Sketchbook
Whoever is doing the floral design for Blue Bottle is killing it.
Taking some time to draw at the coffee shop.
Sketching at the Salesforce Transit Center
In September I went to sketch with the East Bay Sketchers at the garden on top of the Salesforce Transit Center. Two weeks later they discovered cracks in the beams and closed it! I hope they figure out what is happening and reopen it soon.
I did not know that there was a little funicular to get to the top. sadly, it was not open when we got there.
We walked around and looked for good views to draw. Somehow, once again, I seem to have not taken any pictures.
I drew the courtyard area. It was a very lively and colorful space!
I was very interested int eh planting plans. There were some trees that I gave the side-eye as ones that get HUGE. like is this really engineered to deal with a 130 ft.dgf Aurucaia araucana? I’m sure they did think of everything.
An historic earthquake shake in SF
in 1906 the earthquake that burned down SF left many people homeless. Tiny ‘earthquake shacks’ were built to house people quickly. There are not that many of them left in SF but my sister happens to live in one of them!
I drew it from Google maps and I will frame it and give it to her for her birthday. I had such fun drawing and painting this!
Some Drawings
I just thought I would post some of the various painting and drawing I have been doing. Some of it is work related and some is not!
Green and gold watercolor swatches.
I did this quick visualization for a client recently. We want to remove this lawn, a little privacy fence (not too overwhelming) and some interesting colorful plants.
Okay, so I also took this irrigation class through the Zone 7 Water Agency. the class was taught by Lori Palmquist, who is an irrigation WIZARD. She’s a good speaker and a good teacher. I may also have accosted her about some APLD stuff and she was like WhoTF are you?!? LOL. No worries, Lady, I’m just a stranger asking you for access to this website you used to work on. Don’t mind me! Anyway, here is an illustration of an irrigation manifold. As you can see, I am an excellent student who does not struggle to pay attention.
I should be learning about what these things are and do but instead I am drawing them. Don’t come at me, I have ADHD.
We had a little field trip to Drake’s Beach and I did a quick vignette.
Some other sketchy doodles for work:
Neighborhood sketchbook
Snapped a picture of a Tibouchina urvilleana on a neighborhood walk and then decided to sketch it. I love the look of the dark river rock and the fallen purple petals.
Visualizing with SketchUp
Still thinking about visualizing. I do like 3D scenes in SketchUp. It’s nice to have a but of that realistic texturing and the rendered shadows are super nice as well. In my own hand drawings I tend to not put those dramatic shadows in because I worry about ruining the drawing. :D
I think one of my annoyances with SketchUp is just have to do with finding the right plant objects to use. If a picture looks fairly realistic the plants need to be pretty darn close the actual plant being spec’ed in the plan otherwise homeowners get confused. With a hand-drawing you can just be like, “oh yeah, this is an artistic rendition”.
Again, these are not my design they are from the wonderful Susan at Garden Alchemy.
Oh, yeah, I also created that metal hoop sculpture you see in the photos in SketchUp and you can find it in the 3D Warehouse and use it if you want to!
Visualizing Designs
I’m imagining that everyone has their own work flow for creating client visuals. I love 3D and, in fact, have a degree in 3D Animation and Computer Modeling (or something along those lines… it’s been a long time). Making 3D renderings look good is fairly time consuming and I often don’t love the final product. The time consuming part is what is important here though, I’m not sure your small to mid sized residential projects will want to pay for that time. The GOAL of these visuals is to help the client imagine their space and maybe it doesn’t have to super elaborate and 100% perfect and I need to remember that.
Right now I am using SketchUp. It’s good enough but I do still love that hand-drawn look. Lately I have been rendering a line drawing in SketchUp and then coloring over it. Here is an uncolored example.
Firepit with shrubs
Same view but with different plants and chairs.
And a color example. The color on this scan came out a tad weird but you can see how I go about making a test drawing and trying out markers.
I print out several and then us AD Markers to color. I do love to color!
My current process:
Create basic SketchUp model and use one of the sketch filters. Create several views and print them out.
Draw in the plants - sometimes I draw directly on to the print out and sometimes I do a more elaborate dance with tracing paper, rescanning, color adjusting in Photoshop but honestly that takes way longer.
Choose a coloring medium - I have been using AD Markers lately but sometimes I use colored pencils. I would love to do watercolor. One of the joys of watercolor is how fast and blendable they are. I have not really worked out HOW to do this yet though. I don’t think my printer will work even wth the flimsiest watercolor paper. I could trace the drawing on but haven’t tried that yet. Something to work on, I guess!
Then scan, color correct, and done!
I don’t have my own clients yet but I get to color other peoples designs and I freaking love it.
The above landscape designs are by Susan of Garden Alchemy.
Color Blobs
If I’m not feeling inspired to draw/paint anything in particular I like to just play around with color. Sometimes I even just paint circles of single colors. It helps that my paint of choice, Daniel Smith watercolors, has such amazing vibrant pigments. A mistake I see people make is buying student grade watercolors. ALWAYS buy artist grade. I don’t care if they are more expensive! Even if you can only buy your warm and cool primaries artist grade is the way to go.
The SF Wave Organ
My sister and I jaunted over to SF to visit the Wave Organ in January, sketchbooks and coffees in hand. How had I never been here? All the years I was living in SF and specifically exploring everything I could and I somehow never ended up here. Anyway, I went now and it was a beautiful winter day with the sun shining. It was so nice to just sit and draw in my sketchbook listening to the waves and people and sea gulls.
Sun shining on an open sketchbook with a pen and green pencil. There is a pen drawing of the wave organ in the sketchbook
The sculpture was delightfully like an ancient ruin. I do love a good ruin. A real ruin not to miss is the Sutro Baths. I go there all the time and I should post some pics of that landscape.
This wave organ is a sound sculpture made from reused items including stones from an old cemetery. I love that and it makes for some very interesting sculptural stone work. The actual organ pipes are PVC and concrete. I think it sounds kind of like rubber bands!
Panorama picture with a woman with purple hair pointing a camera , the Golden Gate Bridge in teh background, the smooth waters of the San Francisco Bay and then some palm trees and a sea wall on the right.
Trees for Children's Play Environments
So plant ID classes can be very challenging. I’ve got some brain differences, including mild dyslexia, and memorizing a ton of plant names AND how to spell them is almost prohibitively impossible.
I’ve managed to soldier through life and all previous plant ID classes fairly well until taking Tree ID last semester. My LAST plant ID class required for me to graduate. I swear this one upset me so much because some large percentage of the grade was going to be on SPELLING. Spelling!!?
One of the grand things about life today is that there is the internet (a series of tubes) and spell check. Dyslexic people every where rejoice! Anyway. I have a Fine Art degree! Don’t ask me to spell!
For my final project for that class I had to get away from things I am bad at that make me feel terrible and like I am failing in 3rd grade again and get back to things I am good at, like illustration. I decided that illustrating a bunch of beautiful trees would sooth my fevered soul.
And, to make it more complicated (hello ADD), I thought it would be cool to turn those illustrations in to a book. Of course, I did not complete the project. I completed enough for the class but not quite enough to finish the actual book. I used Blurb to layout and print the book even though it wasn’t finished. I can finish it another time, right?!
Here are a few of the illustrations. I drew the whole tree and then a detail.
The Blurb software is called BookSmart and it’s … just okay. The final printed book is a little paperback and is so cute!
Here is the cover and some layouts
Little Free Libraries
Little Free Libraries are small personally managed 'take a book or leave a book' libraries. They are usually adorable. You can look at their Flickr gallery to see some examples of the awesomeness that people create.If you want to have your library registered and affiliated with the site you need to pay a small fee. They send you an official plaque and list your library on their map so people can find you.I would like to make mine with a green roof! I am not a builder type though and have no tools. I have a couple of friends who are and I plan on commissioning them to make this for me.
Here is my final concept:
Soft ideas, soft lines; hard ideas, hard lines
Design concepts - The Six Courtyard Houses
The Six Courtyard Houses were designed by Ibarra Rosano Design Architects in Arizona.This archdaily.com article has images and plan views. I'm not familiar with the climate in Arizona. I must say that I wouldn't want to live in the landscape pictured for these houses. It's a bit.. stark and exposed.What was the thought process for it? "I would like there to be a big central platform viewable from every window in the house. Plus, three plants." heeheee. I kid! Or do I?I'm more of a Secret Garden' kinda gal. But I want to learn more about this starker more modern/contemporary style. This Pintrest Board has tons of great examples.Various design concept sketches.I need to pick one to develop further. 1, 6 or 2?
Color and Pattern Studies
