Day 199 – Two more skycapes

January 21, 2015February 5, 20152 Comments

Don’t forget to leave a comment and alike to qualify for the drawing of one of three Watercolors I have painted. They are ok my Monday post.

I have now painted this skyscape four times. This one is on Strathmore 400 series watercolor paper. The purply greys are made with Daniel Smith Piemonite, a delicious granulating color , combined with cobalt or ultramarine blue. A lot of negative painting of the background trees, sponging of the river for fog.

All the tree tops were painted into wet so they would fuzz slightly.

The trees were painted with my #2 Isabey I bought with my Christmas money. Lovely brush with a very narrow tip from Dick Blick. I also smudged the trees a little to make the branches look fuller.

Tonites sunset. Very pink with yellow. Hard to photograph. Pink is Quin red yellow aureolin, sky cobalt and cerulean. The camera picked it up as red. I should scan it but no time.

I laid down the pink stripes first. Then went back in while they are still damp with the blue. Yellow here and there and along the horizon. Cobalt violets and ultramarine blue with some burnt umber for the trees and foreground bushes.

First try

Second try. Really didn’t like this one. Got too dark.

Third try. Too much dabbing of yellow leaving hard edges.

Detail of the third one. Negative painting.

Day 198 – Fixing Mistakes & a giveaway!!

January 19, 2015January 19, 20152 Comments

To celebrate my 200th consecutive blog post and my new blog leave a like and a comment on my blog between now and Wednesday midnite. I will randomly pic three winners for a small original watercolor – one of the three Watercolors at the end of this blog post!!

Good luck!!

Now back to how I fixed my mistake.

I did this great sketch at Key West.

As usual I had to write on it. WHAT was I thinking?! The original lettering got lost in all those great Palm fronds. So brilliant me decided to try a red Tombow. Green and red complimentary colors so red letters would pop. Uh yes they did. They popped TOO much. Tried to black them out with my Pentel brush pen. Nope that wasn’t working either.

Then another brilliant thought use some gouache on the letters. Anything was better than that red. Well better yes but still NOT great. I got out an old accounting register that I have and decided to glue some ledger paper over the offending letters.

I tore it using a ruler. I like the rough edges. Glued it down. Painted the palms over it. Redid the letters and

ThAnK goodness it worked. Lapin who I have been following on Instagram uses ledger paper in his watercolor sketches. He’s right it paints just as well as watercolor paper.

I am pronouncing this one done.

Thanks for looking!!

Day 198 – Fixing Mistakes & a giveaway!!

January 19, 20158 Comments

To celebrate my 200th consecutive blog post and my new blog leave a comment on my blog between now and Wednesday midnite. I will randomly pic three winners for a small original watercolor – one of the three Watercolors at the end of this blog post!!

Good luck!!

Now back to how I fixed my mistake.

I did this great sketch at Key West.

I tore it using a ruler. I like the rough edges. Glued it down. Painted the palms over it. Redid the letters and

ThAnK goodness it worked.

I am pronouncing this one done.

Thanks for looking!!

Day 197 – Downton Time!!! Or how to draw those characters!!

January 18, 2015January 18, 20152 Comments

Being of the impatient sort I used to read the Downton wikis to see what would happen next on Downton. They have already been shown in England before Christmas. We get them months later. This year I am resisting the urge to peak and “read the end of the book”.

Instead I journal about Downton drawing the characters and writing snippets of their lines that I find funny. I had to watch the first episode twice because I was so intent on sketching I missed half the show. Thank goodness for dvrs!!

I started trying to draw them when they were on screen for a lengthy period. Difficult difficult!!!

Aha moment. I realized I could pause my tv during the show. They would stay there as long as I wanted them too.

Your tv won’t do that?
The idea to drawing these character sketches is either photographing them off the tv or stopping the Dvr and drawing them.

Photographing with your phone has the added benefit of letting you watch the show while you draw. You can have your cake and eat it too!!!

The background of the large words. When I tried to paint it I had lettered it already. The Noodlers bulletproof black ran. Gre. I added some white Winsor Newton Gouache to Cerulean and repainted the background after it dried.

Have fun. Freeze that screen!! Thanks for looking!!

Day 195 I hope! Ink Comparisons

January 16, 2015January 17, 20157 Comments

A fast sketch I did of Peter Dinklage from an HBO Game of THrones ad at midnite a couple of days ago…not bad for midnite!!

As some of you know I have been really into ink lately. I now own three fountain pens seen in this Je Suis Charlie Sketch, a Noodler Creaper Ahab, a Lamy vista Fine and Lamy Safari with THREE bottles of ink.

Noodlers Bulletproof Eelskin and Black and another Black that was a total wreck with water.

I did some Ink and pen comparisons on Strathford 500 mixed media paper. I let the ink dry overnite.

Before I wet the paper.

After I wet the paper.

The Platinum Carbon Black was a BIG FLOP. I think the problem was my ink had NO D on the box…gotta call Goulet and order from them next time. UPDATE: I have gotten to the bottom of why this supposed always waterproof fast drying ink wasnt!! Mine though it was sold as waterproof has the wrong number on it…back it goes…sending it to amazon tomorrow…well Monday…drawing tomorrow after all this computering!! The ink should have an INC-1500 on it mine has an INC-1200. A guy named Treor was complaining that his new bottle ran, his old one had not. The new one had a different number under the barcode. HMM…well Goulet is mailing me a new one…hopefully SOOON!!!

The Noodlers did well in the fine point Lamy Vista but not as well in the large nibbed Creaper or Safari but they were acceptable compared to the carbon black which was supposed to be waterproof!! OOPS!! I threw in the Pilot Varsity because I have them and blue was a nice contrast with all that black!!

Sketching at Panera

That said I used my Noodler Creaper loaded with Noodlers Bulletproof on this sketch that I did at Panera…the words were added BEFORE the paint in the background.

A New Year and a New Blog!

January 15, 2015January 16, 20153 Comments

Happy New Year!!!

I suppose you might wonder after all these years WHY I have started a new blog?! Several reasons but the main one will be to have a professional art blog from which to sell my art. This is it!! Welcome!! Glad You are Here!! Hope you come back soon!! Be sure to join the email list link so you get an email when I add a new blog post.

Other reasons:

The old blog scquiltaddict.blogspot.com no longer fit what I do and hasn’t in quite a while. Time for a change, right?! I may still post family posts there but…join the email list so you don’t miss any of my posts!!

I have been hearing good things about wordpress for a while. I ran across a youtube video about selling your art on line and I joined up. Here’s a link to the video 5 Things Every Artist Needs to Know to Sell Art Online.

Amazingly Cory Huff did exactly what he said he would and fired off a reply to my question…stay with the old blog or start a new professional one…he voted for the new professional one. So here it is!!

Welcome to my New BloG!!!