One of the Residents of Oz Park

Posted on by
3

oz_park_tree0001

I stopped on my way home from work this evening to sketch parts of this tree in Oz Park.

Oz Park was commissioned in honor of L. Frank Baum who wrote the Wizard of Oz , and also lived in the area at the end of the 19th century.  It has statues of the Dorothy, the Tin Man, the Scarecrow, and the Lion throughout the park, and is a nice place to go watch people play with their dogs.

This sketch was the result of some recent advice I offered to an aspriring sketcher who was trying to deal with a paralyzing case of fear of failure.  One of those bits of advice was “set a timer for two minutes; go!”.  It occurred to me that the same advice could also be used to overcome the ‘I don’t have time’ excuse that I like to use.  So this is my two-minutes worth (well, actually, the line drawing was two minutes; adding the color was probably only another five or ten minutes after that).

There are plenty of things wrong with it.  Certainly, the colors are completely wrong, because I didn’t have any paint with me at the time; so it was ‘get home, get out the paint, and fake it as best I could’.  And that’s all fine.  The point of this exercise was not to be realistic.  It was just to keep the creative juices flowing.

I’ll tackle something a little more serious when I have more time.  When I don’t have that kind of time, I have to make myself do more of these quickies.  Sometimes quantity is just as valuable as quality.

Your Basic Bottle Opener

Posted on by
9

bottle_openerI picked up some gray PITT pens this weekend while I was supposed to be grocery shopping.  Hey, it’s not my fault they put the grocery store so close to the art store…  This is my first sketch with them.

Edit: just for the record, I did continue on to the grocery store immediately after the art store.

Compositionally Challenged

Posted on by
5

telephone_poleNot everything goes according to plan.  If I ever forget this, all I have to do is sketch something.

My plan for this sketch (another view from the back of our condo) was to make the telephone pole the center of attention.  I thought framing it with the flowers and planters we have on our deck would help with that.  Unfortunately, I think the foreground objects have taken over instead of retreating to the background.

I think the single biggest mistake I made in this regard is that I made the plants too colorful, and added too much contrast.  I think if I had made them more sillhouetted, that would done the trick nicely.

Or, I could have cheated, and just done a strategic crop.  But what would that have proven?

I’m also not happy with the how flat the background buildings came out.  I wanted to push them to the background, so I knew I had to leave details out and avoid putting too much emphasis on their color and structure.  Unfortunately, I think I went too far the other way.

Oh well, they can’t all be winners.  Plus, I learned something as a result.  And hopefully, I won’t have to make the same mistake a hundred times before I finally learn how to deal with it.

Reading Between the Lions

Posted on by
12

art_institute_lionThe 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.

My Favorite Cubs Hat

Posted on by
3

cubs_capThis is my beat-up old cubs hat.  I bought it at the first game I’d ever seen at Wrigley Field, and I’ve worn it hundreds of times since.  It’s probably time to replace it — some of the wrinkles are permanent.  But, like an old pair of slippers, a good hat feels better the more worn-out it gets.

This sketch is black and white because, quite frankly, I’m a little tired and too lazy to pull out the paints.  Besides, I wanted to see whether the new sketchbook I have would handle pencil.  I didn’t do any blending, but I think the paper in this sketchbook would have taken it fairly well.

The Bleachers at Wrigley Field

Posted on by
3

wrigley_bleachersI 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?

Kitty on the Couch

Posted on by
3

chantelI’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.

Feelin’ Kinda Corny

Posted on by
4

cornMy 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.

Birdhouse Nic Nacs, etc.

Posted on by
1

birdhouseI’ve been buried by a mountain of work lately, and my sketching output has suffered a corresponding flattening.  So it was nice to visit with family this past weekend and get away from things for a while (I don’t know how much they want me talking about them, so I’ll just say that they’re wonderful people, and leave it at that).

Despite an action-packed weekend, I did manage to carve out a few minutes to sketch the table in the sunroom.  The birdhouse caught my eye from the breakfast table, so I dusted off the sketchbook and drew for a while.

My work schedule will continue to be hectic for the next week or two, so don’t expect much output between now and then.  But I’ll do my best.

Critique with Blade

Posted on by
Reply

I’ve been swamped with work and other projects.  This was supposed to have been posted 4 days ago, but I just have not found the time.  And I have no excuse really — Blade does all the editing and sends me the final copy.  Unfortunately, the next two weeks are not going to let up at all.

Anyway, enough whining… click through for our conversation: Continue reading →

A Candle In A Vase

Posted on by
2

candle_on_rocks0001

This morning I learned about carbon pencils when I stumbled upon the Extraordinary Pencil blog.  I was impressed with how black the artist was able to get her darks — something that I’ve struggled with ever since I picked up my pencils last fall.  So I stopped off at the art store and picked up a small set.

Let me tell you, those pencils are DARK!  They blend really well with a stump, and they mix pretty well with pencil.  But they do not erase well at all.  And if you push too hard when shading with the graphite, the carbon won’t lay on top of it.  So if you use these, you want to use standard graphite to map out the shapes and then use the carbon judiciously.

Anyway, on to the self-critique…

The last time I  tried to draw something in a glass container (see my picture of a shell), it was an unmitigated disaster.  This attempt is a little better.  In part, I think, because the carbon pencils allow me to capture much better contrast; and in part, because I have a little more experience now.

The lighting was straight top-down, so I didn’t have a lot of the really sharp highlights one might expect of a glass container.  I should consider this a little more when doing more formal still life work.

My elipses are a little off.  And the bottom of the vase took on a funny shape because I was too heavy-handed with the graphite before trying to come in with some carbon to lay down a shadow along the bottom edge.

This was challenging because of the amount of attention I had to pay to light and shadow, instead of just shape and shading.  What started out as an experiment with a new kind of pencil ended in an hour-long sketch that was a bit of stretch for my puny attention span.  In any event, good practice all around.

Burwood Tap

Posted on by
Reply

burwood_tapThis is a friendly little tavern on the corner near my home.  I stopped to sketch it on my way home from work this evening, because the weather was simply beautiful and my back was not bothering me too much.

I’ve got a few perspective problems with this that I’ll have to watch out for in the future.

I love the shape of this building for some reason.  Maybe it’s the knocked-off corner; maybe it’s the awning… whatever it is, I just love looking at it, and I hope I can one day truly capture just how inviting I think it is.

Diversey Harbor

Posted on by
1

diversey_harborThose of you who stop by here regularly were probably wondering where I’d gone.  Well, let’s just say that between a hectic work schedule, a nagging back injury, playoff hockey, less-than-seasonable weather, and a general artistic funk, I haven’t been making much art (if you can call it that) lately.

This drawing was done Saturday morning — EARLY saturday morning.  The cat decided that 5:30 AM is a good time for humans to be awake, so she made it a point to ensure that I was.  The sun was out, so I chugged a cup of coffee and headed down to the harbor with my sketchbook.

Of course, I got down there, got settled, and started drawing, and the weather turned.  You can see the effects of high humidity and drizzle if you look closely:  the charcoal started to cake, and the paper stopped taking it very well.

The bridge in this picture is where Lakeshore Drive crosses over the waterway between the harbor and Lake Michigan.  When I was running every day, this was part of my normal route; I miss seeing it every morning.

Critique with Blade

Posted on by
Reply

A few weeks ago, Blade from The Artistic Biker sent me an email asking if I’d be interested in participating in a critique session.  With the exception of the biking (he rides the motorized variety, while I stick with the pedal-your-tail-off kind — mainly because I know I’d do great damage to myself otherwise), we seem to be living parallel lives; so critiques notwithstanding, I thought it would be interesting just to have a chat.  And of course, I always like to get the kind of feedback that could help me improve.  Feel free to eavesdrop after the jump…

Continue reading →

Dinner

Posted on by
3

spaghetti_and_sauceEDM Challenge #12 is “Draw what you ate for dinner.”  I don’t think anyone wants to see what that looks like at this very moment, so I did the next best thing and drew the ingredients.  In truth, I didn’t use the pasta sauce.  I just threw a little olive oil, basil, and garlic powder over the spaghetti.  It’s actually got more fat and calories than the pasta sauce, but boy is it tasty.

Anyway, I wasn’t going for any sort of realism here; just playing with a PITT pen and some watercolors.  This is the first time I’ve been able to get any sort of vibrancy out of the paints, so I’m happy with that.  And the composition isn’t terrible.

My lines got a little out of control in a couple of spots.  I didn’t realize until after I scanned this that everything is skewed a little off-vertical.  All those years of keeping my wallet in the same back pocket must be catching up to me.

I’m really starting to consider laying down a pencil underdrawing before I drop in the ink on these.  But tonight was really about forcing my butt up off the couch and spending a little time with the sketchbook.  Every little bit helps, right?

I probably should have worked a little more shadow into the side of the pasta box.  There’s really no visual cue about the direction of light at all other than the small ground shadow.

And I picked entirely the wrong red for the pasta sauce.  But the only other red I have is Alizarin Crimson, and I wanted to try to stay with a purely transparent, non-staining pallet (only three colors here: Rose Madder Genuine, Cobalt Blue, and Aureolin); which did come in really handy when some of the red bled into not-red territory.

Color mixing is a real weak point for me.  I know I should make some color wheels and do some paint chips, but that is so boring and tedious, I’m not sure I could bring myself to do it.  I know I’ll have to do it at some point, but I can feel my back tighten up just thinking about it.

Bike Helmet

Posted on by
1

helmet

This is my bike helmet.  It protects my noggin’ from damage when/if I fall off my bike.

I think I missed the mark in terms of conveying the three-dimensional form.  I know one mistake I made was introducing a second blue paint which was darker, but not representative of the shadow of the first blue.  Then I tried to tone it down a bit by glazing over with orange, but it must have had too much yellow because it turned my blue to green.  Also, my shadows are not anywhere near dark enough — too much water, I suppose.

Probably a bit too ambitious for me.  Anyway, something to try again later, once I get a better handle on the paints.

He Shoots! He Scores!

Posted on by
2

mattel_bball

Everyday Matters Challenge #221 is “Draw a Handheld Game”.

Anyone of a certain age will be sure to recognize this (holy crap, did I just say that?!).  These electronic games from Mattel were really the first of their kind.  You can tell this one wasn’t mine, because we still have it.  I think all of mine are rotting in the bottom drawer of some retired teacher’s desk.

Surprisingly, it still works.  I didn’t play it long enough to see if it still creates that smell of cooking electronics that reminds me of Christmas morning.  I must say, though, it is not as fun to play as it was back in the day.

The yellow (actually, raw sienna) is a little aggressive on the highlight side of the game.  Sure, the plastic case has yellowed a little over time, but not quite as badly as I’ve depicted here.

I’ve noticed a tendency in my paintings to shift a bit too far into the greens.  I’m trying get some decent neutral grays, but I find mixing them to be a huge challenge for some reason.  I’ll blame this on a touch of color blindness, but I’m hoping practice will help me overcome that.

On Top Of My Dryer

Posted on by
7

laundry_room_color

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.

laundry_room_bwThe 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.

Compact Fluorescent, Two Ways

Posted on by
4

cfl_charcoal

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:

cfl_penThis 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?

A Spray Bottle

Posted on by
Reply

spray_bottle0001This 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.

Chandelier

Posted on by
Reply

chandelierWe recently replaced our dining room chandelier.  I like the shape of it and have been wanting to draw it for a while.  And since I’ve been playing with charcoal recently, I wondered what it would be like to draw it with charcoal.

As with most of the stuff I’ve done with charcoal, there are parts that I like and parts that I don’t.

Starting with the stuff I like… I think I’ve captured the overall feel of the chandelier: the general shape is there; basic pattern of light and dark.  I like the dark on dark of the drawing.  And I think I did an OK job pushing the rear lights into the background.

Now onto the “not so great” stuff:  the lines lack any sort of sympathy for the subject.  Instead of modeling the shape of the light domes and relying on form and shadow to create separation, they’re mostly separated by lines.  There are a few too many spots where the lines meet the background which lack any degree of blending whatsoever.   There is an overly dark spot in my background below the lights on the right of the picture.  And I should have put a little more contrast between the background and the light domes — they’re dim, but they’re not THAT dim.

I was shooting for a soft, ethereal feel to the image, and I’m just not sure I achieved that.  But for those of you wondering, I actually DID use my kneaded eraser in this drawing to pull out the highlights in the light globes.

Charcoal is a difficult medium to gain any degree of control over.  But I will continue to work on it until I feel it’s time to move on to something else.

St. Clement Church

Posted on by
2

church

Charcoal continues to kick my butt.

There are thousands of beautiful old buildings in Chicago, and I want to be able to draw them.  The weather is finally turning nice, so I should start to see more opportunities to do just that.  I am really enjoying my charcoal adventure.  But I am really struggling to get a good handle on it.   The evidence is in the massive inconsistency between the bell tower and the main facade of the church.  Though, to be totally fair to myself, I did stop before I felt like I was finished due to time constraints; and I did focus a little more on the bell tower.

I spent an hour sitting on the sidewalk across from this church which is two blocks from my condo.  I had several false starts until I finally set my mind to finish a sketch no matter how badly it starts.

Anyway, I am starting to learn some things about myself that I thought I would share:

  1. I tend to let the looseness of a really soft charcoal dictate a very loose drawing style.  I don’t know if this is a good thing or a bad thing.
  2. I tend to focus on the negative space and the shadows much more than the object itself when I am working with charcoal.  The result is a much more impressionistic approach than when I am sketching with pencil.
  3. Once I have an implement in-hand, I tend to use it until I am forced to switch — especially when drawing away from my normal space, where I can spread out all my pencils, erasers, and such.
  4. I don’t erase.  This is true when I am using a pencil too.  When I first picked up my pencils back in October, I made a conscious decision to not use an eraser — it was an exercise in discipline, to force myself to learn to make the right line the first time.  But now that I have switched to charcoal, I think I might benefit from using an eraser at least as a shading tool.
  5. My sketchbook is not necessarily receptive to the combination of charcoal and fixative.  The charcoal separates in spots, which might be related to my habit of blending with my fingers.

Of all these things, point number 2 is the most interesting to me.  I really do think differently with a piece of charcoal in my hand.  I wonder why that is.