Sketching, Illustration, Design and Everyday Life.
Copyright by © Nina Khashchina except where noted.
Another "triptych" and evening sketches
it was very wet in the park - hard to even think about going off the paved trail. I thought that there will be no chance for me to sketch in all that wetness and took only a "mini" set in my waist bag - just in case :)
Hence - a catch of little pages again :)
To outset these "fat" pages I tried to draw more things in spreads - see below.
Holiday vacation
We spent holiday time in a lovely house among redwoods - I liked deck overlooking small opening between trees the most.
This was an attempt to take a real dip pen and brush and a little bit of ink with me "into the wild" - it worked really nicely, I had a lot of fun but little container was a bit too small and when my hands got a little stiff with cold I managed to get ink everywhere on my hands ;)
When we were not spending time in the house we were hiking in the forest:
This is another example of how my sketchbook got additional pages ;)
I think I took a picture of this spread with little pages open - will try to find and post tomorrow ;)
Present
I received a whole bunch of great presents during the holidays and tried to draw them all - so I am adding new tag and sharing them here:
And, on a sharing note - here is another present I got - my journal pages were featured at:
http://www.heywoodsmeadow.com/
thanks, Lori!
picchetti ranch - quick notes on the trail
picchetti ranch - quick notes on the trail, originally uploaded by apple-pine.It was a wonderful little hike - we saw lots of birds and mushrooms, found another Boletus satanas which is basically the only poisonous bolete mushroom. The sun was out but it was a rather cold day - with crisp air and lots of bright colors. One of the best things about winter (for me) is a chance to draw tree skeletons - so I had some fun with them too :)
Hidden Villa: another "fat" page
Well, I decided that I will not have time and so did not take my sketchbook with me ;) Loose sheets from handbook - taped in my sketchbook later.
One good thing about this way of sketching is that I have back side of the sketch to make notes - handbook paper is better used on one side only - otherwise I experience a lot of buckling.
And snack after the hike:
Forest walk
three little pages from my "pocket" drawing set - I thought that it's too wet to take a real gear with me and, of course, the sun was shining right after I gar far enough away from the car ;)
Wonderful hike - lots of moss on trees and little droplets of water everywhere - extremely greenish light in the forest!
Old and New
This page is from today - I was waiting in my car for a few minutes and this time I had with my little "spare" or "mini" sketching set . I added color pencils later based on my notes. Google building I posted a couple of days ago is behind me this time ;)
And this is from the holiday times - kids had a little party at the daycare - very nice - and I got to sketch a little and snap a few shots for grandparents ;) Click o nthe image to see it larger!
treasures from the patio
Painted while re-arranging holiday decorations around the patio - rather warm though windy day - I had to run after my paper towel a couple of times ;)
Large collection of chestnuts continues to grow. I will paint latest version soon ;) And pumpkin is still sitting out there - it's rather warm in California right now and feels like spring (or even early summer ;) - so my nose wrinkles when I think about winter cooking ;)
I went to draw outside today and took my watercolor pencils with me - I will try to continue posting old(er) sketches with current ones - it just feels so right to share TODAY's findings and drawings ;)
Mountain View, Google campus
I had a plan - everything was supposed to go from A to B to C - but I ended up waiting in the car for a little while. No sketchbook, not even paper... but in a car where little guy rides every day there is always a place for shoe box cover - so here I am - making notes about the color with my ball point pen and adding color later that day at home :)
Putting it all together
One of the strangest things about this sketchbook was that it never worked in a linear manner.
Last year I tried to experiment with having multiple books - one large in a backpack/ on a table/ when I know I will have a chance to paint or draw. And small one - for the spur of the moment drawing. But I wanted to keep some sort of the record as to what was the order of these books - and ended up with six small books between two larger ones. Meaning I have book number 15, and number 16 - but I also have 15 1/4 and 15 1/2 and 15 5/6 and so on ;)
It's hard to find anything there ;)
So this year when winter came and I realized that my bag starts to weigh too much (even though it's warm here in California it might get cold-er rapidly plus I usually carry things for myself and my little guy plus I recently got some really nice large watercolors... anyways:). I decided to introduce an alternative - a few pages in my waist bag - they are small, light and always there - and I will find a way to place them in the large book - I want to keep things in one place to see the flow. And - if I feel like drawing whatever that nice watercolor paper will not look at me badly as I will use whatever is under my hand at the moment - and if I like/need it - scotch tape comes in :)
And so it started - almost every day since the beginning of this book something would prompt me to draw on other papers. I started to use scotch tape and whatever tape I could find to place things and soon my book got FAT ;) And by the end time I reached the last page - already in 2009 it was bulging.
Here you will see a few spreads illustrating my attempts to keep it all together. How do you solve these problems? Keep several books at the same time? Glue things right on the page? Share! ;)
I have a bunch of FAT spreads to post in the next few days ;)
Rainy afternoon
Rainy afternoon. After A. woke up it took me about 20 minutes to translate his requests into human language and help with the realization of his dream - to play with modeling dough. He is getting better at this and I hope we can get away from the smelly stuff soon (it's easier to model with little fingers but hard for me to survive because of powerful synthetic stench).
Do you want to learn more about modeling dough we are using? Why yes and why no? Answer here or drop me a line!)
A few words about last days of my gray pen before it became Sanguine can be found by clicking on the image and reading on Flickr ;)
Post office visit
Post office - II, originally uploaded by apple-pine.
These are my sketches from the visit to the post office during Holiday Rush. People were entertained by me sketching almost as much as I was and all in all line went rather quickly ;)
I finished my book number 26 and have a lot to share - but somehow it makes it harder to do than when I have a few pages - perhaps because I am trying to keep to many connections visible only to me together where you hardly care about what happened before what ;) So to make things move smoother I will keep posting: about my issues with the sketchbook number 26, about my New Year adventure, about many great presents I received, new projects I have - and you will make connections where needed - perhaps with a little use of some tags ;)
Sunnyvale downtown
Perspective and lines are all over the place - I know - I think I will call this "the drunken building in Sunnyvale ;)
But the main purpose of this image is to illustrate poor paper I mentioned in my previous post. As soon as water touched the paper it buckled very much and even bulldog clips did not save me from this :( I did not manage this well, learned to stretch paper before I start painting, to use less water on poor paper and better yet - to use better paper and plan ahead better - if I would make my drawing before watercolors I think a few things would look a little straighter ;) but had fun on the way ;)
Dec 9, 2008
Dec 9, 2008, originally uploaded by apple-pine.When I started sketching I just was looking for general poses but woman with lollipop really captured my imagination: she was working on it while communicating her wishes to the hairdresser and talking on the cell and discussing something with her daughter and grandson (I think that who they were - I sketched them on the other page of this spread - boy sitting on mother's arms). All this was done without really opening her mouth - I've never seen anything like this before ;) Later that same day I sketched my little fellow trying to play guitar - amazingly nice sounds were coming out of it up until he remembered that some pegheads are movable and started to adjust strings...
Hidden Villa: Details
Hidden Villa: Details, originally uploaded by apple-pine. (Click on the image to see more details)
It's been a little while - long holidays filled with friends, trips, presents food and sketching - I have lots of things I'd like to share from this time and lots of things I'd like to do in 2009 - so stay tuned, follow this blog, subscribe to it's feed or just visit often! Tomorrow: my trip to the hairdresser and how one can play a guitar when guitar is taller than one ;)