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.

The reverse of the first page. A good quote to remember when journaling.

Day 269 – Sometimes It’s Easy

April 1, 2015April 1, 20155 Comments

and then sometimes you look and wonder HOW did you make that mistake. This painting has a BIG mistake. Can you find it?!

Another hat and mannequin from Cosbys Apparel during my mad sketching downtown last week.

In my Stillman and Birn Zeta with Noodler Flex loaded with De Artrementis brown document ink.

The background was easy to do. I actually wrote the lyrics to In Your Easter Bonnet by Irving Berlin with a soft 4B pencil in the background. Then I smudged it. After that I painted it out with a mix of white gouache, a bit of all the other colors on the pallette to make a buff-yellow blue and English red. Paint it only enough to blur the writings but not completely obscure it.

The face and neck was washed with DS Quin Coral and Hansa Yellow and allowed to dry. Shadows were done with burnt sienna and cerulean which was allowed to mix on the page. I only painted one color at a time. The wet on wet let them mix. I also softened the edges. More DS Quin Coral was used on the cheeks and the lips.

The hat. Oh my. It was painted with yellow ochre. Then the lace was painted with the DS Quin Coral. I tried not to define it too much.

The hat decorations were painted with DS Quin Coral and yellow ochre. Shadows are Piemonite and cerulean. I really need to practice painting flowers. I need to remember to do more wet on wet.

The sequins and diamond paste was done by dipping the end of my brush in white gouache. You can easily make circles that way.

Glove shadows cerulean and yellow ochre or burnt sienna. Same thing on the pearl shadows.

Lettering done with sepia doc Martin ink and a paint brush, my number 2 Isabey. Love that brush.

So have you figured out what’s wrong with this painting yet?! Her hand is backwards. I took a photo of my hand to draw it and of course I took it from the wrong side. DUH.

Day 268 Almost a DisaSter!

March 31, 2015March 31, 20154 Comments

Lady in Black. Mixed Media

I am thrilled with the way she turned out but the original sketch in Pentel brush was awful so I decided to whip out the Daniel Smith watercolor ground and paint over her and redraw. I redrew her with the Pentel brush pen. Oh what a mistake that was. It wasn’t waterproof and kept leaking on my sketch. Oops.

I patiently blotted the leaking ink over and over as it ran with a clean folded paper towel. I love brawny the paper towel that keeps on giving. I thought the painting might be cursed but no all of a sudden she was looking great. The smudgy ink lent an air of mystery or at least interst to the watercolor I think.

I actually traced the head on notebook paper and used it as a pattern to cut out the background accounting book paper to glue over the de artrementis document brown ink I decided I didn’t like with the black. I painted over it with a buff gouache. I threw the pattern in the trash but will get it out and take a photo so you can see what I did.

The black is a mix of DS alizarin red and indigo. Makes a great blue black. Skin is DS Quin coral and yellow ochre. Shadows are burnt sienna Quin sienna and cerulean.

Thanks for looking.

Day 267 – Dr Sketchys – Part 2

March 30, 2015March 30, 2015Leave a comment

All of these were drawn last week at Dr Sketchys. An about ten drawings that note. Dr Sketchys is always the Kay Wednesday of the month at 7 pm at Chat Noir at 8th and Ellis in downtown Augusta Ga. But it is a worldwide movement. You can find a group near you or start one!!!

All sketches are down with Pentel brush pen Pentel color brush pens and Tombow markers.

Cosmo detail posted earlier today on IG. A great model. Interesting poses. And he held them. This was a ten minute pose.

Cosmo the whole guy!! His boots were too big and flipped on his feet which made them hard to draw.

Cosmo – oops he didn’t need his foot!! A lot of red lights on him.

Cosmo is a fire water. This is actually two poses. He ate fire first. Then he loaded putting it out.

And poor Cosmo was embarrassed by this pose.

The last pose of the night. I think the elephant was funny. Others not so much. And that’s a wrap. Something new tomorrow.

Thanks for looking.

Day 266 – More Urban Sketching

March 29, 2015March 30, 20152 Comments

The little boy in the blue shirt was helicoptering his arms and I tried to capture that.

These are the very first Fast sketches I did of people going into Earthfare as I sat waiting to meet my friend to drive downtown to dr Sketchys.

Finally got them colored. These are definitely like potato chips. You can’t do just one. And people love looking at them too. Trying to see if they know who is in the sketch.

These are done in a largest Strathmore 500 Mixed Media Journal with a Pentel Brush pen and colored with watercolor pens and Tombow markers.

These were done in my moleskine accordion book. I have now filled up about five feet of it.

Thanks for looking!!

Day 264 -Dr Sketchys

March 28, 2015March 28, 2015Leave a comment

Dr Sketchys is the last Wednesday of each month at the Chat Noir at 7 pm. Come on down and join the fun!!