Day 278 – The Flying Biscuit

April 11, 2015April 12, 2015Leave a comment

Staying in Gatlinbirg with no wifi. Should be interesting. Going to see if this will post. I can see a wifi tower so maybe it will go.

This is my breakfast at the world famous Flying Biscuit home of the creamy dreamy grits and mile high biscuits. Also as my friend Marsha says a vehicle to put butter in your mouth.

I drew the sketch with a Kuretake brush pen loaded with Carbon Platinum black. Love that pen. Think refillable Pentel brush pen. Heaven right.

I colored it with the Caran d’ache watercolor crayons. The bases are washes of watercolor using the caran d’ache crayons. Layers of color were scribbled on the base watercolors with any color that I thought would look good aka show up. After I was done painting I reapplied lots of ink including cross hatching.

The section where the name Flying Biscuit is written was a problem. The name didn’t show on the red background. So I scribbled a lot of lighter colors over the dark red and rewrote the words. Now they show up well.

Thanks for looking.

Day 277- Earls

April 10, 2015April 12, 20152 Comments

finishing up Atlanta sketches. As usual we hit the restaurants.

Earls on Flat Shoals Road in East Atlanta Village was the perfect spot for an outside lunch on a gorgeous spring day.

Hamburgers were cooked to order and delicious. Sweet potatoes fried were perfect and the Dijon cranberry dipping sauce was some kind of heaven. Tasted like it had a bit of horseradish sauce it it too. Yumm. The tea was just the way I like it. Lots of ice too.

I drew the sketch with a Kuretake brush pen loaded with Carbon Platinum black. Love that pen. Think refillable Pentel brush pen. Heaven right. I colored it with the Caran d’ache watercolor crayons. The bases are washes of watercolor using the caran d’ache crayons. Layers of color were scribbled on the base watercolors with any color that I thought would look good. After I was done painting i reapplied lots of ink including cross hatching.

The pale blue background was made by using a water brush on the flat end of the crayon. Fun stuff!!

I already filled up ️my Sennelier accordion book. No bleed thru so far. The paper is lovely heavy stuff. Will be posting as soon as I do an accordion book tutorial and color the Sennelier.

Thanks for looking!!

Day 276 Church Lady

April 10, 2015Leave a comment

sometimes I wonder why everything I seem to paint is full of problems that I have to solve. How is it that I screw up over and over. Maybe it’s the universe hinting I should go back to painting with acrylics!? I dunno.

I painted three ladies or manikin heads with fancy hats. Church Lady is the third one. I meant to post this one on Easter Sunday but got busy and didn’t quite get around to it. You notice that quote?! Life begins at the end of your comfort zone. That’s me and watercolor. Something is going to invariably mess up.

I painted her face THREE times. Can you believe that?! I truly did. I had a lovely face and was doing the letterig on the side and my pen caught on the string and slung blips of brown ink all over her face and a bit on her hat. Groan. That’s all I could do.

Here she is right before instarted the lettering. Worst thing is I hated the lettering when I had finished it. So I messed her up for nothing.

I painted over the ink splats with white gouache and never could get her face right. So I decided to cut out a new face. I did. I cut out three or four. One even ended up painted. It never laid down right so I peeled it off. Oh what a mess.

Finally I painted the remains of her original face out with Daniel Smith watercolor ground. The surface was ripped and lumpy. I thought hopeless.

I redrew her face with my Noodler flex non and De Artrementis brown document ink. I painted her face for the third time. Finally I pronounced her done. I lettered her with a brush and the brown ink. I also painted out the quote with yellow gouache. I thought church ladies was a lot more fun than that quote which ended up I the border. Oh I highlighted the hat and the eyes with white gel pen.

Oh. I made a few more accordion books. That make seven. Stay tuned for a how to on the accordion books.

Love that new Kuratake refillable pen in the picture . Now loaded with platinum carbon black ink. Super pen. Busy drawing my way thru my new S&B Zeta. Still need to paint them.

Thanks for looking.

Day 276 – Michonne

April 9, 2015April 9, 20152 Comments

WIP -Michonne-

Walking Dead star.

Caran d’ache in stillman&birn zeta.

Odd how u look at sketches the next day and think they need more tweaking. I think she could use more red here and there. And oops her left eye is not done. Wonder how I did that!? Will I finish her? Probably. Have the urge to draw Darryl and Maybe Carol so I better finish Michonne.

Made 5 accordion books today. This is two of them. Hope to do a how to make them this weekend. Check back.

Thanks for looking!

Day 275 – Rick Misbehaving

April 8, 2015April 8, 2015Leave a comment

I started drawing Rick when my son and I were binge watching Walking Dead.

It was the episode that they are arriving in Alexandria and he was sitting still being interviewed. So I thought draw Rick!!

OOPPPPSSS

Of course as soon as I started to draw him he was done and the next interview began. I kept trying to draw him. Oh what a mess he was. Just a little off here and there.

This started out as an ink sketch. I didn’t like that at all so I added some caran d’ache like it was pastels. Scribbling it here and there. Adding odd ball colors like yellows, red, light blue, and light purple.

There are lots of things I liked about him and some not so much. I rewound and paused. Slapped some flesh gouache to straighten out the hair line, erase bags, lengthen the cheek, sort the nose and hmm what else? Widen the brow, and get rid of a few stray ink marks.

After the flesh colored gouache dried I added the same colors back again. Added some more black ink. I think I need to fix his neck. But otherwise he’s done.

Thanks for looking.

Day 274 – The Tale of the $43 Chicken Salad

April 6, 20152 Comments

A little Journaling about my very expensive chicken salad at Whole Foods. They ended up giving it to me because it rang up for $43.50!!! I have decided to try journaling a little on the sketches I have been doing in my new Stillman and Birn Zeta. What do you think?!

This sketch was really bad for a while because of lack of good colors of Tombows. All I have with me are oddball colors to fill in the ones I already have. Then I remembered I had my box of Neocolor ii caran d’ache. I also hauled out the tube of flesh colored gouache that I bought. Caran d’ache can maximize coloring fun.

The mess – I had tried coloring their faces and the ink smeared. Why it does it sometimes and not others I will never know. I think a mess can be good because you no longer care if you mess up. Fun effects can happen then.

How I cured it. Painted a couple of layers of gouache letting each layer dry. Then I played with the caran d’ache. Last I Reinked their faces.

Thanks for looking.

Day 273 -The last post of my Bayeux Tapestry

April 5, 2015April 5, 201511 Comments

something new tomorrow.

I thought that my Bayeux Tapestry would fit in this tv cabinet which is huge. NOPE. The TV is a 50″ one. I mean the book is only 210 inches. Just shy of six feet. But I think it looks cool there anyway.

Sennelier Urban Sketch Accordion with heavy paper.

I found a temporary replacement at Binders. A nice heavy Sennelier accordion book but it’s only about a yard long. Not quite the impact of the long moleskine. However that paper is much better. Heavy nice paper. You could draw on both sides I think with no problem.

Bytw I also found out that Moleskine has outsourced all their books to China. The not so great paper is really terrible now. I won’t be buying more. I am going to bind one.

How hard can an accordion book be!? I got some light weight BFK Rives paper, some Stonehenge and some of Binders brand like Stonehenge to give a whirl too. Exited but will have to wait till I get home because I don’t have all the tools here to do it with. Hence the purchase of the Sennelier book.

In the meantime here is a closeup of all the panels. Promise last post of the moleskine. Done with Pentel brush pen, colored Pitt brush pens, tombows, flesh watercolor and flesh gouache.

Evans Towne Center walking track and dog park

Evans Towne Center walking track and dog park and Inner Bean

Inner Bean

Inner Bean and Edgewood Target Atlanta

Edgewood Target Starbucks Atlanta

Day 272 My Bayeux Tapestry Part 2

April 4, 2015Leave a comment

the last panels of the book. Actually the first ones that I did.

270 inches long Moleskine accordion 3.5×5″

This section was drawn at the Evans Towne Center Park and the dog park there. I love the walkers swinging their Arms and leaning forward. The people with their dogs are also a favorite. Bicycle guy rice by twice before I decided to draw him. And of course he never came back after I started him. Oops!

An overlap. Some of this was drawn in the Earthfare parking lot while I waited for my friend to carpool to life sketching at USC Aiken. He rest was drawn at the Inner Bean.

Thanks for looking!!

Day 271 – A Bayeux Tapestry?! Part 1

April 3, 201513 Comments

A friend, Neil Foster, dubbed it my Bayeux tapestry and oddly it does look a bit like it.

7 feet of Moleskine accordion book. Colored with Tombows and watercolor markers. Drawn with my Pentel brush pen.

And the question is – do the back??!

I could hang it on the wall the way it is now. If I do the back you can only ever see one side and some of the watercolor and pen did bleed thru to the back. I could cover it up by writing all over the background. Too many decisions. I m not going to think about it. It will tell me when it’s ready.

I did the last 35 inches at the Edgewood target Starbucks in Altlanta which is most of this panel. The first five people were done at the Inner Bean in Augusta.

Most of these figures were done at the Inner Bean in Augusta thought here is a big overlap of figured.

I drew this in four sessions. These are the last two. A lot of fun. If only the paper in the moleskine were better. I have been looking for better paper while I am in Atlanta to possibly make my own. I will keep u posted.

TIP: Run and buy a tube of flesh gouache. I used Winsor Newton. That was the only gouache sold at Utrecht Dick Blick where I went today. A God send for the pen strokes that went astray. I LOVE IT!! Covered all the boo boos. And I always find a good flesh color in gouache is a pain to mix.

Oh another tip. Walkers can make the best people to draw swinging their arms or the dog park people standing around yakking.

Will post part 2 tomorrow.

Thanks for looking!

Day 270 – A New Journal

April 2, 2015April 2, 2015Leave a comment

Inspired by a Pam Garrison post on Instagram I made my own book plate in my new Stillman and Birn Zera. My goal was to start in it April 1 and I did. Already have four pages done in it.

I drew a curvy ribbon first. Then I filled in with the black eyes Susans and added the Rose stems then the roses. After that I added all the leaves. Next came the curly que leaves and last all the dots.

I actually painted the ribbon with de artrementis brown document ink with my #2 Isabey sable brush. Lettering and the rest of the ink was done with my Noodler flex pen with the same ink.

After the ink dried I painted the daisies with DS Hansa yellow, the roses with DS Quin Magenta and the leaves with a mix of the Hansa yellow and maganese blue and dabbed in a little mauve. Try it. Nice official way to start a new journal.