Flowers and Gecko Page in Derwent Inktense

Flowers and Gecko Page

Derwent Inktense and Pigma Micron on Large Moleskine Watercolor Book

While rearranging my supplies and beginning to pack down for my move at the end of February, I found my 72 color Derwent Inktense set under a large stack of other supplies. This is the churn. I have a lot of good art supplies and that's one thing that's always kept me excited about them. If I leave them alone for a few months and immerse in others, when I come back to them it's like getting a new package from Blick.

It took a certain comfort level of supplies to reach that happy rotation level. I think some of it is seasonal and situational too. I have wonderful oil painting supplies and get tempted to use them whenever the weather leaves me frisky enough for setup and cleanup for oils... but at that point I also need to have the space to really spread out. I need a place to hang paintings to dry for weeks without choking on the fumes or bumping into them. Happily, next Spring I'll be living in a nice rural house with a studio that's not also my bedroom! I will have enough space to set up easels and work larger, to get layered and work on several paintings at once (all up above the cat's easy reach) and so I'll finally be able to use that glorious holiday set of Winsor & Newton Artists' Oils that I picked up right before I moved to San Francisco.

One of the fun results of the churn is that if I spend months working in other mediums, I come back to something difficult with more control and better skills. Derwent Inktense are very strong watersoluble pencils, well named, and when washed they are permanent. Anything that didn't dissolve still might smear but I can glaze color over color with them, I can pull color off the tips with a water brush and mix like inks or just wash over a drawing for the results I got this time with the little gecko.

He's sitting on a soda can. I loved the reference for that, he's so tiny. Even smaller than the anoles I had in my house in New Orleans and even more colorful with his red patches. My cats never caught the anoles because they weren't stupid, they climbed the walls and stayed out of reach. But they often came in my house and always brightened my stay. I like little lizards and they do cut down on flies too!

So here's today and yesterday's daily art. The novel's finished and December's going to be full of art!