Weatherhead

1/18/16 is the day I started this.   It was done from a drawing, but with a good amount of thumbnails, etc. to evaluate the layout possibilities.  If I find some of the sketches here maybe I can get them posted as well...

desk chair

This old desk chair in the office with its wooden seat and no cover makes a perfect spot for the laptop to sit when it happens to land in there.  But this day for some reason the chair was in the living room and catching the light from the big window so the lights and darks were pretty interesting.  This was a larger than the usual sketch format of about 9" x 12" -all pencil.

Hall dresser

I walk past this scene a gazillion times a day. Why then does it take so long to see the possibilities for a drawing?  One night in the reduced lighting it finally became clear to me... I like the result, although it is not as dark as the actual scene.  The notes on the drawing say only,"1/8/16    9:20 pm"   I guess I was concerned about resetting the scene on another night when I went to finish it.  I did not need to worry-  although most of it was done in greatly reduced lighting, once the main idea was on the paper, the rest did not need such careful reproduction of the scene.  Really, it did take me a few nights to finish it up, sometimes working on it only a few minutes for lack of time or motivation.

Bob's Windmill

Our neighbor, Bob, who has been a history buff much of his life, helped locate and install the windmill  on this private property.  The Civil War era Miller homestead miraculously survived Quantrill's raid in 1860's.  Lawrence was a hotbed of pre-civil war bickering.  Places like this are a great inspiration for a little bit of reflection about the days of "yester-year".             It has been a warm, wet winter. So what would usually be snow has mostly been rain. This day, near the end of the year, when it began to snow, I began to get antsy.  Soon I was in the pickup looking for a place to walk and draw.  This place has been waiting for just such a day I guess.  I could shield the small sketch pad with my body just enough to keep the extra fine sharpie working. They don't work well running in water!  Actually, I guess the snowfall was even less impressive than it appears in the painting. Some things are easy to exaggerate.  I did this watercolor directly from the ink drawing.   I think it worked ok.    Done on the 10th of January from the sketch of 12/28/15.   10" x 12" Canson 140# w/c paper.  Guess I should find the ink sketch to post as well, but as we are getting ready for a weeks trip, I do not have the time right now to look for it....

bug fence

The shadows were interesting.  So I had to do 'em.  The rest was kinda just where it went from there. It was in Warner Robins at the kids place.  There is always plenty to do when there is family around, so having time to sketch is not high on the priority list. More than once we sat out on this deck in the late evening with these things burning for protection from the few bugs, but we often were sitting out in cooler weather, when there really were no bugs.  Ink and graphite drawing in a 5" x 9" pad.

off season

This poor plant has been sitting on our cabinet all winter wishin' spring would come. It has a hole or 2 eaten in the leaves and a stub of a stem going nowhere. But the greens of the plant and the pot, and the white and black of the dish and handwork make for good contrast and subtle color variations.  Of course the stretch of the leaves to the side give the piece a sense of direction it might otherwise not have...
The plant is insignificant, but the handwork came from our parents
I think, and the octagonal bowl was given us by a neighbor.  The painting was done on the 23rd of January, or maybe finished that day.  It was done in a Canson Montval pad of a 9" x 12" format. This was the first use for me of this paper. I like the way it works, though the jury may be out on how quick it is, or how well it takes abuse.

Below are the preliminary studies which for some reason in this case I seem to have way overdone; I did some studies of the shape of the bowl, as well as of the overall layout and shading.

winter pots

Another quickie from Georgia.  These pots had been sitting all winter under a bench on the deck, waiting for the spring that had now arrived.  We did not get to stay long enough, though to see them put to use, but I am sure they were.  Now another Georgia trip is in the works. But the kids have moved from this place to one in the country with a little more room - and another kid I might add! This drawing is all ink, no pencil in a 5" x 9" pad.

Southbound

I have tagged this as "Rural Lawrence".  But what does that mean?  What was rural 30 years ago is town now.  This particular place sits surrounded by town, and waiting for development. All that still stands of the house is the fireplace. The rest went up in smoke...  I transferred the basics of the sketch to watercolor paper by hand then did this painting. That was a couple days after the sketch below.

Here is the sketch, done in a 9" x 5" pad. I did this on a Saturday I was remembering, but I see the notes say Monday.  I had been visiting the park across the road sometimes for some birding or sketching. This day I walked south near the road and got this sketch.  A good sketch has half a chance of turning into something.  You can see from the notes that I did not include them in the painting- nor use them in the name...  You can also see the paint splashes on the sketch from when I was doing the painting. When the sketch is close enough to the painting to refer to it is also close enough to get a bit of color added to it...    This was it. I did no other sketches or studies, before jumping right into the painting.

the lineup

This was the lineup inside the front door of the kids townhouse. Dad's boots and Grandpa's boots as well.  Along with some of the grand-daughter's crocks. As well as other shoes. Not usually this crowded, unless there is company in the house. It is a subject that has endless interest and possibilities.

Mack-National

A page of sketches in a 5" x 9" pad done from my pickup one lunchtime at the shop, where I work from time to time.  These sketches are fun to do and you learn a bunch about stuff when you do 'em. You learn stuff about the subject, about drawing, as well as about yourself...

Asberry Oaks

Asberry Oaks was done from the sketch.  I was stopped at the quiet corner of Dakota and Ohio  when I said, "gotta do this sketch".  So straddling the bicycle in the middle of the street that is what I did... These pin oaks are all over the town -all over the mid-west!  They are not as monstrous as they appear- the perspective puts 2 trees together, making them seem huge.   The subdivision has been there since the 1950's though, and the trees as well I suppose, so they are not young.

Done on Canson 140# paper about 9.75" x 11.5"

Here is the sketch. From a 5 x9 pad.  The notes showing beside it are from the page below it; there is only the title on this sketch. But it was done on a peddle to Checkers for their 19 cents a lb bananas on Tuesday, the 22nd of December. The painting was done that day or the next.

E 11th street

The notes on the sketch from which this came read: "E 11th  N 1550 Rd.   2/23/15   30 degrees  4:00 PM  Clear."   Yet in the sketch there are some clouds in the west and the sun shines over and through them, catching the tops of the building, but leaving this east side in the hazy shadow. So I guess it was not completely clear, at least in the west.  That was in a 9" x 12" Canson sketch pad.  The painting is more like 11" x 14".  These are definitely winter colors subdued by a  winter sun that back lights the scene.  There is another painting I have done from a sketch I did at home inspired by another place along this road in that same sun.

cropland in the Kaw bottoms

Although it was not in this part of Kansas where I grew up, still did spend a bunch of time as a kid on the bottoms of the Republican river  which comes out of Colorado, southern Nebraska, and eventually feeds into the Kaw.  So scenes such as these are not unfamiliar to me.  The cottonwood groves; the willows; rustling of leaves in the prevailing wind can suppress all other sound, leaving one numb to even the crunch of your own steps in the grass.  This painting was done from a sketch done mostly from memory this summer while the corn was still partly green.  There is no day or month recorded on the margin- only" Summer 2015".    It was done on Canson 140#  paper 9" x 12" I believe.

teenager

Guess who!!    Some high school kids have a characteristic teenage stance or posture. Some do not. This particular grandkid of mine is quintisential teenager. Even while sitting on the couch watchin' the tube.

bypass elevation

The notes on the sketch for this painting say: " Early over late beans    under bypass" and "Gray beans w/ yellow over" (in other words the closer beans were already dusty brown but the further beans still yellow).  and then "silver wire."  Seems to me the beans in back were probably planted later than the front beans, due to some dirt work associated with the bypass or maybe some flooding by the creek early on - it was pretty wet this summer. The elevated bypass runs from rt to left in front of the last tree line in light browns. The distinct difference between the 3 rows of trees did not turn out so distinct in my sketch as in real life but I remembered how it actually was and tried to return to that clarity in the painting. You can see the "silver" power lines hanging in front of the trees but I did not do the ones on the right side with the same approach- seemed to me they should be in shadow.    The date was 10/9/15, so the painting was done that night after the bike ride that took me there, as it was already afternoon when the sketch was done.  The back of the 5" x 9" sketch pad says: "Three Hills  8/15" so this is the pad that went with us to Alberta in August.  Cannot say I was too happy with the tone of this photo- the original is a bit lighter, as the day was a bright fall day before harvest.

Metro center

I had ran with my son-in-law to the north side of Minneapolis to replace a defunct washing machine. It was not early in the day by the time we finished our errands and headed down the interstate.  Don't get many chances here to do a city-scape on the fly, so this was a good exercise.  Maybe you can recognize the exit and the bridge with the lightposts above it.

Lyon County

Some days it has just been too long since you did any painting. That can be after a long hiatus, or after spending the good part of a week painting. Not that I ever have a block of time like that, but maybe a simple painting each day or so.  This was such a day, and I had this scrap of paper waiting to be used.  Then I found a thumbnail sketch from a recent trip up through Lyon county and this, after a prelim sketch to lay out the concept, was the result. We sometimes take the back roads home from down south, cutting through the Flint Hills by a different route for a change. This barn is the kind of stuff you might see whenever you travel in the mid-west- especially Kansas.  

Done on Canson 140# paper about 4 1/2" by 12" on the day before Halloween though the thumbnail was done a few days before.

This is the quick study done between the thumbnail done on the road and this done just before the water color.  It has the note, "all sky" to remind me to stay focused when doing the painting.  Also the name "Lyon Co." to further clarify the name in my mind.

201 W 8th

Maybe we've done enough drawings of this stretch of 7th between Vermont & Tennessee Streets. Then again maybe not.  Today I was counting the buildings there. There are five. I've done some of them all.  Probably 6 or 8 of this one, and I was actually contemplating another one yesterday, which because I had no sketch pad along then or today, I did one from memory this morning.  This drawing however was done on location but with only some of the most important detail rendered, That is easier for me with buildings than with cars, because I have had so much more practice doing buildings. I keep saying I need more practice on the automotive end.  This drawing was done with a reflection of the side mirror in the paint of the door. It is not a shadow, as the scene was highlighted by the sun from the south behind the building.

Billtown crossing

This is the scene from the Hamm shop on 24 highway east of Perry. I have seen this view for some 16 years, but just now thought it should get put to paper.  Seems like the sketch was done one day about noon on a scrap of paper in my pocket as I was headed out the door. If you have something somewhat memorized, then a few quick scribbles are about all it takes to turn it into something. The note on the painting says only "10/8/15  Billtown Crossing".   I think the crossing needed a little clarity in my sketch as it was transferred to paint. What I was wanting to catch primarily was the relationship of the trees in shadow to the houses in full summer sun.   Seems like it turned out OK.  It was that time of year when some of the fields were bare and dark from the recent rain.  This was done on a scrap of Arches paper about 6 or 7 inches tall.

a little entertainment

There is an order to these quick sketches of our kids place under the patio windows done just before Thanksgiving. First the lamp, then the chair, now this cabinet & TV. From left to right. I did the individual drawings to catch specific things at different times, and just to do a little drawing rather than a complicated study.   That is a problem, when you think more info makes it more complicated or somehow better.  Details do will not necessarily make a better drawing.  I like the angles and negative spaces & how they relate to each other and the overall drawing.  This drawing seems to catch some of the depth front to back even as simple as it is, and maybe because it is not cluttered.