Fantasy Self Portrait - 1993 - Watercolor & Charcoal Pencil

jade plant

Getting back into regular sketching in my sketchbook – this one features a small branch of my sprawling jade plant. Perched on the windowsill, Jade was glowing in the afternoon sunlight, poised for praise. I used a Staedtler, Mars Lumograph B pencil; then a mechanical one for added definition. Staedtler makes very consistent high quality drafting/drawing pencils. I like using the HB, B, 2B for sketching. Some of the softer ones (4B and up) smudge too easily, since I’m inclined to rest my hand on my artwork.

Jade plant

bday card 2014

Birthday card sketch

Assignment 2 - Abstraction and Process Art - Day 1

Here is my underpainting for the abstract painting of my garlic. In this assignment we are researching techniques of notable abstract expressionist artists such as Diebenkorn and Frankenthaler, and applying their techniques and ideas to our paintings. I am working with water-soluble oil paints by Windsor-Newton, Daniel Smith, and Gamblin. These paints take quite a while to dry. I am not mixing with any medium except water. My process involves layering paint, dry-brushing, and transparencies. Canvas size is 20 x 24 inches. Class is Painting II at Cabrillo College with Prof. Tobin Keller.

Assignment 1 - Painting Study

I wanted to create a painting that could be seen from across the room. This work achieved that goal. Many times when I paint and draw, I stand back from my work and realize there is not enough contrast. In this quick study, I painted directly from observation, with the garlic placed outside in the full sun. The intense light allowed me to clearly see the form, and deliniate areas of shadow. This time I used thick oil paint, and painted wet into wet, allowing the colors to mix on the canvas. I think I used zinc white here, as well as french ultramine for the blue, magenta and/or permanent rose, and yellow light hue. The texture of the gessoed paper shows through to give a nice textured feel to the ground. This painting was inspired by the mostly monochromatic Diebenkorn still life paintings I saw at the Palm Springs Art Museum in January 2014. Medium: Water soluble oil paint on watercolor paper prepped with gesso.

Here are some thumbnail sketches of garlic for my first assignment in my painting class with Tobin Keller at Cabrillo College. These preliminary drawings help inform my compositional decisions for a larger abstract painting. Can't wait for the next steps!

Palm Springs -- color sketch

Palm Springs 2014

New Year's Day sketch

Barn at Flume