A touch of violet. Watercolor.

I have been sketching a lot of girls with scarf lately.
Maybe you are wondering WHY ?!

My friend Zofia is developing a non-profit organization for a great cause, check out her website : http://www.estaine.com.

watercolor from my Sketchbook

Touch of violet.

1hour

Last day in the mountains for us today, we didn't get much luck with the weather! Too warm, no snow and today too wet and too rainy, still little snow.
We drove to Reno....not an impressive place I have to say .

Still we managed to have a good time.

I think we found the best lounge in town , amazing service, nice food and good wine... what you need for the best creative time!

Working on some more scarf-girls and almost finished with my Picasso!!! Posting it soon :)

A picture of the work in progress this morning.

Some sketches from today....Happy thanksgiving !

We arrived yesterday in Squaw Valley, not much snow around.... but this year I am not snowboarding so...still ok for me.
The problem with me not snowboarding though is that i am having a lot of free time...and I have spent most of the day today drawing and missing my doggie! :(
We didn't take her along thinking it might be the best thing to do...but we were OS VERY wrong.There are tons of dogs around and the place looks like the most dog-friendly place I have ever been.

Well....not much we can do now...we will buy some nice turkey treat for Mona !! Looking forward to see her on Sunday.


Let's start with the breakfast at Starbucks. I stayed one hour or so to draw the full view point from my table.

Then I had a lunch in a soup place, there was a tiny square outside, I sat in the sun drawing. It was very nice.

In the evening we went to a pub....to watch the 49ers game....and thank's God I had my sketchbook with me!! :)

And Grazyna with Michal's dad.

Hope you all had an amazing Thanksgiving day!

A pick in my sketchbook...off to Napa with the in-laws :)

My husband's dad and girlfriend have been staying with us for these last couple of days.

I enjoy having guests...they make you look at your own city with tourist eyes for a little bit.
Together we rediscover old place and sometimes we discover totally unseen city spots.

The last weekend we went to Sonoma and Napa for some wine testing, they loved it!!!
I tried to do few sketches, we had a great time!
The weather was amazing so on top of enjoying the wine they also enjoyed the weather :)

Living in  Poland and Sweden, Grazyna and Maciej are not getting much sun right now when back home.
As you can get from this sketch  they are trying to do the most out of our California sun.

To do this small watercolor I had to tied Mona on a tree.  at wine vinery I choose sketching over wine testing :)

Mona was not too happy, I had to hurry in the end. I hope I created the idea of fall all around well enough !

Sunday evening relax, drinking wine and cuddling the super tired puppy.

A quick sketch of Mona sleeping on my pencil bags...not very comfortable...but she was exhausted! She could have slept anywhere!

What I love about all the wineries we visited is that they allow you to take you own food and make your own picnic while drinking their wine.

We didn't do any single picnic though... next time!!! :) I love picnic!

The four of us :) We are off to Squaw valley this weekend for some snowboarding/skiing! We ll try to do some sketches too!

Going to pack now! Picasso is coming along too..aiming to work on him in the evenings....let's see how it goes! :)

Coffee Venus.

 Another experiment with coffee....I really love the warm color it adds to the paper! ( a part from liking the smell of course)
Lately I have been looking at lot of posters from the Art Nouveau period and I wanted to try to do something along the same lines myself.
This is my first attempt, more to come.

Coffee Venus.

watercolor, ink, coffee.

This particular illustration was inspired by a Czech painter Alfonse Mucha.
A very good friend of mine brought me a lovely gift from Prague with a small reproduction of one his painting...I love his sweet ladies. Here is my version for you :)
While I was letting it dry by the window it started raining. I noticed it too late though. :(
The rainy was not too bad though, it added a nice texture on top :)



 Some pictures of the work in progress:

Instead of doing the coffee part in my office I move to the kitchen this time!

done!

Smelling flowers...or maybe coffee!

Hello!

A rainy Tuesday this one :)  still working on my Picasso chiaroscuro project ( is never ending, i know!!!) and on some sides fun project.

Yesterday during my coffee break I tried another coffe drawing, I used a coffe intensity 13 ( 13 out of 10, I am using the nespresso coffe !) the smell is pretty strong! as soon as you open the page it gets into your nose and it fills the room :)

This girl is resting and smelling flowers...or maybe not, maybe just coffee !

Smelling flowers...or maybe coffee!

watercolor, ink, colored pencil and coffee.

From my sketchbook

Work  in progress:

A picture I took during my afternoon long walk with Mona, we did almost 6 miles along the beach!!!

Coffee scented lady on paper.

Thoughts over coffee.

Coffee, gouache, ink and watercolor on paper

from my sketchbook

I am still working on the Picasso Chiaroscuro ....is going slow...I am actually a bit bored with it...is I might say so!!  And I am very happy to find a lot of break- excuses...like painting with coffee :)

 During my usual break this morning I made myself coffee...however it was a bit too strong.
My theory: The best way to re-use coffee (if you don t feel like drinking!) is using it as a watercolor.
I thought it might work well as a warm skin tone .... then I started drawing....and things came along.


Work in progress:









I finished with touches of watercolor, gouache and ink pen.

The aroma stays on the paper, so in the end you have a coffee scented drawing...I like it!!
Will probably be exploring coffee painting technique a bit more.
Back to Chiaroscuro now. :(

A peek in my sketchbook today :)

Saturday evening.....what a busy day :)
I spent the morning and afternoon mostly cleaning ... but I found some time to try my new watercolor pen!
Feel it with water, a bit of pressure...and there you go! watercolor time ! :)



I have been obsessing with the 1920's and 1930's illustration style lately... maybe I am watching too much of Downton Abbey (!!)  . Here is something on that style, I also tried to create a old paper effect on the paper .

Warmth.

 ink and watercolor

from my sketchbook

Last week I went on a long beach walk with Mona and we found many fishermen fishing crabs, I took a picture of one of them, here is the watercolor of it.

Caught!

Watercolor

From my sketchbook

new water pen and favorite brush :)

Have a good evening !

First dance.

ink, watercolor, gouache

from my sketchbook.

One more winter themed illustration ( one more to come!!! )

We had a nice storm over here in the morning, now the sun is coming out, beautiful clouds...and no signs of winter AT ALL :)

Have a great day everyone!

Once upon a winter...

Another drawing for my red scarf series :)

Here there is a special guest, sleeping comfy under her dress.

ink, gouache and watercolor

Once upon a winter...

from my sketchbook.

I love this picture I took of the work in progress...

And here is miss Mona...

It didn't snow yesterday but it pretty gloomy and cold, perfect weather for her red sweater :)

Have a great everyone!!

First snow.

ink, watercolor and gouache

from my sketchbook.

First snow.

I don't like very much he idea of my hubby traveling for work... but when he is out I am so more productive  :) 

Last night I did this drawing, playing around with ink, gouache and watercolor.

Today though I spent the full morning cleaning...that means the hubby is coming back ;) and now is time to go back to Chiaroscuro!.

Have a great day everyone!

Waiting for Christmas.

Ink and watercolor on paper

from my Sketchbook.

Waiting for Christmas.

That was my fun Sunday work,  back to get my nails dirty with charcoal now!! Chiaroscuro here I  come! :)

Chiaroscuro assignment, Girl's portrait.

18x24 in

charcoal

Here is my last chiaroscuro project. I enjoyed working on this just because I LOVE FACES :) however the photo reference we had was such a poor quality picture that was pretty frustrating at times.

I am starting a new project tomorrow with my choice of photo...I am very, VERY excited, can't wait to start actually!

After a beautiful summery Saturday today is super foggy here in ocean beach...perfect weather for inside drawing activities...however I wish you a sunny Sunday!!

ciao!!

Peppy Miller, experimenting with charcoal on sketchbook.

Those of you who follow my blog knows how much I love painting and drawing faces (!), but I love experimenting too ....that means that probably I LOVE EXPERIMENTING WITH FACES :)
Here is my last sketch on toned paper.
Since I am surrounded every where by charcoals pieces, charcoal pencils and pieces of paper tissue dirty of charcoal... (not to mention the state of my finger and nails !) I told my self that maybe is  about  time to sketch something with charcoal on my sketchbook.
I looked for a nice image in B&W. I found many , but i loved this in particular: Peppy Miller from the movie The Artist.

pencil and charcoal on toned paper.

Time to take the dog out for a ANOTHER walk now.....I wish my dog picked up an hobby and would let me draw more.....

Then back to my Chiaroscuro project, almost done!!! But a new one is already waiting for me :) This time I chooses the picture though...and I can't wait to start :)

Cat woman and a lady from the West, quick sketches!

Good day everyone!
I am posting some of the 20 minutes pose drawings from my Wednesday clothed figure drawing class.

For the first half of the class the model was dressed up as Cat Woman :) pretty cool outfit!

Here I used charcoal, black marker and almost empty(!) red marker.

 Here I used black marker and colored pencils:

 During the second half of the class she changed .....I don't know what exactly...she looked like a lady from the Western movies maybe...(!)

 

She had a pretty face so I did also a quick profile portrait:

That' is it :)

Lady Mary Crawley. sketch

charcoal, ink and pencil.

sketchbook

I have a small addiction ....  ( a part from drawing and running!) it s called Downtown Abbey,

I could watch it all day long.

After a two years long break I am back to watch it, and I have 3 full seasons waiting for me. HAPPY ME.

I was down with a running nose and crying eyes for the past few days and the perfect medicine has been aspirine and Downtown Abbey. It did actually work since today I am really feeling much better(!). 

While watching it last night I sketched this portrait of Lady Mary into my sketch book. The long awaited wedding has finally happened :).

Back to my chiaroscuro now and off to drawing class in the afternoon.

Amazing weather outside, sunny and 70F..... GORGEOUS.

Have a great everyone!

Asleep. Ink and watercolor Sketch on toned paper.

Asleep.

Ink and watercolor and toned paper.

This is last sketch was inspired by a beautiful pictures from Maja Topcagic. 

Here is a link to her fb page check it out!

https://www.facebook.com/angelicaphotographs?fref=photo

I love her shots, they are so inspiring....I ll probably do a painting from this sketch, as soon as I have time! 

That means ...as soon as I am done with art school this semester :)

A picture of the work in progress :)

Sunny and beautiful this Sunday in Ocean Beach, time to take the doggie out! She has been very VERY patient!

A peek inside my sketchbook

Here is what is happening in my sketchbook lately :)


Last week I went to Palo Alto to visit a friend and I took a couple of pictures of her.
We were both complaining of how much we miss the colors of fall over here where every thing is always green.
So I added a Fall atmosphere to this small watercolor :)

 While walking around my neighboorood ( all Halloween and pumpkin decorated!) I took pictures of this nice blue house. I liked the color combination blue-red-white and orange.
I wanted to add a passer by to the drawing so I just added a reinterpretation of my friend Sabrina. Got her pose and clothes but just sketched in quickly a differente face :)
Sabrina is way cuter!!! ;P

I sketched this one while evening while watching the Giants playing on tv. Hubby's choice.

This sketch was just to keep the boredom away, I don't understand baseball AT ALL.

Drew this one the other day while my husband was meditating ... the doggie too!! :)

Sketched this lady today; inspired by a picture I took during the summer in Cinque Terre. 

Planning to do few more experiment with this drawing...

Here you go :) a quick pick inside my sketch book this week!

Have a great Saturday everyone!
Beautiful sunny and windy over here ;)