Day 66 - Plein Air?

You decide!  I paint out my window in the cool ac. Essential in the humid south.

September 10 Out My Window

I seem to paint this three four times a week.  

Today I painted this in my new as in page 4 of my Handprint journal that looks like a Moleskine but the paper...well that paper.  It's not up to snuff...thinner. Doesn't lay flat when its dry.  And acts odd. I don't know how to explain it. Almost like hot press?  It just seems to repel the watercolor at times. 

The wash on the paper dried so fast the paper seemed to suck up the water...perfect one second DRY the next. I was amazed it dried so quickly!

 Took a while to get this one where I liked it.  The trees are already turning gold on the river. And I always love the gleam of the sycamore bark in the sunlight.  

The skies which had been full of puffy white clouds as I ran errands today of course were overcast with a little blue by the time I got home...hmm where did those lovely skies go?? And OF COURSE as soon as I got done painting a nice blue sky again with puffy clouds!! Darn!!  

Painted with cerulean and cobalt in the sky with yellow ochre and raw sienna  added for the greys.  The trees are Daniel Smith New gamboge, Green Apatite, Hematite, Indigo and touches of white gouache for the sycamore trunks.  

Really like the trees today.  I started with new gamboge then added the Green Apatite - Don't you love that name?  Then I darkened it with a bit of Hematite and alot of Indigo for the dark darks.  The way the paper drank the water I didnt have a chance to scratch in tree trunks so I painted them first with Indigo and then with some white gouache.

This is where I sit in front of the sliding doors in the den and paint out my back door.  Paints are on a large industrial sized cookie sheet. Includes the water and paper towels and other things like markers.  I use one of the  Fiesta Ware cups to keep the water in.  Don't want it to spill, since I am rarely where I should be painting...works great on the new sectional sofa! Don't tell anyone!!

Also great for clearing up your mess if the need arises...or moving your set up quickly!

My palette is a Holbein handheld palette that folds up from www.artexpress.com.  Expensive but I love it....not so heavy as those enamel butcher trays!! 

The stool is a folding stool that I picked up for $5 at Marshals...short people can NOT have enough stools...especially when you add a nice feather pillow to sit on while you paint!!

River Bend

Pretty soon this will be the view out the window.  Leaves are beginning to fall.  This is a pencil sketch on Bristol board I did out my window a few winters back...does that count as Plein Air?!  I do love Nekkid trees!!

Thanks for looking!!!

Day 52 - Tom posing

It occurred to me that my cat Tom is a specialist in 2-3 minute life poses.  Last nite and today he flopped himself down near me where I had a good view of him and continually shifted as he cleaned himself up ...loves to lick his paws endlessly.  His hind legs are now squeaky clean.  This morning he flopped down on the rag rug in the kitchen and started all over again.

Heres the black and white version in my moleskine.  Done with a random inkpen and my red and black red is Zig Wink of Stella pens...pearlescent brush pens.  I glued down a piece of the paper moleskines come with over a sketch that was a bust.

When I came home I decided Tom needed a little color...and I added more of the red Zig Wink of Stella as well as the Black Zig Wink of Stella brush pen.   Colors are the usual...cerulean and cobalt, cad yellow, ochre, Quinacridone sienna and Daniel Smith Primatek Piemonite.  I think Piemonite is such a useful color...it can be purple or a brown. It's transparent, makes great shadows or brindle on a pit bull.  

Today's Dr. Sketchys AntiArt School.  Guess what I will be posting tomorrow??! 7:00 tonite at Chat Noir!! Come join the fun!!

Day 47 - Daniel Smith Watercolor 66 Sample Chart

Daniel Smith Watercolor 66 Sample Chart

Ever Hopeful

I decided to paint a painting of my dog Honey using the Daniel Smith Watercolor 66 Sample Chart.  I used mostly the Primateks on this painting. Hematite, Piemonite, Blue Agatite, Burnt Tigers Eye, Black Tourmaline and Imperial Violet.  It was very hard to get a dark enough black. No matter what I mixed together it the black was not dark.  THEN it granulated. Normally I LOVE granulating but it gives a splotchy look to Honey to me.  I was NOT wild about the effect.  

So I decided to repaint Honey using Ivory Black and a mix  Indigo, Vermilion and Burnt Umber -my normal black mix.  I like the results of this one ALOT better.  

How did I paint this one?? I drew her.  Then I painted the dark areas with Ivory Black.  I then filled in the open areas with a watery Indigo blue leaving spots of white.

Which one do you like better???

Day 37 - Public Drawing

Scary stuff drawing in public but a far corner in the local Evans Starbucks was perfect for surreptitious sketching of customers. Nobody gave me a glance.


This is what it looked like when I left Starbucks. Done with pit pen and watercolor in my moleskine.  I think I like it....but sometimes you have to look at it for a while to be sure, don't you?!..a bright cheerful sketch...and I didn't even have popcorn while I was there...it's in the local Target .

The colors I used!
Somebody commented they really liked the colors so I thought I would tell you about them...the red is Daniel Smith Quinacridone Red...more bang for the buck than a cad red and non toxic too!! The rust color is NOT raw sienna but DS Quinacridone Sienna...also more bang for your buck. They are delicious colors!!  I also used a couple of tubes of Daniel Smith's Primateks...they are granulating colors made from real stones...Hematite and Piemontite Genuine...to read more about Quinacridones and Primateks see this page and Primteks only on this page on Daniel Smith's website.

Great Shadows are always a problem.  How do I make them.  Generally I use a blue combined with a brown to make them...my favorite combos are cerulean and yellow ochre...lovely light greys full of light.  Another great combo is cobalt with Burnt Sienna or Burnt Umber.  Don't mix them totally to get lovely puddles of color in your greys.

I also used Daniel Smith's  Indigo for the dark shadows...its not quite blue but its not black either...and of course its great mixed with Vermilion and or Burnt Umber for  really dark almost black shadows. Much more interesting than black out of a tube.

I also used my ever reliable yellow ochre, cobalt and ultramarine blue.  Skin was made with Quin Sienna and yellow ochre...the guy had a great tan!! And I used some greyed out Pthalo green on the shirt!!

Have fun!!

Thanks for looking!!!