Buttnekkiddoodles

The 2 drawings to the left were done at The Press Club wine bars in SF.

James and Tilly Rex were 2 performer/juggleros/acrobatiste/clowns at the trade show in Berkeley who graciously agreed to pose for me. Tilly’s giggling made it difficult for her to keep poking her tongue at me. The small landscape was done at the conclusion of a walk around the perimeter of the Cesar Chavez Park, a nature preserve built on landfill that sits next to the Berkeley Marina. From top of the park’s hill you can see Alameda, the Bay Bridge, San Francisco, the Golden Gate Bridge, Alcatraz, the southern tip of Marin County, Tiburon, Port Richmond, Albany, the UC Berkeley Tower and the hills beyond. Being a lazy landscapist, I picked a simple view of the north wing of the Hotel, a wall of trees, and a grassy slope. It does serve a purpose as the ariel view from Google earth makes it look flat and relatively uninteresting. I think it’s a nifty little spot from which you get a lung filling sense of the bay.

Weather in San Francisco was spectacular. Dolores Park was teeming with folks. Intended on drawing the gleaming dome of the church but time and people watching robbed me of the opportunity to do a color study of it.

Strange stuff, this blue ledger paper. I’ll have to use acrylic ink/paint because white grease pencils don’t seem to have much presence on it.

After drawing in the larger ledger books I feel a bit cramped at times in books under 8 1/2″ x 11 but I have enjoyed this weird bird of a book, a Veterinarian’s Daily Record. The blue pages have their own set of peculiarities and the pages in general don’t really register the addition of a white grease pencil but I like the way it takes the FC Pitt Pens and the 2 fountain pen inks I’m making the most use of lately. Those inks, Noodler’s Kingfisher Blue and Platinum Carbon have great character on this stock. The Quo Vadis I just finished drawing in had a warm and beautiful ivory color and a creamier surface. The Vet’s ledger has more of an oatmeal tint and is coarser in texture but both ledgers prevent bled-thru nicely and the rougher tooth of the Vet. Daily Rec. gives a nice grainy effect when the ink is dragged across the page.

Ah Lord, HATS. Hats bedevil me. Getting the drawings to feel like the hat sits on a solid globe, that a noggin is really shoved into one. Like hairdos, that amount to more than spaghetti slapped up against the page. Most of the Prussian Blue colored drawings are done with a fountain pen using Noodler’s Kingfisher Blue, the black drawings on ledger paper are drawn with a Visconti fountain pen using Platinum Carbon Ink. The colored drawings are my old reliable Pitt Artist Pens. The top 6 rows were drawn in a Veterinarian’s Daily Record ledger book from 1959. The ivory colored paper in row 7, column 1 & 3 and the 3 drawings in row 8 were drawn in a Quo Vadis Note 27 daily planner which has the creamy smooth Clairefontaine paper that also has good blocking ability. Fairly important as I draw on both sides. The clay colored paper in the lower rows are from a Utrecht sketchbook with recycled acid free paper.

OK, there’s a few repeats, lazy editing on my part. Just trying to catch up with the backlog of studies over the winter. The drawings in the 3rd row across are from a new sketchbook, A Veterinarians Daily Record. The blue pages are in fact that color. The book alternates blue and oat colored sheets every several pages. Odd thing about the blue pages, they barely register a white grease pencil. I thought they had enuff tone for me to pop a highlight but the effect is dismal. The fountain inks look good on the paper and are easy to smudge before they set up.