Bowls du jour

Susan Brubaker Knapp here with your bowls du jour. I started out by taking photos of some beautiful blue and green bowls I had in my cupboard. 

It’s handy for me to take photos and work from them because I’m often sketching on the run (this week, for example, is soccer tryout week, and I’m really on the go!). This way, I can print out the photo and sketch from it, where ever I am, and without schlepping the bowls with me, and hoping for decent light.

I liked this photo best out of the batch I shot:

I really need help in finding a wider range of materials with which to sketch, ink and paint. I need a broader repertoire. Here are some of the ones I'm using and loving now:

From the top: LAMY fountain pen with black ink; water color brush (#4 Goldenedge Round by Grumbacher); and Faber Castell PITT artist pens in a variety of sizes. 

Dear readers, what do you use and love? I’d love some suggestions!

I am on a hunt to find a great dip pen or fountain pen with a really flexible nib, so that I could get more variety in width, and more character to my lines. I have been yearning for one for some time, and this recent post by Joe Nevin really got me thinking. (Make sure to check out the awesome videos by Tommy Kane/Red Hook and Danny Gregory!)
I drew this with the LAMY fountain pen:

And this with pencil, and then inked with the PITT pens:

 Here it is with some water color on the bowls, and text in the background:

I think the text really gives it wonderful energy.

Drawing 'Bowl-Shaped' Flowers

Hi Everyone, Dion Dior here.

I get most of my sketchbook inspiration from nature.  My journals and sketchbooks are filled with images and interpretations of nature, so in keeping with the May theme "Bowls", and the Northern Hemisphere season of Spring, I thought I'd share a little tutorial on how to draw bowl-shaped flowers.

Many different types of flowers or floral arrangements in your sketchbook can but captured using these simple principles

Begin with a dot on the page. 

This is the point where the stem of the flower will connect to the flower head.

Draw a straight line coming from the dot in the direction that you want the flower to face, and a straight line in the direction of the stem. 

Draw a small oval just above this dot, this is the base of the flower head, and a larger oval above the small one, this is the opening of the flower.  

Next draw straight lines indicating the edges of the flower.  

These lines should connect from the dot to the very edges of the larger oval.

Draw a petal originating from the dot on the lower edge of the small oval, and finishing at the lower edge of the large oval.  

This is your front facing petal.

Draw the outside petals, making sure they are narrower than the first one. 

This is because you are viewing these petals from the side and they will appear thinner.  

You can tuck them behind the front petal if you choose. 

Make sure all your front petals end at the lower edge of the large oval.

Draw your back petals.  

These petals will start on the top edge of the small oval, but you don't need to show this, the bottom part of these back petals are hidden behind the front row.  

All of your back petals will end on the top edge of the large oval.

Keep the shape of your flower as close as possible within the guidelines you have drawn.

Draw in the stem and the center of the flowers.  

Keep the center tucked behind the front petals.

Draw in some foliage or leaves.

Erase your guidelines.

I used a water soluble marker to show you how to shade your flower.

Think about what parts of the flower are in shadow, where the petals sit behind each other, and how the foliage rolls.

Drawing bowl-shaped flowers is quite simple, and the concept of a center point and two ovals can be applied to many types of flowers.  

Thanks for checking in. xx

it is a basket or a bowl?

Sue B here...

What is the difference between a basket and a bowl?  Is it just the addition of the handle that makes it a basket? 

This wood bowl (or is it a basket?)  sits on my kitchen counter and holds whatever fruit I pick up at the market.  I love the colors and textures of the surface of this bowl and I used it as a model for a charcoal still life:

Bowls and Gelli prints.

Jackie here with more about how I used the image I found on a bowl in The British Museum. As I have been playing with gelatine prints recently and just obtained a gelli plate, I decided to make a mask of the animal I had sketched.

 The ‘cross stitch’ cow quickly became some kind of deer, but what I kept was the wild look in its eyes. I used parchment paper for the mask but you can use most kinds of paper depending on how often you want to be able to reuse it. I used water based printing ink.

 Finally, I machine stitched the mask to the print. I added some details with pen and moved the printing ink around a little with a wet brush. A few hours of fun was had!

Gelli prints which are nothing special can be photographed on a ‘tablet’ and then use a sketch/paint programme to add some bowls. If you like some help drawing your bowls trace from a photograph you import into the app and then manipulate the image on layers. Add a frame in an app such as Snapseed. Print out and use in your sketchbook.

Bowls from my travels

detail from my sketchbook ~ by Jane LaFazio

Jane LaFazio here. I love bowls and have them all over my house.

detail from my sketchbook ~ by Jane LaFazio

detail from my sketchbook ~ by Jane LaFazio

detail from my sketchbook ~ by Jane LaFazio

BOWLS from my sketchbook ~ by Jane LaFazio

detail from my sketchbook ~ by Jane LaFazio

detail from my sketchbook ~ by Jane LaFazio

how about a bowl of...

Sue B here  ....

We finally got some weather nice enough to sit outside on the deck so I grabbed my colored pencil caddy and a sketchbook and headed outside to work with the bowl theme for this month and here's what I came up with...

a bowl of ice cream

a bowl of cherries

a fish bowl

and...

a BOWLing ball!