Digi Sketch for New Hunt

I went to the doctor for a quick check on my jaw, slight infection it seems.  I'm fine.  Anyway, while I waited and waited I sketched a digital sketch on my iPhone with the app, Brushes.

For the new Scavenger Hunt from Life 30

Number 1, first of 3 lighting devices - the lights hanging on the wall used for looking in your eyes, ears and throat.  

We had a great Independence weekend.  We went to town and had breakfast at Anitas on Saturday.  Joanna's birthday on Sunday here with beans (frijoles), rice, fresh tortillas, sopapillas (made by Jennie) and carrot cake. Monday we went to Jennie's and Brandon's for brisket and some Independence Day fun.  It was a good weekend.  Hope you did well, too!!  We just had leftovers for dinner .... so good.

When I walked and sketched the other day I got a pretty good photo of a dragonfly.  There aren't nearly as many now.  The flowers have mostly dried up.  We need rain!!!

The dragonfly was balancing on the end of a grass stalk.  Interesting.  The flycatcher didn't see it I guess.  

 

Hunting for the Spark

The Scavenger Hunts have morphed into the Scavenger Hunts from Life on creativespark.com.  It is a friendly place and not so many artists.  

For Hunt #1

Number 4 steps -  Sketched from our walk yesterday.  The porch and steps where I spend so much time sketching with a Sharpie pen in a travel sketchbook.
 

Number 5 view out the window - view out the porch screen, digital on my iPad with the app, Brushes.  About 30 or more minutes.  Always takes more time to sketch digitally.

Number 6, open book and Number 7, favorite art tool - my big sketchbook and my Micron 02 pen.

 

Here is a photo of me sketching in the big book.

Yesterday we went for a walk and I sketched the porch from the first bridge.  We walked to the third bench and I sketched a couple more sketches in the travel sketchbook with the Sharpie pen.

Some trees along the bank.

Three fishermen on their small one person boats.  They seemed to be having fun although the closest one admitted to not catching anything.

Pointy iPad Sketch

Almost a week since I've been here and not much to say.  Really, can you believe that?

I got out my new iPad to sketch "pointy" on and the pencil was acting funny.  I realized that I had broken the nib when I dropped it on the hard tile floor.  I ordered a new supply and they should be here on Tuesday.  Of course the first Apple Pencil came with an extra nib.  The new one is $30 more and does not have any extra anything except free engraving.  Really needed that.

For Scavenger Hunt 683

 

#1 something pointy - Apple Pencil in a gray cover
#2 another something pointy - a Walgreens ball point pen

Sketched on my iPad with the App Brushes and my fingers.

Health note:

I had surgery last Wednesday and am recovering well.  No cancer.  I came home on Thursday and am on a regular diet.  Restricted to no lifting or hard work but heck, that is my daily routine anyway.  Won't be out and about for a few more days, but doing OK.

Gene has done the grocery shopping for the past few years.  I started doing it again during the Covid thing as I could move a bit faster.  He has been shopping now for a few times.  We end up on a different diet as he buys "different" groceries.  All good, though.  I really dislike shopping.

 

Digital Tree Sketch

Sketching on my iPhone, iPad or computer is so different than actual sketching with pen and pencil.  I try to just go for it like I do with a pen and use the "undo" as little as possible.  It is tempting and easy to correct mistakes or "character lines".  I feel that the sketch turns into a drawing or painting if I get too detailed and "correct".  I do zoom in to make small marks, especially on the app, Brushes.  If you leave the pencil or finger in a spot too long it changes the color of your lines.  I do use the different brushes or paper for texture.

I was having my coffee on the porch yesterday.  It was pretty warm out there but I was there and too lazy to get up and get my sketchbook and tools so just did a sketch on my iPhone with Brushes and my fingers.

 

For Scavenger Hunt 682, Number 1, tree.  This little pine tree is growing, or trying to grow, between the shed and the large pine.  It has a vine growing up on it which may be poison ivy.  Hmmm.

You can see I used a different brush tool for the ivy stuff and the pine branches.  

Digital sketching is fun and frustrating at the same time.  I don't do it often enough to remember things until I get halfway through.  I did remember to put in the background first in this sketch.

John Weiss, the policeman/artist or now should be artist/ex-policeman, had an interesting post about his cartooning in digi and in ink here:

https://johnpweiss.com/blog/169563/what-the-heck-is-haptic-cartooning-and-why-should-you-care3f

 

You know how much I like Kelly Borsheim's art.  She is living in Italy.  I respect her for her knowledge and how generous she is in sharing her ideas.  She is a sculptor, painter, photographer, street painter, writer and more.  At the moment she is carving in stone, have a look on her YouTube  and visit her blog.

https://youtu.be/GExs6kZ_Ah8

http://artbyborsheim.blogspot.com

Then just for fun, visit James Gurney's blog where he is sketching and visiting with a chimp and friends.  He is an amazing artist as well and has much info and help on his blog.

http://gurneyjourney.blogspot.com/2021/06/drawing-chimp-portrait.html

 

As always, don't forget to come back here and share my blog.  Thanks for supporting my artistic endeavors.  Nice word .. I enjoyed the PBS mystery, Endeavor.  Did you watch the inspector?  It was the prequel to Morse.  We've been watching Morse on DVDs.  It wasn't as good as we remember or dis-remember.  Still good to watch.  None of the series beat Foyle's War, though.  That is history, humor, mystery and great acting all in one.  A police detective story set in World War II.

 

Memorial Day and Sketches

I didn't post yesterday for Memorial Day.  Shame on me.  It is such an important day to me and our family.  Here are links to my past posts.  It also brought up other Memorials like the one in Angel Fire. 

https://jocastilloartblog.blogspot.com/search?q=memorial+day

We were quiet here thinking about the ones that gave their all to keep the USA free and "peaceful".  Joanna came out and tried to get the Appletv to work with my phone and the TV so I can stream the baseball tournaments this month.  No such luck, we don't have enough oomph on our internet to keep all three devices running at the same time.  Sigh.....

I cannot believe how the younger generation are being taught that history is not relevant and that the United States is a horrible country and equity over equality.  We had made a lot of progress over all the years.  Now even Martin Luther King is looked down on.  If the "woke" don't wake up, we will be in bread lines and learning how to make fires with flint.  The "closed" southern border has drugs and human trafficking flowing.  The Canadian border is still really closed.  If the elite live in a gated compound guarded by the police that retired from protecting us after the de-funding of police, they don't have to worry I guess.  Lack of power and food will hurt them too, but they don't see that.  There won't be any electricity to run their cars, etc....

Oh, well, I love the country and hope that calmer and smarter folks will figure all this out.  It will take some new people in government.  Elected officials were not supposed to make a career of their service but look where we are.  

I always cry at the singing of the National Anthem and stories about the military or police.  When we were overseas we always had fun, but there is absolutely no place like home in the free USA.

So back to art ...

I sketched on my new iPad on Saturday or Sunday.  It has a big screen, like 8 x 10 inches.  The new pencil does all sorts of tricks.  You know me, though.  I'm not into studying and learning.  Ha. (You can click on the images to see larger versions.)

Number 2, calm - the bird feeder with no hummingbirds flying around. Digital on the iPad.  I used the app Brushes and the Apple Pencil ... and fingers.

 Number 3, mailbox - the flag was at half staff for Memorial Day until noon.

Number 4 house - the flag at full staff after noon.  Both of these sketches are in the big book with the Lamy pen.  It has a larger nib, probably about an .05 so a bit faster than an .02.  I wanted to be fast as the mosquitoes were out.   I sat on a folding chair with the book on my lap!

A couple of my 12 or so bluebonnets bloomed again.  So small I almost missed them.

The house and flag.  The sky was amazing.  Austin and other areas received several inches of rain.  We did not.  We need more rain.

Stuffed - No, not a turkey. Pastel Sketch

For my turn sketching long distance with Mary, I picked a stuffed toy from the list on Scavenger Hunt 612  http://www.wetcanvas.com/forums/showthread.php?p=21701632

I had a different Teddy bear to sketch.  We bought a couple for the two youngest great grandsons.  We mailed them off today so barely had time to sketch one. 

Pastel on MiTeintes paper.  The zig-zag marks don't stand out in real life.  It was fun to do and only took about an hour.  The bears are soooo soft.

I don't think Mary will mind if I post her digital of her stuffed animal.  I think she did it on her iPhone.

Fun and thanks in advance, Mary.

All images on my website are copyright protected.  You can click on images to see them larger.

Quick iPad Sketch

For sketching with a pen, I try to do quick lines and can't "undo".  I was overworking my sketches on the iPad, well at least for what I try to do in sketching.  I was zooming in so that I could make my lines straighter,  smoother and such.  I didn't use the "undo" much but I was working in small areas instead of the whole picture.

On this sketch for Scavenger Hunt 258, I did not zoom or undo.  I set a time limit of 5 minutes and this is the result.

Number 5, lamp and Number 6, table.  I used the Brushes program.  It has more options than Draw Cast, but I tried to KISS it,  as Mike Windberg said yesterday in his critique -- Keep It Simple Stupid.

This doesn't look as nice as my other iPad sketches so far,  The others ended up to be more of a drawing than a sketch.

What do you like to use to sketch with?  Join me on the Hunts to practice without having to think about what to sketch.

iPad Sketch and The Last Few Days

This is from my iPad .  See how it does.

----------------------------------------------------

That part of my post came from my iPad, done with BE Write App.  It did work and I can probably use my iPad when we are on the road.  I can only post photos that I have on my iPad or iPhone.  Not great ways to take photos of artwork, but you never know until you try.   We are hoping to go to the UT baseball game in Houston on Friday so I will be able to post about the game and use photos I take there.

Sketching on the iPad or iPhone sort of gets beyond sketching.  I end up stretching the drawing and coloring in between the lines.  The first one I did of the Downy was more of a sketch.  I will have to watch that and still do my pen and ink sketches.  iPad sketching is fun, but takes longer than using a pen.

I sketched my iPhone (above) for Scavenger Hunt 258 on my iPad with DrawCast.  It took about 20 minutes.  I have only posted 4 sketches for this Hunt.  Wow.

I am still not too organized as you can see.

On Saturday we went to the Empty Bowl Project benefiting the Food Pantry.  We had never been.  Baseball usually interferes.  I usually donate a small painting for the silent auction, this year we decided to go instead.  The Longhorns were at Stanford so we took in the luncheon.  Students make the bowls, Lea Saxman and other potters fire them.  Local restaurants and caterers furnish the soup.  You donate $20 each, get a bowl, eat all the soup you can, bid on the silent auction and visit with the members of our community.  Can't beat that.

Gene shaking hands with Mark, Lea and Steve.  Lea donated several pieces of her wildflower/bluebonnet pottery for the silent auction.  We bid on some, but had to leave to go to Georgetown, so did not "win" our bids.  Maybe next time.

There is a wide selection of bowls to choose from.  I picked red and blue .. of course.  

 You can see in the bigger bowl that the artist included their initials, JC in the design.  I couldn't resist that bowl!!

They are both so nice and dishwasher safe.

After that we went to Georgetown to pick up my paintings.  That was a nice show and well received by the folks at the library and patrons. 

From Georgetown we went to Austin to visit with Jennie and the grand-dogs.  No new photos or sketches of them.  Hmmm.

I liked these flags on the way home at the entrance to Shadow Glen.  That development has a golf course that is closed because of the drought perhaps.  The golf course at Colovista closed, too, here in Bastrop.  It was for sale, but no buyers.  You want a golf course with a beautiful clubhouse and pool?  I think it is around $6,000,000.  This article says the house was $2,000,000 alone back in 2010.  The fire didn't damage it too much, sort of stopped there.

Sunday was the Austin Pastel Meeting in Austin.  I will post about that next.  Our meeting was a critique session for the pastel paintings.  Three judges talked about paintings for entering shows, dos and donts, and framing.  Good information.


UT Baseball Note: 
The Longhorns lost all three games to Stanford over the weekend.  I do think they need a hitting coach.  They are a young team and it will take some time for them to get going I guess.  We will stick with them.  College baseball is a great game.   You can read about them on the official Longhorn page. 

Double Sketches, Again and Digital Sketch

Because I am so behind on the Art House Sketchbook, I will double up with the Scavenger Hunts as much as possible. These four work for both if you stretch it a little, especially on the chair.

For Scavenger Hunt 157.

Number 11, tree. The Christmas tree. For the Art House, it is thinking of all the people and Christmas trees in the past.

Number 12, shoes. Gene's feet propped up with his soft shoes on. I have sketched these before, this is a new sketch. For AH, thinking of Gene and being comfy.


Number 13, flower. The artificial poinsettias and holly on the table. For AH, just thinking of YOU and Merry Christmas.

Number 14, chair. Gene's computer bag on a chair across the room. For AH, Thinking of Gene and his trip to visit his Mom for her 93rd birthday on December 19.

For Art House, sketches that don't fit in the Hunts.

Stocking and corner of fireplace, thinking of Santa. (You can see the color from the poinsettias peeking through.)

Pencil bag, thinking of Regina that gave me the bag. I use it for my colored pencils. Regina likes to use colored pencils so this should be an agreeable use for the bag. It is handmade from North Carolina as I recall.

And, for the record. A very quick sketch on the iPhone that I did at the airport in Birmingham on the Thanksgiving trip. This rack was out in front of the store in the hallway of the airport. It was interesting trying to sketch on the phone in the busy place. I didn't try people, they move too fast. Maybe when I have more practice with the phone sketches.

iPhone sketch for Hunt 151

I sketched for Scavenger Hunt 151. One of the challenges was to do a digital sketch. Yes! I borrowed Gene's iPhone for about 45 minutes. I'm not nearly as fast with the iPhone as the pen. Whew. I had to learn all over and tried a stylus to see if I was better at the straight lines. I don't think so. You have to press harder and that takes away the quick line, brush stroke effect. Maybe I will get used to it.

Number 1, what is directly in front of me. My new hard drive for storage and the silver stylus for the iPhone, I was using the red one.

I used to sketch on my computer with a program called Dabbler and before that I sketched with the graphic tools on Appleworks which was Clarisworks when I started. I can't open those old sketches here, but I will look on my old iMac and get some to post later. That was fun.

Here are a couple from the Dabbler days. Dabbler had brushes, pastels, oils, pen, spray paint, etc. You could add texture and more.

Sketching on the Computer

I don't know if this is sketching or playing, but here are a couple of samples of computer graphics using the square, circle and odd shapes with the fill tools with different patterns. It is fun to do and doesn't require drawing skills, just imagination. You can see a few more "paintings" done with Dabbler and graphics here on my website.

An Austin skyline.

A desert scene.

Open your word processing program and play with the graphics. :)

Christmas Card by Phone

Wishing you a wonderful Christmas and the best holidays.

We don't send Christmas cards. We haven't for a few years. Back in the OLD days when our kids were little we would have cards made with a photo of them and send them out with a letter, not a mimeographed letter, a handwritten letter. The first year we were in Bolivia, 1974, I drew cards with pen and ink. I think I drew about 50 with a church and a llama on each one. Some were pretty good. :) The next year I found a printer that made a metal plate of my drawing and printed them with raised ink. (I don't know what that process is called) After the printing I had a wooden block with the metal cut out of my card on it. We did that for a few years. I continued the pen and ink for several years in the states, too. From Lubbock, Texas, in 1980, it was a prairie dog. Lubbock is famous for the prairie dogs.

When we moved here to Bastrop I did a water color of our house and had 8 1/2 x 11 inch color photo copies made. At that time they were $1 a piece. Pretty pricey. Probably sent over 100. It was a nice way to send out our new address and letter. I printed the letters on the computer on the copies. I did customize and write every letter I sent.

The next year, I drew the poinsettias above on the computer. I had a program called Color It and drew with the mouse. Not many realized I had drawn it as I printed them with the customized letter on nice parchment. One of Gene's sisters asked me where I got the stationary to print my letters. :(

I suppose it was in 1999 then, that we stopped sending cards. Gene started sitting down with our address book and calling everyone he could reach on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. That has turned into a great custom and that is our cards at this time in our life. So, if you want a call from Gene and talk to me, we need your telephone number. :)

P.S. To send your phone number, my e-mail link is in my complete profile. Scroll down or send to: jo at jocastilloart.com

Scavenger Hunt 54 Host, Blue and more

I am the host for the present Scavenger Hunt #54 on wetcanvas.com. The host lists 26 everyday items to sketch. The participants can sketch as many or as few as they want. The Hunt lasts for nine days. I have been in most of the Hunts for the past year. I average about 10 of the 26 items. The most I have done is 16. Maybe I can do more this time. :)

Several of the artists complete the list. There are a variety of artists, skills and styles. We try to encourage each other and comment on the sketches. Some do almost finished drawings, some use color, we had one computer sketch artist, but he hasn't taken part for a while. More about that later. It is a good way to sketch new things that you wouldn't ordinarily pick and it encourages me to sketch almost daily. I have even finished a couple of sketchbooks. Sketching is not my favorite part of art, but it is so good for my painting and to train my "eye" to see and put down strokes in a controlled manner. I have improved my speed and if I pay attention, it has improved my drawing. I am impatient so tend to plow ahead without thinking. For the most part, I am learning to control the excitement and slow down and see the flowers. I usually sketch with a pen so I cannot erase. This should make me look better before I put down a line.

To start this Hunt, the first three sketches are done with the Micron 005, blue, in the NY sketchbook (for newcomers, a sketchbook from the NYMoA (a gift from Regina) about 6 x 8 inches. About 35 minutes, total.


#1, Something Blue, Budweiser bottle, the neck is too squatty. #2, something glass, a glass candle holder.

#3, Towel rack, a paper towel rack in the kitchen.


As I was checking out wetcanvas.com today I found this article about sketching. If you haven't seen it you might enjoy it. You do not have to be a member to read the articles.

The artist that sketches on his computer is Walter Logeman, Thousand Sketches. He is really getting great with his sketches. I especially like his horses and people, skylines .. well, his more representational work. (That is just me.) He does abstract work as well. He has been visiting the States from New Zealand for the past few weeks and set up some gallery representation in New York. Congratulations, Walter!

Digital Geraniums, ArtBlogs 4 U

I haven't painted or sketched the last few days so I thought I would post this computer drawing/painting/digital graphic whatever it is. :) I did this several years ago with my old Mac, Dabbler and maybe ColorIt. No photo involved, just drawing with a mouse! Such fun.

We are always meeting someone, who knows someone, who knows a friend. It is such a small world. Now with blogging, the internet and the world wide web it is getting even smaller. Friends and people with like interests all over the world can chat and see each ones art .. and also buy some.

Lesly Finn, in New Zealand, has started a blog called Artblogs 4 U. A collection of artists that blog from all over the place. I quickly joined and encourage you other artists to do the same. This week she is starting to have a featured artist. I hope to take part in that. So check out Artblogs 4 U and also Lesly's personal blog. I'm always surprised and interested when artists do things for other artists with nothing asked in return (well in this case a link, ha). So, thanks to Lesly for her time and many new blogs to explore. It will be a learning experience to chat with these new to me artists and read up on their work and inspirations.