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Archive for the ‘Ink’ Category

Reading Between the Lions

Tuesday, July 7th, 2009

The Art Institute of Chicago has these giant bronze lions on either side of the steps leading to the main entrance. People sit on the steps and read between the lions when the weather is nice. As for me… I stand across the street and draw them. And of course, the woman on the steps was talking on her cell phone instead of reading, thus messing up my very clever title. Maybe I should have gone with a telephone-related title like ‘Hold the Lion’ or ‘The Lion is Busy’?

This lion is the one on the north side of the entrance. His unofficial name (given to him by the sculptor) is ‘On the Prowl’. When one of our home teams is in the playoffs, the lions are dressed in team jerseys. They even have super-size helmets for the lions for football season. Since it isn’t playoff season, the lions are naked.

I did the line drawing during lunch this afternoon and painted it when I got home this evening. There was just barely enough time to eat, walk over there, draw, and walk back. But the weather was really nice today, so I felt like I had to take advantage of it. People hovered around and looked over my shoulder. I could hear them whisper to each other, “Ooh, he’s drawing the lion!” It was, simultaneously, nerve-wracking and exhilarating.

This was real challenge for me for a few reasons: 1. I am intimidated by drawing living things, even if (as in this case) that living thing is not really a living thing; 2. Mostly related to number 1, I actually included a human being in this sketch; and 3. I had to paint from memory so I was left to my own devices with respect to color and shadow. The lion’s looking a little chubby, but overall, I’m happy with how this came out.

Posted in Ink, People, Urban Sketching, Watercolor | 11 Comments »

Urban Gardening

Sunday, July 5th, 2009

Today was a nice day to sit on the deck and sketch. In fact, it was a perfect day to stretch my ‘urban sketching’ muscles.

Posted in Ink, Urban Sketching, Watercolor | 6 Comments »

The Bleachers at Wrigley Field

Friday, July 3rd, 2009

I spent the day roasting myself at the Cubs game. I can hardly think of a better way to spend an afternoon, especially when the Cubbies get a win.

The scoreboard at Wrigley is an icon of tradition… one of the last manually operated scoreboards in the Major Leagues. You won’t find any Jumbotron in Wrigley Field, no sir! This is baseball, as pure as it can be — at least as pure as it can be when you’re fielding a team full of multimillionaires.

That part of the field, by the way, is where Milton Bradley dropped an easy fly ball. Whoa boy… Chicago fans can be merciless when a highly-paid, highly-touted, professional athlete does something so inept! Just ask Rex Grossman; I’m sure he can tell you a thing or two.

By the way, anyone got any good tips for laying down a clean watercolor wash on smooth paper?

Posted in Ink, Urban Sketching, Watercolor | 3 Comments »

What is that? Some sort of ficus?

Thursday, July 2nd, 2009

Truthfully, I have no idea what sort of plat this is. All I know is that it sits near the front window, and its growth only seems limited by the size of its pot.

The color in the real sketch is not quite as yellow as it appears here — blame the scanner until I can figure out how to make it behave.

Posted in Everyday Matters, Ink, Watercolor | 2 Comments »

Kitty on the Couch

Wednesday, June 17th, 2009

I’ve been in an odd state of mind all day. I think about doing one thing, then proceed to something completely different. I have a feeling my horoscope reads: “Meh, do whatever you want; you won’t do what I say anyway.” This sketch is what happened when I decided to go to bed.

The cat was lying on the couch, perfectly still. She looked so content. How could I not draw her? Of course, as soon as I sat down on the floor in front of her, she popped her head up to see what I was doing. I sat, I waited, and eventually she put her head back down. But she couldn’t resist craning her neck periodically to see what I was doing. Then she would put her head back down in a different spot.

Cats make really bad models. I guess that’s why art schools use people.

Posted in Animals, Ink | 3 Comments »

Feelin’ Kinda Corny

Tuesday, June 16th, 2009

My work schedule is finally starting to get somewhat back to normal. So I hope that means I can get back to a regular drawing schedule. I’m not committing myself to anything, though, because the onset of summer means that my evenings and weekends are filled with bike rides, concerts, baseball games, vacations, and family visits. I know many of these things are great fodder for drawing, but I am going to have to break some old habits in order to fit that in.

This is my entry for EDM #116 – Draw Something Green.

Posted in Everyday Matters, Food, Graphite, Ink | 4 Comments »

On Top Of My Dryer

Thursday, May 7th, 2009

Believe it or not, this is what the top of my dryer looks like. You don’t even want to know what the cleaning supply shelf looks like. And yes, that is two spray bottles of the same cleaner. There’s a third one sitting on top of the washer. I suppose some things (like taco cheese), no matter how much you have, when you go to the grocery you think, “I wonder if I am out of that? Better buy some just in case.”

After another week completely getting away from me, I got a note from Blade over at The Artistic Biker reminding me that we’re supposed to get together for a little critique session soon. I haven’t even looked at my sketchbook in almost 10 days… panic sets in. Nothing like a deadline to get your butt in gear!

Of course, by the time I can actually get around to doing any sort of drawing, it is dark outside. So I am, once again, relegated to the great indoors.

I’m actually quite happy with this one. It is, by far, the most complex composition I’ve tackled. And I did this one without a net – no pencil, no eraser (I don’t usually erase anyway, so really not a big deal I guess). I went into it really worried about keeping my proportions correct and trying to get the perspective right. I know it’s not perfect, but it’s not too bad either.

Before I added the color, I took a quick scan of the pen drawing (just in case I screwed things up). This represents about a half hour of work.

The next hour and a half was highlighted by playing with my watercolors. I bought those things with the intention of spending the month of March learning how to use them. Then charcoal caught my attention, and now it is May. Funny how that works.

The one thing I wish I hadn’t done was so much shading with the pen. It helps to visualize things as the drawing progresses, but it really sort of competes with the paint in a way that I’m not completely thrilled with. Still, the scope of this painting is beyond anything I’ve done in a long time, so I’ll count that as win.

Posted in Everyday Matters, Ink, Watercolor | 7 Comments »

Compact Fluorescent, Two Ways

Tuesday, April 28th, 2009

This is a compact flourescent lightbulb. It is supposed to save us all from global warming. And it is supposed to last nine years. Well guess what? I installed this light bulb less than a year ago and it is already burnt out. Let’s hope the global warming thing fares better.

Funny thing about this drawing… I wasn’t planning to draw a light bulb. I was actually planning to draw a pair of pliers; had them in my hand and was on my way to my sketching station (a.k.a. the dining room table) when this little beauty caught my eye. It was sitting on the kitchen counter, because I have no idea how to properly dispose of the darned thing. To be quite honest, I was planning to leave that problem to the next owner of our condo. So much for that plan.

As I was saying… I sat down, pulled out my charcoal and sketched a rough outline, then proceeded to shade (being careful not to avoid inadvertant smudges along the way). Unfortunately, I was so caught up in the process of shading, that I forgot to take a good look at the overall form of the drawing. Result: a lightbulb that looks like a failed refugee from a Salvador Dali – wilted, but not quite enough to hang out with those amazingly relaxed clocks.

So that led to sketch #2:

This one was done with a Micron 03 pen. I was more cautious about getting the shape right on this one. I stood over my sketchbook rather than sitting; and I think it helped a lot. Some of my lines are too sketchy, though. This was a problem that I had in my early highschool art career, and I can still hear my art teacher in my ear: “Make a line, dammit.” Something to work on.

It was interesting to tackle the same subject with a couple of different mediums. I actually think the pen was more appropriate for the subject matter, but I probably should have been a little more bold with my line and used dark, fluid shapes for the shading instead of trying to draw it as if I were using a pencil.

On the plus side, I kept this lightbulb out of the landfill for another hour. That’s got to count for something, right?

Posted in Charcoal, Everyday Matters, Ink | 4 Comments »

A Spray Bottle

Monday, April 27th, 2009

This is my entry for Every Day Matters challenge #131 – Draw a spray bottle.

I was sitting at home, watching the Chicago Blackhawks beat up on Calgary Flames in the first hockey playoffs the Blackhawks have been to since I moved to Chicago. I was getting tired and thought about watching the rest of the shellacking in bed. Fortunately, the little voice inside my head said, “why don’t you draw something before you hit the sack?”

I’ve been doing quite a bit of charcoal work recently and was looking around for a subject that would fit the charcoal mindset. Instead, I found this spray bottle and remembered seeing it on the EDM challenge list.

I have a couple of micron pens that I haven’t used yet, and this seemed like a good subject for them. When I finished, I thought, “why not add a little color?” so I grabbed my colored pencils that I’ve only used once in a failed attempt to draw a stock car. I think I did a little better with them this time.

Anyway, it was a nice diversion from the charcoal kick I’ve been on recently, and a good reminder to myself to mix it up every now and then — makes the whole experience a lot more interesting. And it probably helps me from an overall perspective to gain some experience with a wide variety of mediums.

Posted in Colored Pencil, Everyday Matters, Ink | No Comments »