Little Sketches

It’s been a while since I posted random little sketches. There are weeks, and sometimes months, when I don’t work on projects that hold together as a larger project. And I start to feel like I’m not drawing. But flipping through my sketchbook is a good reminder that I do squeeze in a few drawings every week. They’re usually random little things, stolen moments before appointments,  or after work before driving home…but they add up.

This sketch was done on a quickly-darkening street called Campbell Avenue. The big bare trees are what made me stop and sketch.

This theater sketch is part of a series of theaters I’m sketching for my Vintage Signs of San Jose project.

More pages of little sketches. We’ve had a long, grey and wet spell this winter. It shows in my color palette here.

There’s something magical when the light breaks through the rain clouds. Especially dramatic if you are at Mission San Juan Bautista. This is an under 5-minute sketch, done when I went on my son’s field trip to the Mission.

I posted this piece on instagram and someone asked this question:
Do you plan your color blends really carefully or just kind of slap on a lot of wet paint? 

I answered it without thinking too much about it, but reading back to it, what I said then is exactly how I feel:
The beauty of watercolor is that you shouldn’t expect to control it completely, because watercolor itself does beautiful stuff. I would say I know my materials well enough to allow and plan for some things but mostly I am open to responding to what the medium does.

Additional thought : No, I don’t really stop and plan my color mixes, but I guess I get to know the pigments in my paintbox pretty well over time. That violet: to be used with caution, a little goes a long way. That green: turns totally vitriolic unless it’s got something muddying it down.

Happy Friday!