Apple-Pine: April 2014

April 2014: Lemons on my kitchen table

A friend gave me a bag of very fragrant lemons picked form her tree.

I made some tea, nice lemon pie, lemonade and a whole bunch of sketches. Some of them were overworked so I tried to save them by overworking them more - until lemons were dry :)

You can see more sketches of the same lemons here:
http://blog.apple-pine.com/2014/04/on-my-table.html

Lilac in Hidden Villa

Amazing lilac bushes in Hidden Villa made me (almost) come in into someone's private garden :)

April 2014: Lilac Bushes in Hidden Villa

I picked up the idea of drawing with highlighters from Richard Câmara and now cannot stop using them :)

Bottle Tree

I've noticed interesting seed pods first - really amazingly fluid boat shape! I identified the tree by the seed pod as Australian native Bottle Tree.

Then I found a whole bunch of the seed pods with the fuzzy insides still in and was sketching them curiously while fighting a bit of repulsion - they looked like a bunch of hairy spiders sleeping inside these marvelous boats. I am not against spiders but perhaps not that many at the same time...

And then I found a tree and learned that it will be blooming soon! These were the first flowers I saw:

On My Table

Badger Log: 28 (2014)

Badger Log: 27 (2014)

April 2014: Visiting Hidden Villa

April 2014: Lilac Season

Lilacs were part of every spring when I was a kid. All colors, all kinds - they were everywhere.

And I finally tracked down their season in California :)

April 2014: Dentist

Sketching is one of the best ways for me to survive visits to the dentist...

April: Treasures everywhere!

April 2014: I found a House with a Real Lilac Bush

My Balcony

Looking left:

Looking right:

Bits and Pieces of March

I am playing with liquid watercolors a bit lately - when I get to scanning this week's sketches you will see more. It's very direct and very unforgiving and extremely exciting!

Treasures as a way to return to sketching.

Badger Log: 26 (2014)

March: Arrival of Spring

March is the month when colors change rapidly and I see so many things to draw that choosing becomes impossibly hard but flowers are my favorite subject this time of the year :) Along with blooming trees :) Too bad I haven't figured a way to sketch the smell!

March 2014: Trip to Israel - Tools

Well, apart from a rain jacket which saved me on this trip, I took quite a few very portable tools for sketching on the go. Most of them were used - especially since part of my company was sketching almost as much as I did. Not pictured here were more color pencils - I trimmed a set to a "bare minimum" and it got some use but not as much as what you will find on the sketched below.

The last piece is a small - pocket watercolor album which proved to be the best size for my pocket and the first one to be pulled in a jiffy hence most used. I would draw in it during any and then tear out pages to tape them in my main journal at night (or early in the morning) with additional comments. I had only 2 pages left after this trip and hence will add it to my list of "art supplies I must bring with me when traveling".