August 2012: Choosing Tools for Alaska

I collected a whole bunch of supplies on my working table and tried to find a "short list" of what will travel with me to Alaska... This is already a very short list - I will see if I can make it even shorter... August 2012: Choosing Tools for Alaska

August 2012: Trip to Roatan at a Glance

I just finished uploading all my sketched from a week on Roatan. It was Kunst & Papier Soft Cover Sketchbook 5x6, Red and I filled it's 36 pages with quite a few layered with more than one layer of images (taping in "flaps").

It was a great trip and a good book though when I flip through it I feel that I did not capture enough color! Tropics offer so much vibrancy - and I captured so little... next time I will try to bring more treasures too :)

I placed a few sketches below - or you can view whole set here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/23173190@N07/sets/72157631117108520/
August 2012: Everyday Life on Vacation
August 2012: Everyday Life on Vacation
August 2012: Everyday Life on Vacation

August 2012: Everyday Life on Vacation

  August 2012: Everyday Life on Vacation

Roatan 2012: Hurricane Season

August is hurricane season and we knew it. So when tropical depression was named Ernesto we were moved to a concrete building on the other side of the island - for one night as Ernesto turned North as a good boy and we ended up back to normal in just 2 days.

What did we do? Well, rain was warm so we did some walking - to look at waves, got some groceries, drew foreign money, made paper airplanes, read books and watched movies. I drew rain from the balcony looking down. I drew a short pause between two downpour. And all that happened in between :)
August 2012: Hurricane Season
August 2012: Hurricane Season
August 2012: Hurricane Season August 2012: Hurricane Season

And then we were back to normal: August 2012: Hurricane Season

Sketching While Scuba Diving: Roatan 2012

August 2012: Sketching Under Water On my recent trip to Roatan, Honduras I decided to try sketching underwater - meaning sketching while scuba diving.

During my preparation for upcoming Alaska Adventure I learned about Rite-in-the-Rain papers - and ordered their large spiral bound sketchbook (by the way - great people - ready with recommendations and excited about their products!).

After trying out all my Alaska gear I realized that 8.5 x 11 is too large for my purposes (drawing in a kayak) and me and my e-xacto knife quickly made two books out of one :)

So my main secret is half of the Blank Polydura 8.5 x 11 Sketchbook from Rite-in-the-Rain.
Other equipment included pocket on my belt and pencils: I tried regular #2 as well as 4B carpenter's pencil.

I sketched on total of 6 dives and learned a lot!
  • First: drawing required better buoyancy control and awareness of environment. I got better but I need more :)
  • Spare pencil was very handy - I managed to break one - not sure how :)
  • I attached a string to my pencil - it's still underwater somewhere :( But pencil surfaced with me :)
  • Sketching fish and underwater life is FUN!!! 
  • You can get close to your subjects!
  • Many of them are like kids though - moving all the time ;)
  • Hence some pages were built gradually - adding bits and pieces or making one page out of several pieces of the reef.
  • Carpenter's pencil was good for drawing motion - but too fat for details or notes (see below).
  • It's good to have everything ready for the large subject (meaning turtle or eagle ray are not going to wait for you to get your sketchbook out. OK - may be turtle will :)
  • I added more and more notes as I continued my experiment but I should add even more - about depth, subjects, time etc.
  • I WANT COLOR!!! (so next time I am taking a couple of color pencils with me ;)

I think this is it :)

One of my scuba-buddies took a photo of my while working under water - I will add it here as soon as I have it ;)

This is first dive: carpenter's pencil.
 August 2012: Sketching Under Water


You can see that after I dried pages I taped them in my main sketchbook for this trip and added some comments with ballpoint pen.
 August 2012: Sketching Under Water 

Here you can see how pages are drying :)
August 2012: Sketching Under Water 

August 2012: Sketching Under Water

August 2012: Sketching Under Water

  August 2012: Sketching Under Water 

This was a wreck dive: This ship is a natural reef now. 

August 2012: Sketching Under Water

August 2012: I am back :)

August 2012: I am back :) by apple-pine
August 2012: I am back :), a photo by apple-pine on Flickr.

I had a great trip, hope to scan and upload all sketches within this week :)

July 2012: Pool


Badger Log, originally uploaded by apple-pine.
Torpedoes Away!

Mixing greens

Mixing greens by apple-pine
Mixing greens, a photo by apple-pine on Flickr.

I tried to imagine what color challenges I might have during my trip to Alaska and decided to look into my stash of paints for good green mixtures :)