Painted Easter Egg

It's been a while since I've done a 20 minute sketch or painting, but this brightly colored painted Easter egg was a perfect subject with which to try it again. The egg has a high gloss sheen to it which was nearly impossible to convey in watercolor, but the rest of the colors are accurate. I have several of these eggs and really enjoy bringing them out this time of year! Watercolor, approx. 3 1/2" x 4".

An Embroidered Baby Gift

Designing and stitching custom embroidery has become a small passion of mine recently, occupying several hours which would have been spent last year painting 20 minute sketches.  Though I deeply love both pursuits, the embroidery can be enjoyed as small gifts in ways paintings or sketches aren't always practical, like for little ones. Finding a gender-neutral subject was no trouble here. What baby wouldn't love a toadstool-drum-playing gnome?

Birthday Fraktur

I completed a few larger art and stitching projects lately, one of which was this beautiful fraktur-inspired painting (shown unframed). I was inspired by the style of 18th-century Pennsylvania German dower chests, with painted panels. Besides the traditional flower arrangements, they often include personalization like initials or dates indicating a marriage or other significant occasion. I liked trying to duplicate the carved-type somewhat primitive lettering here. Many of the fraktur-inspired paintings I've done before were vertical format, so the horizontal format of this one was also a welcome change. Pencil, pen and watercolor,
8" x 10".

Have a seat!

Illustrating a series of regular household chairs was an idea from another sketchbook artist's blog. I like the simplicity of it - something you look at around your house all the time, but recorded (in an artistic way) for posterity. I have some new sketch paper, slightly larger than I normally use (7"x10") but it thin for multiple washes and wrinkled. I am happy with my fancy lettering here! Pencil, pen and watercolor.

Back to Basics

With several upcoming painting projects in mind, it was time to update my watercolor color wheels and palette map. Many years ago I decided to work with a very limited palette of watercolor pigments. Since I do so much travel sketching and journaling, I use a small portable palette and the fewer colors that requires, the better.

I have 14 colors on my palette (top), but the Payne's Gray and Cobalt Violet, both good mixing colors almost never get used. Cerulean blue, Winsor Green (Blue Shade) and Burnt Umber are rarely used too - in fact, those five colors had no place in my color wheel exercise. Burnt Sienna and Fr. Ultramarine Blue I use the most - together they make all the wonderful browns, neutrals and shadow darks you could ever want. The scanner couldn't quite fit the 9" x 12" piece of paper this exercise is on, so the Cadmium Lemon and Burnt Sienna names were cut off the top. It may seem boring, but color wheels are to painting what stocking your pantry is to cooking! It is fun to see how so few colors can make a full rainbow of brights and neutrals. Looking forward to what's to come, now!

Bay Street Park - Fun with Sketchup

I am working on an article for the Rochester Red Wings' 2012 yearbook about the various ballparks that the team has called home throughout the years. From 1908-1928 Rochester's professional baseball club played its home games at a stadium called Baseball Park at Bay Street. The ballpark was located on Bay Street, east of Webster Avenue.


There are many images of this quirky ballpark available online in the Rochester Library's archives. For the article I thought it would be interesting to render the ballpark in 3D based on these images. When finished, it will provide a more complete picture of what the ballpark looked like, since none of the photos show the entire ballpark. Aerial photography was in its infancy at the time and unfortunately no aerial photos of the ballpark seem to exist.

A panoramic shot of Bay Street Park comprised of three images. This scene depicts an overflow crowd of 13,000 fans on opening day 1909.

Using a map from 1910 for reference purposes, I was able to create the basic property area to scale in Sketchup. Although not all elements are to scale, the map provided a rough idea of the shape, location and size of the 4 basic structures of the ballpark - a main grandstand, 2 bleachers and an auxiliary building.

Detail area of the ballpark property, 1910

Basic Sketchup model

Once I had the basic geometry created, I was able to use photos for comparison.

View of first base side

View of third base side

The model is still very sketchy, but it gives an idea of the basic layout and scale of the ballpark. I have a lot of detail to add before it's finished, but it has been a worthwhile exercise to enable me to get a hang of the functionality and features of Google Sketchup.

Once my Bay Street Park model is complete I will likely do one for Silver Stadium (1929 - 1996), and perhaps even Frontier Field if I'm feeling ambitious!

Winter Blooms

"Winter must be cold for those with no warm memories." I think that's a nice quote (though from a unknown source). This week has been very cold, and thoughts of spring flowers are pretty far away, so all the more reason to paint something bright, cheerful, and very spring-like. I started with a pencil sketch to get the curve of the flower stems the way I liked them. That seemed like such a luxury compared to starting right off with pen when I was cramped for time in the 20 minute sketches! I went over the lines with pen, and then filled in with watercolor. All in all, this fraktur-inspired painting probably took around 50 minutes to complete. Pencil, pen and watercolor, approx. 5 1/2" x 7".