Paris sketchbook 3

Switching pens...


Switching back again:

These were all drawn in and around what may have been my favorite spot in all Paris, the Jardin de Luxembourg. Our hotel was on this magnificent park, and it offered endless scenes of interest and beauty.

The last night we watched this kid and three adults playing doubles. As my note says, the kid shouted "Ah! Magnifique!" every time the guy opposite got a good shot. He was much cuter than this.






Sketchbook pages, especially ones from Paris, shouldn't have disclaimers, but I do have a tip for sketchcrawlers: I bought this little book in a stationary shop. I liked the paper texture, and it was small enough and light enough that I thought I'd have an easier time of it packing it in my bag. That was true, but in retrospect I think the one I bought was too small--4x8". It's hard to get free and easy with the pen on such a small page--at least I found it that way. So buy or bring a bigger book!

As it happened I had not much time to draw anyway, so perhaps it worked out fine. It definitely is a notebook sort of collection. Posted here to share with my friends and for posterity, brief as it may be.

scribbling as fast as you can when you're not supposed to be in the office but are on vacation instead

Another page

There was a "festival of bread" going on in front of Notre Dame when we got there; tented pavilions, some with kids trying baking baguettes, some with samples of different kinds of sucre(sugar). Once place gave out little pennants with "sucre" emblazoned on them for the kids--every toddler had one, it seemed. Only in France would a marketing show smell that good or be that kid-friendly.

Paris when it sizzles...

La-la-la-la...guess where I'll be in a month?

Paris. Where I have never ever been yet. Ye gods!

And so, since I have the City of Light on the brain pan, I was doodling my memory of Chantal Goya(who I was watching in a darling Youtube interview over the weekend). Naw, she doesn't look just like this--it's just "inspired by".
She was in Godard's "Masculin Feminin", a great film. And of course she was a great yeye singer, a pop star of France in the 60s.

Anyone have a place of thing they want to recommend in Paris? Seems everyone's been there but me!
I suspect I'll be drawing a lot of Eiffel towers.
Or more yeye girls.

chilly

Dr. Martins certainly are vivid

ruff

Venus

relax

Pout

Abstracts

1960 hat

I love vintage hats. This is a portrait of a recent find, beckoning me from its stand across the room while I was doodling on the hp tablet...so, drew hat first--girl underneath second. Not really the way to do it, but otherwise one might not know what it was supposed to be. The HAT, I mean.

riding into town

Another hp tablet thing.

Woeful

I love macs, but an HP tablet is a thing of intrigue and entertainment, alright

Mrs. Hancock Park

playing with a different tablet/different program

Boy, it's weird using a different tablet/laptop/tool/program! But I like the brush look in Alias Sketchbook...it's just this PC thing that throws me. Aargh! I feel like I've never used a computer before. Takes some practice, I guess.

I'm having fun, that's the main thing. Thanks, man(you know who you are)!

backstage dramatics

Standing rant

Okay--this isn't meant as some kind of a decent drawing(how's that for a disclaimer, heh).
I was just thinking how much the current vogue for standing fashionably bugs me. You've all seen it--everyone does it: all the ladies on the carpet stand pigeon-toed. And as far as I can tell, it's really unflattering. Yet, it's supposed to be the "best" way to stand to flatter oneself. Jeez.

So, on the left: the Way To Stand from the golden age of Hollywood(for the purposes of argument, 1919-1965).

On the right, the pigeon-toed thing.

There are even books out there that advise us everyday slobs that if we want to look slim, elegant and well, slim: stand with your arms akimbo, your pelvis tilted back and your toes pointing at each other. How awkward can you get!
The old fashioned style is so much prettier, and makes anatomical sense...look at any posed photo of Marilyn Monroe, for instance: she always crossed one leg slightly in front of the other and bends her knee; it makes for a beautiful, graceful shape from the waist down, makes the legs look longer, and slims from the widest part of the hips down to the feet. How on earth is spreading your legs apart wide enough that you can point your stilettoed toes at each other supposed to slim anybody? It's the red carpet emperor's new clothes as far as I'm concerned.

high-hatted

Dita style

What?

Stride

She's P.O.'ed about something, walking right off the Cintiq without looking back...

blissfull

diaphanous

Just fooling around at the end of the day.

I'm working on a project...

...of my own, that will be part of something else. Cryptic, yes?


Anyway, here are some very rough ruffs for it. These are Cintiq(as usual)but I think I'm going to go trad with this story. My, do I love my brush pens.

Meekinses

Looking away

almost here...

and more doodles...

NOT my drawing, but...

...it is my horse, and I love what Dave did--so I'm bending my sketchbook posting rules and putting one of his on-the-scene sketches here for you to enjoy. There's more at Dave's page.


Anyway, here's my "Osk"(it means "wish" in icelandic)--a mare from Iceland(really--she flew Icelandair to get here). Icelandics are sturdy, pony-sized horses that carry adults in Iceland, as they're the only breed that's been on that island for over 1000 years. These are the descendents of the viking horses, believe it or not. They are smallish--that's what happens evolution-wise when an animal reverts to a wild common denominator. Dogs, horses, cats, etc. all revert to "wolf", "pony" and "tabby" types naturally(especially in 1000 years). But the icelandics are now bred very carefully and shown all over europe; they're quite feisty and fast, and do a gait called the tölt, a running walk that doesn't bounce and is a blast to ride.
Here she is in full color--one view, anyway:

Here she's trying to climb in the back of our car.

Dave P. and David Derrick and I visited the horses at lunch a month ago and all did drawings; Dave D.'s are also terrific. Mine? Well, I do have a lot of random horse sketches, so maybe I'll put something up eventually when I can scan them. I'm just glad Dave P. did.
Happy trails!

A pinfeather here, a piece of down there...

I was describing to my friend Dave what happens when our African grey parrot has what I suppose you'd call a neurotic episode, which he's going through lately. He doesn't screech or bang his dish or do much else except...pluck. The poor fellow.



I bite my nails from time to time, so I understand, I think.

sitting and waiting

Marie-A

I've just finished Lady Antonia's book of the doomed princess-cum-Queen(very very good), but haven't seen the film. I think I'll go this weekend. Anyone else seen it? I'm an afficionado of costuming and period clothing(and, well, plain old periods of history--pretty much all of them)so I feel certain that at least will entertain me.

dashed if I will

pointing

When it's in your genes, even a leaf can get you half off the couch and into position.

Waiting room

random doodling

...by way of a liitle warming up on the cintiq.