As I was looking out the window, taking in the beautiful weather we are experiencing, I took notice to this guy sitting at the top of our bird feeder out front. He just sat there scoping out the area. I thought I might have seen another....maybe a mate....but wasn't sure. It's that time of year, I suppose, when they are out searching for a place to nest.
This is a little memory keepsake bear Travis gifted Paige along with a beautiful arrangement of roses for Valentine's Day. Due to my love of stuffed bears, I decided to draw the bear holding one of those roses representing this beautiful gesture on my son's part.
Procreate / Gouache Brush Tool
I cannot believe how long it's been since I touched a fountain pen. They have been sitting with ink in them for many months (shame on me) and was in bad need of some maintenance.
First I completely took each pen apart soaking and cleaning each component. I have a little hummingbird feeder brush I used on the ribs of the nib unit to work loose any dried ink. My brown inked pen was the worst, which had #41 Brown ink from Noodler's. I didn't have quite the cleaning job with those loaded with Lexington Grey or Document Gray. After the components were dry, I (for the first time) used the grease that comes with TWSBI pens for the plunger that pulls/pushes ink in the barrel. One of my TWSBI 580 pens was a bit finicky in putting back together but I finally worked through that issue. Now I have four clean pens with only two I have loaded with fresh ink.
After I loaded the pens with ink, I took the one with Document Brown ink (instead of the #41 Brown) and worked a couple loose sketches in my journal with Fabriano Artistico Cold Press (old stock). The second illustration shows using the Urban Gray on Fabriano Hot Press in another journal.
Months ago, Morgan sent me a photo of a hydrangea as an idea to draw/paint. I have been dragging my feet even attempting it as it intimidates me with all those little petals that make up the flower head. Finally I decided to tackle the job to help take my mind off the dental work I am having done.
Not something I would care to attempt on paper but instead using layers on the Ipad. There was a lot of trial and error and the last thing I ever want to do is to have to start over. This way anything that was working right, I could save and what didn't, I could delete and continue on.
I am not ashamed to admit I traced to get my line drawing for this due to the complexity of all those petals or florets or whatever they are called. I didn't have the energy or desire to attempt this otherwise. I considered using the grid method but that would have taken a lot of time I didn't feel like investing. I also considered using the Ipad Camera Lucida app developed similar to the Camera Obscura and Lucida concepts the masters used decades ago; but thought why when I can just trace the shapes on the spot in the app I was using.
Once I had the line drawing, I had to figure out how I wanted to add color and shading. I chose to add a base color to the over all shape of the flower head and then work each individual petal building values as I went along. Because the layers are transparent, I was able to view the lines beneath for initial placement of color along edges and then blending out.
One image shows where I wrote soft and hard edges. Having a flat base shape like this, it would look like a cut-out sitting on a piece of paper so I went along and softened edges.
As usual, I chose to use the Gouache brush tool which lays down color softly (not at full opacity or strength). To get it darker, you have to go over the areas as if glazing. This is one reason I really like using that brush tool and why it can take several layers and hours to work on a drawing due to gradually building the values.
And I just noticed I misspelled Hydrangea........ooops..........lol.
Terry surprised me with a beautiful bouquet of flowers a couple days ago. I chose this one type of flower to draw.
At first I tried using a textured watercolor brush but then as I went along, I found I didn't much care for the texture and switched back over to my Gouache brush tool.
Not including the line drawing, this is made up of 14 layers building colors and values.
