Lemon and silver cup.

11x14 inches

Lemon and silver cup

oil on canvas board

Last still life from my Academy class, the point is here was to paint a reflective object, with reflections on it.

I enjoyed this assignment and I am happy with the result.

Especially I like the lemon! I know it was not about the lemon but…… i still like it a lot!

And i think the color combination yellow and blue is so neat :)

Happy Sunday everyone and Happy Birthday to my mom! The most special mom ever!!!

Auguri mamma! Buon compleanno!!

Waiting at the DMV….

Yesterday I went to the DMV to renew my driving license, I was smart enough to drive to Daly City to do it, a city just outside San Francisco, instead of going to the San Francisco office. 

I drove past by the SF DMV yesterday and the queue was just incredibly long, long beyond my imagination actually!!! 

I would have had plenty time to draw over there, maybe even too much!!! ;)

That was the ling in front of me, not bad at all!! I wend around lunch time, by the time I left it was 4 times the size.

And this was a quick sketch of the people by the desk doing their paper work. Of course I did mine too! My new  driver license should be in the mail soon!

I have been asked sever times how long these drawings take me, so here is the answer:

 1. sketching from life in pencil, can t say exactly the time amount since it depends on the amount of details I draw. I love this part, is fun, and times flies by while I draw.

2. redrawing with the pen, I LOVE this part.

3. coloring with water color pencils. This part is BOOOOOOring :)and takes way too long…but is necessary if I want to have colors :)

4. using the brush, FUN part .

Red earrings, work in progress

11x14 inches

oil on canvas board

WORK IN PROGRESS

Red earrings.

This is the still life I have been working on for last couple of days.
As assignment for my still life class at the Academy I was supposed to paint a still life with a shiny object. The metal cup is borrowed from my very nice upstair neighbor.
Thanks Kitty!! :)
The doily was handmade by amazing grandmother and is so very dear to me.
The red earrings are among my favorites, I bought them at a small market here in SF when we first arrived in California. They are a bit heavy, but still very VERY nice:)

Here is a picture of the real still life next to the painting in progress.

Next step, taking the painting to the Academy at my still life class, getting a feedback from my teacher, and deliver the finished painting by the end of next week.
I ll post once finished too OF COURSE!!
Have a great day everyone!!
Next step, taking the painting to the Academy at my still life class, getting a feed back form my teacher, and deliver the finished painting by the end of next week.


Have a great day everyone!

I ll waste a good part of mine at the DMV here in SF, need to renew my driving license. The  good note is that I ll take my sketch book with me and I am sure there will be plenty of bored people over there! it might be fun :)

Quick study with palette knife. One off banana, two mandarins and one mini apple.

I painted this study with the palette knife yesterday afternoon.
After spending  the whole morning fixing tiny things on a complicated still life for for my still life class at the Academy, In the afternoon I put down my small brushes, picked up my beloved palette knife and started painting something more loose.
That banana I mentioned at the beginning of the week was already almost black, time to paint it and then eat it!
Here it is: my 50 minute study.
Completely in love with the texture created by using the knife.

8x10 inches

oil on canvas board with palette knife

Foursome

Black sky, huge clouds, angry ocean and super rain….on my way to school!!! I would love to go back to bed today!:)

Figure drawing, 20 minutes poses.

Yesterday afternoon I attended a figure drawing workshop at the Academy, a couple of hours of pure fun !!!
I LOVE FIGURE DRAWING :)
Especially when the model is a woman, with a  nice curvy body and very flexible.
I have recently discovered that the only man I like to draw for more than one sitting is my husband .  :)

Here are some of the drawing from yesterday session, all 20 minutes poses.

 20 minutes

figure drawing

 20 minutes

figure drawing

 20 minutes

figure drawing

 20 minutes

figure drawing

Here are some 2 minutes drawing done at the beginning  of the class as a warm up .

I ll be attending this workshop every Monday afternoon, so more for you soon!

Ice cream and bananas, HIGH CALORIES still life :)

11x14 inches

oil on canvas board

Ice cream and bananas.

This still life was everything but easy, I find the bananas extremely difficult to paint (!) and of course the ice cream too.

It was not a real idea cream! It would have already melted away by the time I was done with the sketching part! It is a plastic idea cream ! The bananas were real though:)

I stock up with bananas and I am planning to paint a couple more, I should do this already today since they are getting black!! I am paint off bananas then ;)

Happy Monday everyone!

Bianca.

Pencil on paper.

Bianca.

Few days ago I asked my fellow artist and friend Bianca to help me out by posing for me for some figure drawing homework.

She did an amazing job! 

Definitely better then a "real model"! Posing still and without any complain! 

Of course Mona was there too :) As still as she possible could;)

Here are the 2 drawings I did from Bianca's pose, the one in the middle is Michal. He didn't pose as well as Bianca but he did ok! Room for improvement on the hubby's side!

DANKE SCHON my dear :)

Looking forward to draw you more!!!

Java Beach cafe' on Judah, sketch on the spot

Hello and Happy Saturday!
Really a beautiful day over here, SPRING IS AL AROUND!
And I seem to have finally recovered from the jet lag, feeling full of energy today!
Right now I am working on the still life with the doll, is coming along nicely, pretty happy with the progress of today!
What I am posting is a drawing I did yesterday, while waiting for Bianca at Judah, in front of the java Beach Cafe.

 Miss Mona was nice enough to LET ME DRAW!! Attacking some pigeon every now and then but other wise she was a very well behaved puppy.

We ll go on drawing mission again. WHAT A DUO!

Finally a BIG THANK YOU to all you guys that are following my artistic adventure, today is my post number 600!!!!
Feeling extremely happy and very thankful to my amazing husband for supporting me all along.

Fighting the jet lag with the palette knife!

9x12 inches

oil on canvas board with palette knife

Girl corner

Painting with the palette knife is my way to fight with the jet lag. :)

When I use the knife instead of the brushes I tend to take my still-life painting in a not so serious way.

 I tell my self RELAX, ENJOY and if it comes bad is OK! 

Is not any easier using the knife instead of the brushes.

 Is actually more difficult since you cannot properly control the edges and the color mixing, but i love the process of sculpting the images. 

It feels more like sculpting than painting, especially with this last one, I used so much paint!

Plenty of chunky texture ! Check it out in the details:

I set up this still life for a school assignment,  so you will see this same arrangement painted in the "conventional way" too.

My favorite earrings bought downtown at a market, a cute doll bought few years ago while on a trip in Connecticut, I borrowed the silver cup from my upstair neighbor Kitty and I borrowed the vase in the back from my pottery maker neighbor Matt. A nice mix!!!

  

Have a nice day everyone! Early wake up for me :) thank you jet lag!

Sketches with pen while in the air . LHR-SFO

Good morning!
Almost midday here in California, and I am starting to feel ok. After 6 ibuprofen and several coffees.
Yesterday flight was a serious killer.
The good thing of me being in the air for about 25 hours though is that  I HAD REALLY PLENTY OF TIME for reading and drawing :)
I slept and watched movies on the first longer flight (13 h) and I was active on the second one (11h).

This first drawing was inspired by the picture of a British Bulldog that was on the BA magazine on the flight.
I am 100% in love with San Francisco and Ocean beach ( today is AWSOME! sunny and 24C!) , but London is London.
No matter where I live it will ALWAYS have a special place in my heart.

Lately I have been enjoying sketching with my ink pens A LOT, yesterday I wanted to try something new, like fantasy landscape for example.

Today I am going back to my brushes! It was a long break :) I missed mixing colors.
Enjoy the day!

Last sketches from Cape Town.

End of the holiday :(
We had and amazing time in Cape Town, definitely a place to go back.
IF ONLY…. it was a tiny bit closer!!

 Sunshine and  warm weather were here in San Francisco to welcome us back home, and Mona too of course! A nice part of traveling is also coming back home.

But let's talk art now ;)


Yesterday, our last day, we had a quite relaxing morning. Some souvenirs shopping and then sitting down in cafe, me drawing, hubby working. :)  ( what an amazing duo !)

Outside of the cafe there were two ladies sitting on a bench surrounded by the busy market.
I didn't have enough tim to draw the market scene and I puts a South African flag instead.

 At the souvenir shop I bought a little statue, shaped, woman shaped,  that inspired me to do this drawing. I used the body as part of the flag.

Last Saturday we went to small village called Simon town. The main attraction at Simon town are the African penguins.

5 minutes away from the penguin's beach there is a really nice idea cream place, all of us got ice cream, it was REALLY good ( like all the food we had in South Africa actually!) and the place was so cute that deserved a small sketch.

The last sketch is from our stay in Stellenbosch. It is wour messy bedroom , beautiful room with a super nice view on the hills.

All for today, the tiredness of the 25 hours flight is kicking in :( I slept on the first flight and draw and study on the second one….I can feel my eyes closing while I write!

Have a good night everyone!

Sketching on Sunday Brunch in Cape Town.

11pm here in Cape Town (1 pm in Italy, 9pm in London, 5pm in NYC and 2pm in San Francisco )
and about to go sleep. Last night in Africa, we had an amazing time, we have seen beautiful places and eaten super yummy food. Fell in loved with SA 100%.

This morning we went for brunch in a very nice cafe near by. This girl has been sitting near to us for the full  time, she was waiting for a friend who never showed up. Towards the end of our meal she got a phone call from her friend telling her a new place to meet up.

Here is the finished drawing.

Me :) picture taken tom the hubby.

And the cute girl .

This is Jacque, from Stellenbosch SA

The hotel staff got curios after seeing me around the building for two full days always drawing or sketching something.
Jacque  has came over to me asking me to draw him, during his 10 minutes break (!!!!)

Here is what I did!

We are up already over here and is 5 in the morning in Stellenbosch! OUCHH!!!

Off to Cape town for some squark diving today :)

Two more sketches from Stellenbosh SA. Breakfast and tanning.

Last day in Stellenbosh, last night we went with some friends to town and I fell in love with the place!

Small streets, lots of green, perfect temperature, tons of young people around ( it is a university town), restaurants with table outside….we had a very good time! And I also had a very good pizza:)

 Tomorrow we are heading to Cape Town in the morning for 4 more nights.

These are two sketches I did today, the first at breakfast, the second by the pool

Breakfast time.

Tan time.

I am really enjoying this sketching habit! great for practice and at the same time is fun and relaxing.

Going for a quick run just to see more of the area around, since I haven't left the hotel since the moment we got here!

Have a great day everyone! Ciao from South Africa!

Sketches from Spier Winery, Stellenbosh, SA

Oh my god !!

 I LOVE THIS PLACE :)

These are some sketches I did yesterday, as you can read at the top corner in the first one, i was drawing while waiting for our room to be ready…I was so much in need of a shower at this same time yesterday! :)

Is a winery so there is plenty of wine and of wine tasting!

(the two people drinking were two German ladies, they had plenty of wine by 3 pm!)

This is the bar, the staff over here is extremely friendly! 

And a drawing from the restaurant!
( the two people ordering were 2 German tourists)

And some pictures from the REAL place, BEAUTIFUL !!

Plan for the day do a bit of drawings and….  some ( A LOT!!! )  SPA TIME!!!!!! : )  : )  : )

HAPPY ME!

Sketching at Heathrow :)

Hello!
after almost 25 hours of flight plus some more for transferring we are finally in Cape Town, in Stellenbosh, to be more precise.
A mix between Napa and Tuscany, I have to say is very easy to feel at home here!!

We had a change on flight in London and I did few sketches while at terminal 5 .


We spoiled ourselves with lunch at Caviar & Prunier :)

At the airport I did my sketches with pencil, then on board I did wit pen, colored pencil and watercolor!
My small table was pretty busy!!!

We managed to stay awake the whole 13 hours of the second flight:)  Collapsing slowly now though:)

Here is a picture of Cape Town from the sky:

While this the view from our room, gorgeous!! 

(totally countryside Romagna style!)

Did 3 or 4 sketches of Villa already since our room was not ready when we arrived and I had 6 hours to fill in :)


Loving this place! and loving the heat!

Waiting for Leo

Waiting for Leo

pencil on paper

Well…we are no longer waiting for Leo, he arrived yesterday!! Welcome Leo!

Can't wait to meet you soon :)

Congratulations to Antonio and Sabrina, I know you guys will make two amazing parents!

Lots of love from us .