Mission #1

San Buenaventura Mission from online reference photo.  Watercolor brush markers.

I could spread a little color but the original line pretty much stays.  Really hard to get lighter shades. Looks better here than it does on my sketch page.  The greys are mostly sketch & wash pencil.  I have no doubt I'll be sketching this a few more times, in different media.  

 

Garage sale day

At least once a year, the HOA opens the gates & advertises community garage sale.  I have learned not to spend too much energy or overthinking about what to put out.  Today, I started an hour late.  I only put out a few items before things were being bought.  I was sold out in an hour, put out a few more things and gave up in another hour.  I put the rest into the car for donate.

Then I texted my friend about my success.  She recently visited California Mission San Juan Capistrano and sent me a picture.  Sweet! Add another reference for this goal of mine.  She always remembers my mom's souvenir of a pair of carved wood hand chairs from the Philippines, so I offered them to her.  She remembers Mom fondly and now has a keepsake to remember her by.  I have a miniature version up on my living room ledge.  

The chairs were stored near Auntie's stuff so I found more to donate.  OMG, I found another rice cooker still in the box.  I think that's #6.  Shhh, don't tell Bro I have more space in the garage, LOL.

This is when I put more out but these ended up for donate.

The little picnic park across the street.

Yikes, more art supplies

When Bro gets back from his trip,  we'll take a day trip up to Santa Barbara.  I want to sketch the Santa Barbara Mission.  Then at some point, I want to sketch the San Buena Ventura Mission. So I was looking for my Sakura Koi field sketching watercolor set.  No idea where it went, I love the 18 colors and the size is so small.  You can't buy the kit anymore for a reasonable price, so I got this 24-color.  I'm a little disappointed that it's TWICE the size of the 18-color set.  I've got 3-4 weeks to practice sketching before he gets back.  I hope to sketch at least one watercolor/day until then.  Some of those sketches may be from photos, leaning toward urban sketching subjects.

My decision was split to get this Kuratake Transparent watercolor set, so I got both!  It's got 14 colors, but these half-pans are removable/replaceable.  I like the colors and the size of the set is smaller than the Sakura Koi, above.  It was described as leaning toward natural landscape colors.  

Since I decided to get back to sketching, I've been carrying my old W&N Cotman pans.  I used these before I discovered the 18-color Koi set.  I never have liked the colors in the Cotman set and it doesn't have black or a dark color I can use when sketching man-made objects.

Sky Bison

 

It's funny how in my "old age" how much I enjoy animation.  Time Warner cable sucks because their changes have left Mom without TV unless I'm there to work the cable box for her.  So I watched the whole series of Avatar Aang the last Airbender & its sequel Avatar Korra on YouTube and she's rediscovered the radio in her room.  This fluffy sky bison just looks so cuddly.  Yea, that's the March page of my desk calendar.  I wish I could call it Appa, but it's not quite Appa.

When I was a kid, I got no comics.  Comics were for boys and my parents saw no value in comics, so even my bro didn't have but a handful.  Admittedly, the cartoons were corny, too.  Entertaining but no lessons in it -- also a waste of time in my parents eyes.  The stories which are animated now are a long way from Tom & Jerry's endless chases.

WDE Daisy

Reference from Lisilk 6/8/14 WDE weekend.  Watercolor in my 5.5x10in home made watercolor (Arches paper) sketchbook.  The light shadows in the petals got washed out by the scanner.

Watercolor only sketches

 

 

References from Lisilk's WDE in the 9x12 watermedia sketchbook.  Only two more pages to put it to bed.  My latest kick is watercolor only sketches.  I started down my art journey with watercolors.  I had a great first watercolor, beginner's luck.  Everything after that was crap.  I threw out the watercolors and hit the drawing board, literally.  I learned to draw.  I mean, I've always been able to draw, but for the first time I started developing what basic talent I had.  Now I want color.  It seems all I've ever had time for outside the classroom was for sketching.  I tried to travel with color pencils, oil pastels, watercolor crayons, acrylic -- I can't use any of them even when I'm not on a tour group.  Root cause: Mom has a small bladder.  For lightweight, for quick sketch, for on-the-move, it has to be watercolor.  I've tried bringing oil pastels, watercolor pencils, acrylic -- They're all cumbersome if I can't just sit down and paint in peace.  I get no peace.  So I'm trying to get bright color with watercolor.  I don't get it yet.

Koi

Reference from Wetcanvas's Mar21 WDE in my 9x12 mixed media sketchbook.  Hmm, looks better in person than on the screen.

World Wide Sketchcrawl #37

The big reason I can't join groups for sketchcrawl is Mom.  She was dragging in the morning and was low on energy all day.  I can't go off and do my own thing.  I managed to cash in my piggy banks to the tune of $32.43, surprisingly more than just paying for lunch.  I got my flu shot, and I bought my birthday gift (a coffee machine for my office.)  Despite my morning frustrations, it turned out to be a good day.  Bonus, I've only got one page left in this sketchbook!

Urban sketch #2

8am on Joanne Ave in Ventura, CA. Mom was getting some labwork done. I've been wanting to do a street with parked cars and trees. I couldn't translate the color of the street but it was brightly reflecting sunshine. Yup, I think that does it. Ink & watercolor in the 6x8 inch watercolor pad.

Sketchcrawl 24

I'm only posting my favorite sketch from Sketchcrawl #24. I did five and shared them on the Urban Sketcher's group on Flickr and on Wetcanvas. I didn't find an all inclusive Sketchcrawl community on Flickr.

Urban sketch #2

This is my view from the treadmills and elliptical machines at my gym. After my workout today, I went out and sketched this. 30 min, ink & watercolor in a 6x8 inch watercolor pad.

Painting my Palettes

Been feeling a bit disconnected lately. I was sitting up in my room, staring at my big empty sketchbook. It's 12x15x1 inches, and very heavy so it's got luggage handles attached. Apparently I had started some color charts in the back so I added inktense and graphtints charts. It hit me that this paper isn't sized but at least it didn't pill or bleed through. So I started painting my palettes. These are on different areas of back to back pages, so I p'shopped them into one picture: the Koi pan set of 18 (my favorite because of the blues & greens), the W&N Cotman pans, and my palette with the Marie's Chinese Watercolor tube paint which I leave to dry in a plastic palette.

I was surprised how well they turned out. I've been quite convinced how bad I am at watercolor but now I've just done three watercolor sketches in a row that I'm happy with. IRL, the sketches aren't that wonky perspectivewise...blame the photographer for not getting a straight shot.