Shadow Shot Downtown

After spending the morning painting and then shopping for veggies at the Farmer's Market in Market Square, isn't it nice to find a place to stop and sit and rest your feet? Perhaps having a wonderful cappuccino ... maybe a panini sandwich on fresh bread ... or just a bottle of water with a friend.*

Visit Hey Harriet! for more of this week's shadow shots.

*Next time, Zelma! Next time we'll actually stop and sit down! :-)

Farmers Market

It was such a beautiful morning this morning that Zelma and I skipped out of the last hour and a half of watercolor to go to the Farmers' Market downtown on Market Square.

Yep. I would call this a perfect Saturday. Now if I just had some of Marta's empanadas...

Expect sketches later on - I'm off to work on the scanner now!
:-)

Shadow Shot Under the Stairs

In the darkness under the stairs at the old L&N train station the other day, a little pool of light and shadow glimmered all alone. It made me want to sit still and take a nice deep breath. Aaaahhhhh.....

Go visit Hey Harriet! to see more shadows, restful and otherwise...

Tomorrow I'll probably post the past 3 days and today's art efforts ... I think. Really, it all just depends on what I do with it today. Sigh.

May 13 Train Station

Sketching at the old L&N Train Station down by World's Fair Park yesterday. I used the carbon pencil again this time, and tried applying it a bit heavier for the darks than in previous sketches. Maybe a little too heavy in spots (yeah, one place shouldn't be dark at all, but I'm not going to be the one to point it out...), but it sure worked out for the deeper shadows! Hey, does that mean I'm not REALLY painting with just a triad? And then, cheating even more -- I tweaked it further with some ink.

Speaking of triads -- this was a pretty good one for this type of painting, I thought -- French Ultramarine, Indian red, and Raw Sienna. The straight up colors are clearer and more transparent, and made for more interesting mixes with a wider range of darks than some of my earlier experiments.

Today I went back down to the park to try and sketch this building again, but while looking for a parking space noticed that the museum had free admission. DETOUR! I guess tonight's sketch will be something lying around the house ...

May 11 Vic and Bills Deli

The experimental sketches after work continue this week. I had to take my car in for a little bit of work and when I went to pick it up, paused for a few minutes to sketch Vic & Bill's Deli across the street. This is the home of the famous "Vol Burger", heaping orders of huge steaming hot steak fries, and a really REALLY good Falafel. Sigh. And me on a diet... Oh well!

Today I switched to a regular 0.3 mechanical pencil for the sketch. I liked how it gave me better control for the sketch, and the lines held up well under the watercolor wash, but I feel like it is a bit wimpy compared to the carbon pencils that bleed and run. Maybe a combination of pencil is the trick? Hmmmm...

I tried Friday's triad of cobalt and cad red and yellow ochre* again and am still not happy with it. Love how the cad red makes the nice accents, and I mixed a spot-on "University of Tennessee Orange" for the squares on the side wall (Go Vols!), but I never could get darks or light value greys that satisfied me.

So, I'll be playing more with cerulean blue and french ultramarine this week. I'll be trying burnt sienna for my red one day. I don't know -- if we get some sunshine, I'll try some of those sunny triads I have on hold right now. Also in my bag for experimentation this week is a 0.1 brown micron, a .005 purple micron, and a 0.1 (?I think) orange micron, so we shall see what happens with the line. It can only get better. (grrr)

And, as Forrest Gump would say, "that's all I have to say about that."

*(I say yellow ochre, although now I'm not sure I didn't accidentally use raw sienna -- they look SO MUCH ALIKE! Aaaargh!)

May 7 and 8

Yesterday afternoon I started this sketch of a church in the Fourth and Gill neighborhood in Knoxville, and finished the last wash on it tonight ... so, this will have to count for both days! I was off work today and we worked on the house (a much needed facelift!) with my parents' help. No time for drawing at all!

This triad is Cobalt Blue, Cadmium Red, and Yellow Ochre. I like the greys and nice warm tones, but was surprised at how difficult it was to get a medium / light green. The skies are still cloudy and the day was overcast, but these colors made it look more like an early morning in late summer.

I'm making notes of your suggestions for future triads, so please keep them coming!

May 6 Sun Sphere and Clouds

Sketched from the parking lot across from the Knoxville Museum of Art, while the rain fell, the clouds rolled in, and the wind rocked the car from side to side. I didn't even take the time to run into the museum today, thinking more that it would be smart to head home before all you-know-what broke loose!

I was very happy with the sketch before the watercolor washes. Today I tried the triad of venetian red, french ultramarine, and yellow ochre. I really thought they would combine to make richer greys and provide much more color mixing options than the earlier triad*, but they felt weak together. I need to refer to yet another book I have checked out from the library (on Bill Renzulli's advice), "Blue and Yellow Don't Make Green" by Michael Wilcox to see what I missed here. Perhaps I should have used cobalt blue?

So, to all, er, both, of my readers, what primary triads do you recommend?

(*Indian red, cerulean blue, and raw sienna)

May 5 Starbucks

From the parking lot at Starbuck's this afternoon, still playing with the triad of cerulean blue, Indian red, and raw sienna. This wasn't where I'd originally intended to go after work for my quick sketch today, but the sun came out for a moment on the way home, and I detoured to some spots where I suspected I might find good shadows for Shadow Shot Sunday. The forecast is for rain, rain, and more rain all this week, and I had to grab the sun and shadow opportunity when it presented itself!

Now. I have to clear up a little mistake from yesterday. The book I referred to was "The Joy of Watercolor" ("...A Complete Course in Watercolor Using Your Sketchbook as a Workbook") by David Millard. The problem with art books is that I start out reading them and then, fairly quickly, get distracted by ... oooh ... the pictures! And in this wonderful book, clearly stated on page 8 -- yes PAGE 8! -- "Since carbon is soluble in watercolor to some degree, it can contribute rich darks in your washes in the form of a modest granular deposit." Hmmm. I'd say he pretty well DID TOO mention that the carbon pencils ran with a watercolor wash, don't you think? And on page 8 -- the saddest part is that pages 1 - 7 were title page and table of contents. Sigh. He basically said it on page ONE.

Skull and Bones Society

Well, not exactly. Just two middle aged women -- okay, one middle aged and one early aged, but both looking pretty good for their respective ages, no matter what those ages might be -- oh, what the heck --

NOT the Skull and Bones Society.

Just two darned good looking women out running around for a few hours this morning at the McClung Museum. Yep. You've got it. Diahn and I met for a few hours today to do some drawing and we settled on bones. I love bones. It was especially exciting to meet Lucy (above) who was surely a little dynamo in real life. If I've guessed correctly, based on what little I know of skeletal features as they relate to muscle size and function, she probably could have bitten your hand off with very little effort. Don't let that sweet little grin fool you! Although she was just as cute as she could be...


There's something about bones that I just love. Diahn loves fossils and rocks -- so next time (I promise, Diahn!) we'll be drawing crinoids or something along those lines. I'm looking forward to it, and feel like we've found a treasure trove!

After the McClung museum we scooted over to KMA to see "Sordid and Sacred" ,the exhibit of Rembrandt etchings of beggars. If you get the chance to see this, go, go, GO! It was fantastic. (I'm scrabbling around looking for triple-aught-one pen...) ;-)

I may be laying low for a bit -- still busy but it's calming down and it's nearly time for some R&R. Thanks for all the thoughts and encouragement!

(You may see that there is a scribbled note to "look up John Gould". Well, I didn't know who he was, but they had the most beautiful collection of his hand tinted prints, which were all just fabulously rich with color. Check him out here! He's now on my list of "artists that I must study up on.")

Memorial Day Weekend

Memorial Day morning at Knoxville National Cemetery, which adjoins the historic Old Gray Cemetery in downtown Knoxville. I had to go into work for a couple of hours, but did so early enough that by the time I got off the sun was clear up and beautifully bright, and before the arrival of the daily haze we've had in the heat this past week. This monument is known as The Tennessee Monument, The Wilder Monument, or the Union Soldier Monument -- depending on what source you use.

Note: For more information about the monument at the Knoxville National Cemetery, click HERE for a rather interesting history, and, amazingly, the only photograph of the monument I could find on line. I think I'm going to fix that problem, and will be posting a photo soon! If you read the information, you'll note that I took a bit of artistic license with the monument, shortening the tower by about the height of the figure, in order to get the bits I wanted to fit on the page. I wanted to get the top against the sky -- the arches with the door and wreath -- and, most importantly, the nearby bright red, white, and blue flag.

And here are some Canadian geese along with their latest addition at Norris Lake on Sunday. There were several families with baby geese, and they were so cute! Ma and Pa Goose stayed close by, and didn't hesitate to take turns hissing at anyone or anything that came too close to Baby Goose. Since it was a holiday weekend the lake was MUCH too crowded for our taste. Still, we went out to do some start-of-season cleaning and maintenance on the boat and had to take just a short run up the lake and back. NEXT weekend, if the weather holds, we'll be out on the water playing! I do love summer ...

The technical bits: I did this with 2B and 6B pencils in my new Raffine sketchbook -- the very large one (10.4 " x 15.2"). There's not been enough time yet to pass judgement on this sketchbook -- the paper seems a bit more textured than what I'm used to, but I do love the size! However, it doesn't fit onto the scanner, so I had to use the camera, and found that it's much easier to photograph a watercolor than a graphite drawing. I had to adjust the contrast some to get these to look right, and this is as close as I could get it!

Patrick Sullivans

A quick change from all the watercolor to a small colored pencil sketch of Patrick Sullivan's Saloon in Knoxville's Old City. Inspired by Janey's suggestion to use a 5"x7" Itoya Art Profolio, slipping loose sheets into the pockets. Also inspired by recent comments on the EDM list about a "bonus round" of travel drawings and drawings from your home town. Seems like we also had a challenge to re-do a previous challenge using a different medium? Anyway, this Knoxville landmark is one of my favorites.

Signs of Spring

From a photo of this little park downtown on the first gorgeous spring Saturday this month.
(and yes, the iron work on the gateway really does look like that)

Of course, there is only one TRUE and consistent sign of spring. Spring flowers and bulbs can be tricked to bloom at odd times, birds and bees can even be tricked into thinking springlike thoughts. The one sure sign of spring is, of course ... Girl Scout Cookies! You can force a crocus to bloom any time of year, but no matter what you do to a Brownie, you can't force her to sell you some Thin Mints in October.

If you see a girl scout selling cookies, stop and pick up a box, or at least say hi. They're working awfully hard out there.

Saturday Sketchin

Out sketching with Diahn this afternoon -- we decided to go downtown to Gay Street and then over to Market Square, looking at old buildings and more. We started at the sculpture of the Rowing Man* on the corner of Church and Gay, and then worked our way up Gay Street, along a couple of little roads, through Krutch Park and into Market Square. In Market Square we only shopped a little bit (we're getting better!) and then went to The Tomatohead to sit outside and have a soda while we sketched the crowds. What a beautiful sunny afternoon, with temperatures surprisingly up in the 70's. A little known (outside of Knoxville) factoid about Knoxville's Market Square is that Elvis Presley's recording career was essentially launched from here, when a merchant named Sam Morrison played the recording of "That's All Right, Mama" through speakers out into the square. The response was so positive that people flooded the store to buy copies of the song, including an RCA talent scout. The talent scout sent the record to his boss at RCA, who bought Presley's recording contract from Sun ... the rest is history.


* This man is either rowing up out of the concrete, or hopelessly sinking into the sidewalk. It all depends on how your mood is. We looked and looked and couldn't find a plaque telling the name of the piece, or the name of the sculptor. I've searched on-line and can't find anything specific about it, either. If anyone out there can identify this, and especially let us know who did it, I would much appreciate it!

Moleskine 2

I just get fonder and fonder of this little sketchbook! Downtown Knoxville, sketches from going to and from work on the weekend -- dated Saturday, although it really spans Saturday, Sunday, and Monday. Those little squares stamped onto the paper (Friday night) helped break the page up into workable bits for a busy person. * The "bike route" rubber stamp and red postal cancellation is left over from a darker period, one of becoming fascinated more with the art that was being included in some rubber stamp lines than the whole rubber stamping thing itself. I've had the date stamp for years, and have used it on and off in journals when it seems to fit ... there's something satisfying about "whamming" one of those little date stampers!

If you look really closely (or double click the image to enlarge) you'll see places on the left page where the Dr. Ph Martin's watercolors seeped through the paper -- but only on those few places where the paint was worked heavy and wet.

*I was going to draw a grid in ink, then I saw this post by the Mistress of the Moleskine, Amanda of Craftmonkeys fame. She's truly an original and an inspiration -- and if you've never visited her, go now!