Friday, July 31, 2015

Stormy Skyscape

Stormy Skyscape
7 1/2" x 9 1/2" pastel on paper, 
stormy sky above low hills, row of pines, wind-tossed lake

This painting took me two months to create from start to finish. Intended to become a demo, I'll sort the images and post it on Rob's Art Lessons in afew days. Right now I just finished after a long day and I'm so glad it's done!

Pastels used: Cretacolor Pastels Carre' for underpainting, then 120 Unison half sticks for nuances in cloud values in muted colors, a few final details on land with Caran d'Ache Soft Pastels including my signature.

I love that sky and want to do more cloudy sky scenes! I had so many ideas for it that I finally quit fiddling and moving the clouds around. I can just paint more cloudy skies after all!


Wednesday, July 29, 2015

Wisteria, Palms, Iris and Sparrow

 Wisteria in Watercolor Pencils 

Sparrow, Iris and Two Palm Trees
on Large Watercolor Moleskine Journal

Today was my clinic appointment, which went quickly and gave me time in the garden for life sketching! I brought my Prismacolor Watercolor pencils and some Pigma Microns plus assorted water media. 

Using the 01 size Pigma Micron pen, I sketched two palm trees on the page already occupied by that sparrow from my photo. Then I used a set of five Daniel Smith Watercolor Sticks as pans with a water brush to paint them, mingling colors while they were wet. Sap Green, Quinacridone Burnt Orange and Ultramarine primarily. A touch of Quinacridone Coral wound up in the gray pulling it warmer and grayer. It was fun.

Then out into the garden with my Prismacolor Watercolor pencils. I sketched and washed the wisteria that was still blooming over the outside of the garden wall, one of my favorite plants. It's hard to photograph because that street gets windy and the flowers and leaves toss constantly. Heck with that, I sketched it to get an accurate memory of its structure for later painting, then washed the sketch. Then detailed a little more and glazed with a darker violet pencil here and there.

Going back, I still had fifteen minutes and stopped by a lovely iris. I tucked that in between sparrow and palms but placed it a little low on the page, Would have liked to put it just a half inch higher, but live and learn. Layout on sketch pages is still something I work on sometimes. I'm happy with the anatomy though. The modeling shadows on the curled huge petals were fascinating!

I still have a landscape painting of a stormy skyscape in progress that I intend to finish by the end of the month. All my pastels are out and ready for it, everything I need is at hand. Hopefully tomorrow will be the day I'm up to working on it!

Monday, July 27, 2015

Sketches New and Older

 Back to Basics Sketch Page, with Ari Cat from Life
Conte' Pierre Noir pencil on paper, 8 1/2" x 11"

Well, today had daily art again, at least a page of some basic sketches from a video I watched on ArtistsNetworkTV. Sometimes it's good to go back to basics. Ari Cat and all the pears are from life, since I finally found my plastic pear ina drawer and took it out. The apple is from life too but it's a real one. I'll eat it soon. 

The following are all the sketches I forgot to post in June! About half a month's sketches and paintings! Lots and lots. I wasn't skiving off even if I didn't remember to keep up the blog. I'm now keeping the tab open the way I used to as a reminder to post!

 Three pigeons from life in Derwent Graphitints.

 Ari Cat walking, stomping along in a grumpy mood. Fast gesture sketch in motion! I've wanted to capture a moving cat for some time! Got him!
Brush pen on paper.

Page of tree studies in Burnt Umber brush pen 

 Page of Ari Cat sketches mostly in brush pen or pen.
All from life, includes Ari Stomping one at top.

 Ari Cat washing his thigh in pen and watercolor
on a red coverlet, Stillman & Birn journal 7" square. Life.

Ari cat life sketches and a horse from my daughter's photo. Horse looks a bit young and attenuated but recognizable. 

Page of shell, cat, shark tooth sketches from life
8 1/2" x 11" charcoal pencil 

Green Tyrannosaurus Rex in brush pens, Ari cat from life sleeping and 
contour drawing of the same horse, better proportions. 

Landscape in Winsor & Newton Watercolor Markers
Large pine, distant mountains and green hills. 

Tyrannosaurus Rex in brown brush pen, mostly contour. 

 Ari Cat life drawing on small page.

 Ari Cat drawings from life with fine Pigma Micron pens
detailed washing thigh, detailed sleeping head pressed to pillow cute.

Majungasaurus in brown and black brush pen walking at angle.
Daspletosaurus profile in green and brown brush pen. 

Camptosaurus looking around behind a browsing Stegosaurus.

Toward the end of June I binge watched a lot of dinosaur documentaries. I sketched the dinosaurs watching them over and over, mostly didn't pause the screen. I especially wanted to get some more natural poses and sometimes, like the last one, put them in something resembling scenery.

I had a lot of fun with my sketchbooks and worked on a pastel landscape that still isn't finished. I'm all set up to finish it now and have the right pastels handy next to me for the last layers.  Wanted to work on it today but health issues interfered.

Now that I'm all caught up, enjoy! And say hi to your sketchbook. Daily drawing is good for anyone, reduces stress, improves your skills and improves observation. Even easy forms you've drawn over and over help develop observation, coordination and composition! If you don't have much time or energy, work small or keep it simple!

Sunday, July 26, 2015

The Tan Cow and Ari from Life

 The Tan Cow - 5" x 7" Pastel on Canson Mi-Tientes

Whoops! I haven't posted for a while, and this is awkward.  I was a bit under the weather with many days of no art this month. But I also missed several posts I could have done. Today's is from a photo by Karen Margulis, she posted it in her blog from her recent trip to France and I had the idea of making the cow the main subject of my sketch. So I asked in the comments and she gave permission!

Hard pastels on light orange non sanded paper. Sometimes I just want to play with the easy stuff, not layer and layer.

 Tree and Mt. Fuji Page - Pocket Watercolor Moleskine journal
Prismacolor Watercolor pencils in Black and Indigo, washed.

Sometimes small is beautiful. Back on the 15th, I went out for my clinic visit and brought my Prismacolor Watercolor pencils. The little tree was sketched in the Paratransit van while we stopped to pick up another disabled person for her ride. Then on the 22nd, I finished the page. During a documentary, I paused when a train scene showed Mt. Fuji through the window. 

I'd always seen symmetrical photos of it and paintings usually render it as perfectly symmetrical. One slope was definitely gentler! It was much more beautiful to me with the elongated gentle slope to the right so I had o sketch in Indigo, a traditional color in Japanese art.

Best Fuji that I've ever done!

Ari Cat in Watercolor on Paper, Sleeping On Our Bed, Back Turned

He looked comfortable on the 21st and I could not resist painting him. 

Sparrow in Prismacolor Watercolor Pencils, Washed, on Large Moleskine Watercolor Journal

On the 15th, in the waiting room, I enlarged a photo of a sparrow that I'd taken two weeks previously and sketched and painted him. Love how that came out! About 3 1/2" across, not the full page, just upper left area of page.

Wow. I really haven't caught up! Here's still more!

Tree and Birds Page
Pen and Watercolor on large Moleskine Watercolor Journal

Drew and painted this page on July 1st, have some other projects in process that I'm working on but won't post till they're done. I did some sketching toward the end of June that I forgot to post too, but may get into that later. Caught up now for July, so that's good enough for now!
My apologies for this abandonment. I'll leave the tab up so that I remember to post when I paint!