Cheerful and Colorful Paintings

Cheerful and Colorful Paintings in Oil, Acrylic, Mixed Media and Collage
nancystandlee@sbcglobal.net

Showing posts with label Sketchbook. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Sketchbook. Show all posts

Tuesday, July 1, 2008

Square "D" ~ Kinky 2 ~ Sketchbook/Journaling ~ In Bruges

Square "D"
"Save a seat for Kinky 2" for Canvas by Canvas
This is a commission for a larger version of our "Kinky" painting and you can see it On the Easel in progress.
Our easel paintings will be moved out to our paintings when finished so you might need to just check the Paintings menu if the link doesn't work. It depends on the time factor when you read this post. I finished this yesterday at TUG and we are starting another painting of an old Mercury. (We will have a show there in July and more to come.)
The CBC painters ate Mexican food at El Gabacho and for the second time (yeah, for us) we tucked our sketch books in our bags and sketched something in the restaurant while we waited for our food. The owner loves John Wayne and now I wish I'd tried to sketch something about "The Duke" but just stayed with a pepper shaker (last week it was the salt) and the menu holder and a torn Sweet and Low packet. No, I'm not posting it yet. El Gabacho means Gringo and it's located at The Shoppes at Brownstone Village in Arlington. Good service and good food.
My wish is that we'd started this routine of "lunch sketching" years ago but we always have a lot to discuss and it's a challenge to quieten down and just draw for a few minutes. This whole process has inspired me to get out some of my sketch books and start making entries again. I love sketchbook journaling and blogging has taken up journaling time but there's great joy to me to look through old journals and remember the activities and on some entries I actually quoted short conversations and that is a hoot.
This entry was made in October, 2003, after I purchased Dory Kanter's Art Escapes and there is no telling how many people she has inspired with this book. I wanted some of my painting friends to join me going through this book and thought the best way was to entice them with food. I prepared a lunch with candles!! (probably haven't used them since), found some red backpacks on sale and bought each guest one, invited them over and said no talking, we're having journal school before lunch, and asked them to join me in going through the book, taking turns hosting with a sack lunch, and teaching some of the exercises. The group eventually came to be know as "The Red Bag Ladies", the school exercises idea flailed around for awhile as others didn't like playing "school" like I did, but it evolved into another level of commitment. Thanks, Dory, for a great book and I'm joining you for a Mexico trip one of these days.

The Red Bag Lady Journal Entry 9 x 12 Canson All-Media Journal


The photo below is a favorite way of journal keeping from January 2006 and it is not an original idea and it uses the comic book page look. A quick sketch about the day or week's activity, and color can be added later. You can mention the weather, music, a DVD watched or a New Year's Eve resolution or I see here I glued in information about a medical procedure. Yuk! And I made it through about February before tackling another project. I see I mentioned Robert Burridge "batons", sticks I'd gathered up at a painting retreat in east Texas in preparation for my first Burridge workshop. Since then I'm preparing for my 4th workshop with him in Cloudcroft, NM.


And speaking of DVD's, I watched "In Bruges" this week and would suggest you read about it in the Internet Movie Database in the trivia section if four letter words are a problem and it's rated R. It is a different kind of movie and they're calling it a dark comedy, a morality play filled with symbolism, churches and a religious painting, "The Last Judgment" by Hieronymus Bosch figures prominently.
The Bruges tourist office (www.brugge.be) has produced a movie map and an “In Bruges” package at several hotels in the city.
After viewing the painting "The Last Judgment" my little sketchbook/journaling pages looks pretty benign. But I did learn a little more about Belgium and Bruges and Bosch.

Sunday, November 11, 2007

Drawing Challenge ~ Journal Entry ~ Art Blog

6 x 8 Aquabee Sketchbook using black and brown ElegantWriter pens

O.K. I give. I had to stop what I was doing yesterday (packing my art supplies for the Arne Westerman workshop) and try out Myrna's Friday challenge. Now I see she has a "shape" painting posted and I want to do that. I don't have any Tygerag and don't even know what it is. Is it like Yupo? She states she has to let it dry flat so the paint doesn't run all over...sounds a little like Yupo. I want to try more drawings like this using the water pen to dissolve the ink. I did have to come in with some White-out (it was handy) along the mouth area when I developed a distinct whisker look. I kept wanting to paint instead of draw so I need to work on that.

Tuesday, July 3, 2007

Sold ~ Fish City Grill Arlington by Nancy Standlee

SOLD
7.5” x 11”
Pen and Ink on Fabriano 140 cold press watercolor paper


Some friends, (CC, Cindy, and Barbara) and I decided to eat lunch at Fish City Grill in our newest shopping center, the Arlington Highlands Town Center, at Matlock and I 20. I’ve eaten at some of the Dallas sites and have been eagerly awaiting their grand opening in Arlington. Their motto “Friendly Folks. Serious Seafood” certainly was true yesterday. Maddie was our gracious waitress and told us “We were her best table today”. What a nice compliment for customers to hear. Maybe we were her first table for the day? We didn’t want to leave. The food and companionship were a great combination. Too soon we had to be off to DeSoto to hang our Canvas by Canvas exhibit. The invitation and map is at the very bottom of our home page.
Pen and ink is a favorite medium to use in my journals. You can sketch and then come back later to color the image or as in the case yesterday, take a photo, and then sketch it another day. If you are interested in sketchbook journaling may I suggest these books:

  • How to Make a Journal of Your Life by Dan Price
    Moonlight Chronicles by Dan Price
    The Creative License by Danny Gregory
    Everyday Matters by Danny Gregory
    Art Escapes by Dory Kanter
  • If you are interested in any of these books, click on the Amazon icon and do a search for more descriptions.
    Danny Gregory has a large Yahoo group that has 2549 members.
  • SOLD to Fish City Grill