Ted Nuttall Workshop - Day 1

We had a beautiful sunrise to start off our day today, and were able to take a long walk on the beach here at the Springmaid Resort in Myrtle Beach.

At the workshop we started with a slideshow presentation about things that affect our paintings, followed by a demo by Ted. He had his figure sketched in pencil and then showed us how he works from his black and white reference using different colors. For skin tones he used peacock blue for shadows, quin gold for the lightest areas, and crimson hue for the midtowns. We were asked to bring a figure already sketched and he came around to look at our sketches and offer suggestions to improve the figures.

Here is my sketch of Lucy slightly updated from yesterday.

And here it is with the initial washes on it.

We are working on easels at a steep angle...not the way I usually work on watercolors. I will be going back into the studio tonight to work more on Lucy and if I remember I'll add the updated version at the end of this post. Stay tuned....

ATC Trade

The South Bay Art Association (SBAA) organized an ATC (artists trading card) event at our monthly meeting. I did these cards by first using my Gelli plate to print papers and then doing designs on them in ink. There were about 25-30 people trading cards at the event.

For these I used a permanent ink.

For this one I used my Elegant Writer pen that bleeds.

Here are some of the treasures that I received in the trading.

I am down in Myrtle Beach attending a workshop on painting figures with Ted Nuttal. The workshop starts tomorrow. This may be one of the painting I work on.

Little Vincent's

This was sketched from my car across the street from Little Vincent's in Ronkonkoma. It is a quaint pizza place which according to the signs they have has been voted by readers of the LI Press as the best pizza in Suffolk. I don't know if that is true since I have only had their pizza once. It is too far a drive from my home to get pizza there on a regular basis, but it was a fun place to sketch.

I am presently in route to Myrtle Beach for a watercolor workshop with Ted Nuttal. Here is a link to his website if you want to see his work. http://www.tednuttall.com We have stopped for the night in Emporia, VA and have about 4 1/2 hrs more to drive tomorrow. This is the yearly watercolor trip I do with my sister, Mickey. The class is on painting figures from photographs, so we both had been scrounging around for photos of people. Luckily I take a lot of photos of people...even strangers. Mickey has to rely mostly on family photos even though he said that the first painting should be of someone you don't know. I guess if you work on someone you know you spend too much time trying to get a good likeness. Hopefully I will be able to post photos of the work I do. We meet the instructor tomorrow evening and then the class starts on Monday morning. I'm ready for sunrise walks on the beach every day!!! Yay!

Beach Waves

I can't go for very long without visiting the beach. I sat at Smith Point Beach last week and did a small watercolor sketch of the waves. The wind was really blowing which produced a lot of spray. 

Then I pulled out my iPad and used ArtRage for this digital sketch.

On the Table

I find that when my art group meets in indoors in the evening the table with all our stuff is sometimes as much fun to sketch as the people and objects around us. Here is a small assortment of things that we had on the table the other night.

Little Nook Cafe

Last week I met a few friends at the Little Nook Cafe in West Sayville. We sketched there a few weeks ago and it was fun. Last week most of the local schools had off for President's Week so there were more people around to sketch.

Trees & Amaryllis Bulb Update

Before all our snow melted I did get out to sketch the trees again. It didn't look as pretty as when the snow was on all the branches but I enjoy seeing the patters of the white snow and the grass emerging in the melting areas.

I had pretty much given up on my amaryllis ever blooming. My last post was on Jan. 19, but low and behold when I checked the plant yesterday there were two green leaves emerging from the top of the bulb. They aren't big, but thy are there. Yay!!!!

A Gift

As our families grew we seem to have spread out across the country more. This summer my husband's nephew, Gary married his love, Julie. We were in Washington, DC for the wedding. Around Christmas I decided that I was going to try to do a small painting of one of their wedding photos. Since they went to Julie's family in GA for Christmas there was no rush to get it done. Of course I started it at the end of November and didn't touch it again until this past week because they were supposed to be coming up to NY for the first time since the wedding. They were really touched that I did the painting and loved it. Here it is for you to see.

Gary and Julie came up this weekend for my father-in-law's 95th birthday. Here is a photo of the family from the party on Saturday.

Left to right: Gary, Julie, Ada (my father-in-law's special friend), Pop, Karen (my sister-in-law). her daughter, Beth my husband, Jerry, and me.

Tea Shop

West Sayville has a wonderful little tea shop called Infuse Tea Bar. It sells loose teas, teacups, teapots, biscuits,  pastries, and just about any merchandise that is tea related. I've been there a few times but this time it was empty enough at the counter that I asked if I could sketch. While the owner told me about some of the teas and how she got interested in them, I sipped a chocolate toffee tisane and sketched. It was a wonderful way to sketch on a cold day!

Maya

Our model this week at our portrait group was Maya. I did one full portrait of her.

Then I did a quick full figure sketch of her.

Dinner

Yes, another sketch of food. This was part of our Valentine's Day dinner. We had shrimp cocktail (which was gone by the time I decided to sketch), lasagna, and home-made Italian bread. Of course I was too hungry to sketch when I started. This was a second serving...I was a little more patient then. lol

Clam Shells

Our menu the other day included linguini with white clam sauce. As the empty shells started piling up I decided I had to do a sketch. I guess I am becoming one of those people who sketches their food...if so, I am in good company. :)

So Many Choices

When I go to Starbucks there are so many choices of sketch scenes...just like menu choices. lol

Do I sketch the people at the counter, or the people at the tables, or both?  The other night it was both.

iPad Sketching

Last week I needed to have my car inspected and get new tires, so I headed over to Mavis Tires in Patchogue to have it done. I brought along my iPad figuring there would be a wait...and I was right. I can't complain since they are always so nice there. It was much more fun to sketch the view out the window of the cars being worked on than sit and watch the TV which is set on the local news channel which repeats the same news every 5 minutes or so. lol I can always use some iPad sketching practice.

Portrait

On Tuesday only one of my portrait groups me. I sketched Carla (or I think that is her name). It was her first time modeling but she did a good job and told us she straightened her hair just for us. lol I would love to do it if it is curly. She will be back next month.

Happy Valentine's Day

Happy Valentine's Day!!!

For Valentine's Day Jerry got me a bouquet of rainbow roses. The petals are all different shades of pink and purple mixed in the same flower.

I googled them and this is what Wikipedia says about them:
The rainbow rose is a rose that has had its petals artificially coloured. The method exploits the rose's natural processes by which water is drawn up the stem. By splitting the stem and dipping each part in different coloured water, the colours are drawn into the petals resulting in a multicolored rose. With these changes to the rose, it causes them to not live as long as an uncoloured rose.[1][2] Besides roses, other cut flowers like the chrysanthemum, carnation, hydrangea, and some species of orchids can also be colored using the same method.[3]

I'm not sure I like the brightly colored, sort of crayola colors but the ones I have are lovely.

I hope your Valentine's Day is filled with love!!! Enjoy!

Winter Fun

The other day I took a ride to Cathedral Pines Park to see what the snow was like there. I parked by this fence and started this painting. A car pulled up nearby and a man got out to put on cross-country skis. Luckily he came my way!!!

Brookfield Place - Part II

Our day at Brookfield Place's Winter Garden Atrium continued with a great lunch upstairs at the food court. There were some really good choices and I had one of the best BBQ brisket sandwiches! It was so good that I didn't even stop to think about drawing it. lol

After lunch I headed down to the main floor again. This pastry, cookie, candy shop looked so inviting. I knew I would be in trouble if I entered (especially since they were giving out samples of something) so I sat at a distance to sketch this.

Here is a photo of the impressive installation of the luminaries.

The lanterns were so tempting I had to do another sketch of them. This time I included some people. 

I did start a sketch on my iPad going into the city in the morning, but then I met my friend as the train reached her stop and didn't finish it then. I worked on it a bit more after she left the train going home. Most of it was done from memory after we pulled out of the station in the morning. lol

Brookfield Place - Part I

On Sunday the NYC Urban Sketchers met at the Winter Garden Atrium at Brookfield Place in downtown Manhattan. It is a beautiful 10 story glass pavilion with views towards New Jersey. As a special treat there was an art installation that was inspired by the Festival of Lights in Thailand. 650 lanterns were suspended overhead, scattered between the palm trees. The lanterns changed color throughout the day as people put their hands on the touch-sensitive podiums. It was beautiful!

We arrived a little late due to subway route changes and found that several of the sketchers had been stopped by security. We were told that we could sketch but couldn't sketch the structure of the building. lol People were taking photos of the building, but we couldn't sketch it? That didn't make much sense.

I took my chances and for my first sketch I included the arched windows looking out towards NJ. This sketch was done directly in watercolors.

We had quite a few sketchers including some board members from Urban Sketchers who were in NYC for meetings. Here are a few photos of the other sketchers. Wasn't it nice of them to provide tables and chairs for us?

 My second sketch also included the luminaries which had changed color. I sketched directly in ink and then added the watercolors for this one.

At 12:15 we gathered together for a quick "show and tell" because the board members had to leave for a meeting. We each showed our work from the morning and then posed for a group photo.

By that time we were ready for lunch...more tomorrow.

Snow Sketches

While I was at the Bayard Cutting Arboretum the other day I decided to take a walk around and sketch a few snow scenes. I took my small sketchbook, my Elegant Writer pen, my water brush, and a paper towel. I had my snow boots on as well as my hat and fingerless gloves. It was fun to stop in different locations as I walked and sometimes trudged through the snow. There were quite a few other people walking around too. Every once in a while I would hear this "swish" as a large pile of snow slid or slipped off a section of a tree. I made sure not to stand anywhere where it might land on me. lol These sketched took only a few minutes each. The Elegant Writer gets such lovely colors when you hit the ink with water. I didn't stay out too long because I didn't want the water or the ink to freeze.

Snowy Tree

When we were finally all dug out from the snowstorm I headed over to the Bayard Cutting Arboretum in Oakdale to paint the snow. I wanted to capture the snow before it softened too much and fell off the trees. I figured I would be able to sit in the parking lot and paint a view from my car. This tree was right in front of me and I couldn't resist that wonderful speckled bark. This time I had to leave the white of the paper for the snow. lol I'm happy with this one.

Snow in Acrylics

As some of you are aware we have been having some snowstorms here in NY. The other day after the snowfall all the trees and branches were covered with a coating of white snow. It looked like a winter wonderland. When it finally stopped snowing I wanted to paint it. It is so hard to capture that kind of snow in watercolor because you have to either paint around the whites on the branches or mask them out. So I did something different for me and painted this in acrylics so I could add the whites later. I stood out on my balcony while I did this so in addition to working with different materials I had to worry about it drying and freezing on my pallet. lol

Tea Cups

A friend from my sketching group invited us over the other night to sketch some of her collection of tea cups. I did just a few. LOL She had an entire carton of them, all with different designs. I felt like my inner Liz Steel was coming out. My thanks to Pat for her hospitality. It was a lot of fun!

Animals, Animals

One day this week we had really mild temperatures. I decided to go out and actually paint/sketch outside of my car. I headed over to the Suffolk County Farm, which turned out to be a lot more muddy than I expected. I love sketching the cows there because if they are not out in the far pasture, they are eating at a trough and they usually stay put. I sat in my chair and started sketching when plop, plop, plop...it started to drizzle. It does make a bit of a problem because I was using wc pencils in addition to watercolors, but I kept going. The drizzle only lasted minutes.

Next I headed over to the sheep...who don't stay still. If someone walks by they all meander over to wherever that person stops. I ended up working on 3 small sketches on the same page adding to each as that sheep or a similar looking one looked like it was in the same position. I'm happiest with the one in the top right corner. I think I got his shaggy wool just about right.