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!

Brown and Brown

We rented a car last weekend and as surprised how easy it is to get from one end of the urban sprawl to the other--as well as to get out in the woods.

More of my current brown-on-brown phase is posted over at Urban Sketchers Portland, if you're curious.

Summer Sketching in Sellwood Park

It's such beautiful weather to get outdoors, slap paint onto scraps of paper, and heck, even nap on the lawn.

Here are a couple of the sketches I did in tempera paint on brown paper at the last Urban Sketchers gathering. You can see more in my post at pdxusk, as well.

Babykins, looking somewhat serious.

 

Kiddos on the swings

Slightly abstract interpretation of bright sky between tree branches

Two-tone sky: puffy clouds, doug firs

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!"

Scribbles from the Past

We're doing some house-cleaning and rearranging of late, and as I go through notes from old illustration projects I'm finding some amusing memories in the mix. Scanning a handful to share here!

This was an illustration project for a paleontology exhibition at the San Bernardino County Museum. The early sketch here is just exploring the general look of brown with white highlights on parchment-toned paper. For some reason I'm totally charmed by this early doodle.

From the good old days when I was drawing a lot of fossilized rodent teeth under the microscope! I focused on projects like these for about two years as an undergraduate, and occasionally revisit that subject matter when researchers start knocking at the door. Something about the simplicity of this pencil sketch, with the grid marks helping me keep in all in scale and the light touch on the shading, makes me happy.

Another undergraduate doodle, again with the rodent teeth (this time it's the chewing surface of a tooth from a vole). Once the graphite draft gets all worked out, I'd do the final illustrations in ink on plastic film with a steel-nib pen dipped into a jar of ink, totally old-school. Each of the little wriggly lines on this scrap is me testing the pen after a fresh dip into the ink to make sure it's not going to leave a big ink blot . (I suspect that's why the partially finished drawing here was turned into a test-scrap--blob attack!)

None of these scraps of paper are terribly important, really; but it's sure fun to look back at them and remember the experience of building up to the final illustrations, scribble by scribble. 

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 Museum of the American Indian

I had never seen the National Museum of the American Indian before. It was still under construction when I was last in DC. The curving form of the building was so striking that I had to to a sketch before we went in. * Nunca había visitado el Museo Nacional del Indio Americano antes; todavía estaban construyéndolo cuando estaba en DC hace 10 años. Las formas ondulantes del edificio son muy impresionantes- tuve que pintarla rapidamente antes de entrar.

I love the mix of ancient and modern in this museum. It really gives the sense of cultures that are active and relevant today, and that have very deep roots. *  Me encanta la mezcla de lo anciano y lo moderno en este museo--tenemos un sentido verdadero de culturas que son vivas y relevantes hoy en día, que tienen raices muy profundas.

I am a sucker for sculptures of animals, and they had a wonderful display of them on the top floor. There was a school group that came to that area shortly after I did, and they were so engaged that even with all my sketching time, I moved on earlier than they did! * Me encantan las esculturas de animales, y hay una colección de estas muy encantadora. Un groupo de estudiantes jovenes llegó a verlos un poco después de mi, y estaban tan fascinadas que--aunque yo pasé bastante tiempo en dibujar--todavía estaban charlando y discutiendo cuando yo fuí a ver la próxima cosa. 

The day before, I'd learned all about botanical illustration in the Americas, as done by European artists. I was terribly excited to find an example of botanical illustration by the Cherokee--how to identify medicinal plants. * El día antes, había aprendido much sobre ilustración botánico en las Americas, hecho por artistas europeas. Me emocioné tanto a encontrar un ejemplar de ilustración botánico hecho por el tribu Cherokee--cómo identificar plantas medicinales.

I was really impressed by the sculptures of Abraham Anghik Ruben: a mix of traditional Inuit legends with Norse viking influences, looking at the interplay of those cultures across the arctic region. Beautiful and very evocative work. * Me quede muy impresionada por las esculturas de Abraham Anghik Ruben. Mezcla imágenes de las leyendas inuit tradicionales con influencias de los vikingos nórdicos, explorando la dinámica entre las culturas del Ártico. Elegante y muy evocativo. 

National Musem of Natural History

On this recent visit to the Smithsonian Institute, most of my time at the Natural History museum was spent in the lectures about Mark Catesby. But we did get a chance to scamper through the fossil displays at the lunch break. * Cuando visité el museo de historia natural del instituto Smithsonian, pasé la mayoría de mi tiempo en el simposio sobre Mark Catesby. Pero sí logramos una visita muy rápida a los fósiles enormes, durante el almuerzo.

Fossils of a glyptodont, an ancient antelope, and a nautilus. White pencil on black paper, 2012. * Fosiles de un gliptodóntido, un antílope anciano, y un nautilino. Lapiz blanco en papel negro, 2012. 

Skull of Xiphiacetus, an ancient dolphin. White pencil on black paper, 2012. * Cráneo de Xiphiacetus, un delfín anciano. Lapiz blanco en papel negro, 2012.

 
In 2002, I spent part of the summer among these exhibits: the microscope I needed to draw tiny details of fossil leaves was located in the "Fossil Lab" exhibition space, so hordes of tourists watched me through a big glass wall as I worked! It was neat to relive all the memories of working in that museum. (Looks like the same microscope is still in the same place, too.) * En el año 2002, pasé la mitad del verano trabajando entre estos fosiles: el microscopio que usaba para dibujar hojas de arboles ancianos estaba en la exhibición del "Laboratorio de Fosiles." Así que miles de turistas me miraban mientras que estaba dibujando, tan fijamente como miraban a los restos de los animales extintos. Era lindo visitar mi microscopio otra vez--¡todavia esta en el mismo lugar! 

Sketch of my old NMNH staff ID card. Pen and colored pencil on blue paper, 2002. * Dibujo de mi tarjeta de identificación para el Museo Nacional de Historia Natural. Tinta negra y lapices de color en papel azul, 2002.

Brown Paper Thumbnails

I bought a new sketchbook, and I love the pale brown color of the paper. Tonight I went to the art museum with a friend. The paper was perfect for doing thumbnail sketches, little studies of the composition, the lights and shadows, while browsing through the paintings and sculptures. * He comprado un nuevo libro de dibujar y me encanta el papel de color café claro. Visité al museo de arte esta noche con una amiga. Este papel fue perfectito para hacer dibujos pequeños, estudios muy simples de composición, de luz y sombra, mirando las pinturas y esculturas.