Flustered sketches

We had life drawing class yesterday. I had 20 minutes to kill before leaving for class and I fell asleep in the armchair. Fortunately my husband was home and woke me , surprised that I’m not at class. I grabbed my stuff, drove like a mad thing, all the time trying to register where I was and where I should be.

…the very first  one minute sketches, shaky and flustered….

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… got highly frustrated at some stage…

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….even charcoal couldn’t help….

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….and finally after an hour, able to start tightening the loose screws in my head for the 15 minute poses…

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….and ultimately finding the 30 minute-pose too long which resulted in unnecessary fiddling…

None of these sketches were reworked on at home.

Casey added her versions in the meantime….see here.

Cat sketches

I cancelled my art class with Casey this afternoon. Having so little sleep these last few day finally caught up with me and I slept…for a whole 3 hours. On Casey’s recommendation, I took a hot bath and fell into bed with a cat on each side. She wanted me to do some yoga first…I pretended the line broke up: “hallo hallooo..” Thank you for being patient Casey.

I woke up, to find myself feeling out of touch with reality and no energy. The best I could come up for the rest of what’s left of the afternoon, is some sketches of the cats and their foodcorner.

I used micropen 05, sprayed some water and scraped a black watercolour pencil onto rough sandpaper, holding it over the wet areas, which gives the splotched effect. On the dry parts, you can blow the scraped pencil  off easily. I didn’t want watery shadows, so I put down some ink and with a wet finger I blotted into the ink to shape the shadows. I first used some cottonwool and toweling paper, but it took off too much of the ink.

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Stuck sketches.

It is a dark and rainy day here in France. We are “stuck” in front of the fireplace, with books and music, some red wine….and ink.

The piano…..unipen # 5, splattering with ink-pot lid, moleskine

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Cloches, a crystal and a branch…………unipen, brush-pen, splattering with brushpen, moleskine.

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Pens and nibs….uni-pen, brush-pen, speedball pen and nibs, splattering with nib(C1), moleskine

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Fun with ink

I am really enjoying the ink sketches. I feel liberated in just picking up a pen and just letting it rip without thinking about perspective or depth or realism or truth or good or bad or right or wrong! On the contrary, I feel inspired and creative, and this is a wonderful exercise for me, just letting my hand and the pen flow. My sketches are very wonky(not attractive wonky), real wonky, but for now I’m ecstatic about them. As it turns out, Laurawas also bitten  by the “ink-bug”, so keep an eye open for her upcoming ink-posts, which sound full of promise.

Today(1st of December) is our first day of “celebrating” the festive season here at home. It is the “official” decorating day, switching on the fairy lights, start burning our special Christmas candle, listening to Christmas music and ending the day with a special dinner by candlelight. I did some pen sketches of some candle holders, mostly holding tea lights. We light candles every evening, starting from 17:00.

These were done in my moleskine, which is full of watercolour splotches, so I thought I should just worsen it with a few shakes of my ink-pot lid, and now I like it. It is a bit overdone, because I first tried with the brush-pen, which made too fine a spray for my liking.

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In this week’s figure drawing class, I decided beforehand I was going to WORK!! I wanted to use many different mediums, which was a bit ambitious. In the one and two-minute drawings I tried changing mediums in-between poses, causing me to fall behind and stress etc. But I did succeed getting a few ink ones down. It was a great class, I enjoyed it and however chaotic and unorganized my methods were, I enjoyed working in different mediums. I will continue doing it in future. I did some drawings in graphite sticks, charcoal, pen, sanguine, conté, pit artist pen, brush-pen, pencil and I finished with a pen and WC.

Two one minute sketches and the last is two minutes, all of them in Staedtler pigment liner # 5 on sketchpad.dsc_0004.jpg

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Inksketches

I can only sleep 4 hours a night and if I’m lucky, I’ll reach 6. Thus being awake at 4:30 this morning, I wrapped myself in a blanket and sat in front of the computer(where I have a comfy swivel leather chair) and felt like doing just some ink sketches.  I like the line and especially contourwork of José who prefers more and more to put just ink on paper. And I’ve always admired Suzanne, who is a magician with pen and line. See also nice ink work from Genine (who gets beautiful detail in her inkwork), Gabi (who is using some washes lately, but his inkwork stands so well on its own!), Joan (who does great cross hatching), Nina(see her post ” 30 minutes by a zeba crossing…I can’t link to it) Anita (who can just do about anything!) and Casey (who has always loved penwork and adds just that slightest watercolor wash),  Bambi (who has the steadiest hand with ink I have ever seen!), Anna (who does such delicate linework),  from time to time Claudia does great sketches from the garden outside her office in ink, you’ll have to browse her blog) Dave’s ink sketches(beautiful!), Deb‘s interesting line work, France‘s stunning drawings, Judi‘s ink lines filled with spirit and not forgetting the amazing work of Russell Stutler. There are so many many inksketchers out there from whom I draw inspiration when it comes to inkwork…

All these sketches were directly done in ink in moleskine.  I just chose different things that I could see from my swivel chair.

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Ink and moleskine(cross hatching)

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Ink and moleskine(contour)

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Ink, graphite and stump, (because it was lying around on the desk) in moleskine

Inspirations in color

I am in search of Inspiration. I find it in people. That does it for me. Creative people, people with strong character, the survivors, the gentle, caring ones, the courageous, daring ones…I have them all in my small circle of friends.
Voici two of them. Two wonderful inspirations. Very far away, so I had to rely on photo’s. I don’t mind that much.
I chose to do the following sketch, because I love the way this friend interacts. She is a beautiful woman, an extraordinary talented florist; you can give her a dry stick and she’ll turn it into a magical creation. And she can’t talk without her hands. I love that. When I dropped by her floral shop, she was busy with a romantic bouquet for Valentine’s day and we stood for about 30 minutes chatting, while she held this wonderful creation in the one hand and expressed herself with the other. She wears this delightful “apron” when she works, to protect her clothes. Being around her, is feeling the creative juices flow…it is inspiring.

This was supposed to be only watercolor on HP Arches paper. Then I had to “fix” it by adding pen! It seems I have to fix everything lately.

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This friend is a lovely romantic, in heart and soul and in appearance. She carries a bit of yesteryear with her. With her angelic hair and fair skin and soft features, she posed many problems to paint. This is my fourth go at her and it still not what I’m after and this time pen wont’ fix it. I want nothing less than a soft, flowy watercolor painting. I’ll probably try again and again…Maybe its because I know that she isn’t ALL romantic – she can swim faster than anyone I know, she can climb a rock as fast as the young guys, she can paddle a kayak through some scary rapids and she’s not afraid of any marathon! She exudes a wonderful zest for life, nothing is too hard or too boring for her, she does everything that comes her way…it’s contagious. This is watercolor on Fabriano CP (extra white)

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27 comments:

Stacy said…
Ronell, your friends sound lovely and look lovely too! I love how their personalities influenced you as much as their appearance did.
May 23, 2007 6:08 PM  
Lin said…
STUNNINGLY GLORIOUS!!!
May 23, 2007 7:06 PM  
Bonny said…
You have a wonderful talent, Ronell. Not only do you connect in a special way with people, but you portray them beautifully, too. Love the painting of your florist friend. She almost looks fey like a fairy princess. Gorgeous!
May 23, 2007 7:45 PM  
Teri C said…
Beautiful paintings Ronell!! I love your commentary with all your art-they were made for each other.
May 23, 2007 8:17 PM  
Dave said…
Well, you certainly fixed it well! Wonderful portraits, and what wonderful friends it sounds like you have.
May 23, 2007 8:39 PM  
Anita said…
Oh Ronell I LOVE everything about this entry.
May 23, 2007 9:07 PM  
Claudia said…
Ronell, w o n d e r f u l watercolours, especially the first one! It has something magic!
May 23, 2007 10:45 PM  
Lindsay said…
What a sweet and beautiful post. A nice tribute to your friends too.
May 23, 2007 11:56 PM  
martín said…
Beautiful portraits Ronell. The first one really talks. Your friend does it with her hands and you through your paintings.
May 24, 2007 12:31 AM  
SCquiltaddict said…
fun wc…great stuff…gotta get my paint brushes back out! keep it up
May 24, 2007 2:04 AM  
Jana Bouc said…
What a fabulous portrait–both in words and paint. I love the second one–it’s so loose and fresh and has a sweetness about it.
May 24, 2007 6:15 AM  
Tonniece said…
Love this post Ronell
I’ts so great to have friends, good friends, and being able to capture their essence as you have here is a wonderful gift to them and all of us as well.
May 24, 2007 6:51 AM  
Carole said…
I really love how you have composed and painted these to capture their character as well as their features. They are beautiful paintings and charming descriptions of your friends.
May 24, 2007 9:18 AM  
suzanne said…
Wow Ronell….these are both breathtaking. Not only in the sense that they are technically outstanding, but also in the fact that you have captured the personalities of your inspirations so well. Not knowing them, I think I could have pretty much described their personalities in exactly the way you did, only by looking at your paintings.Your inspirations are inspirations to me.
May 24, 2007 4:39 PM  
Arty Velarde said…
This is nice. I like the watery, “juiciness”!
May 24, 2007 6:47 PM  
janey said…
These are very soft and pretty and I like the descriptions that go with them. It makes the paintings come alive even more.
May 25, 2007 1:33 AM  
juj said…
Oh Ronell – These are lovely! I especially like the second one, so soft and loose – I love the expression on her face. And the deep red of the necklace is such a nice accent to the whole and balances her glasses perfectly. Your friends both sound wonderful. You must feel very fortunate to have them in your life.
May 25, 2007 3:45 PM  
Nancy Van Blaricom said…
I simply love the stories that go along with your watercolors. The watercolors could stand alone with not comments, but you bring such life to them all….
May 26, 2007 3:37 PM  
Robyn said…
Both friends are lovely – I love the mood as well in the first watercolour and the second is beautiful in the lightness of your touch.
May 26, 2007 7:07 PM  
ksklein said…
I love the top pic. Very romantic. It reminds me of weddings, brides, valentines,…
I would have loved to nsee a little more of her face though.
May 27, 2007 8:58 PM  
Emma Pod said…
These are both wonderful paintings of your friends. In the top one I can almost hear her talking…the hand gesture is so nice! Nice work!
May 29, 2007 5:35 AM  
Regula Scheifele said…
Both your paintings and your descriptions are loving and beautiful – what a gift you have and how nice for your friends to have you paint them!
May 29, 2007 2:09 PM  
Sandy said…
Ronell, these are beautiful and I loved reading how they inspire you..sandy
May 30, 2007 9:48 PM  
platitudinal said…
Beautiful paintings of those you hold dear in your heart. 🙂
May 31, 2007 12:04 AM  
Serena said…
Beautiful work, Ronell, and a very nice tribute to your friends. 🙂
May 31, 2007 12:30 PM  
phthaloblu said…
These are both beautiful paintings, but I know how you feel when you’re trying for a certain result and you can’t get it. But, these are very beautiful. I think lots of us look to the people we know when we need inspiration. That’s how we re-energize. When we are feeling down, we gravitate toward someone who is immensely positive so we can feed off of that positiveness. Does that make sense? Anyway, it sounds like you have some wonderful friends to look to for your inspiration. Full of life and creativity.
June 1, 2007 5:27 PM  
austin of sundrip said…
I’ve scrolled through your page here but I keep coming back to the girl with flowers, it catches my eye and won’t let it go. Awesome work, awesome.Austin of Sundrip