Scavenger Hunt from Life #54 Jan. 18–26, 2023

Wow, already on the 2nd page of the next hunt! Thanks for the list Sylwia.
I want to thank everyone for the encouraging comments in the last hunt.
 
Thanks Silwya, Ai, Joe, and Joan

Joan those books are my sons text books I use then for strenght training. Great coffee shop scene and landscape.

Ai your drawing is very nice and using a pizza box for a canvas is rather creative.
The bread and tangerine looks delicious. Your drawing got me thinking of all the great food I had in Bangkok
There were two restuarants I enjoyed immensly one of which is one of the beast places I ever ate.
I think it was called the Naroon the other was Two Chefs. I'd FLy back just to eat there again.


One more for me. # 7 Something from my city/town. Pen and ink on 7.5" x 11.5" paper about an hour. Went to the Somerville Winter Farmer's Market for the day and enjoyed walking around, sketching, and eating pastries. This was a coffee stand in the market. He was selling coffee and coffee makers. He saw me sketching and he gave me a free 4 oz bag of his coffee for sketching him. Look forwar to having it tomorrow morning.

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Paul and Joe: Thank you for kind words.

Joe: I try to be a minimalist nowadays (but still have too much at home and studio) ... so trying to trim down my materials to just mostly wc, pastel, drawing... but I still have some acrylic things that I try to give a way but the person did not take it... so they are still with me...but now the kids school calls for acrylic art project now and then. So I went to get a small set of acrylic paint for the girl but dabing a little to it. Oops... I still have a set of gouache that I rarely touch.

Paul: I will note the 2 great eating places in Bangkok. I never been there as we are pretty much stay at humble places for our meal on our orchard side of the city. Traffic jam is horrible here most of the time. It is great that the coffee person gave you his sample for your sketch of him. This will be great memory (art + coffee) together.
 
The faster I go, the behinder I get. Not sure who said that, but it fits me!
Thanks everyone.

Joe, I love Sharon's shoe. Makes me smile.

Paul, good cup for my collection - for me it stands for "Procrastinator". Love the page of sketches with the books. You are serious in your reading. Do you use the divider that you sketched for sharp. I have one and get it out and think it is the best thing and then forget to use it. Ha. Clever to sketch the coffee vendor and get a sample! I like the lines in that sketch.

Sylwia, mmmm, the red and green still life is great and a new green cup for me, don't have many in green.

Joan, I don't remember where those gloves came from. Ha. Love your "Bean" sketch. Wow on all the detail and interesting items. Your outdoor is great. I like the sky.

Ai, nice breakfast. Great painting on the cardboard. Nice recycle! We can never minimalize. When we got this house we said no more collections and now it is full to the brim.

I sketched while watching TV yesterday on my iPad with pencil and fingers in the "Brushes" app.
Number 4 - stack of books

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Ai and Jo Thanks...

Jo: Nice sketch of books great color... Those books in my sketch aren't mine they are my sons I use them for strength training :)... I purchased the divider a few years ago and don't really use it that much anymore although I should but usually in too much of a hurray to think about precision. Besides most of the time I stabbed myself with it.
 
Ai, thanks! I hope your birthday was great!! I like your sketch of the bread and tangerine on the plate. Looks like the student acrylics cover well.

Joe, thanks so much. Give me coffee while I sit and sketch and I can be at it forever. lol

Paul, that's a nice sketch done at the Farmers Market...and a nice treat for sketching him. I had one restaurant owner in Venice see my sketch of his building and then he said, "Prosecco for you" and poured me a glass. Another time in Lake Como I painted a restaurant and the owner invited me in to eat on the house. Most people really like when you sketch them or something that belongs to them.

Jo, thanks. Nice digital sketch of the stack of books. Is that a sketchbook on top?

I went into NYC to meet the NYC Urban Sketchers yesterday. We were sketching at Sotheby's, a fancy auction house in the city.
6 - train seats - watercolors and ink

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7 - made of wood (frame) - watercolors and ink

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Comments now... back later with a few sketches I've done ( maybe tomorrow or Tuesday ). After I type this, I'm going to go to the art store and get another waterbrush to try putting diluted ink in it as a possible alternative to the pitt pens for quick shading.

I got busy with work last week, but I did read everyone's comments, thanks again!

Jo -- thanks for putting the size! ( my jigsaw is not red but light blue! now we both have to draw them with color! ) In the first one, you can tell the house/structure in the back is shaded. Like the different textures for the shrubs and trees, and the grass in the 2nd one. I like the colorful pastels for those gloves, especially the light yellow against black. Good job on the stack of books.

Joe -- It was the hatching on the lathe-work in front of the books that caught my eye, and it put the darker part against the books, making them stand out more. I think not blending on the shoe gives it great texture! I suspect I'd like this version better than one that was smoothly blended.

Paul -- are you in Aruba? It was raining and cold and dark here last week and I was buried in work, and when I saw your sketches in the last hunt it just made me want to get on a plane and be there :) The sun is back for the past few days. I like your experiments mixing graphite and marker. Like the page with lots of hunt items! I like the way you captured the poses and positions of the people at the farmer's market. I haven't tried to draw people much yet ( except some "carrot people" Joe pointed us to )

Sylwia -- that digital sketch looks really good! The way the colors mix in the jar is fantastic. I don't usually like digital art all that much, but that one is great.

Joan -- thanks for your comment in the last hunt, really appreciated that. Coffee shop is great... seems like you almost did draw every jar, but it's great how the top of the counter and inside the display case give the impression of lots of things, without drawing all of them. I love the sky in the 2nd one and the way it reflects in the water. The people on the train make me think "are we there yet?". The man looking at the painting is really good ( if I could get my ink washes to look a bit like just the grays in that work, I'd be thrilled. Like the variation in hues within those grays too. ) "grasshopper weather vane" made me laugh, like the texture and colors.

Ai -- thanks for the encouraging comment in last hunt ( yes, I was a little frustrated, but not at all discouraged! :) ) I like the way the acrylics seem to shine!
 
Done with directwatercolor

#4 green -- a fruit of Baringtonia asiatica, found on our campus ground ... I had been collected these botanical specimens home many times but never get to sketch them ... until today !!!
#5 sub. Plant with a leaf of same plant above

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Amazing works of art: Sylwia, and Joan.

Thanks all for your kind words on my sketches.
 
Joan: Thanks... I have been trying to go out with the Urban Sketchers of Boston. I would like to do it more frequently
but there is always schedule issues popping up. I really like how you put people in most of your sketches they are always
different from each other and each drawing. I think I am going to go hang out around all the Boston restaurants and
sketch sounds like a great idea. That grasshopper is well done. I don't recall the last time I saw a grasshopper around here.

Ned: Thanks... I just came back from Aruba this past week. My wife and I have just reengaged with traveling after
the pandemic. Not sure how we navigated our way through the pandemic but we did. Everyone around us has had the
COVID but some how we escaped. Like your idea with the diluted ink in a water brush at some point I might try as well.

Ai: Nice leaf sketch your color selection is very appealing.
 
Ai and Jo Thanks...

Jo: Nice sketch of books great color... Those books in my sketch aren't mine they are my sons I use them for strength training :)... I purchased the divider a few years ago and don't really use it that much anymore although I should but usually in too much of a hurray to think about precision. Besides most of the time I stabbed myself with it.
Exactly my feelings with the divider tool! Your strength training comment made me laugh. Had to tell Gene.
 
Thanks all. The book on top, Joan, is a copy of Gene's travel blog that Joanna printed, more on my blog.

Joan, love your Urban sketches, the train seats is so nice with the family. The grasshopper weather vane is too cute and well done. The museum sketch of the art critic/viewer reminds me of Karin Jurick. She passed away a few years ago, very young. I loved her museum paintings. https://karinjurick.com/ZemArt/museumpatrons.html

Ai, the botanical sketches are great. You do have a touch with the direct watercolor!! Thanks for the photo, too.

I have lots of paperwork for the Austin Pastel Society. I've been collecting prizes for our annual show as the other person had a stroke. I find that now I have to divide them up and decide who gets what. I get a new job every day. Ha. I will try to squeeze in a sketch when I take a break.
 
#6 shoe ... or a part of my kid's keychain... I have borrowed it from Iris for many days... just got to draw it tonight, using CP. I think that I have got lost at the pattern at some points ... :rolleyes:

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Ai -- I like the leaf and the Baringtonia fruit. It looks familiar, I think I might have seen those trees when I lived in East Africa. I like how ordinary objects can become interesting when we draw them. The little skate made me laugh... another of those things that looks intimidating to draw :)

Paul -- I tried the waterbrushes with diluted ink today and really liked them. More in the next post.
 
These were all in the pocket sketchbook that fits in the back pocket of my jeans.

#1 outdoors ( pitt pens )
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and the scene:
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#2 plant sub tree ( sub broken record :) ) Pitt pen again, drew this standing up. This is a place that deserves bringing my little folding camp stool someday for a bigger drawing. I got a little lost at one point about which branch I was drawing...
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and the scene:
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#1b outdoors again. Same beach as the 1st one. Today with my new waterbrushes with ink. They are Pentel "aquash mini" waterbrushes. I used rapidograph "ultradraw" india ink. The brush holds 5ml of water and I put one drop in for light gray and about 5 drops for medium gray. Now that I know I like them, I'll probably get another for dark gray. I played around with them for an hour or so last night then took them on my walk today.
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the scene:
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And the pocket sketchbook still fits in my back pocket with a pen and the 2 waterbrushes!
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Now we can take bets on how long it will be before I sit on them and get ink everywhere.
But so far, no leaks and I didn't think about them when I was drawing...
 
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Paul, nice you can get out with a group. Our small groups here fizzled out. Maybe in the spring....

Ai, the roller skate is so colorful and fun. Super job. Thank you for the "force". I'm smiling.

Ned, you did a great job with the pens. Love the two sketches of the beach and the tree is so effortless in appearance. Hard to keep track of the branches. Love, love the photos. I'm not a beach/water person, but Joan is always inticing me and now you. We need to get down to the Gulf coast again..... In South Padre we can get some good ceviche which I miss from South America.

Our group makes the world small!!!

On the iPad with "Brushes" app and my fingers and Apple pencil.
Number 5 shoe or shoes - Gene's on his recliner.

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Jo: Nice sketch of Gene's shoes. Has Gene thought about charging you, could be some extra cash in his pocket you seem to use him as your model quite often.....

Ned: Those ink sketches came out great and glad you used the watercolor brushes I know I have some of those somewhere a definite must try for me too... thanks... Is that watercolor paper?
 
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