Sketching, Illustration, Design and Everyday Life.
Copyright by © Nina Khashchina except where noted.
Little things sometimes seep in between bigger things - and little drawings fill the margins of my days and sketchbooks. This batch is from the last month or so - a collection of little botanical notes of treasures that I picked up here and there. When in doubt of what to draw - look in your pockets - there is a chance that little something from the recent walk is there waiting for you!
I have a new addition to my list of places where there is always something to sketch. I was introduced to it by a friend when giant purple candelabras of Pride of Madeira were in high bloom. I found some really interesting juxtapositions of plants in this garden and some amazing workspaces that I want to come back and draw.
Later I had a chance to stop by to look at one part of the garden with two different sets of tools (dual marker with two purple colors and my modified parallel pen with black ink) and then a direct gouache. In both of these sketches, my interest was to show how many different foliages are there in one little space.
Earlier this spring I wrote that a lot of people sketching is happening for me this year and promised to share more - this is the second installment from the "people sketching in 2025"
This year one of my new constant sources for figure and crowd sketching is drawing during protests. Demonstrations are happening throughout the United States every week, and participation rates are growing. On June 14th more than 2000 "No Kings" protests happened throughout the USA, with several millions of people in attendance. The "No Kings" protests addressed a growing concern over diminishing democracy and the growth of the authoritarian behavior of the current administration.
I was there with the thousands of my neighbors and drew some of them. It was a very friendly, peaceful crowd - people were bringing water for each other and for the pets, people were singing and chanting and sharing chairs and supporting each other. They had all sorts of messages about freedom and democracy for all - it was an example of a functioning society.
Below are my sketches from other protests.
Democracy exists only as long as we take part in it - by not being indifferent: voting, attending city council meetings, knowing your rights and exercising them, making signs about an issue that is important to you, and showing them - in a window, on your shirt, during a protest. Make a call to your elected official, write them an email - make your voice heard.
Here is how to place a call (or email) to your representative - it takes 5 minutes:
https://5calls.org/
Here are some of my five favorite signs from the protests so far:
First Amendment - Use it or Lose it
Only You Can Prevent Fascist Liars
Fight Truth Decay
Science Saves Lives
Justice For All
I opened up a tube of wonderful paint and A LOT of it came out right onto my page. It took me several passes to get it to look like a bouquet of roses that I wanted to paint to begin with. Can you guess what color it was?
After this disaster I had to paint this beautiful fragrant bouquet again :)
These are all watercolors but very opaque kinds. I would probably use them more as a gouache, in fact, I am seriously thinking of making a palette with them but not sure that the spillage would not continue even from pans.
Peonies were very fragrant but not in an obnoxious way and I enjoyed drawing them through their peak - one by one. A full vase was glorious but I did not feel that I could do justice to all of the parts if I included all five flowers and the vase and environment around it. The two flowers below were done with very different techniques. The first one is begun with ink applied directly from my little eyedropper bottle (described in this post). I smudged some of the ink with my fingers (here is my trick to keeping nails clean in a situation like this). Then I used gouache sticks (mentioned here) and added another layer of ink with a brush that has a "custom haircut". Then I added some luminance pencils.
This month I decided to try a little different look at what is on my table - I pulled my backpack out and dumped on my kitchen table things that were with me during the last week or so - and in particular during the last two days of drawing - last day of May and first day of June.
And here is what I got:
Additional notes:
1. The perfect water container to take with you outside is Nalgene Jar from the Nalgene Travel Kit I got a long time ago.
2. Erasers are such a help in my printmaking toolkit these days that I am bringing them to the classes that I will be teaching this summer - Urban Sketchers Seminar in Chicago and Sketcher Fest in Edmonds.
3. I wrote about the Expandable Handbag Insert Purse Organizer with Handles before - there are photos and details about that bag in that post from September 2023. And it is still a very convenient way to organize a mess and move it from the table to the bag and from the plein-air setting back to the bag.
4. The First Aid Kit bag is a gentle way to carry a surprising amount of things and opens up well so that you can easily find anything inside.
5. Gouache sticks are tempera sticks for kids - I am sure their lightfastness is a joke but they are soft and unruly and as fun as drawing with lipstick and I hoped to paint some peonies with them this weekend - hence this collection.
The gouache and watercolor palette needs cleaning, water should be changed and I probably will remove some pencils before heading out to paint this week. Or not!
Peonies are another flower that I measure time by - there are peony birthdays and peony neighborhood hunts in my life. Store-bought peonies are also wonderful - and prolong the season together with the photos of peonies that my friends send me from all over the world.
This year I finally got to a peony farm up in the hills - but that will be a tale for another post. For now, I will start a story of my peony season by sharing the first bunch of drawings I did when I got a new bouquet at a local Trader Joe's - one sketch that will set the stage for the bouquet on a dining table and several looks at the single flowers.
For a few days this spring I followed how avocados were slowly devoured by a mysterious creature. First, there was a gnawed-upon avocado on the ground. Then every morning I would find new teeth marks and a little less avocado left. I thought of fascination with these half-eaten single-seeded berries can be compared to an orthodont looking at teeth marks on a piece of chocolate, but then realized that it reminded me of Gerald Durrell's books and how much attention was given to what diet worked and what did not - for each of his animals. I sincerely was hoping the mysterious creature was enjoying the meal and toyed with the idea of continuing the feedings and installing a motion-activated camera to get to know them better ;) But then they stopped being interested in this food source! The question of avocado color remains though.
