I enjoy remaining bare trees around me to see through to the shapes of houses and fences :) Rather cold and windy day in March.
Sketching, Illustration, Design and Everyday Life.
Copyright by © Nina Khashchina except where noted.
My desk revolution - front view
Another view at my old set-up: funky computer table with a hole on one side which I covered with a book shelf and had all kinds of things in it, on top of it and all around :)
My table today looks very minimalist and I am quite happy about that :)
My desk revolution
I recently embarked on a quest of changing my workspace to a more comfortable and productive - this is how it looked before I started. I think I sketched another view at the desk - will find it tomorrow probably:)
All in all revolution went rather well, and best indication is a lack of sketches of my new work spaces - it's too comfortable to work there ;)
Park: dads, kids, dogs
One of the best things I can do as a warm-up when I start sketching is pick someone on a swing and give them a couple of pages of attempts :) Results are usually not postable :) But they get me rolling :)
So when you get someone who is gently and very slowly pushing his toddler - it's hard not to sketch them properly ;)
This dog (below, right) was a monument. This is the only reasonably sketch of it that I have. But not because dog was moving too fast - it's the man who was with her (I do not thing it was her master) - he kept running around her so quickly it was hard to get anything but the tail right ;)
Saturday in the park
Lots of dads come with kids on Saturdays. Some are sitting quietly not sure what to do with these little people. Some are obviously trying to substitute lack of their attention to kids over the week. And some are doing fine :)
Sketching in the rain
Cold and rainy day. But when we saw a bit of blue in the sky, decision was quick - to the park! It was raining a bit but not too much - you can see it in the way my Begreen Pilot Precise V5 showed it's relationship with water here :) A. made great progress in soccer that day. And I made this little sketch :)
Skiing Trip: in the cabin
We rented a very nice, simple place next to the mountain and spent all not-skiing time there :) Here I tried to sketch-catch the interior with my friend while she was drinking her evening tea.
Sketching in traffic
We spent some time sitting in traffic while on the way to Tahoe area to do some skiing. Sitting in traffic was never my favorite pastime - so I tried to sketch ;)
Ball point pen on separate sheets from the small handbook. Taped in my main sketchbook later.
Daily reportage: my evening clementine
the main question you should ask yourself when starting to sketch food is: what do I do faster - draw or eat? and what will have to wait?"
Cold, windy day after rain.
I tried to get some plein air action on this cold and windy day in February - but gave up at some point and had to finish in the car - hands were too stiff, paper tried to escape and eyes were watery from the wind.
On the image below you can see how I situated myself in the car to finish painting - brown sketchbook is the one I was working in at the moment - but for these sketches I pulled a sheet of nice, absorbant watercolor paper from Arches.
Click on images to see larger version and notes.
Poeple and dogs in the park
I haven't see such a case of short attention span as this dog had - there was not a moment she would sit - her owner and a lady she was talking to were like monuments surrounded by the blur of dog's movements...
Heavy Rain
There was no way to sketch outside the car! I had a crack of the window open to make sure that I know how it feels outside (and to have some fresh air) and sketched this thinking about raindrops all over.
Pentel Pocket Brush pen, dying Pitt S pen and ball point with some white china marker.
Making Bread
Inspired by many, first of all - Kate - I joined the movement of making my own (very quick and easy) bread.
And now I am thinking about starting a movement of drawing what you cook/make :)
Would you be interested to try? :)
Visiting Sausalito
We spent a nice day in Sausalito at the beginning of February. This is a quick sketch of a guy who does amazing things with rocks: he makes balanced compositions right there - in front of you without any tools - just hands (they are worth a separate sketch!) and some inner sense about the balance :)
I found a video about him on youtube:
Looking at rocks made us think about ice-cream and I had a wonderful time sketching a fountain while my friends got a few delicious scopes which were consumed right next to the splashing water :)
Jan 31 - back in the park
Drawing kids is definitely a challenge compared to drawing wild animals - they move unexpectedly, always and rarely come back to the same place/strike the same pose :) So I start a few sketches on the same page hoping to come back - and sometimes it works and other times it feels like leaving things unfinished tells the story about that ball toss even better :)
But a new game - or a favorite pastime - like drawing with chalk or making cars go through the sand tunnel are keeping my subjects at list temporarily in one area :)
Moms and Dads are much easier to sketch in our park outings: tired, watchful, they enjoy a minute of quiet time without much movement (most of them at least ;)
January 30 - Park Observations
January 30 - Park, originally uploaded by apple-pine.Parks present me with the opportunity to see how different moms carry kids and how different kids are behaving through the day - when left alone and not working "for the public's attention". Parents too :)
Beginning of Book 28: Sunnyvale Fire Truck
I finished my sketchbook 27 with the series of news digest drawings - CEOs of large corporations and Darwin dominated a few last pages.
New book was in front of me - very different, long since waiting for it's turn to be opened. Brown craft paper, rather rough. From the first 1/4 of page covered with strokes I learned that I will need to clean lead often as it absorbs paper lint. But a lot of fun to play with! I started the book with the drawing of my chance meeting with Sunnyvale Fire Truck!
Another view at the google building and the horse
This is again one of the gazillion of Google buildings in Mountain View and a bronze horse statue in the park next to it.
I believe this bronze horse was done by Deborah Butterfield and is made in a shape of pieces of found drift wood which was used ot make casts and then to make bronze pieces. At least that's the story behind the horse that I saw in Stanford - and this one looks like it moved from there - here - out to the open air museum :)
Next time I am around I will come closer and see if there is any reference information next to it - I think it will be interesting to draw negative spaces that the horse created with the sky!
Daily sketches - park again
random sketches in between runs :) When we just came no other kids were in the park ad we were running after each other most of the time :)
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