koukla carolyn

Organic Root Beer Bottle, neocolor II crayons in watercolor sketchbook, 2008

Daisies, black pitt pens in sketchbook, 2008

This weekend I ended up being very productive, but not in terms of art. It seems like I did all kinds of things except doing artwork. Today I cooked an unbelievable quantity of food (scones, macaroni and cheese and a big batch of oatmeal), went shopping and cleaned my bathroom. I put drawing off until the very end and now I am do tired I don’t think I can do much more. For some reason my right arm has been aching for the past two days. Yesterday I was feeling sort of fearful to do any drawing for fear of making it worse but today I did a lot of manual labor and my arm doesn’t feel worse for the wear. I think that I have just been trying to avoid things that have been bothering me lately, sort of like my TMS days.

Dried Maple Leaves, watercolor and ink (5×7), Carolyn Pappas 2008

I have been putting off trying my new M Graham watercolors for weeks now. I think it was the same sort of thing that people face when they start a brand new sketchbook. I think I was afraid that I would somehow screw something up or forget everything I’ve learned about watercolor thus far. Last weekend I just bit the bullet and did this little painting of some leaves I found in my parking lot. They were dried to a crisp and the colors that I ended up were hardly realistic, but I wanted it to look sunny and happy. I painted this on a watercolor greeting card and am going to send it as a thank you card for someone who gave me a very nice gift.

I am excited about this weekend because I am anticipating a lot of time to spend on my artwork. I also have a few days off from work coming up this month, so I am planning on doing a lot on some of the behind the scenes projects that I’ve been working on.

I was looking at a photo of the inside of someone’s house and I saw this saying on a poster on the wall. I did a little reading and found that it was on a British propaganda poster made just before WWII. Right now it is the perfect piece of propaganda for me. I seem to be very depressed lately and when that happens my usual tendency is to just mope around and do nothing. But this time, I have been trying to keep working on my art and trying to be as productive as I can. This weekend I’ve done more artwork than I usually do:

Magnolia, staedler pigment liners in kraft paper sketchbook, 2008

Guest House View, Dhanbad; dip pen and watercolor wash on 5×7 Strathmore watercolor greeting card, 2008

Onion Sketch (EDM 179), graphite in kraft paper sketchbook, 2008

Self Portrait with Smile, graphite in kraft paper sketchbook, 2008

At work, I just wrote my mid year review, where I updated my progress on all my development goals. I thought this would be a good opportunity to review my art goals as well, because the year is half over. My first goal was to practice daily sketching. Although I can say that I’ve been doing more sketching than ever before, it has hardly been daily. I have been tracking my activities and I’m lucky if I do artwork on half the days in the month. June was especially bad because of all the upheaval from my vacation. So I’ll try to do better in the last half of the year.

My second goal was to continue working in watercolor. I have been awful at this and I think I did more watercolor in 2007 than this year. I just bought a bunch of M. Graham watercolors as well and I really want to try them out. I think I am nervous because they were so expensive but I need to get over it.

Lastly, I wanted to take some sort of art class or workshop. I have been looking for something near where I live, but I have not been able to find anything. I am limited to weekends unless I find something really local, but I might have to go into Massachusetts if I can’t find anything. In any case, I will have to wait until the fall until anything is available.

All in all, I’ve been pretty awful at keeping my art resolutions but I have done some really nice things this year regardless. Even though I have these nice development goals for myself, I have a ton of things I want to get done for Christmas so I had better get busy if I want to get them done in time.

Balcony View, dip pen and watercolor wash (5×7), 2008

This past weekend I spent some time reorganizing my Flickr page. I have things in there from 3 years ago and I haven’t looked at my old drawings in ages. I was very surprised that I have improved so much since I have really started drawing seriously three years ago. What surprises me the most is how much more colorful my artwork has become since then.

The above piece is a pen and watercolor wash sketch of the view from my sister-in-law’s balcony. I painted it on a watercolor greeting card and I am planning on sending it to India as a thank you card for our trip. I’m really happy with the way it came out because I was not very serious about it and I had no expectations of what the results would be. I didn’t even sketch the scene out in pencil first, which what I usually do when I work in pen and ink.

Kolhapuri Shoes, pitt pens and tombow markers in kraft paper sketchbook, 2008

I only did one after work sketch this week, which was this sketch of my kolhapuri shoes. I bought these shoes the day before we left India to come back home. I spent a lot of time trying to find a pair that fit me properly—I have wide feet to begin with and Indians have exceptionally small feet in general. Each pair was different and they were all handmade and embroidered with gold thread. Interestingly, there is no distinction between the right and the left shoe. I would often see this style of shoe painted on the backs of buses as decoration. Now I just have to find an outfit to wear them with!

Trip Preparations, 5×7 sketchbook, 2008

We got back from India last Sunday, but I was so jetlagged and screwed up timewise that I didn’t manage to do much of anything except go to work every day. I didn’t do much sketching at all on my trip, partially because we were in a car most of the time or shopping in malls where it wasn’t feasible to sit and draw. I need to get better at quick sketches! I did manage to do a few sketches though. This first sketch is from before we left—it is all the gifts we bought lined up and ready to put into the suitcase. All the shopping for gifts took a whole day in and of itself!

View From our Hotel in Kolkata, mini sketchbook, 2008

This sketch is part of the view from our first hotel room in Kolkata. We only stayed there one night because it wasn’t the cleanest place, but there was a nice view from our room of a pond with beautiful waterfowl and foliage. I absolutely love these trees with orange flowers, but I don’t know what kind of tree it is. One of the things I love about India is the incredible variety of plant life. If I spent more time there, I would love to document the plants through a series of botanical drawings.

Indian vase, mini sketchbook, 2008

This is a sketch of a small vase belonging to my sister-in-law. I was really tired and sleepy that day and I wanted to draw something small.

Kitchen sketch, mini sketchbook, 2008

This is a sketch of my sister-in-law’s kitchen. In India, kitchens are for food preparation only, and they are pretty small. People have small propane cooktops where they prepare their food and they have very small fridges as they buy their food fresh daily and don’t eat leftovers too much.

Indian Flower, 5×7 sketchbook, 2008

I drew this while visiting Dhanbad, which is about 5 hours from Kolkata. Some friends got me a bouquet of flowers and I sketched one of them in the hotel room before going to bed. I slept very late while in India because I usually took a nap in the afternoon. The time was 9.5 hours ahead of EST. It got dark around 6 PM because India does not have daylight savings time. It gets so hot during the day and people usually do a lot at night because it is a lot cooler. Even dinner is late—around 9 PM.

Suitcases and Shopping Bags, mini sketchbook, 2008

I drew this one night before going to bed when I was in our hotel room in Kolkata. We did a lot of shopping and this is a sketch of our empty suitcase with all our shopping bags and backpacks strewn about. I got a lot of clothes when we were in India—women there were very well dressed.

Kenilworth facade, 5×7 sketchbook, 2008

I drew this view from my parent’s hotel room one afternoon. It is part of the facade of the hotel where we stayed in—the Kenilworth. Most buildings in Kolkata are from the Victorian era and they would be beautiful if they were restored and maintained. Our hotel was one of the buildings that were in good shape. This is the last sketch I made before going home. I hope you liked reading a little about my trip!

Pansies, watercolor (4×6), 2008

This is a small watercolor painting that I made last weekend. It was tough to do, especially being so small. I painted it from a photo of a planter near the entrance of my apartment complex. One good thing I like about the place I live is that it has nice landscaping and they really maintain it well. Right now I am getting a bit stressed out about my upcoming trip. The preparations have been the most stressful part because I am afraid that I’ll forget something. I hope to have a lot of amazing drawings when I get back though!

I took full advantage of the tulips while they were out. Now, most of the petals have blown away thanks to a lot of wind and rain. I am most proud of the top drawing, which is the largest (9×12) and which I drew from life. It was a little chilly outside and the wind was blowing around a lot, but I think the drawing came out really nice. Click on each image to view at full size.

Waterlilies, tombow brush pens (4×6), 2008

Happy Mother’s Day!

This is a marker sketch that I did on a blank greeting card for a friend’s baby shower. They passed it around the room and all the ladies gawked at it. I haven’t been that flattered in a long time.

I’ve been thinking a lot about the progress I’ve made this year so far. It really is extraordinary considering that I didn’t do any artwork for almost a year and I’m working 40 hours a week which I haven’t done in ages. I think the time constraints actually push me to get busy sometimes. There are only a few weeks before my big trip so I think I’ll use the time to be more productive with my artwork. I actually have a few pieces that I need to finish and I want them to be really high quality as they are gifts for some important people.