Gathering Materials for Sketching While Traveling

My recent travels took me to Asia for the first time in my life. I knew that I would be drawing both on land and water, including underwater. I felt a need to take with me all the colors of the world in all the mediums available to me. It was hard to not spin from all the possible expectations and I spent quite some time trying different combinations in my sketchbook :) 

Blue Color Pencils below:
Names and manufacturers (FC = Faber Castell, LU - Luminance, LYR = Lyra; Supra - supra color by carandache; PC = Prismacolor, H = Holbein, Mit = Mitsubishi).

I refilled and packed my watercolor+gouache palette and then could not stop myseld and added a travel palette with gouache colors.

I got myself various papers and drawing materials to draw underwater too - including oil pastels, colored pencils, wax crayons, and regular pencils - you can see them in the post about what is on my table at the beginning of December. 

I totally packed too much. But a full story requires a separate post about the trip! 

 

Tips on Elevating Stress Before Travel

In the days right before the beginning of my recent travel, I was swamped with attempts to close projects on all fronts of my life. My stress showed in my inability to finish things, uninteresting choices in colors and design, snappish dialogue, prolonged conversations with myself about boundaries, multiple versions of to-do lists all over the floor around my table, and very dirty hands from inks after refilling my pens. As you can see - neither making lists (something that I do in any situation) nor refilling pens (a very therapeutic activity under different circumstances) worked. But here is what helped:

1) getting online to chat and draw from a windowswap with a friend - using only my portable printmaking tools. 

2) going out to draw on location - with a very limited set of tools (two markers and my portable printmaking tools). 

Neither of these sketches accomplished what I wanted artistically, but both of these brought me to a much calmer mind state.  And a reminder that limits (on time, materials, and other resources) are a very useful tool. 

Pumpkin Gragen Continues to Thrive

Pumpkin Garden worked was my "go to" sketching model lately - intricate textures, tangled shapes and gentle collection of colors sitting on one's art table is a sure way to start my day - even if all I have is a three minutes and some dirty post-its (see pumpkinnio sketch below ;) 

On My Table: Beginning of December 2024.

November happened super fast! There was a lot of daily sketching between many projects most of which I cannot share (for various reasons). Still, there is an exciting adventure ahead of me - and a hint of what I will be using on this adventure can be found in what's on my table on the first day of December!

Thanksgiving Weekend Brings Pocket Sketching Back

It's been one complicated year! One of my Thanksgiving traditions is to start wrapping up projects and write lists - lists of gratitude, lists of dreams, lists of plans, lists of what worked and what did not this year. I will continue this throughout the end of the year as it is a lengthy project for a planning maniac like me :) But one important thing that already came out of this "pause and regroup" is I cleaned my sketchkit (actually several that blended into one), streamlined it, and while I took some lovely walks, I collected some treasures and drew - in pockets of time, in pocket sketchbooks, with my pocket kits.

Drawing People As They Work Instead of Working

It was Monday and I was planning to do a lot of work. There was A LOT of noise. The rain did not stop anyone. Lively conversation in between the sounds of power tools with some words that I could recognize. No work was happening on my side of the window. Solution? Draw the wonderful mayhem that everyday life is :)

I used the first tools that were available - ballpoint pen and a box of almost empty watercolors. 

Enjoyed every minute :)

Drawing Flowers as a Therapy.

The only way to figure some things out is to draw some flowers while you are thinking about them :) 

A year, a birthday and 1000 days. Update on my Parents - Refugees from Ukraine - November, 2024

This week we celebrated my Mom's 84th birthday (Happy birthday, Mom!), and this week is exactly one year since she and my Dad arrived in the USA as Ukrainian Refugees. A few days ago also marked ONE THOUSAND DAYS since the first bombs fell on the city where my parents lived their whole life (Kharkiv, Ukraine) and a full-scale invasion of russian forces began. It was a week filled with many memories and emotions. But also lots of little things that make up the magic of everyday life. It is a perfect time to give you an update on my parents. 

My Mom underwent a cataract removal surgery and will soon own a new pair of glasses! Her experience with the medical system was not without some glitches yet her optimism prevailed over everything! She tried to speak to all the medical personnel in English, read all the signs in every room we went in, asked a thousand questions about everything, and enjoyed me sketching through all the adventures. She even participated in an online drawing event from an operation waiting room! She is working through my library of art history books and biographies and enjoys taking photos of all sorts of animal and plant life to discuss with me. She regularly talks to her friends and family who are dispersed around the world, many refugees like she is - and tries to find a good topic with each one - to stay in touch and keep the connection going despite some differences in worldviews. However there are some things she is not willing to compromise on - the idea of supporting putin is a hard no. 

My Dad continues his lifelong experimentation with mixing things - his drinks often contain something unusual (when was the last time you put cayenne pepper and peeled grapes in your coffee?) and he is making lots of salads that are truly an inspiration in color if not in taste! His knees and shoulders had a nice reprieve during summer when he enjoyed swimming but the season is over and we are trying to find him alternative ways to gently work arthritic joints. His interest in finding things and making things out of stuff he finds resulted in a large art installation on their patio (see photos below). There are bottles, frying pans, flowers, cups, plates, toys, pens, unidentified objects, a little mural we made, and Ukrainian flags. A daily war with the squirrel population guarantees that something will be broken or moved in the morning which means that he works on this wall of wonders every day. He plays chess daily and is responsible for keeping a strict schedule of not watching war news before breakfast and after dinner. 

They met some people on the street and are developing some new relationships. Now that they are vaccinated I hope to introduce some more interaction with people and outings to places. They miss their home, the life that they understood, their city, and the country they love. But they speak less about all of it these days - I think because they are trying to not worry me too much. It is a wonderful thing to witness their resilient spirit and utmost care for their family.

(For more background on their story please visit: War in Ukraine: Guide Through Posts on this Blog)

Mom's been a champion in medical appointments lately so I grew her more than Dad for a change - here are some out of many many sketches that I did - these represent the most "iconic" faces that she makes  :)

Persimmons!

Persimmons have one of the best orange colors in the fruit world and what a festival of shapes! As long as these fruits are in season I eat and draw them daily - sometimes in that order that is why there are fever drawings this year - it was very good for persimmon eating :)

A season for pumpkins and getting together with friends - grateful!

It's a season to draw, eat, and decorate pumpkins :) It is also a season to be with people and tell them how much they mean to you! I am very fortunate to have some amazing friends who feed me (both literally and figuratively) with inspiring and enlarging ideas and foods on a regular basis. My  friend invited me for a "turn your pumpkin into a mini garden" party and I enjoyed it so much that I got myself some pumpkins and started bringing this idea to other people too ;) And then a bunch of friends got together to chat and draw and I got to make and then draw another pumpkin garden.  

There are pumpkins sitting at my parents and on our Nonagenarian's table. I am yet to draw all the pumpkins but this is a start.

Nonagenarian Update: fall of 2024.

We are approaching winter which is probably the hardest time of the year for our Nonagenarian - shorter daytime, colder weather. But she enjoys the rainy season. The bird feeder is attracting lots of visitors. The eye doctor says she is doing as well as they hoped for though this is a new doctor and "too young" again. She is vaccinated for the season. Her rose stopped blooming but there are some new shoots. Green onion, nasturtium, marigolds, and cucumber still prosper on her balcony. She is reading, cooking and even working on some new outfits - we are helping with sewing a little but the art direction muscle is still strong!

 

People sketching - online communities keep me going through another season!

Overall craziness of the pre-holiday and holiday season overlapped with the election season and with many folds of caregiving and projects left few holes in my schedule for some people drawing - which I continue to do in person and online - mostly via @pencils4tea - an online group of people who draw each other and time with songs. Here are some faces and experiments: