Portraits, Sketchbook Skool Homework, Houses by Lynn Cohen

 Ellen Etzler is a Klassmate in Sketchbook Skool

She was my 107th portrait of the month

I continue to draw portraits, and this one was done right before we left on a five day mini vacation; and the beginning of Semester 2 of Sketchbook Skool, called SEEING.

Skool started with Danny Gregory's class in SEEING. This was the second lesson that was called: Fast and Slow. We were to quickly paint an outline of an object and then slowly do a line drawing of that object. Well, leave it to me to choose to draw a whole big basket of objects (vegetables) from the local farmers market. I splashed my color and some of it actually matched what I would be drawing on top of it. However you will see a lot of white kale and basket. It was a challenging and fun exercise!

On our trip in northern California I took numerous photos of Victorian houses. This one was in Ferndale, CA. Again, I tried using the Fast, Slow exercise doing it.

The Green Mansion is in Eureka, CA. It is HUGE! I guess I like large challenges. Again, paint splashed quickly, and then three hours went into the drawing of these gables, roof tops and house parts.

In Ferndale, we grabbed a quick breakfast at the Victorian Inn. I repeated the fast slow method for this part of the building.

The first lesson in the SEEING first class with Danny  Gregory was to draw a piece of toast, slowly, and getting all it's crevices and valleys and bumps. I don't eat bread, we were traveling so when my husband had his ritual morning coffee from Starbucks, I asked for their bumpiest bagel in the shop.
She asked if I'd then want the cheese, seeded bagel? Yes, it was indeed bumpy enough. She then asked if I'd "...like cream cheese on that?"  I said, "No, I am not going to eat it, I was going to draw it."

I forgot to ask her to toast it.

But I drew it in the car as we traveled on. And here it is.

I will end this post with one more portrait. This time it's not of a Klassmate, but of my Israeli nephew (from my first marriage) Shay (pronounced Shy), who I have reconnected with fifty years later via Facebook. He saw this and liked it and said he was hanging it in his office.

Wishing you all a creative week. Draw and paint and enjoy life! See you at Paint Party Friday, and Paper, Paint, Pencils & Pens!

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