Finding Treasures (again)

I collect and draw treasures. Treasure can be anything - a leaf, an acorn, a piece of lego, a torn piece of paper, a list, a drawing, or a ticket stub. It is a treasure if someone tells you that this is a treasure and gives it to you. Or if you think it is a treasure. There are no more rules. A cloud can be a treasure also. I've been given a moon several times, for example. 

I've been super lucky to have a steady supply of "treasures" to appreciate and draw for many years. I even made some calendars with treasures and taught several sketchbooking classes around the theme of treasures. Then there was a bit of a dry spell but this fall I am going back in full. Here is a little branch from an oak tree on the way to school. It is my treasure, and I am sharing it with you this way.

It's Orange Season!

Pumpkin patches are all over the town! This particular one is in San Jose - CosentinoFamilyFarm. This is a farm stand and one of the last family-owned real orchards in the middle of Silicon Valley. Good people, good food and so many things to draw!

I managed to forget my sketchbook but was saved by a great friend who can decipher intelligent texts (@suhitasketch) - and here are two sketches celebrating a variety of colors and textures and the most orange season of all. Happy October to you!

Redwood Forest

A friend (@gaskincreative), a new hiking spot, a super tasty lunch, and a great time talking about everything from artificial intelligence to parenting! 

I brought my portable gouache palette and sketchbook and had a joyful time sketching two views from the same spot:

Keeping the people sketching habit going through the seasons.

I love drawing people - people I know, people I just saw, people who are working, playing, eating,  sleeping. Some seasons of my life give me more subjects to keep my people-sketching habit going, some less. Right now I am mostly drawing people online -mainly @pencils4tea - an online group of people who draw each other and time with songs. Often I can jump in only for a few songs and sometimes I stay for the whole hour. I've written about it before - but today I am sharing several recent catches:

Voting is Important!

This election season I am participating in writing letters through the Vote Forward Campaign. This is a "nonprofit organization that empowers grassroots volunteers to send handwritten letters encouraging fellow Americans to vote" - from https://votefwd.org/about-us

After growing up in Ukraine under the soviet regime the participation in democratic governance that I now have as a citizen of the United States is a privilege, right, and also an obligation. Democracy works only as long as we are taking part in it, this is why I encourage everyone to vote - and this campaign allows me to reach more people. And with handwritten letters! (meaning hand-drawn :) 

I cannot share with you samples of the letters as they contain personal information but here are some quick looks at envelopes and calligraphy that I am doing as well as decoration of envelopes with original drawings and prints as well as stickers that are in the works! I am trying to make letters that I would be excited to open and read ;)

You can be a part of this process too - there is still time to sign up and write letters!

And please vote!

Rattlesnake Calathea Needs Repotting!

My Rattlesnake Calathea (also known as Spot) needs repotting, so it was moved to my work table. However, there was no time for the repotting work to happen. Nevertheless, close proximity to my sketchbook means that I got to sketch a few portraits :) The first one was supposed to be a direct watercolor that went so wrong that I was about to write a whole page listing what was wrong exactly. But then I had a phone call with friends and kept adding and subtracting things, and it ended up in a pile of examples of why continuing to work on things is a good practice.

The second one just happened to be a super quick value study.

And the third one I enjoyed making with my printmaking tools! 

Which one is your favorite?

Table garden update - with very little color.

I think I've killed some plants. Not intentionally - by accident but still - here are some sketches explaining the current state.

There is hope though: my orchid started a new leaf since I sketched it - so I am thinking that I lost only flower stalk (perhaps it was time?) and there are some signs that there will be new leaves on the jasmine plant. 

The african violet is giving me hope - it is still blooming despite my care. 

Sketching Historic San Jose

Last week I jumped at an opportunity to learn more about the history of San Jose and sketch it too! An "after-work mid-week" event was organized by Creekside Socials. The historical part was led by a wonderful urban sketcher Ben Leech - a leader of the Preservation Action Council of San José and the sketching activity was led by Suhita Shirodkar whose sketching energy and teaching brought together a lovely group of all levels in a united urban sketchers front!

We looked at the San Jose Diridon Station and several buildings in the area - places I would normally just pass but now have names and context and I know how to point you some cool little details about them! 

Below are my sketches and photos from the event and you can see more photos at this instagram post - one of the images from this post is screenshotted below. 

Sketching on the Water - Kayaking in Monterey Bay

I had a wonderful opportunity to go kayaking in Monterey Bay and was excited to sketch while on the water - especially since the plan was to go around a small cove at a turtle-pace. The weather was gorgeous, and nothing could stop me from sketching for a good part of two hours! Except somehow either from looking for kelp crabs too intently (I found quite a few kelp isopods but very few crabs :) or from looking at the bottom of the ocean (the visibility was astonishing - I could count all the urchins on the sandy ocean floor!) but I got seasick and could not sketch as much as I hoped. 

Still - here are my two attempts - which are filled with memories for me but otherwise are a glaring example of how some sketching outings are not exactly successful on the art axes :) 

And some photos from an outing.

My tools were a trusty all-weather notebook from the Field Notes (with Yupo Synthetic paper) and one of the best black pencils I know - an extrasoft Nero pencils from Cretacolor.

Fig Tree Update!

My fig tree adventure touched quite a few people who read my blog (here is a link to Part 1 and Part 2), and I am happy to give you a quick update:

1. I believe I know who the culprit behind the stolen fruit is. I do not have proof, but something about the smug look on this neighbor's furry face tells me that it might be it. 

2. There was a fig that turned out to be fermented inside when we opened it up (I am still looking for the sketch I made - it did not get into my daily rotation and was not taped in on time,  and now might be lost!) But if I find it you will see the whole thing in the sketchbook walk-through video!

3. And then there were two figs that had a more ordinary fate of being eaten by the family. And both were very nice! 

One more fruit remains on the tree so there might be another update in this fig reason :) 

Google Orb!

I had a great time sketching the Orb installation at the Google Headquarters / Google Experience in Mountain View. This sculpture was created by Marc Fornes @theverymany - and we chose it for our sketching outing with @suhitasketch this week. 

I saw the sculpture in different light conditions and with a crowd of people around and by itself - and it was wonderfully intriguing every time. The building in the background is the famous Gradient Canopy and deserves a separate sketching outing by itself. I sketched its brother - Bayview last year - in black, white and pink and in gouache. 

We had a little over an hour to work on this and I feel like there needs to be another attempt (or several) but I am happy to share these black-and-white versions.

There is a little video with the process:

I encourage you to visit Suhita's version on her instagram - it is so colorful and textured - when I look at it I can feel how sunny the day was and how the shadows of the surfaces created cool areas!

Virtual Traveling (with Street View World Tour) to Japan, Ohio, Arizona and Taipei.

I had a blast today drawing with the wonderful bunch of people at #streetviewworldtour lead by @herbcoil and @ronkiponk with a guest artist @jeffsuntala - i went completely black and white again with my printmaking - despite very colorful and inspiring street views and had such a great time drawing Japan, Ohio, Arizona and Taipei! 

Then when the time came to share the images I realized that Instagram crops them in weird way. I took some time and then liked from crops, then hated them, then thought that I should have made these all black and white instead of preserving creamy color of my paper. All in all - these locations stayed with me for much longer than the 20 minutes that I looked at them while sketching :)

So - which one do you prefer - full versions or cropped? See below! (if you are on a desktop - you can click on any image to see it larger and move between images with your arrow keys)

Cropped versions:

If you are not familiar - A Street View World Tour is a fun, no-pressure gathering hosted by Jenny Adam and Eleanor Doughty via Gage Academy. You can learn more about these monthly free events and about these locations at the links above. 

My previous participations include a trip to Kharkiv, Ukraine where I was the guest artist, Drawing Sky Holes, Kenya, Boats, Night Life, Hawaiian Foliage, and Light and Shadow. (I am quite sure that I participated in a few more but I am not sure I ever posted about them - will try to find and add to this collection!)

On My Table: Beginning of September 2024.

September is here and with it a new school year! This means it is time to update plans, revise schedules, see what might fit before the year is over - and don't forget to eat apples! (I just found an amazingly fragrant variety of apple which I knew from my childhood in Ukraine and they are all over my kitchen table, computer table, drawing table - see below? The light yellow-green apple is the one! (the other one is also very good - Cosmic Crisp).

Things mentioned above:

Apples Білий налив - I found an article in Ukrainian and not sure what is the name of this in English. 

Pentel Sign Pen (Pentel Arts Sign Pen Brush, Black Pigment Ink) - looks like they exist in gray and sepia as well!

Transon Palette (Transon Paint Storage Palette Box 24 Wells Airtight Stay Wet for Watercolor, Gouache, Acrylic and Oil Paint)

Sketching Neighboring City Landmarks: Campbell

A wonderful outing with friends (@suhitasketch @kavyasart and @umapaints) to catch up and try to make sense of a quite usual building: an Ainsley House in Campbell. I planned to paint with gouache but upon arrival, I realized that I had grabbed the wrong sketching kit with me and had all my printmaking stuff but no color :) 

Between this swift change of plans and a confusing architecture of the subject, I needed a palette cleanser of something easier to grasp and draw - so we moved to sketch Campbell Water Tower. 

Apple Picking Season!

I got to visit an actual apple farm during the East Coast trip and enjoyed some amazing views of the abundance of apple orchards - and collected some apples too. These are: Ginger Gold, William's Pride, Sansa and Dayton (I think :) and they were very very tasty!