Dancers

What do you see when you look at this watercolor sketch? My wife saw mermaids, one of my daughters saw dancers with hair on their arms, and my son jokingly said mushrooms. I explained that this is a sketch based on a famous impressionist drawing by Degas done in pastel. I enjoy sketching dancers because of the movement, energy, and dynamics they bring to a drawing or painting. I like the interplay of warm and cool colors to create depth and texture.

Three bears

In this watercolor sketch of three bears I focused on creating a realistic brown and adding form to the animals with warm and cool colors. I avoided any detail in the foreground and background so as to focus attention on the bears.

Remember the Alamo

A couple of weeks ago I was in San Antonio on a business trip and had a few hours before my flight home so I decided to visit the Alamo and learn more about it's history. About 200 men battled 2000 Mexican soldiers to defend the Alamo in 1836. The odds were overwhelming but these brave men fought to the death in a two week battle. The Texians and Tejanos that defended the Alamo were commanded by William B. Travis along with David Crockett and James Bowie. The Texians were able to sneak out messengers to ask for help but no help arrived. This was an important battle in the Texas Revolution. Later in the year Sam Houston and his Texians surprised Santa Anna and the Mexican forces in the Battle of San Jacinto which led to the Treaty of Velasco, granting Texas independence. I sketched this picture of the front entrance to the Alamo from a brochure.

A rainy day inside

It has been raining here a lot over the last week and we certainly need the rain. So I took a break to sketch a scene from our living room. My wife is the talented one that plays the harp and makes quilts such as the valentine quilt on the couch.

Sailing on the Yangtze

The Yangtze river in China is the longest river in Asia (6300 km) and the 3rd longest river in the world. The modern Chinese name is Chang Jiang which means "long river". The Yangtze flows from its source in the Qinghai province eastwards through some large gorges into the East China Sea at Shanghai. This picture gave me a peaceful yet adventurous feeling. The two people on the river boat are involved in their work as they sail along the Yangtze against the backdrop of the river shoreline and forested mountains.

Battle of Long Island 1776

Here is a sketch I did of the Battle of Long Island in 1776 using ink, watercolor, and watercolor pencils. I find that the watercolor pencils are good for adding details after sketching key structures in ink and then applying various watercolor washes. I like how the colors turned out but I found it tedious to creating the soldiers therefore this sketch does not really communicate the full sense of the battle.

A trip to the ballet

The human figure in motion as represented in dance is one of the most interesting subjects to draw. I began this drawing simply trying to capture the motion and angles of the dancers. Next I sketched in the faces. I then worked on getting the body proportions correct and unfortunately ran out of space at the bottom of the page. I should have first sized the subject to the paper. In order to bring out the dancers more I shaded in the background with a light blue colored pencil and burnished the blue with a light gray pencil.

Winter day at the beach

These sketches are of a beautiful winter day we spent at a beach near Half Moon Bay, California. We packed a few sandwiches, hopped around the tide pools and then hiked to the beach seen here. While I sketched the scenery, my younger daughter buried her twin brother in a deep hole they both dug in the sand with only his head sticking out. I remember having a lot of fun doing that when I was a kid. Anyway, while the kids were playing I made a few sketches and these are of the view to the Northwest. I think the sky turned out nice in the watercolor sketch along with an interesting color for the beach sands. However, I'm having trouble sketching rock textures (lower right) and ocean waves. I have a great book by Jack Hamm called Drawing Scenery: Landscapes and Seascapes. Unfortunately, I seem to forget a lot of his tips when I'm out in the field. Have a Happy New Year!

Navajos on horseback

Here is a 7"x10" watercolor sketch I made based on the cover of a book I read this year called Blood and Thunder: The Epic Story of Kit Carson and the Conquest of the American West by Hampton Sides. It is a picture of three Navajo Indians on horseback. The book is a very entertaining read about Kit Carson, the U.S. conquest of the West, and the sad fate of the Native Americans.

Do dragons exist in North America?

Our family had a nice Christmas and Santa brought the kids a unicycle, a Ripstick skateboard, and a remote control plane along with several stocking stuffers. My son received a cool book on how to draw dragons. The first drawing in this post is my attempt at a wyvern dragon which is not found in North America. However before Lewis & Clark had completed their famous expedition of the West it was not known what type of flora and fauna existed west of the Mississippi. In fact, I've just started reading a very entertaining book my wife gave me called Undaunted Courage : Meriwether Lewis, Thomas Jefferson, and the Opening of the American West by Stephen E. Ambrose. The second sketch is based on the painting which appears on the cover of this book.

Is that a cow?

Here is a quick sketch I did in watercolor. The landscape is purely imaginary. I like to include some form of life in my landscape drawings so I placed this cow in a rather barren field. My son thought it was a Gazelle in the African Savannah. I'm not too crazy about the rocks in the foreground. The color, form, and placement is a bit off.

Camels in the desert

I sometimes enjoy sketching pictures I find in magazines. Wildlife calendars are another good source of pictures. I found this picture of two camels in National Geographic KIDS and used a 6B woodless pencil to do a quick sketch. My children like this magazine because it contains a variety of articles on animals, new movies, and fun facts.

A day at the zoo

My son and I enjoyed a beautiful day at the San Francisco Zoo last Sunday. On this trip we walked pretty much the entire zoo seeing all the animals most of which happened to be quite lively except for the lions and tigers (they always seem to be napping). One of my favorite animals are the gorillas. I took a picture of one of the gorillas sitting on a big boulder. He seemed as interested in us as we were in observing him. I took several pictures and when I returned home I sketched the drawing you see here. A few days later I created this painting based on the sketch. I'm trying to pay closer attention to rendering texture with line and using color to create form.

Beginning a journey

The bar-tailed godwit flies from Alaska to New Zealand non-stop covering 7300 miles across the Pacific Ocean in 8 days. This is the longest nonstop flight of any bird. I chose this bird as the subject of my first blog entry because it symbolizes the beginning a long journey as an amateur artist. A couple of weeks before leaving Alaska the bar-tailed godwit gorges on clams and worms. I similarly gorged myself on Turkey last night as part of our family's Thanksgiving feast.

Placing my subject in the lower left implies that the migratory bird is starting its journey. The gentle arch to the horizon indicates the large expanse of ocean the bird must travel to reach its destination. I first did a few thumbnail sketches then used a Pentel Aquabrush to apply watercolor to 140lb 8x5in. watercolor paper and used watercolor pencils for the bar-tailed godwit. The video illustrates my technique.