiture with ink, I must say that I felt wistful making these drawings with graphite. It just felt so good to have a pencil in my hand again! In fact, it felt so good that I sort of forgot about crosshatching except toward the end of each of these drawings. The way France crosshatches, it is an effective, efficient way to vary tonal values. But so is laying down graphite with the side of the lead as I have done here, where crosshatching over it seems unnecessary and even detracts. However, I’m committed to giving crosshatched ink portraits a solid, 31-day try this month, which should give me a good idea of whether crosshatching – “dirty,” clean or otherwise – is for me.

Smog

 

10/10/22 Maple Leaf neighborhood, fog just beginning to lift

10/6/22 Maple Leaf, mid-morning. The sun easily sketched
through the thick haze.

For me, the term smog connotes big cities like L.A., Beijing or Delhi, where the source is usually industrial pollution. Most of the year, Seattle’s air quality is relatively good, probably helped by all the rain that washes away whatever pollution there might be.

Fall is when we typically have thick morning fog that I enjoy sketching, but that’s the clean kind made of water vapor. The past week has given us a different kind of smog – a true mix of both fog and smoke from wildfires. In general, I stayed indoors, but on my few abbreviated fitness walks, I couldn’t resist making quick sketches of the eerie haze hanging over us. Most disturbing was when I was able to sketch the sun with my bare eyes.

10/4/22 Green Lake

10/4/22 Green Lake

10/8/22 Maple Leaf, sunrise

10/3/22 Maple Leaf, sunset