Black Belt Training continues. The faster they get the more I hope for the stretching break :)
Sketching, Illustration, Design and Everyday Life.
Copyright by © Nina Khashchina except where noted.
Sketchbook #112: Found Flower and Dealing with Mistakes
I try to separate the process of making form the process of critiquing my work but sometimes there is no way around it - something just looks wrong on so many levels even before I finished it. That was the case with these flowers - I was not patient enough to really draw the structure and colors were not right and values too... That is when I decided to make a new layer and make a line the main character of this page. And used pencil for it. Not only pencil over gouache brings me joy - which immediately helped my attitude, but actually, it helped me to slow down and adjust some previous decisions to make this a more interesting sketchbook page and richer memory.
Sketchbook #112: California Poppies
California Poppies (Eschscholzia californica - a state flower of California) are amazingly bright. I always try to go on a hike and see them in the wild - on the hills or in the fields. But I find the best outcroppings by a highway or in a city - the closer to a road the better. I am not sure why.
I find myself sitting by the traffic painting and drawing these amazing shapes at all times of the day as they are beautiful when they are closed and open, young and old, singular flower or a whole meadow.
I find myself sitting by the traffic painting and drawing these amazing shapes at all times of the day as they are beautiful when they are closed and open, young and old, singular flower or a whole meadow.
Urban Sketchers Bay Area 10x10 Workshop
This Saturday I had a pleasure to teach an Urban Sketchers workshop at the Stanford University campus. The theme was "Gouache Your World" and it was was designed for people who never tried gouache, who were already learning and wanted to get some tips, and for people who tried and were frustrated with this medium.
Each participant received a kit to take home: a board which can be used as a support and a mixing area at the same time (we used these boards as supports for the workshop), and an airtight palette with 24 wells - twelve of which had samples of artist quality gouache.
We talked about gouache's secrets, about main mistakes that people make when starting with the gouache, and how to avoid them. Then we went over layering, brushwork and my approach to learning faster and more efficiently. And then we painted some exercises and surrounding University sights. Our location gave us a lovely view at the Stanford Tower and university grounds. At the end of workshop I shared my last two sketchbooks to illustrate how I use gouache in them along with ink, watercolors, and collage.
Big thanks to everyone who made this workshop possible - Bay Area USK organizers - Laurie Wigham, Suhita Shirodkar, and Cathy McAuliffe and wonderful group of students who joined me for this fun learning experience. Double thank you goes to Cathy McAuliffe for her assistance during the class itself.
I had a blast teaching this class and I’m looking forward to an upcoming June gouache class which will be a part of a Trio Workshop I am preparing with the wonderful artists Gay Kraeger and Suhita Shirodkar.
USK is planning to repeat these series in the Fall - so if you did not make it to this class hopefully you will join me then.
And I am collecting feedback from people to see if there is enough interest to run a Gouache 2.0 class to take some concepts deeper and just PAINT MORE. Let me know if you are interested!
There are NINE more classes this spring from the USK 10x10 - check them out!
Each participant received a kit to take home: a board which can be used as a support and a mixing area at the same time (we used these boards as supports for the workshop), and an airtight palette with 24 wells - twelve of which had samples of artist quality gouache.
We talked about gouache's secrets, about main mistakes that people make when starting with the gouache, and how to avoid them. Then we went over layering, brushwork and my approach to learning faster and more efficiently. And then we painted some exercises and surrounding University sights. Our location gave us a lovely view at the Stanford Tower and university grounds. At the end of workshop I shared my last two sketchbooks to illustrate how I use gouache in them along with ink, watercolors, and collage.
I had a blast teaching this class and I’m looking forward to an upcoming June gouache class which will be a part of a Trio Workshop I am preparing with the wonderful artists Gay Kraeger and Suhita Shirodkar.
USK is planning to repeat these series in the Fall - so if you did not make it to this class hopefully you will join me then.
And I am collecting feedback from people to see if there is enough interest to run a Gouache 2.0 class to take some concepts deeper and just PAINT MORE. Let me know if you are interested!
There are NINE more classes this spring from the USK 10x10 - check them out!
Sketchbook #112: Reading Time and Cello
Some things are hard to draw, some are even harder. But drawing an upside-down face was actually easier. Either because I stopped drawing face and concentrated on shapes or because it was new and unusual and I had more enthusiasm for it. What is hard to draw is when there are hard an complicated things going on and lots of emotions are flowing around. Drawing during classes for me is harder when homework was not done well...
Sketchbook #112: Found Flower
I think it's some sort of orchid-related flower - based on the structure. But there was a whole bunch of them on one stem.
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