Scarcely even a baby now

Looking through my sketchbook of late, I found myself thinking--"Oh man, there's almost nothing but sketches of the kiddo in here. I bet folks might get annoyed if I only ever post that stuff..."

And then I did a double-take and decided that I should be proudly embracing this life stage both in person and on the blog. So here you go, internet: some almost-recent doodles of this growing changing toddler. Enjoy!

Sensible hats and tired feet: #WCsketch

I've put up two posts from the 2nd Annual West Coast Urban Sketchers Sketchcrawl event over at pdxusk.org, so I figure I'll drop my last handful of sketches here just for kicks. It was a warm day and I was a little tuckered from the various planning committee duties (still am, in fact--almost typed "wet coat" instead of "west coast" above!) But as we wrapped up the second round of sketchbook sharing in the afternoon, my hands found a new pencil and I found myself whacking out a few more doodles.

Part of the motivation was the fact that Paula's hat was nearly the same vermillion color as the pencil in my hand...

...And sensible summer hats were really such a staple of the sketching toolkit on that very warm summer's day.

Having packed everything up and loaded myself, my gear (too much gear), and the baby onto the city bus, I started to realize how tired the day's adventure had left me. When the kiddo got a bit fussy just two blocks from home, I was only too glad to take a break in a shady spot of overgrown lawn at the local schoolyard. She had a great time tugging on grass flower stalks while I leaned up against the fence, drank the last of my water, and thought, "Whew! What an adventure!"

Back-of-envelope baby sketches

OK, as this darling baby kiddo gets older, sketching gets more difficult for me. She's ambitious! She wiggles! She wants to put every darned thing right into her mouth!

But I have been able to whack out a few back-of-an-envelope opportunistic sketches, usually when she drops off to sleep in my lap.

Sometimes those sketches happen on the back on an incoming envelope...

...and sometimes it's on the back of an outgoing envelope. 

(These sketches were from March and April, and she's changed so much already since then!)

Out and About

We've been using stretchy cloth chest-carry wraps to schlepp the baby around town, whether on foot or by public transit.

A couple of times now I've tried sketching the view of the baby, snug in the carrier an layers of winter clothes, napping against my chest.

By contrast, when she's out of the carrier and wiggling around, it can be a lot harder to sketch her! I attempted this doodle with my non-dominant hand, while the baby was sporadically kicking that arm as she nursed, no less--adorable chaos.

Evening Watercolors

Our baby tends to need a feeding in the middle of the night--3 am or thereabouts. I've done a few experiments with sketching her in watercolor during these times. At first I was going about it in a more realistic way...

(That adorable moment when she's done eating but her mouth is still gaping open for a while...)

 ...but it has been much more fun to let the low light and the sleepy brain take the sketches in more abstract directions.

I may not do a lot more of these at this juncture, since it squiggs me out a bit to have the paint supplies out in the same time and space as feeding time. Rule #1--don't eat paint. We learned that quite clearly from Van Gogh already.

 But this has been a lovely excuse to bust out the beautiful travel sketchbook that my aunt Lois made for me. (Parenthood is a type of voyage, isn't it?) If you're reading this, Lois, I think the choice of watercolor palette is dead-on awesome and the whole unit works like a charm!

Meeting Notes

A co-worker was trying to remember who had attended a certain meeting. * Una compañera de trabajo estaba tratando de recordar quienes assistieron a una reunión.

She ended up using my doodles on the paper that covers the meeting tables to figure it out. * Ella usó los dibujos que yo había hecho en el papel sobre la mesa para averiguarlo.

Sketchbook Archives: Portrait Series

My charming husband is going to have an article in Bicycle Times magazine. They asked him for an author photo--and he asked me if I could find that one sketch I did of him, years ago... * Mi esposito escribió un artículo para la revista Bicycle Times. Le pidieron un foto para incluir en la página de los autores--y él me pidió si yo podía hallar el dibujo que yo hice, años en el pasado...

Chris, 2000. Ballpoint pen/bolígrafo

My old sketchbooks are not well organized at the moment, so I had to look through them all. I love this drawing of Chris, but that's not the one he was thinking of. * Mis libros de diubjos no son bien organizados ahorita, así que tuve que mirar casí todos. Me encanta este dibujo de Chris, pero no es el retrato de que él estaba pensando.

Chris, 2006. Ballpoint pen/bolígrafo.

I also love this drawing--but that's not the right one, either. * También me encanta este dibujo--pero tampoco es el dibujo correcto.

Chris, 2007. Pencil/lápiz

This quick sketch from our trip to New York City makes me smile. But that's not the one he wanted. * Este bosquejo rápido de nuestro viaje a Nueva York me hace sonreir. Pero no es el dibujo que quería.

Chris, 2004. Black and white ink/Tinta negra y tinta blanca.

I finally found it! This was the year he took a bunch of classes in bike mechanics. He came home and immediately started building a wheel from scratch. So that's what we ended up sending to the magazine. * ¡Finalmente lo encontré! En este año, Chris tomó unos clases de la mechánica de bicicletas. Cuando regresó a la casa, empezó a construir una rueda a partir de cero. Es ésto que enviamos a la revista. 

Edited to add: My most recent sketch of Chris is from a very muddy bike race this past November.
Editado para añadir: El bosquejo más receiente de Chris es de una carrera de bicicletas con mucho lodo, el noviembre pasado. 

National Portrait Gallery

We didn't have a lot of time to visit the National Portrait Gallery during my visit to Washington DC, so at first I didn't do any drawing while there. But two of the paintings stuck with me so much that I went back the next day and got quick sketches of them.

On the left, a portrait of architect H. H. Richardson by artist Hubert von Herkomer. This painting wins my "Best Smile" award--though I completely failed to capture the charm of the original painting in this fast sketch, even though I tried twice. (With the giant beard, the warm smile comes through all in the eyes...)

On the right, the portrait of abolitionist John Brown won my "Crazy Eyes" award. Not to mention the crazy hair. It was fun listening to people comment on the painting as they walked by.

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...

Visiting Family

My brother and his family came to visit during the kid's spring break. Some quick doodles I did while we were all gathered in the kitchen, playing board games and reading books.

The younger nephew was really eager to pose when he saw that I was drawing folks; the older nephew was trying to focus on the board game, and only occasionally glanced over to let me keep drawing. I was amused by that dynamic.

Old Masters, and fashion notes

A few weeks back I went to the Portland Art Museum to see the traveling masterpiece by Titian that is now on display. There are billboards of "La Bella" up all over town, and newspaper articles have claimed that she is the "elusive ideal of beauty." OK, that sounds worth checking out, no?

My impressions are as follows:

• The museum did an amazing job of setting the tone of "this is a very important painting" with the signage and other related pomp. It was really fun watching folks walk into the special alcove where La Bella is displayed--wide-eyed, unsure what to do with their hands, unsure how to react to what is clearly supposed to be a Big Deal Painting. 
• La Bella is a nice portrait. It doesn't strike me as especially superior to the other portraits in the European Art collection that are already on exhibit, though.   
• All of the promos you see of La Bella in the billboard promos and the newspaper articles zoom in on her face--the pale skin, delicate arch of eyebrows, youthful smoothness of the face. But what those photos don't reveal to you is her outfit. La Bella is a cute young woman who is entirely overshadowed by her enormous poofy sleeves. Oh my goodness. We're talking the height of Renaissance decadence here: blue and gold wagon-wheels at the shoulder, that transform into extraordinary oxblood arms that are slashed open at regular intervals with glorious meringue-like poofs of the white silk lining pulled through to the surface. The girl herself is like a pale, soft-focus afterthought tacked on to an extraordinary riot of gleaming gold embroidery on mediculously-rendered velvets and silks that catch the light in beautiful ways with every wrinkle and crease. 

See the full glorious outfit! Granted, this is after the painting has had a good cleaning; the dissonance between La Bella's face and dress seems less jarring when she had hundreds of years of soot to balance the composition out.

Today is the last day to see La Bella at the Portland Art Museum. I might have to go back and get a better look at those amazing sleeves today, just because.

Oregon Live has a good article where you can read more about the history and context of La Bella. (They're less snarky than I am, hee hee.)