Oil Plein Air @ Crystal Cove - Newport Beach with Patti Slattery

Patti and I took a full day workshop at Crystal Cove. We stood on the front porch of a beach cottage where Bette Midler's 1988 movie, Beaches, was shot. Patti had never done oil before and really liked it. The instructor had easels set up and palettes, brushes, and canvas at the ready. We were painting some coastal rocks with waves crashing against them. It was a overcast coolish day and we took our lunch with us, pausing to eat at the table with the umbrella in the photo below. Very enjoyable.

Large oil painted 1999 years ago - "Carolina Moon"

I think I was channeling Thomas Kincaid when I did this!

Mom on the Back Stoop

I did this for my mom on Mother's Day as it pretty accurately represents her often standing on the back stoop when we were kids playing outside. She'd step out from the kitchen where we lived in North Carolina to cool off and watch our childhood antics.

Art Renewed

2017 

Wow, I had just started this and signed up for private art classes in Colorado Springs where we had retired. That was just 13 days before we were pulled to San Diego. Never made those classes in The Springs, but thanks to Patti Slattery, my artist soul has re-emerged here in beautiful San Diego. 

6 Years Ago

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Cheryl Banks

January 10, 2013 · 

And so it begins...the re-emergence of "Cheryl the Artist". She was asleep in Virginia but her artist-soul has been awakened by the proximity and inspiration of other artists and the beautiful Colorado vistas. Signed up for 3 classes at the best art school in The Springs, attached to the Fine Art Museum. So excited I can barely contain my joy. "Art washes away from the soul the dust of everyday life." — Pablo Picasso

BOOKLIST RECOMMENDATIONS ON DRAWING

 Find your own voice and don’t worry about what everybody else is doing!

General drawing and urban sketching books:
The Art of Urban Sketching: Drawing on Location Around the World
Sketch! The Non-Artist’s Guide to Inspiration, Technique, and Drawing Daily Life
Urban Sketching: The Complete Guide to Techniques
Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain
Atlas of Human Anatomy for the Artist

Books about perspective drawing and cityscapes:
The Urban Sketching Handbook: Understanding Perspective
Perspective Made Easy
The Art of Perspective: The Ultimate Guide for Artists in Every Medium
The Urban Sketching Handbook: Architecture and Cityscapes 

Books about working with watercolor:
The Watercolor Artist’s Bible
Urban Watercolor Sketching: A Guide to Drawing, Painting, and Storytelling in Color
Local Color: Seeing Place Through Watercolor
The Complete Watercolorist’s Essential Notebook
For more advanced painters: Watercolor Painting: A Comprehensive Approach to Mastering the Medium

Anthologies featuring other artist sketchbooks or journals for inspiration:
An Illustrated Life: Drawing Inspiration from the Private Sketchbooks of Artists
A World of Artist Journal Pages
The Sketchbook Project World Tour

Ballerinas (1990's) Pencil and marker

Older art

 

(Charcoal and digital)

“It is safe to tell the pure in heart that they shall see God, for only the pure in heart want to.” 
― C.S. Lewis, The Problem of Pain

 Succulent Cafe in Oceanside with Patti Slattery.

This is an eggplant illustration I did while in art school in Tucson. It was first done in just graphite, then Prismacolor colored pencil and Prismacolor marker. The lesson was working on realism and catching all the highlights, shadows, etc.

People energize a scene

I'm practicing different drawing and painterly techniques adding people to scenes. It's necessary to work quickly when sketching a live scene. No time for detail, buy adding people brings more life and interest to the composition. It's important to quickly capture the silhouette and large shapes that will help portray  the subject accurately. Form and mass, or volume. Then follow along to add realistic, expressive details with each new passerby. Once your composition is in place, use ink to draw in all the details and develop form, then bring the subjects to life with watercolor. Going to take practice!