Day 228 – A Bit of Fun

February 18, 2015February 18, 20154 Comments

Squirrels are the bane of bird feeders. Pesky things. Ours are so bold. They leap and attack it or they climb upside down on the chain to gorge at the suspended feeder. They even use the screens on the nearby porch as a get away.

One of them was posing on the deck outside the window. I caught him actually behaving. Later on when one of them was hanging off the feeder upside down I decided to turn it into a Wanted poster after all they are thieves aren’t they?! So naughty.

He was drawn with Tombow Markers. I have four or five of them and used the range of greys to shade and sculpt him. Then I wet him down to let the colors mix on the Strathmore 500 mixed Media Paper. I don’t know why I use the Tombows because according to Roz Stendahl they are not archival. The colors are fugitive. So sad because they are such fun to use and give such a neat effects when wet.

Since I don’t have a brown Tombow I used caran d’ache watercolor crayons for the browns and yellows.

I also used a big white Pitt matker to make him look more fluffy especially on his tail. Love that pen!!!

I used a scrap of old yellow ledger paper because I didn’t like the original layout. If you can’t fix it glue over it and try again. And then it becomes mixed media, right?!

Stay warm. Thanks for looking.

Day 227 More birds

February 18, 2015Leave a comment

I haven’t felt well since last week. I could be an ad for an allergy commercial and am on my third box of puffs. KeRChOO!!!

I have been sitting on the sofa watching HBO romantic comedies like Runaway Bride and watching the birds. Of course next thing I am sketching the ones that longer at the feeder.

The chickadee actually sat for a while. Usually they dart in and leave quickly. But this guy stayed for a while. Long enough to draw him. The cardinal sat on the rail for a while. I really like the way the cardinals turned out and the wrens.

I really love the cute little wrens. He actually sat on the deck for a while staring up at the feeder as if he was trying to decide if there was food up there.

This guy sat on the feeder for at least a half an hour. He was all fluffed up and just wallowed in the tray on the feeder.

I had quite a few problems. You can see in the next page it was plain so I added the old ledger paper to perk it up a little. But I still thought it was boring and added the blue background. Then I got into trouble because the word Goldfinch done with my usually reliable Carbon Platinum ink smeared. I fixed the name with a scrap of kilimanjaro watercolor paper. And called it quits.

I did have a yen to draw around it with a gold marker but no idea where mine is. So I am calling it quits.

I used Strathmore 500 Mixed Media paper Staedler pens Noodler Creaper Ahab caran d’aches neocolor ii

Day 226 – a few more bits and pieces

February 16, 2015Leave a comment

A group at Panera. I actually knew one of the women but she never noticed me sitting in the booth drawing her. Funny I think.

A close up of the Panera group.

My hand model. Hands are hard to draw so it’s great to have a hand model. Also known as my right hand.
Done with my Pentel brush pen.

Day 225 – A Bit of this and that!!

February 15, 2015Leave a comment

Decided I would post some of the sketches that for one reason or another I never quite got around to posting. These were done at Whiole Foods in the last few weeks. I really liked the guys green shirt!!

A spirited one sided conversation. I think she was interviewing but she did all the talking. I thought you let the interviewee talk occasionally?!

This guy fascinated me. Everything about him was very square. His shoulders his head his forehead. And mile long fingers. Read a running magazine as he ravenously ate pizza. Drove a car with DeKalb Co tags. No wanted to ask him if he knew my kids but I restrained myself. You learn a lot about people when you sit and sketch them aka observe them.

Thanks for looking.

Day 224 – Something Different

February 15, 2015February 15, 20156 Comments

Saturday is life modeling day. Our model was the lovely Erica.

I drew Erica with my Neocolor caran d’ache watercolor crayons. No pencil was used on this drawing. Just the crayons.

I tried to draw her with a limited pallete of peach, yellow ochre, burnt Sienna, burnt umber and a chocolate brown. I did add in white before I finished and a touch of a bright rose pink.

I used a fine misting spray bottle to release the colors. I also used my waterbrush for this as well as to blend some colors.

I think the dark on the right side of her mouth needs to be wiped off. How do I do that?

I lift color with an old Grumbacher hog bristle brush or with a damp wadded or folded bounty paper towel. Always am amazed by what you can wipe off Fabriano paper.

Thanks for looking!!

Day 223 – More gulls

February 14, 2015Leave a comment

My friends will tell you that I rarely do just one of anything. I always do multiples. So far eight pages of those sea gulls. No idea how many pages of wild birds that visit my feeders on the back porch.

I usually start by drawing the outline of the birds starting at the head and chest. Then the shape of the body and add details last.

I was getting tired of the cerulean backgrounds so as my kids at school would say I changed it up to a green background. I made the green with manganese blue and cad yellow light.

Otherwise the birds are done the same as yesterday’s. I just didn’t have time to color these yesterday.

The background on this one is Quin Sienna a very orangey color.
This was my fav page til I realized that one of the birds might need some more body aka belly on him. I do love the look f the Quin Sienna with the greys. My favorite background.

First I drew them with a grey Tombow marker as I watched them out the window. Sometimes I had to give them several turns at the feeder to get them almost right. I didn’t use the bird books or Google images at all on this page.

I should have used a darker Tombow because you am an hardly see this one after I colored the birds with the caran d’arches crayons. The crayons are a lot of fun.

The lettering was done with my Pentel brush pen. I do love that pen. I also did a lot of the birds legs with this one.

A lot of the smaller birds were done when they were sitting on the porch rail waiting their turn. The red house finches are very bossy and try to run off the other finches. I also wrote some of their behaviors down. The little wren would land on the wind chime and watch a bit then zoom in and out.

The chickens were on a netflixs show I had been watching so I added them to the drawing.
Thanks for looking.

Day 222 – Now that’s a NumBeR I never thought

February 13, 2015February 13, 20152 Comments

I would get too. Why is 222 days of consecutive blogging more impressive than 221?!

I was in pursuit of more birds today. Looking for some geese but couldn’t find any near the edge of water. All were swimming out in the middle of any pond. Too far to see. Then I remembered the seagulls we drove through yesterday. I stopped and sure enough they were still in their parking lot.
I started drawing. They tried to stay away. I remembered I had a couple of biscuits from Cracker Barrel in my purse. They got nearer and nearer as I threw bits to them. Hard to sketch hold the book and throw them snacks. But I managed 8 pages.

Colors Piemonite mixed with cerulean and ultramarine. Greys are Quin Sienna and cerulean as well as burnt umber and ultramarine blue for darks and black. Background is a very watery piemonite and cobalt.

I really should slap an envelope over the bird on the right because I think the two on the right are super. Same colors as above just not as much water in background. Beaks and legs are Quin gold and nickel Azo with Quin Sienna.

I have gotten bored with cerulean backgrounds. Wait til you see the backgrounds I am planning for tomorrow’s gulls. I think I will feed then crackers. Trying to go gluten free.

Thanks for looking!!

Day 221 – A few ChiCkEnS!

February 12, 20152 Comments

My friend Marilyn Tomeo told me that Browns Feed and Seed has chickens and a turkey. On my way home yesterday I stopped by and drew those chickens. It wasn’t long before they ran off. Perhaps they were shy or I scared them!? As long as I stayed in my car they were happily running around and eating. Once I got out I had to follow them around. They climbed under fences and behind some of the accumulation at Browns.

So rather than chase chickens – I already had three pages of chickens. I decided to draw the store. It was fascinating with everything from signage that would make the American Pickers sigh with happiness to an old horse harness, the remains of a ghost and my favorite – an alligator concrete bench. The bench is because there’s an alligator in the pond next to the store. I will have to go back and look for him to draw but not while it’s cold. He’s hiding.

The more I drew the more I saw just like Tommy Kane says. I do wish I had either painted the fluffy clouds in the sky and or the pines behind it but I love the way it turned out.

Colors used. Burnt Sienna, burnt umber, cerulean, Quin red, cad yellow light, ultramarine blue, manganese blue
Greys were made by mixing the blues and the Browns.

These were adorable chickens. The brown one had on pantaloons. I am assuming they were both hens but I have no idea!! They both kept giving me profiles. Maybe that’s why chickens frequently appear that way? Colors used. Quin Sienna, burnt umber, cerulean, cad yellow light, ultramarine blue

Backgrounds are cerulean. Shadows cerulean and burnt Sienna.

Yellow dog came out to wag its tail and beg a pet. Too bad I didn’t have a treat for her. Poor old thing only had one eye. Maybe she got in fight with the alligator In the nearby pond.

Day 220 -A nice round number

February 11, 2015February 11, 20153 Comments

To have reached. Been a busy day. Sketching people at the Bean. Lunch at Raes Coastal Cafe which looks like a great place to sketch and Browns Feed and Seed with Chickens. Been looking for chickens to sketch.

A commission. ExCitEmEnT!!

Last nite one of the best watercolor sketches I have done. Life is good!!

The teapot was made by local potter Shishir At Tirecity.com. I coveted his teapots for a long time before I got one.
I will try to describe how I painted this. I washed the pot w a pale mix of cerulean and burnt sienna. Shadows were done with more cerulean. The hard part was the blue lines. And making the pot look rusty.

I actually painted with two paint brushes. One to paint the dark blue line and a watery smaller brush to paint the edges so it bled. The same thing with the rust. Spots of rust aka burnt Sienna were dotted around and I smudged them. I think it would have been easier to splatter this but I was afraid to get my background dirty with splatters.

Then I discovered I was suppose to use a water soluble pen. OPPS. I at least drew the block around it.

I did a contour drawing of it first with my noodler creaper Ahab.

This is what it looked like without the pen square. Which one is your favorite?!

Thanks for looking!!

Day 219 More Caran d’Arches Experiments

February 9, 2015Leave a comment

This is a sketch using Caran d’Arches Neocolor II looks
pretty lame until you wet the colors.

Then it looks like this. All of these sketches were done with the Caran d’Arches and then sprayed. The bottle I use does a very fine mist. The paper is Strathmore 500 Mixed media.