Sunset, ballpoint pens

Experimenting with new angles on portability in this new life phase of sketching, knowing that my toddler's needs (diapers, wipes, spare clothes, books, snacks, etc) outweigh the bulky kit of art supplies that I used to carry before.

This little series used a set of 3 double-sided ballpoint pens, total of 6 color options, in a super-slim little pocket notebook. Not terribly elegant, but it's enough to keep me having fun!

(Perseid meteor shower star party, Rooster Rock State Park, Oregon)

Oregon to Alaska

Work trip to Fairbanks, Alaska! Had a lovely time sketching out the window of the airplane as we connected the travel dots today.

Lift-off from Portland Airport; volcanic trio; then watching the Columbia River drain into the Pacific Ocean.

Minimalist coastlines of British Columbia shift to dramatic mountain ranges. 

Envying odd peaks out the far side of the plane, then the landscape gets rugged under my side of the plane too.

Descent into Anchorage

Even lower over Anchorage. Sunlight reflects off ponds; snow-capped peaks; low angle of sun behind trees casts dramatic shadows on the water.

The fabulous mountain view from Anchorage airport.

Lifting off from Anchorage, en route to Fairbanks: already the sky turning golden with sunset at 2:30 in the afternoon!

Mushroom Festival Poster!

Oh my goodness, October is whooshing by so fast. I should probably post how the Mushroom Festival poster turned out, since they are now peppered all over the Eugene and Springfield areas in anticipation of the grand event!

My previous post talked about how I was experimenting with the composition. Having nailed that down, I went into make-it-so-mode. I started off with a fast loose sketch to serve as guidelines...

 Then started settling in on the colors that would go into each area (again, fast and loose).

At this point, I realized that my birds were out of whack! I was so fascinated with the strange morphology and brilliant coloration of the turkey heads that they had become too big for their bodies. It's nice to be able to catch these things before a lot of final detail goes into place. So I went back to my reference photos and started getting serious about those turkey details.

Ah yes. Big birds with tiny pin-heads. Now we are talking.

Now that the pesky heads were figured out, started tackling the turkey-tail mushrooms themselves. The fungi are the stars of the show, after all!

And here we have the final shiny rendering.

Which was then popped into the final event poster! (You can see a nice big version of it on the Mount Pisgah Arboretum website.) Fun!

Like Oaks for Turkeys

Mount Pisgah Arboretum is gearing up for their famous Mushroom Festival at the end of October, and they've invited me to do the festival poster and tee-shirts again this year. The theme: turkey-tail mushrooms with a flock of turkeys wandering through the habitat.

Now, turkey-tail mushrooms like to grow on stumps and dead branches of oak trees. Since I no longer live near the gorgeous oak savannah habitats at Mount Pisgah, I headed up to the Hoyt Arboretum one gray and drizzly morning to wander through their fine collection of oak trees, in seek of inspiring oak compositions. Here's what I drew.

 More Mushroom Festival poster adventures to come!

4-T Trail Hike

Way back at the beginning of August, my friend Gretchin threw a birthday party which involved inviting all of her friends to go for a hike! The 4-T Trail uses a combination of public transportation and hiking paths to make a loop from downtown Portland up through the west hills and then back via the south waterfront. * A principios de agosto, mi amiga Gretchin organizó una excursión por el sendero 4-T. Pasamos por el centro de la ciudad hasta la cima de las colinas del oeste, usando una combinación de transporte público y senderos rústicos en el bosque. 

Most of my time was spent walking and chatting with the wonderful people at the party, but I did get in a few sketches at the main rest stops. * Pasé la mayoría de mi tiempo caminando y charlando con la gente en la fiesta, pero también dibujé en algunos lugares donde nos paramos para descansar. 

When we returned home after the hike, I thought I was headed straight for a nap. But--surprise!--there was a block party going on that had a live band in the street. We ended up hanging out with more nice people and enjoying the music to finish off the day. * Al regresar a la casa, yo intentaba descansar. Pero--¡que sorpresa!--había una fiesta en nuestro vecindario, incluso una banda tocando en vivo en la calle. Pasemos un rato charlando y escuchando la música antes de terminar el día.

Fossil Bed Flowers

I spent the weekend exploring the John Day Fossil Beds area of eastern Oregon with some friends. Our first day, I was obsessed with photographing the numerous wildflowers as we hiked around. But on the second day, I slowed down and let the surroundings soak in by sketching them in watercolor. * Pasé el fin de semana explorando el área del este de Oregon que se llama los John Day Fossil Beds. En nuestro primer día, use la cámara para documentar el gran numero de flores silvestres que vimos al andar por los senderos. Pero en el segundo día, reducí mi velocidad y me dejé observar el paisaje en más detalle por pintarlo con acuarelas. 

My notes in the margins are largely about the birds and other animals that we saw and heard. One thing that I love about camping is the freedom to spend a lot of time flopped in the dirt, listening to the meadowlarks and watching tiny bugs go about their business. * Los apuntes en los bordes de las páginas documentan las aves y otros animales que vimos y oimos en el viaje. Me encanta la libertad que hay, cuando vamos de camping, de pasar el día acostada en el suelo, escuchando los pájaros cantando y mirando los insectitos haciendo sus trabajos rutinas.

Fruit Bats

Winter at the Oregon Zoo. On a cold and rainy day, the cave-like structure of the fruit bat habitat can not only give you protection from the wind and rain, but give you tons of delight, too. * Oregon Zoo en el invierno. La cueva artificial del hábitat para murciélagos frugívoros nos da protección de la lluvia y el viento, y también nos da tanta diversión.

Watercolor and ballpoint pen. * Acuarela y bolígrafo.

Even when the bats are still wrapped in their wings, not wanting to face the cold, they are delightful. And the complex layers of wings and legs all bundled up for warmth is a fancy puzzle! Bat origami. * Aun cuando los murcielagos están aún envueltos en sus alas, no queriendo meterse en el frío del día ya, me encantan. ¡Las capas complejas de alas y piernas que están envueltos para conservar el calor hace un rompecabezas interesante! Origami con murciélagos.

 "He's like a sloth! He's a really fast sloth." * ¡Es como un perezoso--pero muy rápido!

Cape Lookout

Yesterday I grabbed 110 colored pencils; ten pounds worth of field guides to plants and birds and mushrooms; a sunhat and a sweatshirt; and I went out to the Oregon coast. Having soaked up some of those impressionist paintings at the art museum the day before, I was all set to sketch the landscape at Cape Lookout. * Ayer agarré 110 lapices de color; diez libras de libros de identificación para plantas, hongos, y aves; un sombrero para el sol; y un suéter para el frio, también; y viajé a la costa de Oregon. Haber admirado las pinturas impresionistas en el museo de arte el día antes me ayudó mucho en hacer bosquejos del paisaje en Cape Lookout.

The contrast between those stiff trees and the vague and delicate light of the ocean and the fog was very dramatic. * El contraste entre los arboles rígidos y la luz tenue y vago del océano y la neblina era muy dramático.

As night crept in, the sunset took me off guard: a big pink ball was floating in the middle of the gray fog, like a giant balloon that some child had let go. Incredible. * Al atardecer, la puesta del sol me sorprendió mucho—era una bola rosa en media de la neblina gris, como si un nino había perdido su globo rojo. Increíble.  

Elfin Forest in Morro Bay

While visiting Grandma in San Luis Obispo, I biked out to the "Elfin Forest" to go sketching one bright sunny morning. These oaks, while also very old, are much more compact and slow-slung than the trees at the Los Osos Oak preserve I had sketched the day before.

I wanted to hop off the boardwalk and crawl into the snug, shady spaces underneath these lovely craggy trees and spend the day there, listening to the bumblebees and staring at the patterns of the branches...alas that my time in town was so short! But I did get to admire the lovely fractal patterns of the estuary before I biked back into town.

Waking up on the Train

I've been posting a lot from the overnight train trip that I took to San Luis Obispo at the end of June. One of the highlights of that trip was opening my eyes early in the morning and seeing this sunrise whooshing by the windows right in front of me, somewhere north of Sacramento:

It's great to travel with watercolors. Yes indeed.

The Hills of San Luis Obispo

Whenever I travel to the central California coast, I just adore the rolling hills that are dotted craggy old oak trees. As I came into town on the train this summer, my speed-sketching brain of course tried to capture some sense of that distinct and lovely landscape.

Waterscapes from a Moving Train

On my recent 25-hour train trip from Portland, OR to San Luis Obispo, CA, I had a great time sketching the landscapes as quick as I could as they flew by the train windows. This little trio was from when the train entered the northern section of the "Bay Area" of California, near the cities of Martinez and Richmond.

 The stumps of old piers that have long since rotted away are a visual delight.

Using a black brush pen and a gray brush pen really lets me get a scene established fairly quickly, with a degree of depth despite the speed.

Postcards from the Train

Last week I took a train ride from Portland, Oregon to San Luis Obispo, California. Some folks might find the idea of a 25-hour train ride to be daunting. I found it to be a great opportunity to sketch out a heap of little postcards to send to friends!

 See more after the jump...

A Two-Volcano Day

This weekend I went bike-camping! Toted tent, bedding, food, clothes, and all the other gear on my trusty old bike. Depending on your route, it's around 33 or 36 miles from Portland to Champoeg State Park. On the way down, I was pretty focused on the road; but on the way home today I gave myself some spare time to sketch the landscapes I was biking through.

Amazingly clear weather allowed for beautiful views of Mount Hood.

Another view of this lovely mountain from the back roads of Canby. It would be such fun to do a series of prints in the style of Hokusai's "36 views of Mount Fuji." (The two volcanoes share a distinctive stratovolcano shape, so it's not surprising that I make that connection when I look at Mount Hood.)

We had found a delightful historic path up on the bluffs above Oregon City that let us bypass some really nasty stretches of the highway, as well as getting a great view of the river and the city below. Paused to eat carrots and sketch the Willamette Falls on my way back as well.

Facing the other direction on the same bench, I realized I could see Mount Saint Helens as well! A two-volcano day, now that's fancy.

Notice that Mount St. Helens has an entirely different shape--one that is the result of having gone "boom" just a few decades ago! Interesting gallery of before and after pictures. Notice how the mountain used to be kinda pointy?

It was really nice to get out exploring. Hope I can do more of that as the summer progresses. 

Wildflower Season

Mount Pisgah Arboretum invited me to do the poster art for their Wildflower Festival again this year. The event, which is scheduled for May 20, 2012, is always a delightful one--great music, great food, great people, and hundreds and hundreds of local wildflowers with botanists galore to tell you all about them.

The featured flower on the poster this year is the riverine lupine, Lupinus rivularis. Since I am such a fan of talking about sketching as a process, here are some of hidden, early layers in the Photoshop file that show me doodling rough shapes and colors before settling in on the final arrangement.

Similarly, the yellow-rumped warbler went through a lot of different poses and refinements before it ended up in its final state.

Keep your eyes open; volunteers will be putting posters up all over the Eugene/Springfield area soon!

More posts about creating posters for festivals at Mount Pisgah Arboretum:

• Lobster Mushroom
• Monkeyflowers
• Witches's cap with banana slug
• California oatgrass

Fractal Season

New Year's Eve was a clear, nearly-sunny day in Portland. We went for a long walk in Washington Park, and I couldn't keep from admiring all the amazing patterns in the bare tree branches. Fractals, fractals, everywhere! "I love it when trees do the math for me," I declared aloud as we squelched down the muddy trails.

Japanese Garden sketch

 When we wandered through the Portland Japanese Garden, at one point I sat down and tried to capture an impression of the branches, the balance, the lovely asymmetry. It's just a simple sketch, but it did get my eye better-tuned to looking at those branch patterns.

Chinese Garden sketch

New Year's Day saw us out exploring town in the sunshine again. The Lan Su Chinese Garden was closed for the holiday, but I enjoyed sitting on a sunny bench in the entry plaza, using a tube of watercolor to sketch a fabulously eroded rock with--you guessed it--a fancy pattern of bare branches behind it.

I omitted Bill's wheelbarrow here. Gotta pick your battles sometimes.

On January 7, I met up with Urban Sketchers Portland to have a group doodling-party at a member's art studio. The shed in the yard was framed by bare tree branches, and I tried combining ink and watercolor to establish a foreground/background effect. And, as you can see, I'm starting to tackle more and more complex branch patterns. It's still very sparse compared to the detail on the real trees, of course. (See more sketches from Jan 7.)

Now, as you can tell by my weird self-portaits-while-peeking-out-from-behind-the-sketchbook, I'm having some scanner issues nowadays.We recently moved, and have not yet discovered which box holds the oh-so-precious power cord to my lovely, lovely scanner. This has me in quite a tizzy, but it's good to play with options on how to frame one's images from a sketchbook, right?

I've treated myself to a membership at the Independent Publishing Resource Center, partly so I can use their scanners until I get my own up and running again. While most of my scans on January 7 turned out fine, the scanner did have a few moments of adding random crazy orange stripes to the page.

Oh, IPRC scanner. I think these orange stripes are signs of Yeti meddling.

While this makes me flinch in a lot of ways, it also reminds me of the work of Deb Rossi, who adds big "colorblocks" of watercolor over the top of her ink sketches. Maybe the scanner artifacts are a way to start exploring that sketching approach?

It would be prettier with real watercolor, rather than Photoshop.

Hmmmm. That's the joy of sketching in groups (and wrestling with persnickety equipment)--you can find yourself exploring all new ideas.