Wrapping up the Previous Sketchbook

After I prepare my new sketchbook for work, I review my last one and finish up any unpainted sketches. Here are the final four pages, done while on break from jury duty a few weeks ago. I did the pen and ink sketches on location, adding a small value sketch and taking a digital photo to glue in later.

I am a comfort sketcher. That means I like working from a nice, shady spot, sitting in a nice chair, preferably with a nice lunch and a glass of ice tea on the way, or perhaps a cigar. This also means that I sometimes don't get much of a choice with regard to my subject. This however, is good, because it forces me to make a sketch rather than just copy what is before me.

New Sketchbook

It took me almost a year to finish my last sketchbook. You can see the old one next to a brand new one. I have a little ritual I go through to prepare it for use: first I date and sign the cover in silver paint from a paint pen; then I stamp my address in the front cover; finally I make a list of my current color palette and paint a swatch of each color. In this case, I did a quick sketch of my artist's paint box, just for fun.

Now I am ready to go.

Southern California House

Here is another sequence of the development of a painting. The first image is the finished painting. Next to that is my reference photo of the house. I did a quick study sketch while I was there, but I like to take a photo for later use. Frequently I only have time to do the sketch, and I paint it later in the studio.

Notice how the small sketch is a simplified roadmap of the basic shapes and values of the final painting. I refer to the sketch during the painting process to keep me on track. I am always free to deviate from the plan, but I want to do it by intention, not by default.

The Gamble House Part 2

Here are the next steps of the Gamble House painting. I loosely sketched the scene

on 14" x 20" 140# Fabriano Cold Press watercolor paper using a Sanford Uniball Micro pen. I included the dramatic shadows cast by the roof overhang and the tree. This pen lines bled a little when I added the initial wash of color, but I liked the texture that created.

I started in the sky, working wet on dry, using a variety of blues: Cerulean, Ultramarine, Cobalt Turquoise, and Cobalt. I then blocked out the big shapes: shadows, walls, foreground, driveway and background trees, letting the colors wash around and mix together, and leaving little bits of white paper to help create a glow of light. I finished the session by laying in a wash along the front of the house suggesting the steps and planters.

This evening's work did not take long as I had already planned the painting and done a preliminary sketch the night before.

The Gamble House

My next little project will be a painting of the Gamble House here in Pasadena. I had taken a series of photos many years ago and I will use those for my reference, although I did take another digital photo this morning on my way to work. My first step was to prepare a quick sketch in pen with watercolor in order to familiarize myself with the subject and explore composition and light/value patterns.

Scale Models

I wanted to be an architect for much of my early life and I spent many hours drawing awesome house designs and making models, which I also love. Here is a series of architectural models I have built over the years. One is a cardboard kit of a Frank Lloyd Wright house; a few are for the design of an artist's cabin in the mountains; and one is a study model of an artist's community with studio space, gallery space and living space. These were stored in the attic space above my studio, collecting dust when I found them after a few years. I cleaned them up and had a friend make some acrylic museum boxes for them. Now they are on display in my studio.

The Joe Columbo Taboret

I first saw the Joe Columbo Boby Taboret at the H.G. Daniels art store in Los Angeles in 1974. For those of you who don't know what that it is, it is a rolling storage cart made out of heavy-duty ABS plastic. It was designed by the Italian designer Joe Columbo in 1969. It has multiple shelves, swing-out drawers and vertical storage spaces and is perfect for the art studio, office, workshop or man cave. I have four: a grey one for my garage/framing department; a white one in my bedroom; another white one at my office; and a red one in my living room studio. They are practical as well as being very cool and designey.