Whenever I drive by the Palm Motor Hotel I get a little surge of home energy.
It looks like motels I remember staying in when visiting Santa Barbara and Los Angeles.
I’ve always loved these Mid-Century Modern signs.
Today I finally was alone and had about 15 minutes before tests at Kaiser and gave sketching the sign a go. Not much time, mind you — so instead of setting up
I went for it with Heart of Darkness ink which tends to run (I did not know I left
that pen in my bag.) Spontaneous, head on, and not much time.
I thought I could do better with setup and more time.
Then I was out early from the tests and decided to come around and try my hand again. Other direction, across Interstate, and I had about 45 minutes, or so I thought.
I used setup lines with a grey watercolor pencil and this time reached for Lexi Grey —
duh — I want to be able to dash watercolors later without it bleeding.
Then a guy creeped me out and so I moved on after about 25 minutes.
I am sorry I could not finish the side and could not from memory.
In the second I was more careful about proportions and oddly, think they are off
(squatty body) while the first is much more accurate. I like the pop of the black ink despite the bleeding of the colors. I like the spontaneous one best. This style begs to have bright colors and a crisp line. Sometimes your first approach is the best approach . . .
Drawn in an Strathmore Mixed Media journal Noodler’s inks,
Grey watercolor pencil, and Daniel Smith watercolors.
I agree to Creative Commons Attribution-Non-Commercial 4.0 International License, which you can learn more about by visiting the site, or,
visit my web page for a more user-friendly summary on my terms.
My images/blog posts may be reposted; please link back to dkatiepowellart.
I agree, Katie. The first one seems much more alive, and I can see a hint of palm leaves moving in a breeze. These hotel/motel relics from the past are, as you say, memory triggers of the old two-lane highways that went through the main steets of each town on our way to ‘somewhere.’
LikeLike
It’s been a theme today, as if in the ethers, that artists posted similar musings to mine — first or second tries, which is “better.”
LikeLiked by 1 person