Day 256 – Another Dog

March 17, 2015March 17, 20152 Comments

Dogs are big in my family. All of us have at least one and some of us have several. I have two. A Jack Russell who I posted a couple of days ago and a huge lab. Honey is a chow hound. Loves biscuits and I mean the southern kind not cookies but she will eat those too. She is always thinking about food.

When I got her from the Aiken pound she weighed about 75 lb. We have fixed that. She now weighs about 110 pounds. The dog seriously loves food. She also steaks food off the kitchen counter especially any bread product.

Anyway this is drawn with a black Pentel brush pen. The highlights are gouache as is the background. The lettering is done with the Kuratake brush pen.

The thought of food makes her joyful. And you can see it I this picture.

Thanks for looking!!

Day 254 – Sunday!!

March 15, 2015March 16, 20152 Comments

Sundays I like to watch CBS Sunday Morning and Super Soul Sunday but not today. Zoe sat down next to me and she was watching to see what I was doing. And I thought “What a great painting she would make! so I took a photo of her.

And then of course I drew her. If I had drawn her from life she would have gotten on the back of the sofa and turned her back to me before I was done drawing her.

Zoe version 4. I realized she was way to fat In the last photo so I put her on an instant diet. I think she is done I hope she is done. She lost an inch in about a half an hour. Best diet ever. But who knows?!😃 in the morning she may need something else done. Stillman and birn zeta gouache Kuratake ink pen. #drawyourdog

She went they several stages. This is the finished one. Well you never know I may change her again. Zoe is done in schminke gouache and with my Kuretake brush pen in my Stillman & Burn Zeta. I had thought she was done twice before.

This was the first time I thought she was done. Till I realized her back should be curved and NOT straight. OOPS!! I did like the odd wonkiness to her face. More on that in a minute.

Here she is with her back curved the right way. I thought she was done for about a minute till I realized I needed to add some white to the Mohawk down her spine to make it look fluffier. Back to the gouache.

So here Zoe is with white hairs added to her Mohawk. Then I realized her nose was a twitch off as was her right eye. I got my #2 Isabey out. It’s a lovely sable brush that will point like no other. I started adding bits of fine hair here and there on her face with white and caramel colors on her darker bits. I used indigo around her nose mixed with a bit of Sienna for blacks and greys. I also added some whiskers.

Thanks for looking!!!

Day 252 – Those Beards!!!

March 13, 2015March 13, 2015Leave a comment

I must be feeling better because last nite I decided to draw Matthew Perry with his scruffy beard last night a la Roz Stendahl who posted guys with beards lol last week on her blog. I took a pic of him on his show Odd Couple. And that was it.

Then I drew my son Ben who has been known to sport lots of chin hair of all kinds. They were going so well that I did a third one.

Have always lived Jonny Lee Miller since I saw him in a Jane Austen movie. Combine him with Sherlock and some chin hair. I had to try. I will say I am not as pleased with him as the first two.

What was the quote on Matthew Perry. Ideas at 3 am might not be so great.Well neither are they at 11 pm when I did Johnny!! But they were a lot of fun. So much that when I met my friend Marsha at Waffle House I kept sneaking photos of guys with beards. They were everywhere.

So how did I do these? I found that the easiest way to do these was with the Pentel color brush. It’s easy to lighten and move the ink to shade with it. Then I went back in with my Pentel brush own to finish it off. The background was done with gouache. Lettering with the Pentel brush pen.

Bytw my son thinks I should do a graphic novel so I guess he linked his. He loves graphic novels and comic books.

A lot of fun. Bet you can’t do just one!!

Day 251 – The Brown Thrasher

March 12, 20152 Comments

i had three other things I meant to be working on today instead I drew more birds?! I have had a touch of bronchitis and was sitting on the den sofa feeling bad. I glanced out the window to see a huge brown bird on the back deck. He was at least five times as big as any bird out there. Thrashers are ground dwellers and I had only seen one once before on the deck though I see them in the yard a lot.

And my sketchbook was in my purse so I grabbed a nearby piece of paper so as not to scare the bird off.

I drew a few quick sketches before he flew off.

Using my noodoee flex oen and De Artremis brown document ink I redrew him in my S&B Zeta and added another from memory. Then I painted them with gouache. I used English red, indigo, white and yellow Schminke. The best discovery I had today was that a filbert makes a great comma stroke. I used it to make all the brown marks on his chest.

Thanks for looking!!

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.