Regarding Google+

Eh...I finally caved and joined the ranks of Google+ after avoiding it for forever, not wanting to get involved in one more internet thing that would steal time from art.  Though I've not spent any time yet trying to figure it out, I did add people to my circles, to the point that I reached my limit for the day already.  Whether this was a good decision remains to be seen, but so far I am overwhelmed as the page scrolls and scrolls and scrolls and is filled with some things that I have no interest in whatsoever.  As I type this, JayZ fills several sections.  JayZ?  I could care less about him!  Dwell...yes, that one is great! I really only expected information on posts from the people I connected with.  Perhaps you have some opinions on this?  Should I run?  Is it a colossal time sponge? ...or does it really make it easier to keep up with friends?

Over the years, my online friends and I have had many conversations about finding time for art.  I have a new one for you.  When my husband and I moved to this apartment in October, we put off getting cable since we spend more time online than watching television.  One week turned into two, into three.  I DO NOT MISS IT--AT ALL!  And the best part of it all...I have so much more time for making art!  I have decided that I will not be going back.  No cable. No television.  Life is so much better!  It is a time sponge!  Sucks the life right out of life!

So with all of that said...I think I should probably post some art, since that is my blog's purpose after all!  How about some Burbs!  Love this movie so much...it is difficult for me to hit pause.  I stopped working in this sketchbook for now due to a boredom which slowly crept in.  I like the idea of drawing from movies when that is all you can get to at the time.  I only have a few more spreads that I haven't posted yet.  Maybe one day I'll start this one back up...but I am hoping that I find so much more inspiration in other things that it will not be necessary! 

Maybe it's time for some blog CPR?

I can hardly believe so much time has passed.  I mean, really, a year and a half?  Well, a lot has been happening around here.  I finally made the move back to Boise, ID.  Since that move, I've moved two more times.  Our lease is up in April and we hope to have a house by then...so one more time?

Before my absence I had been struggling with getting scans that didn't make me want to throw my hands up and scream.  They would look too gray, or if I turned up the contrast or brightness, it became garish.  It was depressing. I wanted you to see how they really appear in my sketchbook, because, well, I was proud of them. I've been working on that and I think I've improved things a bit.  I've replaced some of the pics in previous posts.  I think they look somewhat better, though I know there are still problems and they still don't look as good as what I have in my sketchbook.  But now it isn't depressing because I think it is close enough.

One thing that I did not stop doing during my long absence was drawing and painting.  I have so much piled up around me that I hardly know where to even start.  So, I think I'll start with more from that movie sketchbook (from 2011-2012) and just start trying to catch up chronologically.
I'll start with some Christmas movies...because I love Christmas and I'm sad that it is gone.

Home Alone II   ...I'm an adult and this one still makes me laugh until I cry. 

 And Santa Clause 3:

  

And finally, A Christmas Story:

By the way...any readers out there that are in Boise, ID, I'm working on getting an Urban Sketchers group together.  If you're interested, email me.

This batch is all pencil and watercolor in a HandBook travelogue sketchbook.

Hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and have a wonderful New Year's!

  

A Dedicated Movie Sketchbook

I did so many movie spreads at the end of my three-ring sketchbook that I decided to dedicate my next sketchbook entirely to movies. What I hadn't anticipated was the puttering out of my enthusiasm for the subject about halfway through the book! So, it sits there, waiting for me to renew my energy for it. Anyway, this is the first page. I didn't have a two-page spread to work with here, and being unaccustomed to the limited vertical space, I chose a simple scene from the movie and left it at that.

There was some amazing typography in this movie! And some amazing scenes! It was difficult to decide where to pause on this one; I wanted to choose them all. I think I've said it before though, Jackie Chan is not an easy character to freeze--he is always a blur! I don't practice landscapes as often as I should, but I did enjoy doing this one. In fact, I could do page after page of this movie's landscapes/ cityscapes!

Still adjusting to the format of this sketchbook, I started cramming characters in willy-nilly. It got easier as the pages turned, but still, I think I prefer the portrait format. My hand/arm seems to need the freedom in my vertical movements. I lost a lot of the likenesses that were there in the sketches when I added the watercolor, but I was still happy with this page. I've since added some background color to help unite the characters, but sorry, I'm too lazy to rescan, readjust, etc, etc. Laziness in scanning is one of the biggest obstacles to my posting more frequently. There, I said it! I'm lazy! (I'm trying to overcome though!)

 UPDATE: Dec 30, 2013 I haven't been liking my scans lately so I'm trying something different.  The pictures on this post have been replaced with scans that I believe look a little better.

The Last of the 3-ring Sketchbook

So again, the scans are very pale even though I adjusted contrast and thought I had it comparable to the originals...but it isn't even close. If I adjust more, things start looking harsh so I'm just going to leave them like this. The exception is the the desert scene on the bottom left of this first page, which I never went back and finished and is, in fact, quite pale.
I love this page except for one glaring detail that has bugged me every time I open to this page. I love that cryptex box, and only after I painted it did I realize the perspective on the left side was way off. I tried to adjust a little without destroying it completely.
Okay, this movie might be a little cheesy...but for some reason I like to watch it. Unfortunately I had a difficult time finding places to stop the movie to sketch. Thank goodness it was the last page and therefore not a double spread!

I hope you've found time for some creativity in your life today!

Four more from the 3-ring sketchbook

By this time I was really beginning to enjoy this sketchbook. It was getting near the end but I wanted it to last to the end of the month, so I kept adding pages. I wish it would have held another month so I could have begun the new year with a new sketchbook, but it was getting tight!




What I really like about sketching from movies (and yes, I do sometimes hit pause!), is that it doesn't require me to 'think' much. There are some movies which aren't as easy or interesting to sketch from...for instance, Jackie Chan movies. He is usually moving so fast that he is a blur almost every time I hit pause! Some movies are too dark. Some don't have interesting artifacts to sketch and all I end up with are people. One thing I don't worry too much about is getting likenesses. If I get it, great, if not, move on. Luckily I have a huge collection to choose from! I just don't want to lose the sketching or painting skills that I've built up. So this is practice without worrying about what, when, or where to sketch. It helps during stressful times.

3-ring sketchbook pages

When life gets chaotic and the opportunities or inclinations to go out and sketch about town are limited, I always resort to sketching favorite movies or youtube videos...especially if my creativity is running low. I've done a WHOLE lot of that in the last six to eight months. So much so that I could probably post something everyday for the rest of the year and still have images left over. I'm not going to do that because one, it allows me to hide the worst of the worst; and two, I want to eventually catch up and show you more current stuff. There was a noticeable improvement as I went along that I hope you will see too. Though, it is difficult sometimes with a scanner that just doesn't pick up certain colors. I've tried making adjustments in Corel, but the originals look so much better. Ah well, maybe that's an excuse to get a new scanner/printer?

The first spread is one I did while watching 'The Pyramid Code' on YouTube. Done directly in ink, so I'm happy with how it turned out. I love any documentary on Egypt or archaeology!

This was actually done from an article on The Daily Mail (UK). Again it is archaeology...so of course I had to do this page. The blue boxes which appear on these pages are just personal writings which are...you know, personal!

This page represents the beginning of a very long string of drawing/painting from movies. Seriously, I did almost one movie every night. Sometimes taking two nights if I've been busy. There are all kinds of shadows in that pipe which I couldn't, for the life of me, get to show up here.
I forgot to hit pause after the first sketch in order to do more sketches on part one...so I popped in part two and did a double feature. Had to get up and walk around for a while after that...too much sitting!

I'm so tempted to throw them all up here at once. Maybe when I catch up, I'll put one of these up next to one of the more current ones so you can see how much I improved on these. I love seeing that!

Some doodles on scraps of paper

After making my last sketchbooks there was a few scraps of paper left over. The one above is 3.5"x6". My blog name and the quotes were written first; then I found an awesome photo over on morguefile and added it to the middle. (photo by keyseeker, ref. # 671269) I was watching a movie while painting this and didn't expect much, but I really like it and now it is glued into my larger sketchbook, along with the following sketch. Pencil with watercolor. (Though I used a black pen to do the pupils.)
This was also done while watching that same movie on another scrap piece of paper. It is about 3"x3". Used sepia pigma micron 01 and watercolor. I think she looks a bit like Nancy Drew. I mean, she has that expression...like there is a mystery to be solved, don't you think? Maybe the guy behind her on the right is one of the Hardy Boys.

Sketchbook Miscellany

Finally there was a day when I could sit outside and comfortably sketch without feeling the oppressive heat suffocating me. My husband was working on a lawnmower in the garage. I sat in a camping chair out front, in the shade. Of all the things I was surrounded by, this dirty old gas can is what I chose to sketch! (well, technically, I guess everything out there is dirty!) I sketched it in pencil. Then I used tracing paper to transfer it to watercolor paper. I knew of this technique, but believe or not, I had never tried it. I think one of the advantages of it is not worrying about messing up the original sketch. Definitely something to remember if you've lost your confidence or if you would just like to try painting with different techniques!


Sketches from posemaniacs. I had just about forgotten this site existed until someone posted some sketches they did. I filled nine pages (9"x12" sketchbook) with 30, 60, and 90 sec gesture drawings. Then, I went to random pose and did these sketches, untimed. I'm not sure how long they took, 5 mins or so? And for the first time, I realized I could keep the same pose and sketch it from a different angle. (The two on the left are the same pose, rotated slightly.)


This was done mostly while watching Pirates of the Caribbean. I paused the scene at the pier to draw the two men. I loved the guy's face on the left. Very unique! Started as a blind contour in ballpoint, so his face is somewhat skewed, but I like how it gives it a caricatured look. Then I drew the skeleton, bottom left, from memory. I have a photo of a skeleton head that I drew from next, to see how much I had retained in my memory sketch. More meerkats, started blind contour, shading and texture then added. This page was fun to do. See the tilted girl? Do you do that? Seems like there is always at least one drawing on my page which somehow ends up cockeyed!



This is self-portrait #11 of 100. (A redo of it, actually, as the first one was a disaster!) After the first sketchbook I bound, I actually made another, thinner one, using a different paper. Easier to carry around! My first one is a little wonky and I discovered that I had folded the pages against the grain instead of with it. So, this book actually turned out much better! However, I've now made another discovery. I really DISLIKE the Canson XL 140lb watercolor paper I bound in it! (I think it might be their student grade. ) Everything I've done on this paper has turned out dull and sort of fuzzy. It doesn't hold up to scrubbing at all! Here, I had a sketch that I really liked. I made a small mistake near the chin area, and using a technique that Dan told me about, I tried to gently scrub it away. And, I emphasize that I was gentle! Terrible results! The paper disintegrated and nothing I did would fix it. I only realized that it was the paper, and not me, while reading Cathy Johnson's Creating Nature in Watercolor, which I just purchased. (I love the book, Cathy!) Suddenly I realized that I had not done a single painting on this paper that I liked! And really, I think it was this blow to my confidence which started the whole block I've been suffering lately!

Trying to Get My Groove Back...

Okay, well, the last of the company left yesterday and I'm left with no more excuses. I have no one to blame for my procrastinating all the way until bedtime, and telling myself that tomorrow, tomorrow I will get going again! So, today, I stuck a movie in my computer, hoping something would catch my eye and make me want to hit pause. I actually forgot to hit pause though and at the end of the movie, I had to rewind. The lighting in this movie is really dark! I guess I never really noticed that until I tried to find pictures of the characters with enough light as to be recognizable. I felt out-of-practice. Like I hadn't held a pencil since first grade.

Sketching Movies

Okay, so last night when I wasn't feeling well, I sat in front of my computer watching movies...and sketching. This is my desk area. It is actually quite large, with the left side of this extending about eight feet, and that is where my slanted desk top is and all of my art supplies. (It's good that I left it out since it is always piled high with paper and books and pencils and just about everything else that will fit without falling off!) You'll notice that my mouse is on the right side, even though I'm left-handed. That's because everyone else in my family was right-handed and so I learned to deal with it. Besides, it's nice being able to write with my left while scrolling with my right. I had to turn off the little buttons on the wacom tablet that are on the left because when I use the pen (I use left-handed), my hand hits the buttons and causes crazy things to happen unexpectedly. Woe is me, right? Anyway, I watched Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone for the umpteenth time. This is the train scene when Harry and Ron are eating all that candy.