Derivan Liquid Pencil - Testing

After working the lamp last night, I wanted to play a bit more testing a few things with this liquid pencil.  Also tried out the other colors received.

This time I worked in the Stillman & Birn Beta Journal.

I have to say this stuff is really nice!  I just love how it goes down on paper.  I even played a bit wet in wet just to see what it could do.

The 'pigment' (if you want to call it that) is of course heavy so with wet in wet it's not going to move very much.  Kind of like heavy opaque watercolor pigment.  But it did produce a nice effect.

Here is the page I worked showing:

1) values created two different ways;
2) how it handled lifting with a damp to wet brush and erasures after completely dry;
3) wet in wet example applying water first;
4) how pen and ink with fountain pen would behave and look drawn over top of a shaded area - light and a bit darker.  I wanted to test that because I've often experienced problems using a fine nib fountain pen drawing over graphite or pencil lines.
5) samples of the other three colors - red, blue, and sepia

Here is the enlarged wet in wet example.  LOVE the granular look to this!  Reminds me of Daniel Smith Lunar Black watercolor paint.

****Noticed after posting............do you see the large chick or duck hiding under the tree????  :-)****

Larger examples of the three colors...

2016 Inktober Challenge - Day 17

Speaking of birthday..........because my birthday fell on a weekday, my sons wanted to get together yesterday afternoon as a little celebration.

Of course a cake had to be made and here I am 95 days into what's called a Keto diet.  At this point I was not going to break down no matter how tempting it might be.

Hubby made the cake (yellow cake mix) and I iced it (mild chocolate icing).  What helped me through the temptation, I created a little cupcake made from low carb pancake mix.  I put about a half silicone cup of batter into the microwave and nooked it for about 35 seconds.  It puffed up beautifully.  For icing I used a pudding like desert made with home-made whip cream, sugar substitute, vanilla, and cream cheese.  Also low carb.  Sprinkled some unsweetened coconut flakes and pecan pieces on top and viola........my own birthday cake I could eat.  The family even had a candle stuck in the middle to make it authentic.

So they ate their cake and I ate mine.  Divided up the left over and split between my sons and eldest son's family leaving all temptation behind!

Here's a journal entry about it in my sketchbook as today's Inktober sketch :-)

New Medium - Liquid Pencil by Derivan

For my birthday, my friend (I consider a sister) from the United Kingdom, sent me a package of four jars of re-wettable Liquid Pencil..................one each Sepia, Blue, Red, and Gray #9.  There are two other colors you can get - another Gray and a Yellow.

Tonight I thought I would try out the Gray #9 in my hand sewn journal made up of Fabriano Artistico cold press watercolor paper.

Because I've been challenging myself with pen only in the Inktober Challenge I'm working, I thought with this I'd go straight in with medium and a brush.  No guidelines.  I figured if erasable and rewettable, I should be OK should I make any major goofs.  With that mindset, I felt relaxed and found that really helped sketching this out.  I used a very diluted mix with initial laying down of the liquid using a #5 round.  I worked this in layers going darker and darker.

With the FA watercolor paper, I found the liquid pencil to behave just like watercolor having to take care not to lift the previous layer when applying a darker layer on top.  Otherwise you lift that bottom layer and have to let it dry and start again.

It blends beautifully too.  Lifting is a breeze and how dark you can go surprised me.

When I was working the lettering to the right of the illustration, I goofed on one of my letters and with a wet brush was able to lift it right off, let it dry and proceed to place the correct letter...........no sign of correction.

I did try to erase an area already dry as a means of lifting highlight but found the eraser I was using wasn't working so well.  Not sure if eraser or if because of the type paper I was using.  This is something I want to test out on various paper surfaces and different erasers.

This was really fun to use.

2016 Inktober Day 15 Plus Bonus Experience

Yesterday was a fantastic day for me.  I was invited to be a part of a sketchcrawl in The Villages here in Florida.  My first experience too and it was a blast!!!!

Two people I knew but hadn't seen in awhile plus I met some of the nicest people in the remaining group.  I'm not exactly sure just how many were there but I'm thinking maybe around 18 trying to remember the two tables we took up when meeting up for lunch.

We met up at 8:30 in the morning walking around sketching what ever grabbed our attention.  The area of The Villages we met up at is of a Western theme which I thought was really cool.  On top of that, there was a farmers' market going on with all these canopies set up around the plaza area.

At 11:30 we met at one of the restaurants for lunch and to share our sketches and discuss future get togethers.  I was having such a great time, I hated to see it end.  BUT, we will be doing this again and I so look forward to it.

One thing I learned very quickly, I am S-U-P-E-R slow at sketching.  When at home I really don't think much about how fast or slow I'm working in my sketchbook.  Although now and then I'll challenge myself to quick sketches.  Anyways.....I took notice how several had two or three ink and watercolor sketches to my initial pencil sketch I still needed to ink and add color to.  I made it part way through the inking process but decided to stop and finish at home.  I also wanted to work in my ink only sketch for the Inktober challenge.

Here is the Inktober Day 15 Sketch: - These were two of the ladies I met who were sketching across from where I was sitting.

I was so tired when I got home from all the walking and excitement but determined to finish the page I had started while on site.  I only wish I had scanned the page after I went over in pen and ink before adding color to compare with the color version.  Oh well.....next time.

It was a goooooooooood day!!!  :-)

2016 Inktober - Days 13 and 14

Two more Inktober days down.  I'm finding it a bit easier each day facing that blank piece of paper with pen in hand.  Just goes to show daily practice does go a long way in helping with confidence.  For me not 100% but it's better than what it was when I started this 14 days ago.  I should 'TRY' to do this more often.  :-)

Day 13 - was using one of my Pilot Preras with Lexy Gray ink.  Has always been one of my favorite pens (although I have a few favorites now).

Day 14 - Back to my Platinum Carbon desk pen.  It probably has one of the most reliable and consistent nibs out of all the pens I own to include using nib upside down and putting ink on paper.  This particular one I did not cut the stem off in order to post the cap.

Inktober 2016 - Days 10-12

Still hanging in there with the daily challenge (which surprises me).  19 Days remaining.......lol

Day 10 - Chose to use one of my Lamy Safari fountain pens.  I had checked the cartridge that was in the pen before starting and 'thought' it was full.  Proceeded to do this sketch and found it kept skipping.  I thought maybe it was just the paper.  Then I thought to check the cartridge again.  It looked full but when I took a syringe to pull out ink to see how much was in it, it was basically empty.  That explains the skipping.  Decided to change over to a converter and filled fresh Lexington Gray ink in it.  Viola..........wrote beautifully on scrap paper.

 Day 11 - My Birthday.  Decided to d a little quick sketch to represent that.  I meant to put six candles (representing 10 years each) but was side-tracked and forgot to add them.  Oh well, I can just say it was subconsciously wishing it was truly 4 (x 10) :-) 

Day 12 - Boy did I bite off a bit too much with this one using the technique I chose to go with.  It's a pattern from an outdoor garden statue.  I used the Lamy Safari with the XF nib and proceeded with nothing but dots (stippling).  Not only did this take a very long time to reach this point, my poor hand was aching.  My eyes grew very tired working these dots on a 3 x 4 inch pattern........so much so my eye sight was blurred even wearing glasses.  I should have taken a few breaks but I just wanted to get it done.

I could have refined this more but I had to stop myself and call it done.

Inktober 2016 Days 5 - 9

I'm a bit slow posting these with all the craziness with Hurricane Matthew.  First passing us and then on up the coast where I have family to include my husband being in Fayetteville.  They got hit really hard even for being inland.

I'm lucky I even managed the sketches but here they are :-)

Day 5

Day 6

Day 7

Day 8

Day 9 - Up until today, I have used ONLY pen and ink with no pencil guidelines (not mandatory with Inktober but my own set challenge along with the daily sketching).  The gun itself is all pen and ink but when I came to the shadow, I used a light pencil guideline to help with placement before jumping in with ink.

Inktober 2016 - Days 3 and 4

So far so good............four days into the 31 day challenge.

Day 3

This is a little keepsake from several years ago.  I have this one and another with a frog.  I just love the face on this..........lol

Day 4

Another little keepsake from when the boys were younger.  This motorcycle  is only about an inch and a quarter long.  I'm pretty sure this was my youngest son's as he was the one who was really into micro cars, trucks, etc.  My eldest was into legos and my middle son was more into sports and music.

Inktober 2016 - Days 1 and 2

Intober is a yearly global challenge where artists from around the world work an ink sketch each day during the month of October.  For more information, here is a direct link telling more about it.

This year I thought I would attempt it although I normally don't stick with challenges for too long and definitely not those with prompts.  Inktober has daily prompts but are optional for those who might wish to have them for ideas.  With me.........a subject has to grab me before I feel I can sketch it so prompts are out.

Here is Day 1 and Day 2.  I am using a Platinum Carbon desk pen and Lexington Gray ink.  I've chosen to use a small 3 x 4 inch leather handmade sketchbook that was gifted to me.

Day 1 - This garlic bulb was sitting on my kitchen counter and thought I'd sketch it before we tore it apart.  A few cloves have started to sprout so we might attempt to grow them.  The others we'll use.  We normally just use garlic salt or garlic powder for seasoning.  A time or two we bought jarred minced garlic.  For some reason Terry decided to buy the fresh which gave me a perfect first specimen to sketch.

 Day 2 - This little fabric doll came with a porcelain Native American doll Terry gave me many years ago as a Christmas gift.  Terry is part Wantun (if I'm spelling it right).....a small tribe out of California.  His native american heritage is from his father's side.

Playing with Ink and Wash

It's been awhile since I played with my water soluble inks so I grabbed two of my pens that have different inks and worked these three quick wash sketches.

All worked in the Hand.book.

First is using the Rotring Art Pen with a "F" nib.  As noted on the page, I had forgotten just how potent this ink is when water applied.  Normally I would use a flat brush as I can better control the wash but I was working with a waterbrush with these sketches.  Maybe using a smaller tipped waterbrush might have helped.

These next two pages is using one of my Pilot Prera fountain pens and Namiki Black ink.  It's much more subtle and easier to control.

**I screwed up with the placement of the back support beams......ooops**  :-)

Cedar Key Area Sketches

The weekend before Hurricane Hermine struck the Florida coast, my husband and I went to check Cedar Key out for possible kayaking and salt water fishing.

First place we stopped was the 4th Bridge going into the town.  There's a boat ramp there going out to the wetland area.  We were there at low tide and was extremely shallow.  Definitely a perfect place for a kayak.  We had the opportunity to watch an air boat put into the water and taking off.  Neat but LOUD.  It was fun watching it skim across mud flats and the shallow water.

After that we drove into town looking for the big T fishing pier.  I'm not one for crowds and the streets were really narrow.  It was busy that day and I just felt claustrophobic so we didn't spend much time there.  Maybe a weekday it might not be so bad but the weekend was probably a bad day to go (at least for me).

As we were leaving the busy town, we stopped at a few other areas that are part of Cedar Key.......believe it was a conservation area.

So sad what Hermine did to the place.  They were hit hard with many of the businesses and houses damaged.  :-(

Anyways..........here are a couple of sketches I worked based on the area we checked out.  I worked the pen and ink sketch while sitting up monitoring the storm keeping alert to warnings on TV and radio for our area while my husband and sons tried to sleep.  I used the sketching as a means to try and focus on keeping myself calm.

Watercolor first in Strathmore Visual Watercolor sketchbook and Platinum Carbon pen with Lexy Gray ink after color dried.

Platinum Carbon Desk Pen / Lexy Gray ink in the Handbook sketchbook.

This little sketch I did Aug 31st trying a different method of painting a palm tree.

Strathmore Visual Watercolor sketchbook, Platinum Carbon Desk Pen and Lexy Gray ink.

Baby Dragon Hatchling

Can't believe it's been over a month since I last did anything and shared on my blog.  I'm just going through one of my low tides, it seems.  Hopefully that lack of motivation will turn around soon.

Anyways.......a few days ago I received a baby dragon shelf ornament and I actually felt that "itch" to sketch it.  Days passed and this morning finally got around to it.

I was on hold with our utility department to ask a few questions with 11 people ahead of me.  I knew it was going to be awhile as I tried a few days earlier and gave up after close to 30 minutes.  It took 40 minutes this call before I was able to actually talk to someone and during that waiting time, I decided to sketch and paint this little fellow.

Strathmore Visual Watercolor Sketchbook
Platinum Carbon Desk Pen
W&N Watercolors

Blue Heron on the Dead River

Today I decided to bring out my Noodler's Creaper flex pen and work this sketch of a Blue Heron along the Dead River.

Working with this flex pen was a reminder it's one of my least favorite pens.  I've really tried to like it but it has a wetter feed than what I really like to work with (and that's without trying to flex the nib).  Using the same ink I normally use (Lexington Grey), it didn't dry very quickly on the paper and I would end up picking up ink on the side of my hand and transferring it back onto the paper as I sketched.  That for me is a frustrating aspect of some fountain pens, nibs, and ink.

Even with that bit of frustration, I still managed to finish this watercolor sketch.  Worked in the Strathmore Visual Watercolor journal.

NOTE:  Same paper I use the same ink with other pens and don't always have this problem with slow drying ink.

My Mother After Last Year's Long Recovery

Last year on Easter Day, my mother ended up in the hospital for months.  I was there the first three weeks just waiting for first signs of life and then for her to be strong enough to sit up and be moved to a step up recovery facility.

She couldn't eat for many weeks and relied on tubes to feed her.  She had to go through physical therapy just to swallow first liquids on her own and then food.  Otherwise it went straight to her lungs.  She also had to go through physical therapy to walk again (with help).  Mom had absolutely no energy to lift an arm let alone do anything else for many weeks.  She suffered Sepsis, Kidney failure, Respiratory failure, and Congestive Heart failure.

Mom was in the hospital or care facility until June 30th.  My brother had taken a photo of her after all those weeks when a hair dresser went to the care facility and fixed her hair.  The photo Gary took is priceless to me as it represents the battle she went through and won and returning to normal ..... smiles and all.

Yesterday I tried my hand at capturing her in graphite.  Bristol 6x6 paper, 2B, 4B, and 8B pencils, rubber eraser for lifting, and tortillion for blending.

Line and Wash - Another Type of Survivor

Our neighbor, Thomas, gave us a cutting from his desert rose plant he's had for some time.  The mother plant is over 30 years old but not looking so good.  He had taken cuttings off the mother plant and replanted which is growing beautifully and loaded with flowers.......white in center with a red edging.

The cutting given to us is a V shape with two stalks.  Not knowing if the stalks will "balloon" out at the base or not, I ordered another via an online nursery.  This particular desert rose should be opposite with mainly red flowers edged in white.

The order came quickly but was horrified at the shape of the box when it arrived.  It was crushed in on one side with the rest of the box bent and corners crumpled and the box had also torn open from the damage.  It was either crushed by other packages or someone could have actually stepped on it.  All I know is the package was mishandled and I was horribly disappointed.

We opened the box fearing the worse.  Fortunately the plant was intact but leaves were mashed up against the base or body of the plant.  A couple of the leaves were broken and fell off.  Dirt spilled out everywhere as we unpacked the plant.

Well so far, it seems to be hanging in there.  The remaining leaves are slowly perking up.  Now if I can just keep it alive.

Strathmore Visual Journal - Bristol paper and Falcon with Lexy Gray ink.

Side note:  The perspective on that pot is WAY off............LOL  Those who know me understand that perspective and I don't quite connect.  :-)

Pen and Ink - Cancer Survivor

Not too long ago my cousin's daughter posted a few pictures where her son and my cousin (grandson and grandma) were both celebrating Cancer Survivor Day/Week.  Both were fighting cancer at the same time and almost five years ago were told their prognosis was not in their favor.  Kaedyn was only a toddler when he was diagnosed with Leukemia and my cousin diagnosed with stage 4 breast cancer.  Today they are both cancer free. 

One of the photos posted just hit home with me............remembering how he spent all that time in the hospital while other kids were home and playing.  All those days/weeks/months he was hooked up to tubes and dealing with needles and having to wear a mask.  This photo is him being free of all of that and enjoying life like other healthy kids.  And he caught fish this day with his grandpa :-)

Strathmore Visual Journal - Bristol paper and Pilot Falcon pen with Lexington Gray ink.

Early Morning Sketching

Worked these this morning...........the bird while everyone else was asleep and then sat outside after the sun came up for the other page.  Although really not feeling it with regards to doing much (especially artwork), I did manage these two pages.

Both using my Pilot Falcon pen in the Strathmore Visual Journal (Bristol paper).

Not real happy with my scanner either.  Settings have been messed with and I can't seem to get it back scanning close to the actual color saturation.  A bit on the contrasty side.

Cypress Tree Sketch - Pen and Ink

Had that itch to sketch today so I worked this cypress tree in the Strathmore Visual Journal - Bristol Smooth paper.

Decided to use a different fountain pen as well..........my Platinum Carbon Desk pen with Platinum Carbon black ink.

When I added watercolor to it, I thought about adding in a background.  Unfortunately (or maybe fortunately), I was in one of those "hmmmm, I don't know" moods so I went with the "if in doubt, do nothing" decision and left it out.

As far as I can remember (which some days I question), I have not tried watercolor on a Bristol paper surface.  I was quite surprised and pleased with how well the paper handled it.  Normally I save Bristol for graphite work.  I wasn't even sure how well the fountain pen would work on it.  Would it smear as I worked?  But no it didn't.........at least not with this pen or the ink in it.

Stonegate Community Landmark

Each time I've passed this over the last two years, I've wanted to sketch it.  I've finally managed to do so.

The left page is my main sketch but as I worked, I decided to carry it over onto the right page.  It's worked in the hand.book journal using my Pilot Falcon fountain pen and mixed brand of watercolors.

Spooky Tree in Graphite

A couple weeks ago while out on the river near where we live, I took a lot of photos.  Besides wildlife, I enjoy taking pictures of trees because of their unique shapes and patterns.  This one particular tree grabbed my attention because of it's unique shape, holes, and because of the nest on top.

Going through my photos and coming across this tree, I saw something totally different tonight from what I saw the day I took the photograph.  To my mind's eyes, I saw what resembles an old wizard, wearing a robe of sorts, and holding a wand.  I have put to paper what stands out to me the most using a mechanical pencil in the Strathmore Visual Journal (watercolor paper).  .

This was fun.........so much so that I sat up all night working on it :-)

Sitting Outside The Last Two Mornings

Earlier this week, I've spent quite a bit of time outside with the temperatures mid to upper 80s and low humidity.  But all good things eventually come to an end.  The 90s have returned with it hitting mid to upper 90s..........a bit warm for me although I'm slowly adapting.

Yesterday, because I knew the day was going to be a hot one, I was up before 6 a.m. :-O and enjoyed being outside until it started heating up.  I sat taking in all the sounds around me and wrote those sounds down in my hand.book journal.......along with a mini sketch of a new bird feeder we put up Monday.

Falcon fountain pen with Lexington Grey ink and mixed brand of watercolors and waterbrush.

This morning I was up early once again and sat for a couple of hours before it got too hot watching three squirrels forage the ground for food and chasing one another up and down this tree as seen on left page.

The bungee feeder we put up has been ignored except when we draped the corn across the picnic table.  One squirrel found it yesterday and went to town.  We then let it hang again hoping to see some fun action.

As of early morning when I started journaling on the left page, the corn was being ignored.  Instead, the squirrels fed below the bird feeders.  After sketching on the left page adding my notes and ready to go back inside, one squirrel finally spotted the hanging corn.  He actually tried for it but the bungee action made him jump and move away.  He did attempt it a couple more times until another squirrel caught his attention and he decided he wanted to play.

Handbook, Falcon fountain pen, and mixed brand watercolor using a waterbrush.

Bird Doodling in Pen and Ink

This is just a page in my hand.book square journal doodling a couple of birds.

One following John Muir Laws article on simplifying bird plumage and the cardinal head from watching cardinals out at our feeder.  With the top bird, I chose to go with more......not less........of the plumage.

For his article, please follow this link:  http://www.johnmuirlaws.com/art-and-drawing/simplifying-bird-plumage

I added the cardinal to fill the page where I was sitting outside.  I chose to work pen and ink only as continued practice getting comfortable using ink only.  (I still have a ways to go before feeling comfy.)

Caladium Flower in Graphite

I find whenever I might have something weighing heavy on my mind, graphite tends to be my medium of choice to work with.  For me it's the most relaxing medium to use helping me to lose myself in what I'm doing (forgetting for a time what was on my mind when starting).

This is a caladium flower that came up with a small clump of pale green caladium leaves edged in dark green.  The flower was white.

Behind the caladium is a large reddish violet impatiens plant and with this drawing, I tried to only suggest them using a putty eraser to lift some shapes.

This was worked in a Strathmore Visual Bristol journal using a 5.6mm cluth pencil with 4B lead and a 2mm mechanical pencil with a 4B lead.

I love the blending of graphite and lifting with a putty eraser.

Sometimes It Works and Sometimes It Doesn't

This is one of those times when "I" didn't feel things turned out.  I've never really liked working anything black on a large scale so it was my intent to only color the background and leave the bird in pen and ink only.  Unfortunately I had a bit of a mishap dabbing a few areas with white acrylic marker pen as the pen decided to unload a large pool of white.  When scanned, the acrylic covered area showed up in a blue tint.  So that changed my plans leaving the bird pen and ink only and went ahead trying to paint him.

With my first attempt at painting the vulture and scanning it, the page looked flat..........all the same values.  I didn't want to go too dark with my blacks so I tried scrubbing out some of the background color.  I managed to remove some color but I was also using staining pigments.  Thank goodness for heavy paper.

Already feeling I had messed up this page, I thought, "what the heck," I'll go a darker and see what happens.  It took three layers to achieve this and I'm still not thrilled with the results.  BUT, as a reminder to myself, I'm not after perfection.  I'm not planning to frame this page nor enter it into a competition.  This is about journaling an experience and that I did achieve with this page :-)

Hand.book homemade heavy weight watercolor journal, W&N watercolors, #8 Round, and Falcon fountain pen for sketching and brown Micron for wording.

Playing Catch-Up

We acquired a new toy the end of May, just in time for the Memorial Day Weekend............a pontoon boat.  Needless to say, we've spent quite a bit of time out on it ....in and out of the water (ha ha).... weather permitted.

We were able to get the pontoon before my Nephew returned home after being with us for three weeks.  Our first day out Terry took the boys out on Lake Eustis.  Next he took myself, Cristy, and the girls out circling an area of the lake while Ron worked on his bass boat dealing with engine issues.

Once Ron and his family left, Terry and I did a little sight seeing traveling down the Dead River that connects Lake Eustis with Lake Harris.  My favorite has to be the Dead River as it's quiet, beautiful with the cypress trees, and lots of wildlife along the banks.  Dead River is not very wide compared to other rivers I've been on.  Just so peaceful!

While out on Lake Harris, there was this opening between pine trees where these three palms sat.  They just sing out to be noticed.

Pen and Ink in the handbook.

Along the Dead River on either side were Anhingas sitting with wings stretched wide as they sun bathed drying off after diving for food.  This guy had finished drying and I caught him just as he commenced to fly off.

Strathmore Visual Watercolor journal, Pilot Falcon fountain pen and QoR watercolors.

These other two watercolor sketches are from other outings weeks/months earlier from photos.  Both worked in the Strathmore Visual Watercolor journal.  The flowers using a ballpoint pen and the bench and door using the Pilot Falcon fountain pen.  Both using QoR watercolors.