Day 93 -A card and some pens

Pens used:

Copic Markers, Pitt Pens, Kuratake Pen, Red and Blue Tombow pens  

I made my dad this card for his 92nd birthday. The dog is dads schnauzer Shad. I did this from a pic of him. He hates having his pic made and you can tell if you look at this sketch. Deer caught in the headlight look.

I thought I would show you how I made the card.

I have been doing quick pen sketches on index sized cardstock for a while.  Usually drawing them in pen as this one was done..no pencil which is always scary to me...

I cut the cardstock down a smidge to fit on the cards I bought for 50% off at Michaels.

I put the cardstock on top of the card and eyeball size.  You DO NOT have to use a ruler. If you screw up you are out of a small tiny piece of paper...not lots of $$

I flip it over and trace a line on the cardstock by drawing around the card.

I then glue the cardstock down with the closest glue stick. I have several!! And NO I dont worry about is it archival...just if it will glue that heavy cardstock down and keep it down.

And that's how I make a card.  I used to go thru the process of cutting up watercolor paper and folding it and trying to find an envelope to fit.  Using this box of premade cards with envelopes is SO much easier!! And Cheaper..I think there are 50 in this box so its about 10 cents a card.

L-R Copic Pen, Zig Wink of Stella, Pitt Pen, Tombow Pen, Pitt Pen fine point

Pens. I am the queen of collecting pens.  These are some of my top current favorites which of course can change right??!

 I got the huge copic markers for $1 each in the scratch and dent bin at Michaels. They are great for lettering though I mostly use them for coloring.  I may have to get MORE of these jewels.  

The white pen is a Wink of Stella by Zig.  These are opalescent or glittery and are gorgeous. Add a little bling to anything.Expensive BUT you could indulge in a gold one and an white one and use it over your other markers for  a little sparkle.

Pitt Pens - used them for years for drawing or coloring. They last forever , are archival and don't wash out. I have used them for drawing on fabric because they are india ink they never run.  Important on fabric. 

My Kuratake pens - I have four of them. They are awesome...different widths. Also permanent so you can add a watercolor wash over it.

Tombow pens...fun because they are not waterproof and you can use them like watercolor if you add ink to them.  

The last pen on the left is another pitt drawing pen.  These are great because they last forever and I can't kill the tips like I do Pigma Pens.  I hate to think of how many Pigma Pens I have killed the first time I drew with them. NO MORE Pigma Pens.

Pentel Brush Pen, Varsity Fountain Pens
I almost forgot these. My TOP favorite brush pen is my Pentel pen on the left. I do ALOT Of lettering with it on my journal pages.  Any of the "titles" are usually done with this pen...makes great artsy lines.

Varsity pens...do I use them? Not alot YET....I had to pull them out of hiding. BUT I love the variety  of delicious colors, don't you??  I hear you can draw all kinds of things with them so I have to put up my pitt pens and give these a whirl. 

Most of these pens were bought at Binders in Atlanta off Peachtree Rd. 

Go forth and buy pens!! You won't be sorry!!

Day 76 - Birds Contour drawing

Yesterday morning was so lovely and cool I opened all the doors and windows.  It was almost like being outside...the birds were having a great time at the feeder gobbling food.  I decided to try to do contour sketches of them in ink. I did about ten of them.  

Today I am going to share some of them with you...I will post the rest tomorrow...blogger is so slow its just IRRITATING me trying to upload the pics!!

Thanks for looking!!

Most were drawn with a regular permanent black ink pen on a piece of 4 1/4 x 5 1/2" card stock.  I tried to look at the bird as I drew it...sort of a contour drawing...not always with the best results but usually interesting... 

I got bored waiting for more birds to show up and started coloring them with a variety of markers....usually in the picture with them...but not always!

The pigeons were colored with a variety of markers to get their color...mostly a gold copic and a grey pitt pen. The lettering was done with a pentel brush pen my favorite pen.

This was the last one I drew...a cardinal and a finch sitting on the rail.  

Just a few quick lines to give the impression of the bird's shape as they sat on the rail enjoying the morning air.

This one was done on the 20th...for some reason I wrote the wrong date. Maybe too much blogging???  Hard to color a female marker when you don't have the right color of green!! But I tried...Tombow markers!! With a touch of pitt pens...and a copic marker for the feeder.

Day 72 - Out My Back Window

My father and mother in law loved to watch the birds play out their back window...here are a few of the birds they would have seen..

Drawn as I watched them eating and chasing each other on the back porch.

 I ran out of room before I saw the nuthatch and the chickadee which are two of my favorites.

Background is done with yellow ochre and cerulean and splattered with a mix of the two. Shadows are  done with ultramarine blue and burnt umber.

Day 69- Hot Press paper!!

Despite its deceptive appearance of luscious soft finish I DO NOT like hot press paper.  Its very unforgiving.  Once the paint is on its not going anywhere.  I cant do Charles Reid style loosing edges and watery textures of water color doing its watercolory thing on hot press.....the paint just sits there and says here I am and here I will stay!! 

As I have said before I have a lovely journal FULL of Fabriano hot press...fun for playing on but NOT for painting cats.  While I like this cat painting, I have done alot better...I may repaint him on Kilimanjaro aka COLD PRESS paper!!

The final Tom HP which stands for Tom Hot Press

This is the initial sketch with a 4H Pencil

This is an early pic of Tom HP.  I like to take pics in progress to see where I need to work on it...Sorry it's a little blurry...you can't go back to retake!! It didn't matter if it was blurry until I decided to use it on my blog post today!! I will do better!!

I kept having to intensify the darks to make the cat recede under the quilt and make his chin recede...as well as his nostrils.  Painted them over and over again just a touch darker because this paper was NOT going to let you lighten it if you got to dark!!

I had to paint him in layers...runny stuff was NOT an option...I like him...but really wanted to do him runny ...I guess I will get some of the watercolor books out and READ about that darn hotpress paper now!! Report soon.  I have a masters in Library and Information Science so I am a PRO at research!! :)

Thanks goodness for mr. clean eraser sponges...those meant for the walls...a couple of times I looked at parts of it and thought OH NO its ruined but Mr. Clean to the rescue...I always did like Mr. Clean on the ads!!

This is how I set up to splatter Tom.  I laid strips of paper towel around the edges and a wad in the middle to cover Tom.   I didn't want to get splatter on the cat nor did I want to get it on the white margins which really didn't matter since I had already smeared red paint on them!! OH well...something else to improve on!!

Thanks for looking!!

Day 66 - Zoe Alla Prima

WOW SIXTY SIX posts...sometimes I amaze myself.  I had drawn this sketch of Zoe in my wc journal a few days back but not painted it.  

Was talking on Instagram with some other artists about Charles Reid so I decided to revisit his alla prima style in this painting...I do love the way the individual watercolors intermingle with each other when you paint using his method.  

OH you say HOW does he paint? Well if you have ever painted with oils or acrylics he paints that way.  Lays the color down like oils and generally leaves it alone.  He also uses pure wet colors - generally cad red light, cad yellow, vermilion, rose madder, cerulean,  yellow ochre, cobalt and raw sienna, and ultramarine blue with burnt umber and lets them mingle on the page.  He can paint anything with about 12 colors.  He also paints quickly, doing portraits in two hours.  Said anything more than that is messing it up.  

So here's Miss Zoe.

Here she is...I am really pleased with how she turned out.  The only thing I would change is to make the tip of her right ear round instead of pointed!! 

Why do I say this is Alla Prima aka First strike?  Most of the color was laid down all at once. 

Cerulean blue to the right of the right ear is negative painting to define her white ear.  So is the cobalt under her chin.  Can you find other blues used as shadows to define areas. That's negative painting.

Splattering?  The spots of yellow ochre and cerulean were made by splattering.  I covered up Zoe with a papertowel and the thump a loaded brush at the background.  Too much?? Not a problem.  Turn your brush sideways and roll out some of them or smudge with your finger.

Day 61 - How Many More?

I am going to try for 100 days of posts. We shall see!!!

Out my back window I

Another trip to City Art in the Vista in Downtown Columbia today. They are giving 25% off art supplies this week. Did I hear a big cheer?? I got some charcoal pencils, two tubes of Daniel Smith watercolor and some Conte crayons.

Out my back window 2

Randy and his wife are just the nicest most helpful people. They also have a great online site called Artexpress. Shipping is very reasonable.

Out my back window 3

So what does that have to do with all these skyscapes that I painted this week?? I have been using green Primateks to paint these from my Daniel Smith Sample card.  I got TWO tubes of the Primatek greens today.  Can't wait to use them...love the way they granulate when you paint trees!

Painted in my moleskine!! 

Day 60 - Another Zoe

I thought about quiting but NOPE here I am again.  I painted Zoe again.  Not sure she is finished BUT hey another day another post.  So here goes.

I think her eye turned out great. BUT...

I think this has various problems. She was a wiggly model.  She would tease me by settling down on the pillow then she would move...sigh!! Doesnt she know models are NOT supposed to move?

The ears are a touch too long as is the nose.  I wanted to loose some of the edges but was not sure how to do that...like her right ear is I think too bright...and her left ear...well hmm I dont know...Anyway shes done for now. I am tired so...thats it for tonite.

Before


The background...

The sofa behind her didn't give enough contrast so I darkened it a couple of times.  I think it makes her pop more now.  The right hand side started as just cobalt blue, and I didn't like it so I smeared some indigo over it...still pretty boring..I decided to be brave and covered Zoe up...and everything to the left of her.

I have always loved flinging paint.
I loaded a large brush up and started flinging burnt umber at it...dangerous living with a white dog painting...and then I smeared some of the burnt umber out.  Having survived one paint flinging successfully I decided to fling paint again...and it went where I wanted it...I left some of the splatters on it and wiped some out.  Then I quit before I tempted the fates!!

Thanks for looking!!! 

Day 59 - Breakfast at the Bean

I almost went to sleep early instead of posting but well only one more day to go till I have blogged 60 days in a row!! That's a record. Wonder how much longer I can go on!? One day at a time!!

Breakfast at the Bean

The more I look at this one the more I like it. Such a great teapot. Makes me happy just looking at it!!

Using my new handprint watercolor journal. The paper acted really odd. It almost repelled the paint. The jury's still out on it. Going to do a color comparison test and paint a few more pics before I decide.

Day 56 - How I paint a lab

Evidently I can't count.  Today is the 56th day of blogging. I have TWO Day 54s...hmmm

Anyway today I painted my lab Honey again. And this is how I painted her.

First I drew Honey and the bowl.  Then I painted the black leaving space for the highlights.  The rag rug presented quite a challenge.  First I started with dabs of all the colors in it leaving alot of white.  The colors got lighter as they receded. 

Next I painted over her fur with Indigo sometimes it was quite watered down.  Other times it was fairly thick. The bowl was done with yellow ochre, letters Piemonite, shadows cobalt and burnt umber as was the inside.

I was surprised how well the rag rug was turning out. After the colors dried I added different strengths of grey to fill in some of the whites.  Then I went back and added some cerulean for very subtle shadows around the dog to loose some of the edges.

After days with no clouds I painted a quick sky painting before I painted Honey.  I do like those granulating primatek greens for tree paintings.  

Day 50 - A Portrait

That's the painting equivalent of skyrockets, right?!  I have a commission portrait that I have been working on.  It's done in acrylic.  

First I drew it and then I scrubbed in a base color on the raw canvas.

Then I started painting him.  I love using the flesh color made by Liquitex and  Buff for the skin.  I also used Nickel Azo Gold, Burnt Sienna, Ultramarine Blue, White, Burnt Umber, Vermilion, Cad Red and Cad Yellow Light.  However I could not tell what color his eyes were from the photos I had of him.   Did I let that stop me? NO, I kept on painting!!

Here's a close up of the eye.

Except OH NO his eyes are a very bright blue...but that was an easy fix!!

I greyed the rusty shadows out by adding a light blue to them...scrubbing it in with a dry brush...you have to be creative when painting portraits with acrylic because it dries so fast.

Currently this is what he looks like right now...I am going to sleep on it and see if I decide to change him in the morning...you never know do you??  I do like to look at it a while to decide how to tweak him!! 

Thanks for looking!!

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 46 - Daniel Smith Watercolor 66 Sample Chart

I tried out my Daniel Smith Watercolor 66 Sample Chart today. I bought it at Binders-Atlanta for about $5 last weekend.   First I made samples from the colors. Then I painted three small paintings using it.

River  Bend Summer

This is the first painting I did using the color chart.  I really like the way the Primateks granulated in the trees...A nice effect I think.  I also used Pearlescent white on the tree trunks to give the effect the sycamores give when you look at them.  They seem to glow. To the left of the painting I listed all of the colors I used painting this picture so I wouldn't forget.

Daniel Smith Extra Fine Watercolor Try It Color Chart

Primateks, Quinacridones and Cadmiums

The 66 color chart is a great way to try out all the colors without buying the tube. I got mine at Binders for about $5. Primateks are quite expensive. Lapis Lazuli can cost $30 in an art store...$20 on Amazon.

Now I know which Primateks I like and which ones I don't think I want.  What did I like about the Primateks?  I liked the way they granulated and that they were very transparent. Even used in heavy applications they retained their transparency.

I had been really wanting Lapis Lazuli.  Now I don't.  Its neither as bright or dark as I thought it would be.  I do want the greens and two of the other blues - Sodalite, Blue Agatite, Diopside, Jadeite and Serpentine. I have Hematite and Piemonite.

I already own all of the Quinacridones and just love the bright pops of color they give and I have New Gamboge which I use frequently- a perfect color for sycamores this time of the year.

Pearlescent, Iridescents and Duochromes

I love sparkly pearly colors.  These do that so well...but they are best used over another color to shift the color.  I own most of these except for the Duochromes which color shift into two different colors.

Stay tuned for Part 2 Tomorrow...two paintings done with the paints.

Day 39 - On the Road I-20

Driving home from a fabulous in Columbia with friends. Got up to a beautiful morning - a cool crisp with hints of fall. Rocking on the backporch with our morning cups I said let's go to Columbia.

Tipplin Teacups

(Ink and all kinds of marker on cardstock)

Off we went first to Cityart in the Vista - a great art store with a two story art gallery with varied enough art to suit anyone's taste. Randy in the art store was super sweet and helpful. Cityart has an online store Art Express with the best fastest shipping I have ever used.

The gallery

Two of the many paintings at Cityart's Gallery.

Then onto Nonnah's in the Vista for lunch. A long leisurely visit with friends.

My delicious tuna salad at Nonnah's.

Last but not least dinner at Shealy's in Batesburg. We DO LOVE barbecue!!

Home sweet home!!!!!