Scavenger Hunt from Life #87: Oct 9 - Oct 17

[jmfletch]

Jo - scissors are well done. You really have mastered ink as well as pastell.

joan - Beautiful

This is really a pretty fabulous group. We get to visit Thailand, Italy, and both coastlines of the USA without leaving home. Thanks to all for sharing so much beauty.

#5 in your ear do over. I kpt lookin at that little sketch and it seemed flat so a piddled a bit.

keep sketching
Fletch

 

[Robin Gillis]

Great sketches….I second Fletch—- traveling with sketch group is special- I bet if we all met up we’d get tired from smiling maybe
I don’t seem to tire from your sketches!

 

[Joan T]

Jo, you can come along with me to Italy any time.

Pine Cone, thanks. I am happy my sketches mean so much and you can sense how I feel. I think we’ve been here 6 times and each time for a few weeks while my husband is working on music. It feels like a second home.

Fletch, glad we can all share bits of our lives and the beauty around us. This is a special group.

Robin, I’m glad you can enjoy what I’m sharing.

8 - something blue (boat tarps) - watercolors and ink

 

[Jo Castillo]

Pine Cone, thank you. New Mexico Green chile runs from mild to xxx hot. I use "medium" for tamales and things everyone eats and "hot" for sauce for extra heat for those that want more. Can't do the hotter ones, you lose the taste and the chile has such a good distinctive taste.

Joe, thanks, I like the extra shadowing on the ear bud. Super.

Hey, Robin, we are smiling for sure to see you.

Joan, Thanks. I'm pleased to read that Jerry is doing his music. Woohoo! This latest canal with the blue onb the gondolas/boats is so nice. Love all the details and the tower/steeple.

I sketched in the BookFactory sketchbook with a Micron 03 and Micron 02.
Number 7, Door knob started to do the same kind as Fletch but lazy me I would have had to get up, so I just drew the front door lock and handle
Number 8, measuring tool, the small tape measure I keep in my desk, it is about 2 inches square
Number 9, ad in magazine in our local power company magazine which was on my desk.

 

[Pine Cone]

1 — "curve" - patterned curvy cat woven into a woven blanket
..... sketched freehand in the ProCreate app on iPadPro with an Apple Pencil
..... started indoors, continued in my mobile studio, and then finished indoors

Although I got this iPad Pro a few years ago (to replace the one that was splitting in half), I never ended up using it much for art until now. So now I'm finally experimenting with a whole bunch of aspects of the current version of Procreate.

For this experimental sketch, I sketched the cat and the woven patterns freehand, and painted the background as well. However, I used some Procreate technology to remove the cat and the patterns from my background. That's because I was reading a library art book about how sgraffito works so I thought I'd try it, virtually, in a broad sense.

But full disclosure ---> although I kept painting and photography work separate in the past, and used Corel Painter for sketching and painting, and Adobe Photoshop and Lightroom for photographic interpretation, you should know that I used a lot of special effects, selections, masking, etc., in my past photographic work, and was accepted for a show in Los Angeles for work of that type. But in the past, I ***never*** used selections, effects, masking, etc., for sketching or drawing or painting, before now.

If you feel it was cheating to use such choices in this image, or inappropriate for this thread in any way, please report this so it can be taken down. If so, and if allowed, then I'll simply post my freehand outline sketch by itself.

I love to experiment! Thank you for understanding.

 

[jmfletch]

Pine Cone - Experiment away! Just share techniques as well as your art so we can learn. This is group is about drawing from life (and we even look the other way on that on occasion) but media is up to the artist. Create away and share.

joan - Fabulous. Appreciating you and Ai’s art more and more as I dabble trying to learn. Your shading and your technique for showing brickwork both have me studying your posts. When I started to learn drawing (it was actually with pastels) my teacher emphasized over and over that the illusion of form in only 2 dimensions was achieved by shading. That is 1 of the 2 mantras that teachers used that really stuck. The second was “Make the darks darker” which was motivation in refinishing the ear bud.

Jo - I was looking forward to how you would do that handle in ink. Nice work on alternate door knob and tape measure. Am avoiding the ad as I hate trying to draw text.

Robin - *waves*

Keep sketching
Fletch

 

[Jo Castillo]

Pine Cone, what Fletch said. Your cat is great and imaginative. Have fun with whatever medium.

Fletch, you can see I didn't worry about the lettering. Sometimes I am more careful. Sigh.....

 

[AiArts]

Lovely works, folks: PineCone, Jo, Joan, and Fletch.

 

[Jo Castillo]

Felt like playing in the dust wiped off Pastelbord, 8 x 10, assorted pastels. About an hour or so.
Number 10 cup

 

[M50Paull]

I am soooo delinquent all the sketches a amazing but no surprise there.... I will post the next hunt... Jo poked me and I woke up

 

[Pine Cone]

Fletch, JoC, Ai — Thanks so much for your encouragement and understanding

More comments soon.

TL;DR...

Fletch, as for technique, as near as I can remember, this is probably how I did it. However, different approaches could have yielded the same result, so not entirely sure what I did LOL...

..... Painted a semblance of the background first, testing various existing ProCreate brushes. Made two separate layers/colors because of the sgraffito experiment that I was goofing around with.

..... Then, on a separate layer above the backgrounds, sketched the patterned cat freehand with a ProCreate pencil using vibrant colors to see the sketch against the backgrounds.

..... Next, made selections using my ProCreate pencil sketch as a guide, combining (add, remove, invert as needed) little selections to end up with a single, final selection.

..... Saved the selection.

..... Then, made sure that my top background layer was selected, and loaded my saved selection.

..... Feathered the selection, especially important because the blanket is soft, and woven. I didn't want the cat to look like it was laser cut from paper.

..... Then in the context menu for the layer, selected "Clear".

..... "Clear" eliminated the selected areas in the top layer of my painted background, while leaving the bottom layer of the background untouched.

As I read this, I don't think this is quite what I did, but it will have to do. I kind of got in a zone, didn't save every step, although I meant to. And I always just kind of wing it when I draw or paint.

I took photos this morning of the actual blanket. First, is the square I sketched. Second is the whole blanket with a couple of leaves added for "my" cat to play with LOL I saved the leaves. If they don't get broken in my mobile studio, maybe I'll sketch one

 

[Joan T]

Jo, thanks so much. The saint on top of the steeple is a little out of proportion…oh well. I like your door handle and lock. The cups are so colorful!

Pine Cone, you can use any creative method for your posts here. I don’t think anyone will mind especially if you get such interesting results. That’s great!

Fletch, thanks. I’ve been playing around with the WW pencils on some of the brickwork for texture…never sure what I’m gonna do since there is so much of it around here. Lol

Ai, Gracie,

Paul, good to see you pop in.

8 - mouth - watercolors and ink (Done at lunch today.)

9 - ear (On the vaporetto today.) - graphite

10 - tube (drainpipe) - watercolors and ink

 

[Pine Cone]

Fletch — Zowie, your 2nd earbud is fantastic. Has a rustic feel now that I love. I want to use the word illuminated again, but so much of your work has that quality maybe I'm over-using the word... but it isn't just that you portray the darks, it's that you have been illuminating your sketches somehow. Like they're lit from within

Robin — So good to see you hanging out here!!!

Joan — Thanks so much! That's wonderful that your husband is working on his music there again! You two are an amazing artistic pair Beautiful, snug, atmospheric sketch of the boat tarps - fantastic composition with so much detail I want to explore Your sketch at lunch is fun - really good capture I can't believe you can sketch from the boat! But your last sketch with lovely blue and green homes touches my heart.

JoC — Thanks for the chili info I'm clueless when it comes to anything in the kitchen... which works out now that I don't have one I don't think I've ever had chili. So now, if I ever try it, I'll know that probably "green, medium" might be a good place to start
Wow, your magazine ad is brave - I love the well-placed sketches and text together. Lovely door and tape measure! Fantastic play of light across the [tragically soon to be erased] pastel painting with its strong colors and gleaming whites and inner depths. Ellipse perfection makes me think I can lift each one... any caffeine in there?

Paul —

 

[Jo Castillo]

Pine Cone, thanks for sharing your technique. Probably the chile you have seen would be for chile dogs! Hope you get to try some New Mexico band sometime. I'll leave the cups for a few days at least! I've been using a thermos kind of cup mostly but when I see my "real" cups in the collection I have to try one. I like the size of the blue one with the star. It is taller and narrower but holds about 10-12 ounces. Bigger cups the coffee gets cold. They were just waiting for coffee!

Joan, I like the folks having lunch. Good capture on the awning, hard to do. The vaporetto looks like a pretty big taxi, nice graphite. And of course I love, love, the blue and turquoise buildings. Applause!

Hi Paul....

Thanks to Robin for her ideas and list. Hope all is well with you and yours.

Number 11 has odd outline - hole punch, in BookFactory sketchbook with Micron 02

 

[Pine Cone]

JoC — Thank you for hosting, and sharing Robin's fun list! Your complex hole punch sketch is super! It all reads perfectly, Wow!
About the New Mexico green chili, I hope so too I agree about mug sizes. Yours are ideal! About your Pastelbord, you could just "loan" this one to one of your kids. They'd keep it safe for me and Fletch and everyone who can't bear to think of your amazing work just washed away You could do that over and over again. Just think of how much time you'd save with not have to scrub off the pastel!!! Sorry for the rant... I'll cease and desist See you on the next one

 

[jmfletch]

Jo - Love the cups. Excellent pastel! Nice hatching on the hole punch. Concur with Pine Cone on your ongoing “Erasing” of beautiful pastel works.

Paul.

Pine Cone - I am currently trying to maintain my graphite skills and learn watercolor but you are giving me thoughts to work at learning to use digital better. too many mediums I love But can’t use! Your drawing is beautiful but so is your reference! Thanks for sharing and kind words on the ear buds.

Joan - Nice paintings and pen sketch. You definitely brought a great palette. What is a vaporetto?

Keep sketching
Fletch

 

[Joan T]

Pine Cone and Jo, thanks for your comments.

Fletch, a vaporetto is like a water bus. It goes from one stop to another along the canals and outer waterways in Venice.

 

[AiArts]

Jo: Thanks so much for hosting.

 

[Jo Castillo]

Thanks, all. I was happy to recycle Robin's list. It was fun to go to Italy, too. We get to go round the world. Haven't seen eyepaint for a while. Missing Canada! See all y'all on the next Hunt with Paul hosting.