Day 249 -More birds

March 10, 20152 Comments

This is a leftover bit of Sketchbookskool homework I just finished up. One of Cathy Johnson’s assignments was bird drawing. I seem to have gotten stuck there. This is done with caran d’ache watercolor crayons in my Stillman and Birn zeta.

The Stillman and Birn Zeta rivals Strathmore 500 Mixed Media art journals for great paper to work on. It’s much whiter and about the same price. Only problem. I have to get them in Atlanta. Sigh. Nowhere to be bought in Augusta Ga. I can get the Strathmore at Michaels and Hobby Lobby.

Cardinals frequent my feeder and are a big favorite of mine and most other backyard birders. The males that visit my feeder are more salmon colored than red.

Background cerulean, pen is a Noodler flex pen loaded with de Atremis brown document. I love that color! Double lines done with my sepia brown Pitt pen. And for once no mistake to cover up with the ledger paper. I just thought it would be a nice addition. I did want to add Washi take but couldn’t find any the right size or color so NO Washi tape.

Thanks for looking!!

Thanks for looking.

Day 248 – Another flock of gulls

March 9, 2015March 9, 2015Leave a comment

The gulls were in the Target Evans parking lot when I drew them. I did paint them at home.

Thinking about writting 50 shades of grey on this one because I have made that many shades of grey today. No matter how light it was the gouache always dried darker.

Hmm. Grey is made from schminke indigo Quin Violet and English red a sort of burnt sienna. I did use some cad yellow and white. A lot of white!!! Background is cad yellow and turquoise.

There’s only one bird I don’t like after two plus hours of painting. his bill is kind of yellow green. I still have one more page of gulls to draw.

I think he’s my favorite.

But it could be him OR

These two!!

Thanks for looking. Check back tomorrow. Hopefully time to make progress on them.

Day 247 – A Little Breakfast

March 8, 2015March 8, 2015Leave a comment

I think this should be called brunch because it never gets eaten at breakfast time.

Made up for not not writing on the chicken. I wrote all over this one. I used a B and a F sepia pitt pen. Also used schminke gouache my new way to fix my myriad mistakes. It does so well covering them up. The cup was drawn so far to the right in ink that I had to move it over to get the handle on it. It has such a nice pulled handle. Both the cup and bowl were made by my favorite local potter Dave Stewart of Wild Hare pottery.

I also had to paint the whole background. Boring to me with just the white paper.

Remember when doing stripes on the tablecloth they are darker closer and lighten up as the recede. It also gets a little greyer.

TIP: To get really white gouache highlights load the SIDE of a rigger brush and touch it sideways to the painting.

Thanks for looking!!

Gouache colors used white turquoise, Quin Violet, pyrrole red, Azo yellow, and indigo.

Day 244 – Those Squirrels

March 7, 2015Leave a comment

At times I get bored drawing the birds on the back porch and I draw the squirrels. Actually they are easier to draw than the birds because the hold still sometimes for quite a while. The squirrels are drawn with Noodler Lexington Gray ink and are painted with watercolor. A combo of Quin Sienna and cerulean. I don’t understand why the Lexington Graybis waterproof while the supposedly Bulletproof black and the eelskin so not. So strange.

Like a stupid head I drew one squirrel right in the center! A disaster!! I decided to paint over it with some of the Schminke gouache and yes it covered the squirrel completely!! Hurrah.

Next came the trial of trying to write the words on it. Finally I got the Kuratake brush to write on the gouache zip zip it was done.

Thanks for looking!!

Day 243 – The Chicken or All Roz’s Fault!!

March 5, 2015March 5, 2015Leave a comment

This was the first chicken that posed for me when we went to Key West. I bought a box of Schminke gouache from Wet Paint last week and Roz said use them for two weeks. Painted on Strathmore 500 Mixed Media Paper.

Till I did the chicken all I had done was paint backgrounds to cover up boo boos like yesterday. I meant to paint my house or a church downtown that I have always loved as the last assignment for the last teacher in the last week of Sketchbookskool.

I ran across this chicken pic. He cocked his head at me and said paint me. I succumbed. What can I say?! Maybe that’s why I have been doing all the bird drawings. Practicing for this rooster.

First I drew him quickly on a scrap of paper laying on the table.

That did it. He hooked me. I got the sketchbook out.

And the lovely new box of Schminke gouache.

It came in this great wooden box. Almost too pretty to be touched! But I managed.

I used all the colors and tubes of M.Graham Azo yellow and pyrole red that I already had. It was much like painting with acrylics without the shiny plastic look they have. The colors covered well. Easy to mix. I did have to get out my acrylic brushes. The long watercolor brights were not stuff enough.

Tip: I used my monarch Winsor & Newton filberts and an escoda Prado filbert. After I switched to these the paint behaved so well. Went on easily and smoothly. Yesterday I discovered the stiffer hog bristle brushes leave ridges in the paint. Not a good look.

Thanks for looking.

Day 24o – The End of Downton Season 5

March 3, 2015March 3, 20152 Comments

I meant to draw more of the players but somehow it did not record. So I drew Lady Violet Crawley Dowager Countess of Grantham. What a name?! I hope I got it right. Nobody is better than Maggie Smith in her part.

My favorite character Lady Violet always has some smart answer.

I drew her with my Noodler Creaper Ahab loaded with Carbon Black Ink. I love that pen. Makes such great lines because of its flex nib and so cheap.

I drew the face and hat. Added a lot of crosshatching shading with the Creaper. A bit at a time. Hard to go back once these too much.

I originally had her name and the quote below Lady Violet who was in an oval. Originally I intended to paint the “mat” area.

I ran out of room for the quote so I got the bright idea of making an oval mat out of old ledger paper. I use it because the pen does well on it. Some paper the pen feathers on. Not a good look.

How did I get that oval? I might add it was perfect on the first attempt. I cut a piece of paper the same size as the sketchbook page. The I clipped it over the page, held it up to a sunny window and drew the oval. I then carefully cut it out from the inside out. I really was amazed that it fit exactly.

She was colored with caran d’ache and some Watercolor markers I got at Michaels. A lot of fun. No idea if they are lightfast but there are 24 of them. Cheaper than the nonlightfast Tombows.

Here’s the whole double page spread with more Lady Violet quotes. She’s so funny to me. All lettering down with the Noodler Creaper Ahab on Strathmore 500 Mixed Media paper.

Thanks for looking!!

Day 239 – Four Reclining nudes in Twenty Minutes

March 2, 2015March 2, 2015Leave a comment

One of the guys gave me his chair dead center of the model yesterday so I could have a better view of the model but I only had twenty minutes left to draw. And no big paper – just my art journal. So these are what I did in 29 minutes.

Number 1 – a contour drawing with my Noodler Ahab on Strathmore 500 Mixed Media paper starting with the shoulders. I start there to get the shoulder angle right comparing it with the models shoulders to see if my line is parallel to her shoulder line. The I drew across the top Of her hips and legs continuing across the bottom back to her shoulders. The crosshatching was added after the contour drawing as was her face. I hate her face so decided to turn the page and start again.

This is number two. I think she went better and her face looks better.

Number there is the big one in the bottom with the Pentel brush pen. I think her thigh is too big and her head a tad small.

So onward to number four. Only about five minutes left. That’s my favorite. The PBP makes great drapery fast!!

They were quick fun sketches and I think a bit Henry Moore or Picassoish.

Which one is your favorite?!

Thanks for looking!!

Day 238 – Life modeling

February 28, 20152 Comments

After 30 minutes drawing.

Tom, Ruth and I made our weekly trek to lifemodeling today. I used caran d’ache and fabriano watercolor.

I wasn’t too thrilled with my view of the model. Mostly her head but glad to say she turned out looking better than I ever thought my view of her would look. Usually drawing from a foreshortened angle is tough but for some reason I did her correctly today.

I liked the way she looked at our first break. I drew her with yellow ochre. Scrubbed out the incorrect lines with my old Grumbacher filbert hog bristle brush. It’s also great to lift color with.

This is after another half an hour. And she’s done for the moment. Still a bit more to do like the background and a few shadows. I almost made the mistake of using burnt umber on her til I heard Charles Reod saying NEVER use anything darker than burnt sienna on a young model. The only place I used it was on the hair, the eyebrows and the eye.

I used the old grumbacher hog bristle brush to scrub out the highlights on her face near her mouth. And some on her nose. Also across the top

Of her left shoulder. I did manage to retain the whites on her right shoulder. I sprayed the bottom of the girl and the drapery with my spray bottle to get a few runs in the caran d’ache. Always a fun technique.

Colors used: flesh, pink, yellow ochre, burnt sienna, lavender, burnt umber.

Thanks for looking.

Day 237-Dr Skeychys – Part 2

February 27, 2015Leave a comment

It was hard to see the models legs because they were behind the hulka hoo

I won two tickets to the next theatrical at Chay Noir. It reminds me of a strongman posing at a sideshow. Started with my Noodler Ahab and filled I with my Pentel brush pen and my red Tombow.

I am not really fond of any of these. Started with my Noodler Ahab and filled I with my Pentel brush pen and my red Tombow. Accents with my wink of Stella’s. I have a red, a black, and a gold one.

The last pose of the night?! I guess she was tired. I know we were after more than ten sketches in a couple of hours.

Started with my Noodler Ahab and filled I with my Pentel brush pen and my red Tombow.

Day 235 – Buttons

February 25, 20152 Comments

making me cross eyed. More homework. Love the brown De Artremos document ink. Delicious. On Strathmore 500 Mixed Media paper.

This took about 6 hours and is about 8×11 “. There are about 115 buttons. It’s almost impossible to count them.

A friend asked me how do you do it? I told her one button at a time. I probably should not have drawn it I. Two three hour sessions. It could literally been drawn one button at a time whenever I had time.