A little Ink Sketch at the Tea Shop

Vashon Tea Shop draws me back again and again. I like the quiet, and the beauty of the place.

I want to do watercolor sketches of all

sketch with ball point pen

the places people hang out on Vashon, so I wandered into the coffee shop, Cafe Luna, thinking I would sketch there. Too crowded and noisy, so here I am back at the tea shop.

Today the few people here want quiet too. They are planning, writing, thinking. I take out ...Oh no! forgot my watercolor paints and palate again! Luckily I do have a ball point pen and sketch book.

Drawing more detail and contrast near the person writing focuses attention on her, and the darks on the big teapot--yes, it really is that big!--create a balanced composition.

About her nose....no, she didn't wiggle it. She turned her head as I was drawing it.

Daily Color

Pink Flower Scarf (instead of drawing)

Friday I painted a scarf and took notes instead of drawing.

Wendy and I went to an orientation for the International Rescue Committee. We sat in a crowded room of about 25-30 people to learn about how refugees come into the U.S. and what kind of programs the IRC has to help them get resettled. I took notes.

It was good information, whether or not I end up volunteering with that organization. I learned that people classified as refugees are carefully screened (both a security screening and a medical screening). Once here, they get limited financial support with an emphasis on getting them into jobs and financially independent as quickly as possible. There is a lot involved in getting people resettled! 

My sketch a day commitment is morphing into a commitment to create color daily, while exploring ways to help people affected by climate change and the resulting violence. I see huge changes coming as the world warms up and people flee to more livable places--like here--and I want to meet those changes with compassion rather than with fear.

Tea Shop Rose

Oh, man! I forgot my watercolors! Here I am at the tea shop, hoping to get a really nice little

Derwent watercolor pencils and ball point pen

watercolor sketch to replace the one I painted orca whales on the back of, and I left my palate and paints at home!

But wait! I'm prepared for that emergency! I have my brushes and, in my purse, I have a set of watercolor pencils. Boo, the tea shop owner, kindly gets me a cup of water, and here I go....

Boo likes the result. It really makes a difference when I balance colors, putting a little of the rose's red and yellow in other parts of the painting, adding blue reflections on the table.

Boo liked the result, and that gave me courage to ask the flower shop next door if I can do a painting there. Cara said yes! I'm on for next Wednesday, before the shop opens.

A Little Prayer for a Friend

Prayer for a Friend

A friend of mine is separated from her daughter and grand daughter in a time of crisis. Please join me
in prayer for them, that they may be re-united in Peace and Love.

A little background: the daughter is in severe post traumatic stress due to serving in Iraq, as is her estranged husband. Or maybe they are divorced now. The divorce is bitter--even violent at times--and their child is torn between the two as custody battles rage. I see this family as another casualty of the wars.

The Ugly Art Comes First

Sufi Practice at Unity Zickr, 10-31-15

I'll tell you a little secret: I do a lot of ugly art. OK, yes, some days my work comes out very well, but
that is not the norm. Most days the first sketches I do--and sometimes all of them--just don't please me. You don't see those. I hide them.

Not today. Today I will show you some of my ugly art.

You see, people who don't draw seem to think every  beautiful finished piece an artist shows came easily and quickly to the paper.

Not so.

Cat Gestures

Every nice little sketch, not to mention every finished painting or drawing, is the result of lots of practice and many ugly pieces, or pieces that don't quite work.Some whole sessions result in work I would not ordinarily show.

Yesterday at the Coffee Roastery on Vashon was like that.

The Roastery is a popular gathering place. The atmosphere is warm and welcoming. The walls are lined with a hundred varieties of tea and herbs for healing or cooking, all in glass jars. You can get drip coffee and drink it on the porch, or you can sip your latte inside. You can curl up alone with your Chai and newspaper,  you can chat with the person at the next table, or you can meet up with your buddies.

I want to capture this atmosphere in a little watercolor sketch, or maybe in a larger work. So I shouldered my sketching back pack and went off to the Roastery for tea and sketching.

Playing Cards

There is so much to look at! Not just the jars, but antique coffee making equipment, framed burlap coffee bean bags, baskets of fresh island produce, stained glass window, tables laid in mosaics....

It was visually overwhelming. And the result for me was ugly art.

Yes, people move before I can sketch them well. That's no excuse, though; often I can still catch a semblance of the person I am drawing, something that has grace and character. Not so much this time.

I tried drawing with ink, then adding just a little color--which became fully colored with washes that made the ink run.










I tried water color over a pencil sketch, adding just a little ink at the end. That didn't work either.

No happy ending yet, but I did learn some things:

• Ink smears when you try to wash over it.
• Blue clothing on the people make them stand out against the warm colors of the setting. 
• Using a cooler red behind the people makes the people stand out better than the warmer red does.
• Ink lines are freer and more interesting when I do them first
• Leaving white space really draws the eye.
• The pose of mother and child I captured on my camera--which I won't show, as I don't have the mother's permission--is much more interesting than the one I drew. 
• I want to use these sketches and the photo to create a much better painting, hopefully one worth showing.

But I Don't WANT to Draw!--Keeping the discipline

UG! Oh well, I learned something!

What do you do when you don't want to draw what you see? It's ugly, the people are moving too fast, you just aren't in the mood, or nothing comes out right?


 Maybe you are on the bus on your way home from work and don't have much time. The bus is moving too fast to draw the scenery and the people are...boring.

Or you are housebound and the house is yelling at you to clean it, and who wants to draw a cluttered house anyway? but you know that if you start cleaning, you'll NEVER pick up the sketchbook.You feel depressed.

This pleases me

So...you doodle. And lo! You have made something of beauty. Perhaps  a nicely balanced design appears on the paper, or an image from your subconscious leaps onto the page to tell you something. You feel like, Yes! I have created something that pleases me--or at the very least, I have given my hands and eyes practice working together.

The house will get dirty again, the bus ride will be over; but this, THIS, will still be here on this page. 

Estuary at KVI Part Two

Last time I showed you how I prepare to do a small water color sketch in the studio, inspired by a photo. Now to splash on the color!

1. Apply the lightest colors first. Usually this means the sky, but....well....I forgot the sky until last this time!

Add lightest colors first

It helps to paint your lightest colors bigger than they will be in the finished painting. You will define their shapes when you add the darks. Remember: you can always paint a darker color over a lighter one, but with watercolor, you cannot paint light over dark. You get mud.

Here I have used Alizarin Crimson and New Gamboge for the fall colors. The green is New Gamboge and Permanent Green.

Use darker colors to give shape to the lighter areas

2. Now  add the darker colors. The dark green is New Gamboge and Permanent Green or Indigo Blue. In landscape, the colors are brighter and the contrasts in light and dark are more intense closer to you. I paint them before moving my brush to areas further away, as the strokes get lighter before the brush needs to be dipped in paint again.

3. Add the darkest shadows and the details. Here I mixed in some burnt Umber with the New Gamboge and Indigo Blue for a lovely green black. Black or brown pen on the branches and a little on the shoreline sharpens the detail and focuses the eye.

This came out rather nice, I think!