Category: Gouache

Day 276 Church Lady 

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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 275 – Rick Misbehaving

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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

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 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

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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

  

Evans Towne Center walking track and dog park

  

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

  

Edgewood Target Starbucks  Atlanta

Day 272 My Bayeux Tapestry Part 2

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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

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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 269 – Sometimes It’s Easy 

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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!

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 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 265 – urban sketching and 

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Life model drawings. 

   

  But first. I did a little urban sketching yesterday. A store downtown has some wild Easter hats. The purple one is the talk of the town. A huge bow and rhinestones. What else could a girl want?! Trying to get some of my friends to meet to try them on.  So far no takers. Pentel brush pen and watercolor in my Stillman and Birn zeta. Greys made with cerulean and yellow ochre or Quin sienna and cobalt. 

My brush pen started leaking I mean pouring after I drew this.  So I paused at a new u table to clean up my hands and the pen. Reseat the cartridge. All the time two large

Groups of ladies walked by bound for Crosbys all in a twitters giggly bunch. Paused in front of the purple hat phong and aging before going into shop for their special Easter bonnet. I really enjoyed evesdropping on them. They were so enthralled in their conquests.  The things you learn when you go sketching.  

I used a lot of Quinacridones on this.  Quin Coral magenta and sienna. The purple hat is Quin magenta and cobalt or ultramarine. The jillion rhinestone are white gouache.   

Erica is a lovely young lady. Things actually went fairly smoothly today. The colors I used were DS Quin Coral which makes beautiful skin, cerulean, burnt sienna ultramarine blue cobalt and yellow ochre. And that’s it. Six colors!!  

Step 1 – coral and yellow ochre over the face and upper torso. Then I added burnt sienna and cerulean in the shadows. I dipped the brush in water and shook the it out. Then I dipped it in the color I was using. I usually applied burnt sienna first trying not to leave hard edges. 

The shadow colors were put on individually and allowed to mingle wet on wet. 

I did all this painting pretty quickly in less than ten minutes. She was at this point at the first 30 minute break. 

  

I then used the same colors on her legs. 

  

This is what she looked like when I brought her home. Erica is tall and quite slim but I think I got her TOOO slim. What to do?! 

  

This is as she is now.  I realized her neck was too short leaving the shoulder on the right side of the neck too high aka too long. I shortened it about 1/4 inch and now her torso does not look so long. I also realized she had too much hair on top of her head. 

Her eyes were not centered in her head.  Oops!! So I shave a bit off with my scrubber aka my old grumbacher hog bristle filbert. Much better. 

What else needs correction. That forehead is too high and the legs are I think too long but I will probably only fix the forehead. 

I seem to enjoy painting the furniture the quilt and the legs best.  Less demands.  I put on wet color with abandon and let the colors flow and mingle. 

 

 The greys

The grey is made with cobalt and burnt sienna. Makes a lovely grey. I used it on the floor and the quilt. 

 The darks are done with ultramarine blue and burnt umber. That combo was used for the hair and the chair.  It can make almost black. 

Background cerulean and yellow ochre. Really like the way it turned out.  Not too much covered. Lots of white. 

All sable paint brushes  Raphael #8 & 2 and one of my favorite brushes my Isabey #6. I would have used my #2 but darn I left it at home.  It would have been the perfect brush for the details on her face. They make such lovely points. 

 

 Her mouth was done with burnt umber with a tiny bit of cerulean added not mixed but dabbed in. Same thing under her lip. I did go back into the eye socket area with those two colors to define the eyes a bit.  The head is not two inches long so not a lot of room for detail. 

Thanks for looking. 

Day 262- and Some Art Before Lunch 

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Art before lunch. Very fast sketch from a distance. Think I was more into drawing the fountain than the couple who were having the best conversation outside at the inner bean while smoking and enjoying the weather.

  

This was drawn with my Pentel brush pen. Lettering was done with my Lamy Vista fine nib. The painting was done mostly with watercolor and with some gouache. 

I had a lot of trouble painting the flesh tones. The best thing I finally discovered while painting this was how to make flesh  using gouache. I tried the way I mix it with watercolor. Light yellow and a clear red. Not good when combined with white.

Then I tried white with a tiny bit of English red and bingo. Great flesh color!! Who knew?! I painted the skin before I went to book club and while I was there I studied the other ladies’ skin tones. Studying always helps. Then I came home and repainted them. Thank goodness. 

Random success!👏I have to say I think the girl is a little skinny and the arm too short but oh well. It’s done and I am turning the page!! 

Thanks for looking!!