This past weekend I went outside and attempted nature sketching again. I am trying not to expose myself to a lot of chemicals, which makes repelling mosquitoes kind of difficult. I read somewhere that mosquitoes do not like the smell of vanilla, so I tried using some vanilla perfume that I have from the Body Shop. It seemed to work well because I did not get any bites while I was out (about 45 minutes). It also was not a windy day, so I know it wasn’t the wind that was keeping them away. I also read that mosquitoes are repelled by Listerine sprayed on the ground in a little spray bottle, so I will try this if the vanilla thing starts to fail me.
The other day I was uploading some work to flickr when I got sidetracked and started sorting through some of my groups. I was in so many groups on flickr that it was becoming unwieldy, and many of them didn’t even apply to me any longer. In the process, I (re)discovered Stop.Draw.Run, which I joined months ago but never participated in until now. The whole point is to sketch for ten minutes and then stop. Now that I am placing a higher priority on sketching, I thought that it would be the perfect group for me, and I already use my timer for sketching.
I have a certain 6 x 6 inch square format sketchbook that is perfect for this activity. It doesn’t have the nicest paper — it is too thin and scratchy for me. But I definitely won’t feel guilty about burning through the pages. Here are some sketches I made yesterday (each about five minutes).
The other day I saw a charming documentary called All In This Tea. It follows David Lee Hoffman, a tea connoisseur and importer, who travels China in search of organic, heirloom teas. It is a thoughtful and relaxing movie to watch, showcasing some beautiful views of the Chinese countryside. It is also educational in a non-boring way. As someone who already knows a lot of “tea trivia,” I learned quite a bit about how different kinds of tea are processed. I recommend making yourself a pot of tea to drink while you watch, because you will start craving it for sure.
A few months ago, when undertaking my massive organizational project, I found some photos in an album that I thought I threw away a few years ago. I debated chucking them right then and there, but decided to hold onto some of the photos in case I can develop them into later works.
This drawing was a great opportunity to practice some perspective skills. I snapped the photo from a huge window in a Kolkata shopping mall. I was then rudely interrupted by one of their many security guards. Kolkata is filled with Victorian style buildings with a lot of character and architectural detail, but an unfortunate lack of maintainance. If someone powerwashed all the mildew off and repainted the city, it wouldn’t look nearly as bad. All the decay is more interesting to draw though.
This sketch was meant as a practice sketch for a painting that I have been meaning to do for some time. I took out my Tombow markers for it, which I don’t use too often. They are fun to work with as they have both a brush and fine line tip and I have about eighty colors in my set. They fade badly in light, however. For this reason they are only really good to me as something to use in my sketchbook. Or perhaps, I might use them if I made a picture with the intent of getting the image printed onto something else. In that case, I would treat my scan as the original.
This is a sketch I made of the ocean at low tide when I was visiting Ogunquit, Maine a few weeks ago. It was a nice mid week mini-trip and I took lots of reference photos. I will most likely start working from these when I finish the big drawing that I am working on (more on that later this week) and get everything else settled down.
I am very busy these days, but also very excited. In a few weeks, I will have a new studio to show you all! The walls are purple, which is not my first choice, but I am still very excited. I never had a separate space all to myself for my artwork so this is an excellent development for me. Right now everything is all a shambles and I don’t have my supplies organized yet, so I will be making sketches with ball point pens for the next few days.
It has been some time since I have been able to read and enjoy a book sufficiently enough to actually finish it. I have been getting bored and easily distracted when reading books, and have often stopped midway through. I decided to give it another shot though, because I wanted to read a book while being out of work after my surgery.
The book I picked up at the library was The Solitude of Prime Numbers by Paolo Giordano. It was translated into English from Italian, but it didn’t feel awkward to read for me at all. In fact, I thought it was very easy to read and the chapters were nice and short as well.
The main characters are Alice and Mattia, who are antisocial and both dysfunctional in their own special way. Alice and Mattia have a special friendship because they understand each other, and they each had a traumatic childhood experience that shaped the way they interact with others throughout the rest of their lives. Their personalities are so damaged however, that they can’t function properly, and even though they are attracted to each other, neither one of them knows how to “close the sale.”
To be honest, I found this book to be depressing even though the reviews were really good. I wouldn’t recommend it to anyone who is lonely or depressed. Also, I really couldn’t stand Alice’s character, who struggles with anorexia. She just made no sense to me, and she wasn’t very likeable. I probably should have picked a book that was more upbeat. I made the mistake of reading this book and watching The Mill on the Floss on the same day!
I am having a nice time making sketches and using my incentive spirometer, taking many breaks to walk around the house and not sit in one place too long. We’ve also got vegetable soup simmering on the stove smelling really nice. I updated my links page as well, so take a look.
I made this quirky drawing while in the Jury Pool waiting room (it was too big to scan at once so I had to stitch two scans together). I had only been called in for Jury Duty one other time, and not in this particular courthouse. By the time I drove into the city, found the courthouse, figured out how the parking garage worked, went through security, and found the waiting room, I was feeling quite out of sorts. I had a lot of energy in the beginning of the day and worked on this sketch from 8:00 until about 10:30. Then my arm began to ache so I settled into my chair and did…nothing. Well, I did watch a few game shows and then some soaps. I also eavesdropped on a conversation between two public school teachers bellyaching about their benefits packages. They ended up sending everybody home and never used a single one of us for a jury, but it was not a wasted day for me. In my opinion, I got an interesting spread in my sketchbook and some time off to think.
Here is a blog post by Roz about her jury duty sketching experience. New Englanders aren’t always the friendliest people so I didn’t want to run the risk of drawing anybody while in an enclosed space, but it would have been interesting for sure.
I went to the mall yesterday and did some Christmas shopping and some shopping from myself. Shopping is something that I don’t like to do so much as I find it exhausting and a little stressful. When I got home, I remembered that it was the 25th World Wide SketchCrawl and also the 5th anniversary of the event. I was too tired out to go anywhere to sketch so I just stayed home and drew some things around me.
I tried to experiment by drawing things in a way I ordinarily wouldn’t. I would have kept going, but eventually my right hand got too sore to continue and I had to rest it. It’s still a little sore today so I’m planning on doing some watercolor and going easy on it.
