I love the angular perspective of over and underpasses along the highways. This is a shot along the lengthy ramp in Boston that snakes its way up from the congestion of the "if you lived here you'd be home now" Leverett Circle area, to Rte 93 North or South. Once you break free, you are on a long, luxurious ramp that flows under some fascinating structures and drops you onto the highway moving north. I love the angles under here, and the movement. I used a brush and added some india ink to the drawing, and then dropped in a hint of warmth in the tail lights and a couple of signs. This line drawing is my five hundred thirteenth daily drawing, and transforming the drawing with ink is my five hundred fourteenth daily drawing effort. Though contained in the same rectangle, I'm counting these as two separate daily drawing efforts. Again, thank you for looking, and thank you for your comments. You know I love them.
This afternoon we stopped by our local wood-fired pizza shop, and waited for our order. I love these chances to draw and usually have a sketchbook in my bag. But, I had left the book at home, and there was not another paper in the car. I needed to find something to draw on so I pulled a newspaper from the magazine rack in the pizza shop and found a page with enough white on it to do a drawing while we waited. I sort of like the juxtaposition of the pizza staff over the newsprint, in the "Wicked Local" section of the paper. By the way, CP's Woodfired Pizza is fantastic, if you are near Scituate, MA. Check them out.
This is my five hundred tenth consecutive daily drawing. Thank you, as always, for looking.
Today was beautiful. I pulled my car into a parking space along Main Street in Hingham above the downtown and drew the street, with my car window open to the sun. It was nice to absorb some Vitamin D, while looking at the sunlit buildings. I like drawing from my car sometimes. I have a bag, kept in the car with sketchbook, watercolor set, pencils, markers, small enamel water dish and brushes. You never know when you'll need it.
This is my five hundred ninth daily drawing. As always, thank you for looking.
I have been experimenting with gouache, opaque watercolor. It has an interesting matte texture, and I am learning to mix it as well as to pull it thinly over other layers. This is a copy of an oil painting I did a number of years ago. I like its backlit quality against the window.
This is my five hundred seventh consecutive daily drawing. Thank you for looking.
There's a small pub across the street from where my husband worked years ago. He was a frequent customer, at least weekly, maybe more often, when he worked nearby. He still pines for their buffalo wings so we took a day trip up there during my vacation this week. He loved the wings as usual, and we each had a burger... I think the adventure was more about me watching him revisiting his beloved wings, a culinary delight lost on me.
This is my five hundred sixth consecutive daily drawing. Thank you for your continued interest, and for commenting.
The city streets provide ever-shifting light and shadow patterns. I see them as caverns of light cascading down through the buildings. Boston's Downtown Crossing makes for beautiful shapes, with pedestrians in the middle of the street casting shadows. Every few feet creates a different view, all exciting.
This is my five hundred fifth consecutive daily drawing. Thank you for your continued interest and your comments. I appreciate all of them.
My husband and I went to dinner at El Sarape on Valentine's Day. Very pleasant evening, and always great food. We finished the meal with churros and coffee. I am carrying some blank coasters with me and drawing on them when out at pubs or restaurants. This is my coaster art at El Sarape, and my five hundred first daily drawing. Thank you for looking, and thank you for your continued interest. You know I love your comments.
I have been experimenting with gouache, and have a lot to learn. I like the opacity, am getting used to the matte finish, and am working with the quick-ish drying. This is a gouache painting of an oil painting I did a number of years ago. I like the deep darks I can achieve, and I can carve with the paint as with oil paints. I can drag dry paint over other paint, and the rapid drying on the paper is different, but interesting.
This is my 500th daily drawing. These five hundred days have passed quickly! I am enjoying looking back over the last year and almost a half. I have decided to put some of the daily drawings on my web site under a new sketchbook tab. Take a look.
As always, thank you for looking at my daily endeavors. I enjoy your feedback.
Sometimes I get to church early on Sunday mornings, hang out in the parlor and read, or grade quizzes, or draw. This Sunday morning, the sun was casting beautiful shadows on the sanctuary wall I could see from my seat on the parlor couch. New North Church in Hingham is a beautiful building, erected in 1806. It has a long and interesting history. I enjoy sitting inside, thinking about those who came before.
This is my four hundred ninety-seventh daily drawing. As always, thank you for your interest.
I spent this morning with a friend from our church making soup in the church kitchen. We made a giant pot of minestrone, which we will serve as part of tomorrow's after-service potluck lunch. It was a nice morning of conversation and the sound of chopping; tomatoes, onions, garlic, celery, cabbage and parsley... all landing in a pot with white beans, water and chicken stock. We'll see how it fares over night, as we heat it tomorrow morning to be ready for a potluck. Our church picks up almost expired flowers and baked goods from the local Trader Joe's on Saturday mornings. Trader Joe's is clearing the shelves for newer products, most of these have a sell by date of today, or a couple of days from now. Our church congregation leaves with flowers and baked goods for themselves, or to share with a friend. Today, we had a surplus. We have a shelter in town, with mission of transitioning people and families from homelessness. I called them and dropped off a big box of baked goods, which I will try to make a regular weekend visit.
This is my four hundred ninety-sixth daily drawing. Thank you for looking. You know I love your comments, too.
After a very busy week of school, my husband invited me to the local pub for a late lunch for him/early dinner for me. We headed to The Snug, great little pub with terrific food. I love the atmosphere there, enjoyed a Friday pint. I don't drink a lot in general, but am discovering I enjoy an occasional beer, especially when they have a little citrus flavor. Today I had Jack's Abbey Blood Orange Wheat. Yummy. I like drawing inside restaurants, the layering of people from front to back, and the shelves of bottles in the back.
This is my four hundred ninety-fifth daily drawing. Thank you for your continued interest, and your comments. You know I love them.
I enjoy Woody's Grill & Tap in Boston, nice bar with great food just off the Northeastern University campus. We ate at the bar recently where I enjoyed watching the choreography of the pizza maker and bartender as they navigate a narrow space with grace and speed. I rendered this scene using a wax resist process method and ink washes. It is interesting to think about the arrangement of values and to work up the drawing from light to dark. I laid in the lightest areas with white crayon, washed the entire surface with ink. When dry, I used crayon on the next lightest areas, then washed again. I did this four times, so the darkest areas have four layers of ink wash. The images below show the intermediate washes.
This is my four hundred ninety-first daily drawing. As always, thank you for looking, and you know I love your comments.
The Girls Just Wanna Paint theme for January was "paint like Klimt". My initial thoughts of Klimt are the beautiful and romantic figures entwined by their posture and also entwined with Klimt's decorative swirls, pattern, and vibrant color harmonies. But, in my Klimt research, I saw a number of paintings where Klimt used geometric repetition and color shifts for landscapes. Very appealing. Recently, I sat and watched the sunset over our North River. It was, as it often is, glorious. The sun was reflecting its last light up into the clouds where it bounced back and forth until it was almost fluorescent. Breathtaking.
The light was so fascinating, I thought it would be interesting to interpret a la Klimt. You can see my ink and colored pencil interpretation of the scene in a prior blog post here. I began by blocking in the scene in acrylic in very muted color with the values dropped down. Then I used circles of color, in varied intensities to move up through the sky. I made some of the circles very warm, then gradually mixed them as warm/cool, then all cool as they moved away from the sun. I added rectangles in the river to show the reflected light.
This is my four hundred eighty-eighth daily drawing. Thank you for your continued interest. You know I love your comments.
