Day Out Sketching on Location

For many people, this is a normal occurrence but for me has taken a long time gaining the courage to do this.

A good friend came to pick me up this morning showing me various areas near where we live and then went to a place called Mount Dora, FL.  I've lived here almost a year and still do not know my way around or what's actually around me.........which I'm learning is quite a bit.

On Sundays, Mount Dora has a farmers market set up near the edge of one of many lakes in the county we live in.  I set up under a pavilion overlooking the lake and sketched this lighthouse across from where I was standing.

This was my opportunity too to use a messenger bag I had purchased months ago to carry my gear in.  It worked beautifully and so glad I chose this particular one.  It's small but holds all I could possibly need sketching and/or painting in watercolor.

The cardboard you see is from the back of a watercolor block.  It's thick and strong acting as the perfect portable table (I'll have to take a picture of how I used it and share in a later post).  Lee Kline (who I went out sketching with) shared this idea with me.  Although it sticks out of the bag as shown, it didn't get in my way at all.

Getting back to the sketching, I stood and first worked a quick pencil sketch.  Then using my TWSBI mini fountain pen and Lexington Gray ink, I went back over the sketch.  By that time Lee was finished with his sketching and painting and I waited to paint after returning home.

This was worked in the Strathmore Visual Journal (Watercolor) and mixed brands of watercolor I have set up in a Neocolors II tin case.  I chose my favorite pigments from W&N, Daniel Smith, and QoR watercolors.

This page is special to me because of what it represents for me personally and the wonderful time I had sketching with Lee.  I can't wait to do this again!!!
 

Two of Many Beanie Babies

Back when I worked at the hospital I used to visit the gift shop often watching for new beanie babies to come in.  I was into collecting them years ago as was my youngest son.  We've given several away to the granddaughters but still have quite a few left we'll probably save for my youngest son's children.

Grabbing two of my favorites, I worked on this page last night with pen and ink.  Today I finished it off by adding watercolor.

Strathmore Visual journal / Micron pen / Daniel Smith watercolors

Ready to Go!

Tonight I worked this quick sketch of my bag for tomorrow's outing with a good friend of mine.  He plans to take me around Lake county here in Florida.  It's been a long time coming my finally getting together with someone to go sketching.  There are two others I know of in the area and hope to get with them as well in the near future.

Worked in the Strathmore Visual journal (watercolor) with Pitt Pen #S.  Daniel Smith watercolors.

Winning Tat Sketch

After several more attempts, I finally came up with a simpler design my sister in law could use should she get another tattoo.

First is on the regular white of the paper and then using photoshop elements, I created a background to somewhat resemble skin color to see how it might look.

She loves it!!!

Zen Dragonflies

I bought this dragonfly sun catcher and was in the mood to doodle so sketched one on paper using pencil first and then a Pitt Artist pen........erasing the pencil marks.......and then scanned it.

From there I created a photoshop layout where I duplicated and resized to fit a few on a piece of copier paper for playing with zen patterns.

I was thinking about my sister-in-law who loves dragonflies and wants me to come up with something she can use as another tattoo. She's used one of my paintings in the past (stargazer flowers) for a tattoo on the calf of her leg. Talk about the ultimate compliment of my work!

I will probably work on more trying to simplify patterns considering it would be for a tattoo.  

Granddaughters Sketching Their Hands

Thought I would share what my granddaughters, Morgan and Madison, accomplished after showing them how to sketch an outline in graphite and using a paper stump to shade creating form and structure to their outlines

Morgan's Hand:

Madison's thumb, hand, and flower pot:

They really had a wonderful time with this new technique (new to them)  and I couldn't be prouder of both!  :-)

May 11 thru May 15 Journal Pages

It's been a busy week unpacking boxes, sorting what to keep and what to donate, and then finding a place for what we decide to keep.

We didn't unpack a great deal from trip #2 simply because we didn't have all of our furniture like cabinets and shelves.  The first load was primarily my middle and youngest sons' belongings most of which have gone into storage.

Now we're going through every box and tote from all trips making decisions of what we really want or need to keep and what goes........starting with what's physically here at the house (later we'll tackle the storage unit).  And we did this prior to packing before we started this move but finding now we can still let loose of quite a bit more.

What's funny............a large number of items packed in totes and boxes happens to be books and art materials/supplies.  Go figure.........LOL

Come evenings as I relax and during needed breaks, I have still managed to do some sketching and painting.  Here are the pages I've completed.

Corked Bottle and Grapes

This finishes up my Stillman & Birn Delta journal :-)

I'm showing a smaller version that shows how I finished off the 2-page spread.  QoR watercolors were used after a line drawing using a Micron 02.  Also used a white gel pen in some areas removing some of the black ink lines and adding a few halos around some parts.  The whites on the grapes are actually white of the paper.....I remembered to leave those :-)

Monkey in a Cup

This was a lot of fun to sketch and paint. 

Only 2 pages left before filling another sketchbook.  These pages are in the Delta journal :-)

Still Life Models

Lately I have been picking up a few items I can arrange in still life set-ups.  I've also included a set of frogs which were a gift to me by my Sissy, Darlene.

Painting with India Ink

Received my bottle of India Ink so I could work some more using Steven Reddy's technique painting with ink and watercolor.

The India Ink is a joy to work with.  After mixed in water and sitting over night, it does not separate like the Noodler's ink did.  With the Noodler's, you could see a definite separation of ink on bottom and clearer water above it.  With the India Ink, it might require a quick shake but it still looks mixed throughout with no clear separation of ink vs water.

The ink/water solution went down much easier spreading across the paper (same paper surface as previous post).

And it might be my imagination but just appears to look cleaner in the final results than what I achieved using the Noodler's Black ink.  Will know better as I continue to experiment.

Stillman & Birn Delta, Microns 05 and 005, W&N watercolors, #5 Round

Fantastic Course on Craftsy - Steven Reddy

I have been a big fan of Steven Reddy's work using ink and watercolor for some time....first discovering him on flickr.  And for the longest time I so wished I could see him in action as he composes his still life setups and how he goes about working complicated scenes with multiple items (he loves the challenge of cluttered scenes). 

Lo and Behold.......... my wish came true :-)  I received an email alerting me that Craftsy was offering a course by Steven Reddy and I immediately jumped on it.  What a fantastic course beautifully presented and extremely informative.  By far my favorite of the courses I've taken to date :-)

Craftsy - Steven Reddy - Dynamic Detail in Pen, Ink, and Watercolor

 

Now I'm hoping he can offer another course showing how he goes about working landscapes and buildings !!!!!

The one item I didn't have on hand was India Ink he uses so I had to improvise by using Noodler's Black ink.  I'm really curious to see how the India Ink differs when added to water for making up different value solutions.  The Noodler's ink settles quickly to the bottom of the water with one having to stir or shake it several times throughout the process to obtain the value in which the solution was created to achieve.  In any event, I still ended up with a water proof diluted ink mix and made it work for these exercises.