Category: Lettering

Day 290 – A Special! 

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Only ten more days to go til I have posted 300 days in a row.  Who would have thought I would get this far. Not me!
You all know I like to draw my lunch breakfast dinner desert.  I like to draw food especially if it’s colorful.

 The inner bean special
 So today I drew my lunch.  The inner bean special which I highly recommend. A boarshead turkey blt topped with their homemade ranch dressing on oatmeal bread with a spring green salad and balsamic dressing.  Yum I even liked the purple onion and ranch dressing – two things I normally don’t eat. 

Drawn in my stillman and Birn Zeta with my Noodler Creaper Ahab with Carbon platinum black Ink. The Noodler flex nib pens are such fun because you can get such a great variety of line with them. They are inexpensive and my favorite pen. 

About the painting. 

Colors used. Every color on my pallette except viridian and phthalo green. 

The sand which was done by brushing it first with a mix of pale yellow ochre and raw Sienna with a tiny bit of indigo. I let it dry and sponged it with a darker version of the same mix at least twice.  The edge of the bread is burnt sienna burnt umber and ultramarine blue.  

First I washed the salad with a pale green made with sap green and a bit of cobalt. I let that dry and mixed the same colors making  a darker green. Last I added cobalt and ultramarine for the dark shadows. 

The red in the salad is vermilion. The darker red are done by adding cobalt to the mix. 

The walnuts are the same colors as the bread starting light and going darker with each wash adding ultramarine and burnt umber at the last to make the lights pop. 

Salad dressing is vermilion with bits of cobalt. 

Tea is burnt sienna cobalt and a bit of vermilion to make the purples. 

Napkin –  burnt sienna and cerulean. One of my favorite greys. 

The darkest greys and blacks are made with indigo and burnt umber sometimes with a dash of vermilion. 

Vermilion also makes a great purple onion. 

I did most of the shadowing with  burnt umber and ultramarine blue.  

  

TIP:  Shadows are important. The dark shadows serve to make the lights pop.  


 Can you see where I went back in and added the darker colors in this painting. I think it looks a lot better now.  What do you think? 

Thanks for looking! 

 Day 288 -The Walker Sisters Cabin

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about 2 miles up a mountain and across a stream sits the Walker Sisters Cabin along with several out buildings. The five sisters held a lifetime lease and lived in this two room cabin till their deaths.  Their father built the cabin when Abe Lincoln was still practicing law. 

 The hike up there is lovely with wildflowers on the side of the road but I can’t imagine what it would be like to live so far from civilization. I guess they didn’t go to the store very often! 

 Four of the five Walker Sisters. From a 1946 Saturday Evening Post article http://www.saturdayeveningpost.com/wp-content/uploads/satevepost/time-stood-still-in-the-smokies-SEP.pdf

 Painting the picture 

Done in my Stillman and Birn Zeta. Drawn with A Noodler Conrad pen and lexington grey ink in the rainy drizzle. 

I started with a wash of Sky aka cerulean and trees – spring green and viridian. I let that dry and added the trees in the background with indigo and a grey made by adding burnt sienna to the indigo. Different strengths  of these two colors make the trees recede into the woods. 

The cabin was painted with the same colors. Yellow ochre was added on the chimney burnt umber washed over the greys of the cabin. 

The dogwood was painted with white gouache. Next time I think I will use some masking on a sponge to do this. I like the look better. 

 My son crossing the log bridge to the Walker Sisters Cabin 
(Painting the picture continued)

 The grass was added with the same spring green and viridian as the background just not as diluted.  Some negative painting with the darker green was done to make the grass spikes. 

 
A red salamander that was on the foundation rocks of the cabin. 

  A fern on the path to the cabin. Both of these pictures were taken by setting the end of the iPhone6 down on ground level and clicking away.  

  

Wild orchis
  
A trillium 
  

Day 287 – Mingus Mill 

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just before the Oconaluftee Visitors Center in the Great Smoky Mountain National Park .  

This statement is wrong : I thought it still was a working mill but the wheel seems to be missing.  Did some reading on the Mingus Mill on Wikipedia. There was never a waterwheel but it has some kind of small metal turbine wheel that drives the mill stones. It is still a working mill. It underwent a second restoration in 1968. 

 You can buy ground corn meal and a t shirt.  The money all goes to support the park. It is the only park that doesn’t charge admission so it needs additional funding to help with such programs as fighting the woolie aedelgid which is decimating the Eastern Hemlock. Dead hemlocks parade thru the Appalachians killed by this bug and the park service is engaged in a deadly battle with them treating 5000 infested hemlocks this year alone. 

  

Watercolor in my Stillman and Birn Zeta.  

But back to Mingus Mill, a very interesting old building that sits back in the woods. It was restored in 1937. The steps are old mill wheels. The mill race is still gushing with water. 

  
You have to cross a small stream to visit the mill. Very picturesque setting. 

  Bishops Cap

There are some lovely wildflowers there. 

  
Canadian violets with a wild orchis or orchid near the mill. 

The mill painting is painted with the same colors as yesterday’s painting.
Paint the background first. Sky and leaves.  Streak in the background trees with soft greys and Blues after it dries. The foreground tree limbs are darker to make the background recede. 

Thanks for looking. 

Day 286 – The Tree on the Oconaluftee River 

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My 101st post on my new blog. Loving WordPress. But I digress. 

Back to that tree. 

  I actually let friends in FB and IG vote if I should color this sketch or not. All the votes but one were to color so I did. 

This is an old tree on the banks of the Oconaluftee River that runs by the visitors center in the Great Smoky Mountain National Park. It was drawn with brown  de Artrementis Document ink and one of my Noodlers. Love that flex nib. In my Stillman and Birn Zeta. 

 
So here it is done. I started with the background first washing but with cerulean and dabs of spring green and viridian. The trees are all combos of indigo and burnt umber or raw Sienna.   I used some leftover greens on the big tree trunk. 
Trees in the background are streaks of greys. 

The rhododendrons are spring green and ultramarine with indigo for the darks.  I used a scraper to regain some of the lost reflections. 

Dirt burnt umber and splots of indigo. 

The river. Well like the rhododendrons that was a trial too. Splotchy blues and greens. Starting with light blue and darkening it down with darker blue. “Rocks” are indigos and greys. Usually you paint water lighter the farther away you get but I was trying to get down of it foamy hence the lighter areas of color. 

  Ps white gouache fixed an odd squared off angle on the right side of the legs tree trunk. What was I thinking!? 

Thanks for looking. 

Day 282 – Cataract Falls

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Took a nice walk behind the Sugarlands Visitor Center to Cataract Falls. 

The waterfalls are difficult to draw with water threading over dark black rock. I am going to add some white gouache to the water to see if it perks it up a little. It was drawn with my Noodler Ahab in my S&B Zeta with caran d’ache. 

I could not resist drawing the lady who was there taking pics of it. She had such an intersting stance I could not resist. Then she started talking to me. Scary!! What if she wanted to look?! 

 

 We even photographed a white trillium together. 

 

 There were yellow trillium everywhere along the trail. 

 

 The trail was loaded with flowers and  

  

a small black snake. 

 

 It  wound along by Fighting Creek. 

A lovely easy trail.  

Thanks for looking. 

Day 282 – Running out of ink!

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 and some more food sketching. 

 Brownie and chocolate chip ice cream desert  at the Wild Plum Tea Room.  I think I might be obsessed with food but it was delicious served on a sweet pink and white rose china plate including a doily.  

I used my kuretake brush pen  and a pitt pen plus caran d’ache. 

Need to add something to the title. Maybe a plum because I didn’t space the lettering out enough. 

 

 A warning about the kuretake brush pen.  I love it. I got a converter for it too but it runs out very quickly when doing a large sketch like this one with all the black line work. I think I refilled it three times in the process. My Pentel brush pen which I left back at home would still be full of ink. I guess it’s a small price to pay for being able to use  platinum carbon black ink in a brush pen but it’s annoying to refill so frequently.  

 The other day I went out sketching and ran out of ink. It was especially great for sketching trees but I ran out before I could finish. 

Now I have to drive back up the mountain and finish this. To make the scenario perfect I left my Pentel brush pen at home 234 miles away. Not fun to refill the pen with a bottle of ink in the car. Sigh! 

Thanks for looking!!


Day 281 – The Wild Plum Tea Room

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Lunch on a deck over a streams surrounded by flowering trees. Spring at its best in Gatlinburg. 
 

 Great charming ambience, terrific food on assorted old china plates. Wait staff is fabulous. 

 

  

 

This place won a well deserved Trip Advisor award of excellence in 2014. We will go back maybe even tomorrow!! 

I need to draw their lobster pie. Mike high lobster pie!! 

 

Desert was a gooey brownie sundae with chocolate chip ice cream with a wedge of pineapple.  I still have to paint it.  

This is colored with caran d’ache crayons over a watercolor base done with the crayons. Inked with my trusty Kuretake brush pen filled with Carbon Platinum black ink. 

Wish I had a few more things flowing over the border. Maybe I will cut something out and stick a few leaves on it?! Probably not.  On to the next picture. 

Thanks for looking. 

Day 277- Earls

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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 

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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 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.