An Illustrated Nature Journal

A few days ago, I signed up for ANOTHER Craftsy class, Illustrated Nature Journalng with Gay Kraeger. I LOVED it. Gay starts out by having us tear a full sheet of watercolor paper into 16 5.5" x 7.5" sheets that we can later arrange and make into a finished journal. I usually work in handmade bound sketchbooks, but I know Marc Taro Holmes prefers using single sheets so that he can work on more than one at a time (especially useful while one has watercolor that needs drying before continuing).

Gay also stressed striving for imperfection and also using simple "machines" to create landscape elements like clouds, waves, rocks, grasses, and dirt. These "tricks" such as using salt, a cut flat brush, rolled up papery towel, and wax resist we're all things I had at the ready and were surprisingly effective.

Gay also taught us a bit about designing a page using borders, lettering, and color unity. She really opened up my eyes for subjects and pleasing pages! I highly recommend this class!! Especially during one of Craftsy's many sales - like its Labor Day half off all classes sale.

Here are my pages from my illustrated nature journal from my 3 day camping trip to Steep Ravine, one of my favorite places in the world. I posted a quick video of the sketchbook that I bound with a stab stitch at the end.

I'd love to hear your thoughts on the artwork, the sketchbook, or the Craftsy class. Thanks!!

Tour of our Sketchbook 18 - Steep Ravine Camping Trip

I loved my latest Craftsy class - Illustrated Nature Journalling with Gay Kraeger. She gave me some great ideas for using her "landscape machines" for making clouds, rocks, trees, etc. I used a lot of her techniques in this sketchbook and even for making this sketchbook out of a single sheet of Fabriano Artistico cold press 140 lb. watercolor paper torn into 5.5" x 7.5" sheets, which I later stab stitch bound.

Here is a leisurely tour of the sketchbook.

And a quick tour.

What do you think of this type of sketchbook/illustrated nature journal?

Accordion Sketchbook Tours

I love this little square accordion sketchbook I made from folding and cutting a single piece of 20" x 20" Fabriano Artistico hot press 140 lb. watercolor paper - inspired by Cathy Johnson.

Here is a quick view of this sketchbook with artwork from 08.26.16 to 09.02.16.

Quick sketchbook tour

And a more leisurely tour.

Have you made one of these accordion sketchbooks?

Practicing Painting Skies and Local Color Palettes with Views from my Balcony

I've been inspired by Mimi Robinson's excellent book, Local Color - Seeing Place Through Watercolor - and have been challenged with paining cloudy skies. Also, I wanted to partciipate in Liz Steel's #fivedaysketchchallenge to draw/paint the same subject for five days. Here are my attempts.

Have you tried drawing the same subject for five days in a row? At different times? Or made any local color palettes? Here, I made the palettes first for Monday and Tuesday, and then on Wednesday, I did the landscape first then, the palette; and finally, on Thursday and Friday, I painted the landscapes and the palettes simultaneously. Which do you prefer?

Seeing the Strandbeests in Person

Today, my husband and I celebrated our 19th anniversary by visiting the Exploratorium in San Francisco (with our 10 year old who still hasn't started school this year yet) to see Theo Jansen's Strandbeests ("beach machines" in Dutch). These amazing "living" machines are pieces of moving art that will be leaving San Francisco on September 5th!

Here is a sketch I did of one of the Strandbeests, Animaris Adulari (2012).

And another quick sketch I did in water soluble brush pen of during a walking demonstration of the Animaris Suspendisse.

Here is a short video of my daughter pushing a Strandbeest.

And finally, a quick sketch of our view at lunch outside of the Exploratorium.

If you can't come view these amazing creatures in person, check out this video:

If you've seen them, what were your thoughts?

Making Local Color Palettes

I recently picked up a copy of Mimi Robinson's book, Local Color - Seeing Place Through Watercolor at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SF MOMA). I had seen the book before at the de Young Museum and was intrigued.

In this book, Mimi Robinson creates watercolor palettes of locations both local to the San Francisco Bay Area where she lives (specifically, near Point Reyes, an area I love) and at other locations she's visited around the world. The palettes, themselves, are beautiful.

On my recent camping trip to Steeo Ravine, I made similar palettes for the scenes I was about to paint. But, I did these as preparatory steps, rather than as a means in itself.

After reading Local Color, though, I decided I should concentrate on making palettes as a way to focus on really seeing and mixing colors accurately. Also, the book has some great practices to keep inspiring me.

Here are some palettes I made recently. I am planning on making a palette and (possibly doing a painting if I have time) of the view from my balcony for the next five days at about the same time - shortly after sunrise.

I decided to make a palette for the wedding flowers we delivered in Napa the other day.

Inspired by the book, I made a palette for a rock from my backyard. It's amazing how many colors are in a rock when you really look.

Then, I tried unsuccessfully to paint the afternoon sky and couldn't get the clouds right. So, I focused on making a palette for the sky instead.

Have you ever tried making watercolor palettes of local color?

Sketches from Napa

Yesterday, I spent the day helping a florist friend deliver some flowers to a wedding in Napa. The flowers were beautiful.

Waiting, I did this quick sketch in about 5 minutes of the Calistoga Inn.

Since my friend drove, I was able to do some quick sketches in the car.

My Dogs in a New Sketchbook

I took a trip to the art store today and bought a few full (22" x 30") sheets of Fabriano Artistico paper in 140 lb. weights and a variety of finishes - hot press, cold press, and rough. Inspired by Cathy Johnson's no see folded journal video on YouTube and Esther K. Smith's Making Books book- I folded and cut the full sheet into two new sketchbooks.

I've been enjoying using a square format for my sketchbooks lately, so I cut down the full sheet into a 22 x 22" square and then folded it in half several times until I had a 5.5" x 5.5" sketchbook.

With the remaining paper, I made a little 3.5" x 4.5" accordion sketchbook.

To inaugurate my new sketchbook, I painted my dogs from some photos I took a little while ago.

I can't wait to show you the completed sketchbook! Stay tuned.

Finished Sketchbook No. 14

Here is a quick tour of my completed homemade sketchbook no. 14 with artwork from 07/29/16 to 08/22/16. The sketchbook is a Coptic bound book with 140 lb. 7.5" x 7.5" watercolor paper.

Here is a more leisurely tour of the same sketchbook.

I would love to hear your thoughts/comments! Thanks for watching!

Sketching on our Road Trip

Yesterday, we started our road trip to North Hollywood to go to Universal Studios for my youngest's birthday. We left at 8:30am and lucky for me, my husband drove the whole way while I got to sketch!

Before we left, I got my new Pocket Palette in the mail and prepared it with some hot glue to further divide some palettes and I also made a new small sketchbook.

I am a bit behind on my homework for Sketchbook Skool's Seeing klass with Koosje Koene. We were to draw a selfie a day for a week. I have done 5. Here is my 6th.

Here is a still life of a pear on my door arm rest. I was practicing my watercolor mixing from my Craftsy class on Luminous Watercolor Mixes and using my new Pocket Palette!

Next, I did a quick watercolor sketch while we drove over the Grapevine before descending into the Greater Los Angeles area.

We made it to our hotel, The Garland, after only 5 hours! We had brunch at The Front Yard. And I did a quick still life from our table before I dug into my eggs Benedict. I used what I learned in Brenda Swenson's Seeing klass - employing a soluble Tombow marker before adding watercolor and a format around my objects.

Finally, we ended the day at the pool and I got this urban sketch in using my soluble market again.

Tomorrow, we are spending the entire day at Universal Studios mostly in the Harry Potter Wizarding World. I will post my sketches from the day later.

Sketching while camping near Stinson Beach

We were lucky enough to get a prime camping spot at Steep Ravine near Stinson Beach. This place is amazing. We've been many times before, but we have to book 6 months prior on the 1st of each month at 8am on the dot. And even then, weekends are almost impossible to get.

So, we were camping mid-week at this beautiful location with hardly any other people around. We saw dolphins, pelicans, brush rabbits, a seal, star fish, anemones, hermit crabs, and so much more!

Best of all, I got to sketch a lot! Here are my sketches and some photos of my new portable easel in use.

The fog created some interesting textures in the sky and ocean!

Sketching at the beach by the cabins.

Sketching at the tide pools at low tide this morning.

Sketching in the City

My daughter, Chloe, and I had a day to kill while our car was being worked on in Berkeley the other day, so we took BART to San Francisco and spent the day sightseeing, doing a little homework, and sketching.

We first stopped for a coffee and hot chocolate at the Ferry Building. Here is my sketch looking out at the ferry that came in from Marin.

Then, we walked towards Chinatown and stopped at this little playground in Sue Bierman Park.

Looking towards Pier 1 at Sue Bierman Park

We picked up some Pusheen items in Chinatown for my daughter - then went to Caffe Trieste in North Beach to do some math homework for her. She was not too happy doing her homework, but got to do a little more shopping afterwards!

Trying different mark making methods

I am addicted to taking online art classes. I am planning on doing a blog post reviewing all of the classes I've taken both at Sketchbook Skool and on Craftsy. But for now, I will just talk a little about one of the classes I'm taking - Paul Heaston's Pen and Ink Essentials on Craftsy.

Paul is a master at pen and ink drawings - especially with hatching. For my homework (for this class and Koosje Koene's Sketchbook Skool's Seeing klass drawing selfies), I drew myself using the scribble method of mark making and indicating value.

I really liked this method of mark making as it got me to loosen up and really just pay attention to values, rather than lines.

Next, I used the basket texture technique in another selfie value study. Both of these drawings were done from a black and white selfie photo.

I also liked this method, though it is more deliberate and time consuming. But, it did help me concentrate just on values.

What do you think of these mark making methods? Have you tried them?

I made it to 100!!!

Today, I made it to my 100th portrait in 100 days! For this last portrait, I decided to draw my daughters, Jade and Chloe from a photo we took on a playground in Hayes Valley in San Francisco.

Here is my 99th, which I wasn't happy with - but I've been staying up so late every night to watch the Olympics, I was too exhausted to redo it.

And my 98th portrait.

Thanks so much for following me on this journey! I think I'll take a little break to catch up on all my online art class homework before I start my next 100 day project.

Portraits 93 - 97 for the 100 Day Project

Here are my most recent portraits.

Portrait 95/100 (wrong no. on the artwork!)

Portrait 96/100 (wrong no. on the artwork!)

New Portable Watercolor Easel!

After childcare issues made it so that my husband and I could not take a romantic trip to Napa to celebrate our 19th anniversary, my wonderful husband agreed to get me something I've been coveting for a while now -- the portable watercolor easel that some of my favorite artists/teachers use, the En Plein Air Pro Traveler Watercolor Easel.

I went out two days ago to the Lafayette Reservoir with my daughter and her friend to try it out.

The easel can be used sitting or standing

Here's my set up with brushes, pens, sketchbook, thumbnails, and palette

I love the easy to attach easel that can be set at almost any angle including completely flat! It has a pull out brush holder and can be used as a table top easel! I also really like the shelf that holds my palette and the collapsible cup that came with it.

The backpack it comes with - and all fits in!

After recently trying to sketch a landscape on the Richmond Shoreline by balancing my sketchbook on my lap and juggling my brushes in the cup holder of my travel chair - I realized I NEEDED this! And, I was right! :)

Do you have/use a travel easel when you paint outside? If so, which one?

Portraits 86 - 92 for the 100 Day Project

It's been too long since I've posted my portraits for the 100 Day Project. Here are portraits 86-92 in reverse order.

Which is your favorite of the bunch?

Redbubble Tops

I love Redbubble.com. It allows for mass customization on either a large or individual scale. The site allows artists to set their own profit margins and own the rights to their work forever.

The concept is so great - that I wanted to see what the quality of the products are like. So, I ordered the chiffon top, the contrast tank, and the woman's fitted scoop neck T-shirt recently.

The contrast tank with my Paris Metro artwork

The printed quality ob the chiffon of both the chiffon top and the contrast tank is amazing! You can really see the watercolor and pen work.

My Barcelona Born CCM printed on the scoop neck fitted t-shirt

In the end, I love them all! If you'd like to see more of my Redbubble products, which include mugs, pillows, iPhone/iPad covers, hoodies, framed artwork, etc. Have you bought anything from Redbubble? If so, what did you think?

Finished Sketchbook 13!

My homemade sketchbook no. 13 is complete! I created it with 140 lb. 6" x 9" watercolor paper and bound it by hand with Coptic stitching. I started it on July 8, 2016 and finished it today. 😊

Here is a quick view of the sketchbook tour.

Quick tour of Sketchbook #13

And a more leisurely tour.

Sketching using Grisaille

In Steven Reddy's excellent Sketching Interiors class, he instructs us to use a series of India ink washes after our contour ink drawing (among other things). He makes drawing details easier by instructing us to draw foregrounds, middle ground, and then backgroun elements in that order with the freedom to edit out items as we choose.

I took a photo from our recent trip to Paris and tried out his techniques. Here is the phase before adding color.

Using this method really helps me to see values (lights and darks). But, I can't help but add watercolor.

Grisaille refers to a painting done entirely in gray tones and was popular during the Renaissance. Have you tried it?