Picture notes from California

For this week installment of the 52 Weeks 52 Works challenge, I am posting some paintings and drawings from my recent US trip. California offers contrasted landscapes and the views in the Yosemite National Park are impressive and difficult to describe with words and even in a painting.

Berkeley's neighbourgs -Watercolour by Benoit Philippe

Berkeley (California)

Sonoma (California)

April snow in the Yosemite

Related Posts

• Working on tones and values with felt pens contains 2 sketches dones during my US trip.



• Prince Street (Berkeley - California)

Leonardo’s aerial perspective device

The Exploratorium in San Francisco has a tagline that reads: The museum of science, art and human perception.

The relationships between art and science on one hand and art and human perception on the other hand are fascinating subjects; so I was eager to see what was on show.

The museum is a large hall full of hands-on experiments. As an artist, I found the section on vision and perception interesting. We tend to forget how much subjectivity goes into vision and perception.

To demonstrate aerial perspective and how the size of the subject will shrink with distance, they have built the device described by Leonardo da Vinci in one of his notebooks. Here is Leonardo’s description:

"How to portray a place accurately Obtain a piece of glass as large as half sheet of royal folio paper and fasten this securely in front of your eyes, that is, between your eye and the thing you want to portray. Next, position yourself with your eye at a distance of two-thirds of a braccio from the glass and fix your head with a device so that you cannot move it at all. Then close or cover one eye, and with the brush or a piece of finely ground red chalk, mark on the glass what you see beyond it. Then trace it on to paper from the glass, and pounce it onto paper of good quality, and paint it if it pleases you, making good use of aerial perspective."

(Source: Leonardo on Painting: Anthology of Writings by Leonardo Da Vinci with a Selection of Documents Relating to His Career as an Artist (Yale Nota Bene) – page 216)
I took a few photographs, so you can see what the actual device looks like.

The Museum

Exploratorium
at the Palace of Fine Arts
3601 Lyon Street
San Francisco, CA 94123

Related articles

• Leonardo da Vinci advice on judging your work
• Leonardo on Painting: Anthology of Writings by Leonardo Da Vinci with a Selection of Documents Relating to His Career as an Artist (Yale Nota Bene)
• Art pricing tip from Leonardo da Vinci
• Fingerprint your paintings

Working on tones and values with felt pens

While in the US, I bought a set of PITT Artist Brush Pens made by Faber Castell .

This particular set of six pens only contains shades of grey. The shades are:

• Cold Grey III (#232),
  
  


• Cold Grey IV (#233),
  



• Cold Grey V (#235),
  



• Warm Grey III (#272),
  



• Warm Grey IV (#273),
  



• Warm Grey V (#274)
  

These pens'tips are shaped like brushes and use pigmented India ink that is both acid-free and archival (PH neutral). The ink is also waterproof when dry.

I used them for sketching during the trip to California. I still need to get used to the palette of warm and cool greys to make the most of them and achieve good contrast and light and shade effects. However, I already like the smoothness of the tip and the ease of use of these pens.

They are ideal to work on tones and make quick sketches to establish values.

Two examples of sketches done in California will give you a better idea of their potential. I also used a fine black felt pen of the same brand for the initial drawing.

Carmel’s mission

Waiting at the airport

Related resources and articles

• FABER-CASTELL 6 PITT ARTIST PEN SHADES OF GREY BRUSH
  


• Check your values : working with tones
  
  
  

  
  
  Values Tones Felt pens Grey shades PITT Artist Brush Pens Faber Castell Sketching
  
  
  
  
  

  
  
  

Prince Street (Berkeley - California) - Watercolour

I painted this watercolour last week, on location, in Berkeley (California). The weather was ideal, with a bright blue sky and moderate heat.

Berkeley is a very nice town, with wooden houses full of character. There are so many plants, flowers and trees that the place looks like a town planted in a garden. The climate means that you can enjoy flowers all year round. I saw many trees heavy with lemons, a sigth uncommon in England.

To paint, I just sat opposite the house, on the sidewalk. After one hour and half, I wished I had a cushion or a seat. Apart from that, it was a pleasant painting session.

Prince street (Berkeley - California) - Watercolour (11"x15") by Benoit Philippe

Accent Arts - Be Human, Make Art

I went to Accent Art, an independent art shop in Palo Alto (California).

Shopping for art abroad is always fun and I look for different products that I can't get in France or in England. The staff was friendly (difficult to find unfriendly service in the US).

Instead of giving me a paper or a plastic bag, they put the goods I purchased in a black fabric bag with the following inscriptions:

Humans use symbols

Artists make symbols

Be human make art

There is a lot to think about in these three lines.


Accent Art
392 California Avenue
Palo Alto, CA 94306
(650) 424-1044
Their website: http://www.accentarts.com/

Accent Arts Art Shop California Palo Alto