Pilot Parallel Pens

I really like the line variety that dip pens give, but they are a little scary to take out sketching in public. I've been experimenting with a bunch of different pens trying to find something that gives nice line variety but can be thrown in a purse.

I'm really excited about the Pilot Parallel Pens. They come in different nib sizes and have replaceable ink cartridges that come in different colors.

This nib is the 3.8mm, about 1/4" wide:

I think it's my favorite--I used it on this bouquet and like the irregular line.

They don't have waterproof ink though, at least I haven't been able to find any. This was black ink, but when I put watercolors on top it bled a beautiful purple color. I love the effect.

This sketch was done with a smaller Parallel pen, 1.5mm, and the black ink bled gray on this one. Not sure why they differ.

I'm always trying for a looser, sketchier look in sketching, and these pens help me give up some control.

Summer sketches

This week marks the official end of summer for me as my boys start back to school this week and next. I've been enjoying our mild summer and meeting every Tues. with my sketching group for outings around Portland. Here's a little farewell to summer sketching as we no doubt will be returning inside soon.

View of the Rose Festival from east side of the river:

The Rose Garden in full bloom this year:

One of my favorite spots is Hughes water garden, full of lily ponds, fountains and gorgeous displays:

McMenamin' Edgefield with intriguing angles and architecture:

Lake Oswego's display of public art:
And Luscher Farms community garden:

I was just talking to a friend about why my sketches don't look anything like my fiber work or my paintings. I'm not sure why that is. I'm wondering if it is because my training in drawing was all very precise, or if I freeze up too much when I start working realistically. Maybe it's that I fall back on ink and watercolor because it's portable. Whatever it is, I'd like to have the same freedom and looseness in sketching that I do in my other work.

I'm intrigued by this book by Stephen Aimone. Lots of fun exercises for expressive drawing (mainly abstract) that I want to try.

And I really like this playful new book by Carla Sonheim.
She encourages lots of quick playful sketches. Here's Jack in action.

I'm hoping they take my fall sketches in a whole new direction.

Z'anne is giving away a lovely turquoise and coral necklace over on my art group's blog this month. Stop by and leave a comment to enter the drawing.

A Little Sketching, A Little Stitching

We were at the Shakepeare festival in Ashland for a week, and now have family coming next week, so I haven't quite got back into my art routine. I have made it out for a couple sketch dates. One to Pioneer Square at the heart of downtown Portland.


And another to Hughes Water Gardens, one of my favorite spots full of water features and garden art.


For some reason, I'm having a hard time getting excited about my sketching lately. I tried changing up media in this sketchbook, but just felt frustrated with the results, so I've come back to my pen and watercolor. Maybe I need to take a break from it for a while.

I'm working on a very fun project that I can't show yet. My art group does an annual art swap at our July picnic. Sometimes it's a one-for-one swap such as the year when we each made a shrine to trade, or pieces from recycled materials. Some years you make one small piece for everyone in the swap. We made small dangly ornaments one year and pages for an Exquisite Corpse book last year.

This year we are making pennants to be strung together in a long banner. They are all out of paper or fabric. I can't show mine until we have the swap, but here's a sneak preview. This wonky stitching will be at the center of each one. It's a quote I love from Emerson.

Chinese Garden

My sketch group went to the Chinese Garden this week for a bit of long awaited sunshine and outdoor sketching.  The Chinese Garden sits surrounded by high rises in the heart of Portland.  You walk into the courtyard and are greeted by a calm peacefulness.  At first it looks almost a little barren, but the beauty is in all the quiet details:

This month they have an exhibit of Chinese kites which caught my attention for sketching:

I was thinking this week about how important my sketch group has been for keeping me going with regular sketching.  I always enjoy sketching once I start, but as well-intentioned as I might be, I seldom find the discipline to sketch at home.

Sketching Days

I'm still going out with my sketching group every Tues, and we are still being forced indoors until it warms up.  We have found some great places though.  The first set is from Monticello antique mall.  It has a spacious coffee house in it and plenty of items to sketch.  The second set is from Portland Nursery which has a big room of blooming plants and a little glimpse of spring.

I've noticed during the last two sketch sessions that my first drawing feels stiff but in the second one I flow with the object much more.  I don't think the difference shows up much in my finished sketches, but I know that state of flow is something I want to aim for more.

The first drawing:

And the second:
And on nursery day, the first drawing:

And the second:

Carol Marine posts a painting every day, rarely missing a day.  When she occasionally goes away for a few days, she says she has to learn to paint all over again after that small break. She's been painting for years, so it's a little discouraging to find how quickly it disappears.  Maybe if I sketched everyday I'd be able to reach that flow state more often, but that's probably not going to happen.

Anthropologie

We did a little sketching at Anthropologie last month.  It's such a great store of visual delights.  If I was 30 years younger, 30 pounds lighter, and much richer, I would dress in all of their clothes.  They have such great detailing to them.  And the home side is full of fun items that are often vintage inspired.

Their displays are always so creative and often done with simpled, recycled materials.  They had a wall of snowflakes made from corrugated cardboard and old fashioned clothespins, in a black,  white and tan color scheme.

I was inspired by some of their textile pieces and drew a quick sketch of one idea.  They did simple, rough applique and embroidery on top of prints.

I wanted to try a sample of that technique, but found I have very few large prints.  I did have this ugly piece of fabric that would work:

I then added a little applique and some bullion and straight stitches, letting the underlying print show through.  It's an ugly piece, but a fun technique to try later.  I think I'd like to try this on hand-painted fabrics or maybe black and white fabrics that have been block printed.

Sketching Giant Puppets

I'm so glad we went to the Michael Curry exhibit this week for sketching.  The Oregon Historical Museum had a great display of his work including a number of the giant puppets. Michael's studio is outside of Portland.  He worked with Julie Taymor to do the puppetry and masks for Lion King and has also done fabulous pieces for Cirque du Soleil, the Olympics, operas, etc.   Some of his sketches were on display, and it was quite interesting to see him step through the design process, combining art with engineering.  A film showed highlights of his work on stage where it really comes to life. 

A few bits from Lion King:

And I loved the giant moose head.  It was probably 6 ft. tall.  Some of the puppets had strings within reach, so you could make them move.  Even though they are huge, they are so well engineered, light, and easy to move.

Tryon Creek Sketching

For sketching this week we went to see the art installations at Tryon Creek.  Tryon is a huge, forested park and woven along one of the trails were five art installations, all connected to the environment.  They were lots of fun to see and very hard to capture in a sketch.   Here are a couple:

The figure stood about 12 feet tall, covered in ivy, like a giant topiary.   Only when we got up close did we see that it was plastic ivy.  I'm sure the park would not allow the intrusive real stuff to be used.  The piece on the right was done on a cluster of trees.  Each had fungus-like growths added with little villages on them.  Ladders connected the villages to each other, to knot holes in the trees, and to holes in the ground, leaving you to speculate what type of magical creatures inhabited them.  Fun stuff.

River View

This week we headed to The Ram restaurant on the Willamette River for sketching.  The Ram has a spectacular deck overlooking the river, but unfortunately it's a well-hidden spot and went out of business a few weeks earlier.   The tables were still on the deck, so we had a comfortable place to sketch in the sunshine.

I'm working on trying to simplify complicated scenes and objects.  So much to learn.

Back to the Farm

For sketching this week, we returned to Luscher Farm to take in the last few days of summer. It was surprising how quickly everything had wilted and faded since we were just there three weeks ago when it was all in full bloom.  I've been wanting to sketch artichokes for some time now so was happy to find a bush.

I forgot one of my painting lessons to avoid painting objects that are in full sunlight without many shadows.  It was hard to capture much depth in the bright light.  I'd like to give artichokes another try sometime.

Treasures in our Backyard

Cynthia got lost on her way to our sketch outing at Luscher Farm a couple weeks ago and stumbled onto Hughes Water Gardens in the process.  None of us had ever been there, so we gave it a try this week.   We were all awestruck at the beauty of the place--large koi ponds,  lily pad pools that looked prehistoric, fountains and garden art everywhere.    Once again it was in our backyards, and we didn't even know it.

It had been a busy week for me, so I stayed a little longer for some quiet time at the Koi pond.

The waterlily was done at Hughes, but the St. Francis was from the previous week's outing to the Grotto, a Catholic nunnery and garden.  I didn't attempt to sketch the giant, 3-foot-wide lily pads.  They didn't even look real in life, so I knew they would be unconvincing in a sketch.