The last several days I've been playing with the alcohol based markers on a discard photo paper. It's intriguing to watch the way colors interact with each other. Sometimes, a color of the same family would repel each other and others play nicely with blending. In other words, I'm having fun with this medium.
Rainy, dreary, pretty lousy Christmas Day weather here in the Northeast. Spent most of the morning browsing the web and on FB. Lots of holiday greetings from friends and relatives. By accident, I had an interesting result from experimenting with some alcohol markers on an old Staples inkjet photo paper stock of size 4" x 6". I think this can be further exploited for potential. Merry Christmas!
Today was a work from home day even though not much snow accumulation from Nor'easter Gail last night. I was glued to my desk at home plus I haven't done any new sketching in a couple of days. I was itching for something to sketch. Then it struck me to do this scene before me. I know it was meant to be a practice thus the discard envelope paper I used for this one. Anyway, it was good to see something so close to that idea I had in mind. Feeling satisfied with this practice.
With the short time left of my lunch, I was looking for something to sketch. There I found it in the small reflected image on the driver's side-view mirror. The daylight was strong and parts of the industrial building across the street was bathe in light and shadows. This time, I used the small watercolor palette I have in my kit and loosely applied blue and red color mix for the big shapes in this small 2.5 x 3 inch sketch. Once I got home, I added some ballpoint pen lines.
Grocery shopping is a necessary activity and we do ours on a weekend schedule. Inserting my sketching activity on whatever down time is available during shopping makes it even more fun and interesting. Here, I parked myself at a neutral corner and observed the crowd near the seafood section. Lots of movement as shoppers come and go. I try to get as much gesture from a figure, knowing that at any minute, this same figure would be gone. Sometimes they stay still long enough to get a decent mark of a gesture. Once I have a few of them, I add and mark some lines for the background, trying to make a good mental note of how the scene looks like. Memory is fleeting so a picture also helps recreate the scene.
At times, I spend my lunch time break in the car at the back parking lot. This view from the driver's seat is usually what I see with rows of cars nearby the industrial building on the right.
Back to doing some of the pre-marked sheets and making something out of it. This time, I just sketched what was in front of me. This was the hallway leading to the bedroom.
We usually have a main salad dinner meal once or twice a week. Not often do I do still life sketch until that time when I saw all the salad ingredients laid out on the chopping board. Made the line sketch and applied watercolor later that evening. Well, here's what came out of that sketch. And, yes, we had a nice salad dinner meal.
Hello! It's nice to do a new post after a couple months of inactivity. Although I've been doing the sketches fairly regularly, I just don't spend time posting them here as much as the other social media sites.
This neighborhood corner scene near work is something I've been wanting to do for a while. We got off early at work yesterday afternoon so I took that time to do the sketch in ballpoint pen. Colors were later added at home using watercolor and gouache.
It was late Saturday morning when I drove by this back service road parallel to the Main Street in Port Chester, NY. The laundromat rear entrance was something that caught my eye. I sketched it with a ballpoint pen and later used that sketch as a basis for this style of sketch that I've been exploring since late last year/beginning of this year.
I had to come back the next evening, after work, to the train station and parked my car two rows over to get a closer look at the alley scene. This time, the brick building became my focus. It took some time to complete the shading process at home.
At the corner of Mill St. and North Water St. is a brick building that was my sketch subject last weekend. Here, I included my sketching process shots. I'm thinking this sketch would come out better with a watercolor wash....perhaps.
One evening, I drove toward the Port Chester train station and saw this alley from the parking lot. The warm light reflected on the side panel of the beauty shop parlor from the brick building next to it was what drawn me to this scene.
Back in the days when I used to work in the city, I would walk by this garage shop daily to get to the train station. I had also sketched this garage shop at last year's Fourth of July fireworks display. I think it should be interesting to sketch the front view of this building next time.
A building demolition in downtown Port Chester, NY two years ago revealed some beautiful ghost signs on its adjacent building wall. Curious as to how the heavy machineries got to that demolished building location, I discovered the E. Broadway Street on the back side of the building, running parallel along the train tracks.. Last weekend, I went on foot to sketch at a spot on E. Broadway St. I drove by this very bumpy road a couple of times before hand so I kind of know what to expect. Glad the weather was nice, too.
It was nice to have gone for a short drive to Katonah, NY last weekend. We made our first stop at John Jay Homestead and Historic site for lunch, not knowing there was a Saturday Farmer’s Market there, too. I made a sketch of the barn and the fun chickens roaming around their enclosure. On the way home, we stopped by downtown Katonah and got us some coffee. And just like that, the day was done!
