Florence Turnour's Blog

I'm taking an on-line class from Jane LaFazio called Watercolor Sketchbook: Designs from Life . The first week was about flowers and creating a completed page. I started my drawings at El Dorado Nature Center for my first page. Here is the finished page, with designs added. I made some stencil designs from the yerba mansa shape, and made some gelli prints with them. I cut the shapes out of watercolor paper as well. I think I'm going to stitch it on as a flap to the page with the yerbamansa. I drew hibiscus flowers from my back yard for the second page. I also painted some day lilies, but I haven't finished the page yet. The second week's assignment was to draw vegetables. We were also encouraged to make rubber stamps from some of our patterning, but I haven't done that yet. The second week is all about vegetables. I chose radishes. There's even a horse radish. Thanks for looking!

I had a fun day at El Dorado Nature Center today, drawing for my on-line class with Jane LaFazio . I saw an egret, who didn't make it into my sketch book, and two squirrels who did. That park is only two mile from my house, so I'll certainly be back. Thanks for looking.

Today I went to the Fullerton Arboretum . It was about 30 minutes away, so I'm not likely to frequent it, but it was a very nice wooded area and garden. There is a historic house of some type there that I planned to draw, but I was so taken by the diverse collection of trees that I decided to go out into the wooded area instead. This drawing took a long time. I had to label the trees in the drawing to keep from getting confused about where the gaps were and where the trunks were. I put numbers on the frontmost trunks, and letters on the next layer back to try to keep them straight. I am taking a Craftsy  class on Travel Sketching, and in one of the lessons, Marc Taro Holmes paints without drawing a sketch by first painting the negative space. I thought to take this technique, but the tree was so complicated I decided to draw it as well. I first painted the gaps between the branches that I did draw. And then between the four frontmost trunks. And then I painting the f...

Today I went to sketch at the South Coast Botanical Gardens in Rolling Hills. It was OK, but I found the benches, though plentiful, no pointing in good direction. I took a long time strolling around, and got very little drawing done for the time I was there. A school tour came by and I was happy to become part of the tour. The kids crowded around and asked me questions. "What are you drawing?" was my favorite. Although I was sitting nose to nose with a poppy at the time, the asker decided not to make any assumptions. Thanks for looking!

Today I went to Huntington Beach pier and drew Dukes. See, I was really there. I was sitting in my new 7 lb director's chair in the sand next to a slew of bikinied volleyball players. It took me a long time to do the drawing, and I had to take a break for lunch. Here's me hungry, practicing my selfies. Oops the drawing is upside down. Thanks for looking.

There is a nice neighborhood with large fancy houses and near to no traffic not too far from where my kids take tennis. I sketched there two weeks in a row, and then today, I drove to the end of the street and found a few shops. I bought a coffee so I could sit there, and painted the Park Pantry across the street. I guess I'm fond of the Spanish style houses, since there is quite a variety on 1st street, but I chose similar houses for both sketches. I'm hoping to finish this sketch book this summer. Although I'm getting used to it, I really like the cold pressed cotton paper better than the paper in this book. Still it will be fun to have a book full of sketches. I've filled up a few books before, but not with nice sketches; those are more like notes and scribbles than actual drawings. Thanks for looking.