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 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!