Au Revoir

... for now. I've pretty much abandoned this blog for the time being, and am posting solely on Janet Planet Printmaking and Art. There was too much overlap in subject. See ya there!

Avalon, Santa Catalina Island - The Casino

Catalina Island has become speckled with condos and crowded with tourists over the years, but in some ways it's still charmingly stuck in the 1930's-60's. The building in the drawing at left is the Casino, built in 1929, with beautiful art deco style murals lining the inner walls of the circular ballroom inside. The ballroom was also used as a theater last time I checked. The lobby houses a museum to preserve Island history and memorabilia. Avalon is the main and port city on the island, and is about 26 miles from mainland Southern California (according to the famous song; but actual miles vary) and is part of Los Angeles County.

Twenty-six miles across the sea

Santa Catalina is a-waitin' for me

Santa Catalina, the island of

Romance, romance, romance romance

--The Four Preps

I don't know about finding romance, romance, romance, romance on the island, but it is definitely a magical place if you can escape the crowds. As for the drawing, I found an old postcard from the 1950's among my scrapbooks and used it as my reference photo. Drawn with Micron Sakura pens. Size is 9"x 5".

Mandala Art

I've drawn literally dozens of these colorful mandalas, all conjured up in this little brain of mine. And they are very meditative to draw.

People Heads!

Ooooooooh, how I love drawing groups of people like this, in bright colors! It's soothing. And the bright colors are just plain fun and playful. I've read that pale colors are considered sophisticated in the art world. Dang! I'm so devastated... Black & White: I do adore bright colors, but drawing these heads in black and white was almost as much fun. These two black and white drawings are actually the same, but I've turned one upside down because every other face is upside down. Go Doodlers!

My Zen Zone and my Anti-Zen Zone

I was truly in the ZONE when I designed and drew this urn. Or you could say I was feeling the Zen vibes, calming and meditative. Both are right on. When I draw highly detailed images like this, I relax into the Zone quite easily, and I slowly, patiently get it done. But here's the Anti-Zen Zone part: If the image is not highly detailed like this one, I usually have no patience at all. I draw too fast, become impatient, and frustrate myself terribly, because the product is sloppy, of course. I want to draw and paint larger images, and I do it all the time. I just don't do it patiently, and my impatience kills off a good percent of my artwork.

Ornamental Art

This is a leaf design, inspired by the old 15th century illustrated manuscripts, with their miniature images, leaves and scroll designs. I try to draw them symmetrically, but it is hard to do... Is this art nouveau style, or art deco?? I'm not sure and I guess it really doesn't matter. I was trying to make a "From the Library Of..." or "Ex Libris" bookplate, but I never finished it because of Photoshop Operator Error. (I was the knuckleheaded operator.) I wanted to use the computer to insert the letters so they'd be pretty, but couldn't figure out how to do it. For some reason, though, I was able to insert the words "From the Library Of" into the image below.

ss Giovanni e Paolo

Circa 1700, Rome. The image includes the church, houses for Christians (used around the 2nd and 3rd centuries), a monastery, a bell tower, and more. The area was restored and renovated a couple of times. I find the buildings beautiful and their history interesting. The chapel has a fresco and a Madonna/child painting going back to the 13th and 15th centuries, respectively.

Sand Dollar in Bas Relief

Here's a pen and ink drawing I drew. In Photoshop Elements, I added blue then used the Bas Relief filter. I guess I should show you the pen drawing as well, so you have the full "before and after" comparison.

Stairwell couple

I liked the way this couple was backlit on the stairwell.

Freestyle Highrises

For some reason I want to draw buildings, but I find them difficult and tedious to draw, mostly because I have to use a ruler. Not just for straight lines, but for measuring floors, windows, etc. For these simple little sketches, though, I threw caution to the wind and went freestyle!

Three Ladies

"Sad Reese," I named her. "Skirted Lady" is a rather large pen drawing, considering most of mine are about half this size. This is 9x12". Last, this one was a sketch, one of those nighttime snacks. But I liked how she turned out -- the loose lines kept her lively.

Controlled Chaos

I called this "Controlled Chaos," though it was never chaotic to draw. It falls under the category of a doodle, but once the doodling's done, making it uniformly sensical is the part that's art.

Ye Olde Pear and Moth

Alphabet, Stylized

I'm not the first person to stylize alphabet letters; in fact there are hundreds on the internet. These were done for specific people.

Leopard

Hydrangea

I can't grow hydrangea plants, but I did manage to grow just a few blossoms on a plant before it up and left me.

My Ponytail Girl

Something draws me to this girl; I made her up in my head, but having done so I admit I am drawn to her. Strange, huh? There's another girl I've painted that I feel even close to, which is stranger since neither person exists.

Balistidae, a fish

Guess which one was altered in Photoshop Elements? The other was stippled with a pen; no other marks but stippled dots, one after another, for hours... I did a few other stippled drawings but it's pretty hard on the hand.

California Guy

Delapidation

I recently heard that people love old, tired buildings. No one has lived in this one for a long time.

Leslie Street

My dad's childhood home. The street is gone now; a freeway took over.

Baby Half-Head

This baby (I like to call him "my little half-head") is a pencil/charcoal drawing, drawn from a lesson by an amazing pencil drawing teacher J.D. Hillberry. He really does give you excellent step-by-step instruction for drawing this baby halfhead. BUGGLETS This is part of a "Bugglets" series I started drawing years ago, and still draw occasionally.

Isle of Mull

I hope you can see the hundreds of squares in this drawing (otherwise, get out your magnifying glass because this took HOURS!)... It's about 6x9", all ink. Scotland has amazing landscapes, like this view in Tobermory, on the Isle of Mull. Charcoal on paper, 6x9".

Catalina Island, The Casino

Judith, After Klimt

I used to confuse the art of Klimt and Schiele, who were contemporaries in the early 1920's. In fact, for months this blog post was entitled "Judith, after Schiele." I've corrected it after receiving an email from a woman this morning who politely pointed out the error. It's funny (peculiar) that I used to confuse them, because I recently learned that Klimt and Schiele were friends, close enough to hang out together. An aside on art films: A couple weeks ago I rented the feature-length film called "Klimt," starring John Malkovich in the leading role. As much as I admire Klimt's art and Malkovich's acting, the movie sucked! I also rented a biography called Klimt and fell asleep. The next day I tried again and it was really a waste of time. Awful. In fact, most of the films and documentaries I've rented on artists have been terribly boring, except for the Sister Wendy series. I do like those DVD's. Her interpretations of old masters' pieces are eye-opening.