Kilo - American Staffordshire Terrier

After several weeks of not doing any drawing or painting, I was asked if I would draw this puppy.  My youngest son's girlfriend, Paige, shared that her sister was here visiting and saw some of my other dog portraits.  Paige asked me if I would consider drawing her sister's dog.  I thought doing so would be a perfect challenge and a break from other things we've been doing to prepare for my eldest son's family moving in with us next week.

Pencil tool for rough sketch / BJD's Standard Inker for eyes / Gouache for color and blending. 

Background was using light and dark pink, BJD's Texture - Scales 1 brush tool stamped around face, and applying Gaussian Blur to blend.

 

Slow Month - Taking Somewhat of a Break

I've worked several little sketches over the last 24 days but actually just taking a break after last month's challenge.

Most recent is this one I did to send to the girls via text.

March 29 through 31 - Digital Journal

Final pages of the monthly digital journal.  All are printed out now and will be placed in a spiral book.

This has been a lot of fun.....especially developing my character in various situations.  It is not something I would be able to keep up with every day though because of the design aspect of each page.  

The one major plus to working digital versus in a standard sketchbook is the time planning the layout.  With digital you can just work individual illustrations and then move around on the page with no problem.  In a standard sketchbook............it's a lot more time consuming and work before even starting to sketch illustrations.

 

 

March 25 through 28 - Digital Journal

 Almost there........3 more days remaining.

 

 

March 21 through 24 - Digital Journal

So far so good keeping up with the daily.  7 more days and I'll have met my personal goal for the month.

   

March 15 through 20 - Digital Journal

 

        

March 9 through 14 - Digital Journal

So far I have managed to work a page a day.  Some days I find it to be a struggle but if nothing else, I'm hoping to reach my daily goal for the Month of March.

 

  

  

       

March 7 and 8 Digital Pages

Not much to say outside of what is shown on the pages....except that it's a little easier with page layouts because you can move things around instead of having to pencil and erase on a page.  All illustrations and wording are worked on separate layers allowing you to experiment in how you want things laid out.

 

 

Draw Your Day (or Week) Digital Journaling

Back in May 2019, I started a 30 day "Draw Your Day" regimen that I really like.  The only drawback I found was the daily design/layout thought process on top of what to choose to sketch for the day.  Not every day do I feel up to the thought process of design.  This is one of the main reasons I typically draw one illustration to a page with some writing I might add....less taxing on the brain.

Because I've not been too inspired to work in physical sketchbooks/journals with pen and ink plus watercolor, I thought I would play a bit doing the same thing but on the Ipad.  Each "file" being a page I can later print out if I choose.

The size of each page is about half of a letter size piece of paper (horizontal orientation) plus allocated space should I bind the pages together instead of creating signatures and hand sewing. (Still working out the specifics in canvas size to fit to print depending on which way I choose to go....spiral or hand sewn.)

Starting the digital journal, I wanted to play with primaries/secondaries along with color values.  First experiment was taking Procreate's version of true primary colors (red, blue, yellow) and actually blending together to get my secondaries.  Turned out a bit different when compared to the app's version of true secondaries (green, purple, orange).....especially in the green.  

The orange and purple came close but a tad more vivid.  I don't care for the app's version of true green at all.  Way to bright in hue.  But the mixed version is a bit too muted for my liking as well and I tried mixing a few times coming out with basically the same result.  Again, this was just an experiment for fun.

Next I wanted to create some icons as reference I might want to use either by copying and pasting or just reference to re-sketch each time.  I played with colors to denote mood and facial features I might want to use that describe my day in general.  Also worked on weather icons.  Two other illustration icons I consider including on a page may be my progress with diet and my sleep patterns.  Will just depend, taking it day by day.

The next three are actual page examples putting some of the above together along with sketches for that day.  The "Doodles" page is just starting with a shape with nothing in mind and going from there.  I tend to create creatures out of shapes like bugs and other critters and have no idea why.  Just like I have no idea why I chose to have a spider holding a piece of mail.  It was fun even if it's "out there" with content.

First Blue Bird of the Season 2023

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.  

 

Travis's Valentine to Paige

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

Cleaning My Fountain Pens and Sketching

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.

Morgan's Hydrangea Flower

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.

Flowers from Terry's Bouquet

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.  

 

Final on the Wax Amaryllis

This is the final stage my waxed amaryllis reached before it started to wilt.  I used the gouache brush this time for the flower instead of the 2B pencil I used for the first two.  Because I blend with the gouache brush tool, you can't even really tell the difference.

Picking Back Up With Portraits

During the last few months of 2022, I worked several people and pet portraits.   We got busy doing other things and now trying to pick back up where I left off with my goal in drawing my family.

It was time for me to draw Neal and Travis.  I could spend hours fine tuning shading, etc. but decided to call these done.

 

And Yet Another Amaryllis Sketch

Here is one more sketch I worked watching the first round of amaryllis plants I have growing.  I was getting a little burnt out sketching the flowers so I haven't worked the final stage showing it in full bloom.  Maybe later but it was time for me to select another subject.