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Becky Jewell

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Sketchbook Confessional August 2023

Becky Jewell September 1, 2023

In August it was very toasty in Boulder, I ended up staying inside a bit more often than not and making iPad drawings.

For the drawing below I thought about how I’m often shopping with my baby, and it feels like sometimes I am buying a universe of things for him to eat, wear, and play with. In a way, the things will become his universe.

I also did a quick sketch portrait of my baby as well. He grows so much every day. I try to soak in every moment.

For this drawing, at first I was thinking about a head that was an island of some kind, then I turned it into a series of layers of fluid.

This digital piece ended up printing well too!

I thought a bit about illustrating moments from games that I hadn’t seen done before. This one where Celes goes fishing came out of that effort. I wanted to do a strange angle and also make the place look idyllic, even though it’s effectively the end of the world.

She’s a weird character, maybe every character in FF6 is weird. At the beginning of the story, she’s working for the other side. She joins up with the resistance force, then stars in an opera? I guess. Anyways I forgot how sad the fishing moment was, I forgot that after fishing for the old man, Celes gives up all hope. Only after that does she see the bandana, and has hope again. What I think is significant though is that Celes can still fish, while the old man cannot.

In August I had a few hours on a couple days to hike, run, or draw while some family looked after my baby. It was fun. I ended up making a few drawings of things I had seen around Boulder.

With these drawings, I have some extreme limits in play. I have limited time to work on them, and I only use ink mediums for them. This, I think, gives them a kind of energy that can be hard to replicate without the limiting factors at play. I think if I had 8 hours instead of 20 minutes to draw a rabbit, I probably couldn’t make a better one, or one that I was happier with. For these, it continues to be fun to draw with the Kuretake double-sided ink brush pen. The above drawing of a rabbit was made with a Faber-Castell pen though.

Another digital piece I worked on in August is what I am calling the floating village. It was drawn using Clip Studio Paint models.

I had a cold at the end of August, so, both me and Baby Jewell were inside quite a bit. I worked on this piece for something like 5 days. Since I worked on it for so long, I decided to animate it, taking 2 more days to complete about 6 frames of art for a full second of unlooped animation.

The animated island village took me most of a weekend between trips to the store and other errands. I had fun doing this and learned a lot about animation, namely, animating a wheel from a 45 degree angle, and finding other ways to make the animation interesting.

The animation had to be compressed a bit for it to be uploaded to this blog but here is the static image, much crisper.

Also here is a link to a higher-res animation. https://www.instagram.com/p/Cwf_KpdA73-/

To back up a bit, at the beginning of August I was a part of North Boulder’s First Friday, which was very fun. Thanks to everyone who stopped by!

Reading:

Steinbeck’s Letters

In August I dove into Steinbeck’s letters more than any other book. It’s interesting to read about the problems he has, that he expresses to his friends, publishers, lawyers, and his wives/girlfriends. In a way, they’re like Marcus Aurelius’ writings, not in such a philosophical note-to-self way, but in the way that Steinbeck could not have predicted at all that they would someday be printed as a collection, to be read by potentially millions of people. That said, he writes in a way that isn’t embarrassing to himself, he has a noble and direct demeanor privately and publicly. It doesn’t seem like the editors had any trouble finding wonderful letters by Steinbeck because there are hundreds of them, and hundreds of pages to read. By ‘wonderful’ I mean well-written, clear, and very descriptive about what he is up to. On the back of this book, there’s a quote that says this is arguably his best work. I’d have to agree, though I DNF’ed Grapes of Wrath, maybe it’s too sad, and really have only finished the delightful Travels With Charlie, because, poodle solidarity. I guess you could say that what I like most about Steinbeck is his nonfiction, even though so much of his fiction was based on his environments and realities that were very close to him. His life is very interesting to me, even though he wrote about the lives of others in his fiction, I think his life is the most interesting of what I’ve read of his.

The Book of Long Sun - Gene Wolfe

I love this book so much. It’s less brutal than New Sun, so there’s much more to love, in my opinion. There are parts of BOTNS that are quite hard to read, reading BOTNS, every time I thought I was over the worst of it, Severian sees or does something terrible again. But I did like Urth of The New Sun. Anyways the Long Sun series is like New Sun but much happier or lighter. I guess you could say my take is that BOTNS is like Game of Thrones and Long Sun is like Wheel of Time. Long Sun is just a smidge more comfortable, and still a fantastic fantasy … thriller? There’s still danger and adventure, but just a smidge less brutality.

The Aeneid - Virgil - Sarah Ruden Translation

The introduction I liked a lot, and it revealed a few things I never knew about The Aeneid, most of which is that it’s unfinished. Maybe everyone knew that, but I didn’t. The Aeneid now goes into my brain category of unfinished epics, a space also occupied by the Faerie Qveene.

The Aeneid feels like an interesting turn, it’s like a sequel abut the other side. Virgil knows this at several points, and through Aphrodite, he asks Aeneas to not hate the wars of the world, but to hate the gods who make the wars. Virgil and the gods alike know that ultimately the Trojan war leads to the founding of Rome, so none of it can be truly bad, but of course this is not how it looks to Aeneas, who loses most if not all of his friends to war.

When I think about Virgil I can’t help but think about how Virgil is Dante’s guide in the Inferno. It’s really funny in many ways. It would be a bit like me writing a book and saying I wanted Dante to be my guide, but that’s probably not old enough. Virgil lived about 1400 years before Dante, so maybe it would be like wanting King Arthur to be my hellguide. In a weird way the Inferno like any tv show or movie where someone meets their hero from the past, like Abraham Lincoln, or Shakespeare. This too is a bit like who Aeneas was to Virgil, a heroic person from long ago.

Gustav Klimt: The Complete Paintings - Tobias G. Natter

This book had a lot of wonderful writing and background on Klimt in addition to pictures of his paintings. I learned some interesting things about Klimt that I never knew, that he had a brother who was also an artist. He was also loved and sort of hated in his own time, as the writer says, Klimt belonged to modernity and tradition at the same time, and this gave critics enough to be ‘divided’ about. I bought this book for the images but ended up loving the writing. It does take some flipping back and forth to get the full effect or to see which paintings the author is referring to, but worth it.


Running:

In August I decided to take it easy a bit on running still, though I finished two runs on a trip to Leadville, which was no easy task.

Catch you next time -





Tags gustav klimt, klimt, virgil, the aeneid, the book of the long sun, gene wolfe, john steinbeck, travelers notebook, travelers notebook watercolor paper, digital art, ipad art, clip studio paint, clip studio paint ipad pro, final fantasy 6, celes, boulder flatirons
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My Plein Air April Recap (and some Plein Air Philosophy)

Becky Jewell May 4, 2023



I saw the Plein Air April hashtag going around for the first time this year, and thought it would be fun to make an extra effort to get out and do some plein air.

Here I am on Christmas Day in 2020, I made this photo after doing a quick livestream of getting some plein air painting in.

Plein air is, perhaps oddly, one of my favorite things to do. I love it. I’ve done plein air on my birthday and also Christmas Day, both are days where I think about what I would like to do most. Plein air painting also got me through the end of 2020 and 2021. I was incredibly lonely during the lows of the novel coronavirus crisis, and being outdoors and making art was something that was decidedly safe.

A plein air painting I made near a river in El Dorado canyon in 2021

It’s an odd thing to love, because by my own assessment, my plein air paintings are usually not good. I might have a good one that I do, one out of five outings. It’s terrible odds. It’s a highly ineffective way, for me at least, to make pieces that might be good, or that might sell.

But I keep doing it because I enjoy it. I enjoy plein air painting because every time I go out, I learn something new. I love learning, and plein air is a high-intensity way to learn. It’s more likely for me to fail at plein air than succeed, and that’s where the learning comes from.

Even if the plein air painting I make on any given day isn’t good, it’s still the best possible painting I could have made at that moment. When I’m painting en plein air, I find I am doing my absolute best with what I have. Plein air is a way for me to leave it all on the field.

Plein air versus studio time reminds me a bit of how a science experiment can be structured in the world or in a vacuum. The studio is like the vacuum, it’s a resistence-less environment. The plein air environment is like stepping out of the vacuum.

Maybe the thing about plein air is that it pushes me so far out of my comfort zone that I get stronger and faster in ways that I couldn’t have imagined. Beyond the frustration and the gear obsession is the kind of artist growth that can’t really be put to words.

One of my first plein air paintings in April was this one, facing the flatirons from Wonderland Lake. I had a lot of fun making this. It’s small, I think it’s a 5 x 5 claybord painting.

Apparently Claybord is a little unusual to use for oil painting, but I didn’t know that! Gessobord is supposed to be better than Claybord since it is less dry, but I didn’t have any issues with the Claybord

This next painting I was able to make at Chautauqua. It was fun to get out, I went with my baby. This one is also about 5 x 5 inches:

I did a painting on Pearl Street too (photo at the top of this blog, haha)! The tulips on Pearl are a can’t-be-missed kind of situation each year. City paintings are something I’ve never done before. I had a lot of fun. This was a slightly larger painting than the first two, and on plexiglass instead of Claybord. I ended up scratching this painting a bit somehow, which is pretty fair game for plein air, yet very easy to fix eventually!

The next plein air journey I went on in April was to the Red Rocks trail in Boulder, one of my twitter friends went with me and we painted for a while. My baby also went along for the ride. The red rocks are always a fascinating rock formation to paint.

I ended up getting some dirt on this painting, which is pretty typical for plein air, which I will brush off when the painting dries completely.

For the last day of Plein Air April, I went back to Wonderland and painted some hills from a different angle. I ended up liking the painting I made a lot, it’s drying now so I will try to get a photo of it soon. It was pretty toasty out so I packed up relatively quickly after unpacking.

I actually tried an acrylic painting first on this outing, which is the panel that is in the photo above. The acrylic painting I tried was so terrible that I gave up almost immediately and switched back to my usual medium of oil. I think my brain was in oil-paint-mode which doesn’t work well with acrylics!

So that was my Plein Air April! I really enjoyed participating in this hashtag/month/event. The good thing about plein air painting in April is that it has geared me up for a summer of painting, which I am very excited about.

Until next time, thanks for reading!









Tags plein air painting, plein air, boulder co, boulder flatirons, pearl street boulder, plein air april
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Sketchbook Confessional January 2023

Becky Jewell January 31, 2023


The Sketchbook Confessional is a blog where I recap all of the art that I made in a month, as well as what I’m reading, watching, writing, and up to as far as exercise.

Art:

This month I waded back into oil painting with a few paintings of the Boulder Flatirons.

I had a lot of fun painting in my watercolor paper in my Traveler’s Notebook. I discovered the magic of taping off the edges of the paper and painting within a little square or rectangle. Oddly I have never tried this before and I really enjoyed it.

I painted a few fish in watercolor on paper that I’d purchased on my Paris trip in 2017. I’m glad I saved the paper for these rainbow trout, though next time I think I will use it sooner, haha.

Speaking of documentation, In January of 2023, I finished reading several books and also blogs covering my thoughts about the books, as well as art related blogs. I find that when I’m caring for my baby, I always have time to either jot down a few sentences on my phone or read my kindle. Here are all the blogs I finished this month:

My Magic Paper Menagerie

All Art is a Force of Optimism

Painting Fish

Boulder Falls

Brainard Lake and Long Lake

Leadville tiny waterfalls

Red Rocks Trail

Painting the Boulder Flatirons

New Mt. Elbert Painting

Quote blog: “All art is quite useless” - Oscar Wilde

Book blog: The War of Art - Steven Pressfield

Book blog: Never Finished - David Goggins

Book blog: The Philosophy of Andy Warhol

Boom Days Rocks

In January I created a couple new designs that I figured I would upload to Society6.

Overall I had a lot of fun making the above design using goauche, acrylic, and watercolor on duralar.

I made several oil paintings this month. I have had a lot of fun ‘drawing’ with oil paint, which I’ve done before - what I end up doing is laying down a thin layer of white or offwhite paint and then drawing into the paint with a dark color like teal. Impasto or thick painting is pretty unpredictable but drawing with it is at least a little controllable.

I stayed on two subjects this month, mountains and nudes, which I plan to continue throughout the year now that I feel better painting in oil again. I stopped for a while out of concerns for breastfeeding and while I was pregnant with my baby. If you’ve ever smelled oil paint you will probably understand this, haha. It’s nice to be back.

The painting of Mt. Elbert that I made at the end of December dried out this month though it did take a while.


What I’m reading:

I had what I think of as a huge literary accomplishment this month. I finished reading the first three books of Gene Wolfe’s Book of the New Sun. I started reading it in 2020 and put it down for a few years, and only recently in 2023 have I powered through the last 30% in about a week where it was too snowy to go outside and I was too overwhelmed by the idea of brushing the snow off my car and chipping at the ice on my windshield. I had also run out of books to read and it was my last book I could read for free before buying a new one. This is also how I ended up reading as much Proust as I did, if I am on an airplane for a long time or stuck indoors somewhere I do end up reading books that otherwise seem impossible to scale.

I decided to start drawing pages from Botns as warmups on my tablet.


I think Severian is an interesting character because he does so many unlikeable things yet he does his best in all the terrible situations he finds himself in. He’s way more likeable to me than the character in Dune. Anyways, I’ve drawn some Botns stuff before and I’m excited to do more of it.

I think Botns is hard to read because of the violence. Otherwise it’s worthwhile. If anyone were to read this blog and start reading Botns for the first time afterwards they’d probably be like “omg why does she like this book, this is horrendous.” All I can say is it gets better at the end or in the last half. The language or writing is good the whole time but I liked the last half of the plot a lot more than the first half. I’m now reading through book 4, which feels like an afterwards, yet is still a part of the series.

This month I also finished Steven Pressfield’s The War of Art and The Philosophy of Andy Warhol, along with the new David Goggins book.

Running

I did walk a bit in January and squeezed in a couple 1 mile runs around Chautauqua. On a couple days, I hiked with my baby and my easel and a diaper bag, for a total of 42 pounds of weight I was carrying around. I sort of couldn’t believe I was doing this, but I did gain about 40 pounds while pregnant so maybe it’s not so different from how I spent most of 2022.

I knocked out a 7 mile run at the end of January and was glad to feel like I’ve completely gotten Covid out of my system after a rough couple months of residual symptoms. The first 3 mile run that I did after having Covid felt horrendous, I felt like I’d never be the same. Luckily I got over it, somehow, and am running back at my 2021 levels. It took about 8 weeks to feel better. After having my baby I was able to knock out a 6 mile run pretty easily, so I think Covid was harder on me than having my baby, strangely enough. I hope I never get it again.

Until next time -


Tags society6, andy warhol, david goggins, january 2023, paint pouring, nude, mt elbert, boulder flatirons
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Painting the Boulder Flatirons

Becky Jewell January 27, 2023

I’ve had fun painting the Boulder flatirons from the large open area of Chautauqua park. In 2021 I painted a few flatiron paintings en plein air in gouache.

I’m using the paintings I made en plein air to create oil paintings in the studio of the flatirons. I also go up to the flatirons every now and then to catch the sunset. It’s the most colorful part of winter.

It’s been fun to do this as a way to get back in to oil. My usual mountain subject is Mt. Elbert over Leadville, and I’m enjoying figuring out the flatirons as painting subjects as well, they are very fun to figure out.

I’ve also painted higher up in Chautauqua park, it can be challenging to hike up with an easel, and it is fun to paint the sunset there, especially in June and July, when large rainclouds appear across the front range.

What is great about this area is that in the summer and the winter, there are many layers to paint. Even the area in front of the rock formations is interesting and full of waves and lines.

Here are a few of my photos of the flatirons in the summer also, it’s fun to see the poppies and various other flowers around Chautauqua.

What I personally like to do with the flatirons is paint them a bit plein air, then take the plein air paintings back to the studio to rework and add details. This way I get the energy of plein air and also the focus I need to really nail down the trees, grass, and edges of everything.

Tags boulder flatirons, painting, oil paint, colorado
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Becky

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