I'm Dreaming of a White Christmas in L.A.

My Christmas Mandala, drawn a couple years ago.

Yes-- I am dreaming of a white Christmas here in Los Angeles. Why not? I've already let three plants die by failing to cover them in time for overnight freezes this week. So... Freezing temperatures + a little moisture = snow. (I got an A in meteorology.) I definitely like to dream.

Joe and I are going to my side of the family's home this year and I'm very excited to spend time with my parents and most of my five brothers and their families. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to you and yours!

Janet

Verus Farnsworth, entertainer & grandmother

This is a graphite drawing of Verus Farnsworth, my husband's grandmother, in a promotional photograph for an upcoming show. Her family were actors, musicians and entertainers, traveling from theatre or tent to the next nearly a century ago.

Verus Farnsworth

14" x 11" (cropped)

Graphite

Besides acting, Verus played the marimbas -- I've posted a photo below.

Isn't that a great pose?

Brian Williams and tonight's news

Watching the evening news tonight, I got the urge to sketch the host Brian Williams with my new conte pencils -- in three Old Masters colors, plus the tan color of the paper. Brian has such an interesting face, very fun to sketch. While he and some members of the press appear to be interpreting Obama's lipsticked-pig comment in line with their political affiliations (biz as usual), I don't care what Obama subjectively meant. I think he should have chosen a different metaphor so people wouldn't have to decide whether it was a reference to Sarah Palin because of her lipstick riddle or a reference to change, as he now says. Sarah Palin was an obvious and natural connection to make and importantly, a mean-spirited reference, and he should have seen that. He should have seen that.

Bogus Rough Sketch Paper and Blue Conte Crayons

12" x 9", Conte crayons on toned paper, in process

I've found two new art tools I wanted to share, both of which I used in this sketch:

First is the paper. It's a new pad of paper called Bogus Rough Sketch by Aquabee, a 70 weight (almost three times as thick as writing paper) medium brown, and it has a pretty rough texture so it can hold several layers of pastels, charcoal, conte crayons, etc. The brown color can serve as the midtone or skin color for portrait work, as I've done above. It's 100% recycled paper which is great; but it's not acid-free, so if you want it to last longer than you do, you'll need to spray it with that new-fangled magic acid-free-making spray stuff.

>>>>>>>>As an aside: the strangest thing happened when I added the pupils and iris colors -- the brown paper, which is part of the eye color, looked green! If you look closely at the eyes (enlarge it by clicking on the image), between the blue outer ring of the iris and the sepia inner ring around the pupil, you'll see a tiny bit of plain brown paper that will appear green. I love the strange tricks our brain does with color!

Anyway, the SECOND new item: I'm using blue instead of black in the above portrait which is drawn with Conte crayons, a centuries-old medium for drawing. But the traditional drawing colors are black, sepia, sanguine, and white -- rarely is blue substituted for black. The store had no black, so I got the blue. Since blue is the complimentary color of orange, which is a lot like the sepia and sanguine colors, it makes sense that they set each other off so well. I like the blue -- serendipity strikes again!

Peacock Grouper stippled pen & ink

Peacock Grouper, 4x6", pen and ink

I stippled a bunch of fish eight years ago. That was the first time I tried to make art seriously as an adult. Dot by tiny freaking dot. I don't stipple anymore. I guess you could say I'm an ex-stippler.

I sure do appreciate a well-stippled fish, though.

(In the interest of total disclosure, the tan background of this image isn't stippled.)

This is a sketch on 18" x 24" newsprint that I drew with charcoal in my new figure drawing course. I like to have an art class going at all times, and this summer I'm taking figure drawing, a full semester class crammed into 7 weeks.

We are learning "artistic anatomy" with a lecture one day, followed by three days of sketching from a live model. Last week we studied feet; this week it's hands. I am absolutely loving it!

I liked this model -- he's a guitar player, very slender, with long, curly black Italian hair. This pose was 10 minutes and we were to focus on hands and feet.

Gale's Restaurant Art Benefit

Last night I had the privilege of being a featured artist at a benefit for the AIDS Service Center.

Gale's Restaurant in Pasadena held the event which was also sponsored by Walt Disney Engineering, Grey Goose, and other well-known eleomosynary organizations (great word, eleomosynary!!!). I had never been to Gale's but must say the food (Italian) was fantastic! The place was packed with people.

At one point, a volunteer docent handed me printed information on one of the artists: me! Maybe I should have worn a name tag...

I haven't heard about sales volumes yet, but I hope they did well. Many, many people gave their personal time, their energy, imagination, money, art, decorations, and more to make this benefit a success. And I had a great time! Here's a copy of one of the pieces of art I donated.

"Testing the Water," graphite, 8x6"

When is a Doodle More than a Doodle and Isn't it a Great Word?

Have you heard of a Zentangle? Apparently it's a new aid to doodling, a how-to-doodle primer. They even sell kits for $49 to teach you how to doodle the Zentangle way -- apparently in repetitive patterns, section by section.

My doodle on the left isn't a Zentangle, though it may look like one. I'm not sure how I feel about the concept of doodle instruction. It conjures up paint-by-numbers kits and Bob Ross videos, only not as ... necessary. Aren't doodles supposed to be "mindless" and "aimless"?

But I think I'm being narrow-minded about it. If you google the word Zentangle, the first few hits are from quite zealous Zentanglers. Most feel great about drawing something so well-formed and want to share the art and the experience. One wrote, "I have been calling what I do 'doodles' and kind of felt guilty about not doing any 'real' art. Then HOLY COW - I realized I was Zentangling. . . . " Geez. That reminds me of my mandala drawings (I'll paste one here). Before I had ever heard of mandalas, I had drawn many dozens of them and honestly thought I had invented the art form. Ha! However, I didn't feel guilty about it as a time-waster. Doodling and drawing repetitive patterns is a well-established meditative, relaxing experience. So I say, "Go Zentanglers!"

Pen and Ink

"Broken," pen & ink

Peacock

Peacock, 6x9"

Sometimes I am apologetic when I use bright colors. This paranoia comes from reading one art magazine article a few months ago which said muted colors are mature and bright colors are ... not. I've decided to stop apologizing and use whatever colors I like. :-D

I started this peacock drawing with a loose pen sketch, which I colored with Prismacolor pencils. Then I scanned it and applied a filter called "accented edges" in Photoshop. Wanting to show the detail and texture of the feathers, I decided to crop out about half the image and enlarge it. That worked. I lost a lot of the tail, but at least you can see the details clearly.

Mandala

It's so much fun to draw a mandala! I know you're supposed to meditate on finished ones, but my meditative process occurs while drawing them. If you'll click on the image you can see the detail, which is the whole idea of the mandalas I draw -- lots of small detail. Sometimes they look like an ant farm on a busy day.

Two "Golden Stairs" ladies

I discovered the artist Edward Burne-Jones on my first trip to the Getty a few years ago. Afterwards, at the Getty gift shop, I even bought the poster of his painting, "The Golden Stairs," showing eighteen golden-pearly-gowned ladies (angels?) descending a long staircase, each carrying a musical instrument. I think it's a sort of spiritual-religious painting, but without any icons to know for sure. This drawing shows two of the women who were near the top of the staircase, without their instruments, which I sketched with pastels.