The cherries, not the cake ...

I am unabashedly indulging my second addiction - cherries ....

The page was pre-painted. I used sepia acrylic ink spread with a straw. I then squeezed cherry juice and spread it on the page, then I used colored pencils for the fruit. The juice remains sticky, so using pen is probably not a good option.

Peony

When I reached this prepainted page in the journal, I was not sure what to draw on it. In the end I decided to use my hair clip as inspiration - it has a peony in the same pinkish shades that were already on the page. I drew three views of the flower.

Matcha latte

I was at the Second Cup the other day with only a ballpoint pen sampling their matcha latte.

Added colored pencils at home many days later ...

Flower studies

I had a bouquet of gerberas and I wanted to do some studies using analytical sketching process (starting with bigger shapes, simplifying, using markers and pen). Can't say I found a way to draw flowers that I am satisfied with ...

I like the leaves more than the flowers.

 The last one was done directly in watercolor and the first one in pen.

Jardin Botanique

This past Sunday was the monthly meeting of the Urban Sketchers Montreal. the chosed spot was the Jardin Botanique. I am ashamed to confess that I have never been to the Botanical Garden - and I lived accross the street from it for 1.5 years!

I misread the instructions and showed up late at the wrong entrance point. I wasted time looking for everybody and being somewhat frustrated that I will be drawing yet again alone ... In the end, I stayed on the free grounds - not much to see of course. Next time I will be better prepared and show up early morning so that I have plenty of time in the gardens.

I decided to concentrate on perspective drawing of a building - a bunch of rectangular blocks really - and the roof of the stadium. The pages were prepainted.

On the way there I tried sketching faces in the metro, but the ride was so bumpy that it ws impossible to control the pen. The results had a caricature feel to them that I am sure I would not have obtained if I was doing that on purpose.

On the way back I drew mostly bodies - it is easier to do without people noticing.

Waiting for the car

To pass time waiting or the car to be ready, I drew one of the huge golden fish in the aquarium and added a wash of color at home. The other sketches were done at Tom Horton's - my cup of coffee, people around and a sketch after an advertisement in the newspaper.

Monarch butterfly

I found it on the side of the road during my run in New Hampshire. I stuck it in the belt pouch and found it when I got home. It was still in ok shape so I glued it on the branch of the magnolia tree...

New Hampshire

A spent a weekend in New Hampshire visiting a friend from highschool - last time we saw each other was almost 30 years ago ... none of us ever thought we will end up this side of the Atlantic. 

We spent hours on the lake kayaking and Sunday I run 8 miles to the next town to have coffee and then drove back. I woke up with the roosters and decided to sketch the house - very simple drawing of two boxes glued to each other ...Easy-peasy right? 

Well yes, in theory it is easy...in reality I am having an awful time making sure that all the lines go to the correct vanishing points. I corrected it a bit at home doing the second draft with watercolor pencil:

Lettuce

I used my grocery bag as a inspiration - found a Boston lettuce that looked appealing. I first used pen, but I was not happy with the result, I covered it with gesso and started again. 

I used the analytical sketching approach - find bigger shapes of different sizes, the add details, highlights...

Medal

This is the medal I got for completing the half marathon in Ottawa two weeks ago. I started the sketch in the morning and finished in the afternoon. The idea came from the highly prized prompt on the sketchbook challenge blog. I decided that when I run out of ideas, I am going to use the blog as a starting point.

The prompt was "highly prized". Time, friends, health - all things that I did not have a clue how to draw. But the medal represents some of these highly prized things - health, time to train, money to travel for the race, family to encourage me, friends to run with and so on.

Bunnies

This page was prepared with two pieces of collage from an old book. I found in the recycling bin a flier with two cute bunnies on it. They were so cute I had to draw them.

I will probably revisit the page in the future, it does not feel complete.

A case of mistaken identity

Another page altered before hand, this time with collage - a stripe cut from newspaper glued at the bottom of the page. I wanted to draw an animal, preferably one that does not move, but I don't have any. The only stuffed animal around here is on my key chain. So I drew it again.

The way the dog leans forward, almost falling off the table top inspired the little blurb on the page about the dog dreaming she is a sexy bombshell with long, wavy hair only to wake to the sad reality that the weight of the keys is wearing her down and she is about to fall off the table. TBC .... maybe one day I will write a short story. Wouldn't that be fun?!

Old Birks

My old pair of Birks - almost ready for retirement.

Collage of hand painted papers, stained tissue paper and pattern paper with watercolors and water-soluble oil pastels. I like the pattern in the background, so I decided not to stain it - initially, plan plan was to wash over it with titan buff or white so that the shoes pop more. It's fun this way.

Running shoes

Week one of Sketchbook Skool homework - dip pen over gouache prepainted background, I do not have gouache so I used pan pastels instead. Sketched my old running shoes - dip pen and Noodlers grey ink.

 

Went to town

After the long run on Saturday, I decided to go to break the routine and go to town instead of going to meet my running buddies. My plan was to hit Cafe Italia in time for lunch, then go to Hachem and finally to La Maison Tricotée to refill my tea containers.

But we all know what happens to the best laid plans ...

On the way to Cafe Italia, I decided to pass by the Jean Talon market. Nothing left of the market from 20 years ago when one could fill up a truck with fresh fruits and veggies for a reasonable price. Now, everything is expensive, as everywhere else of course. Lots of gourmet shops - which I like. At the same time they represent as many temptations to try this and that. too bad though that the cheaper version of the market is gone. There should be both ...

I did good to just browse around until I found the tea place!

Of course I had to order some tea with plain scones, orange marmalade and creme fraiche. Totally decadent.

The rest of the day went by in a hurry. I will definitely go back to sketch at the knitting shop - and sample their fabulous teas by Les Thes C.G.

500

Quite an impressive mark  ... 500 posts...

I am glad I "made it". I started the blog with huge hopes for its development, but since then I had to lower my expectations drastically. I like being able to browse through the posts and remember what I did and when...kind of like a diary. Lack of time prevented me from updating the blog more often, learning to use all these gadgets to take better pictures and so on. Most importantly, lack of time prevented me from making art on a regular basis instead of the haphazard way I go about it now. And this my friends makes me a bit sad. I was hoping to see more progress in terms of skills over these many years. I do see change in what I chose to focus on and some skill improvement. But like a fellow classmate said last fall - there is plenty to learn, enough to keep up busy till 80+...plus it is said  that creative activities help ward off Alzheimer's...I'll be doodling away!

Many happy blog posts, Blog!

Coffee grinder

Before Christmas, I order a coffee grinder from etsy. One of those small hand grinders used for Turkish coffee. The funny thing is that we used to have at least two of the big ones at home - one at our place and and at least another one at the grandparent's place. Nobody cared much about these, they were old ...I did not count on it arriving too soon, considering the holidays and all... but no, it was here rather quickly. Impressive...

The grinder works great, but it is too small to grind coffee. I will be using it to grind spices.

Marie Reine du Monde

I did not feel like going anywhere these past couple of days. The temperature took a nose dive and the forecast for tomorrow is anywhere between 10 and 15 degrees less than the seasonal temperature. Ha ....
I did this quick sketch of the Cathedral from a photo a took two weeks ago during a snow storm.

Tree

I drew my sister's plant and painted the negative spaces with leftover paint from my watercolor palette.

Serenissima

MMFA hosts an exhibition titled "Splendore a Venezia". I went to see it last Sunday and sketched few objects on display.