Purple Flower ends a Visual Journal

Purple Flower botanical, pen and watercolor

3" x 5" Strathmore Visual Journal 140lb Cold Press paper

Well, this is it! The grand finale, a last botanical picked this morning and painted from life. These flowers bloom in great profusion right across the driveway, still on my daughter's land. The scale of the farm never ceases to amaze me, bits I think must be the neighbors' yard turn out to be still more of ours and the longer Spring blooms on, the more I see in these patches of unknown vegetation.

I liked the Strathmore Visual Journal. It has a whimsical lightweight cardboard cover printed with an example sketch and its information, which I didn't tear off but kept as a protector for the sturdy, glossy, heavy brown alligator print board. On the front cover I taped off a picture area, painted it with Daniel Smith Watercolor Primer and did a pen and watercolor rose on it - thus had a reason to keep the glossy whimsical outer cover to protect it.

It's been banged around a bit. I started it in 2011 and filled about a third of it, then left it behind when I moved to San Francisco. When I came back it was out on a bookcase with a few other supplies that hadn't been packed off into the attic. So it went through two moves without me, got handled and kept out and still protected its contents well. It has not yellowed at all, being good watercolor paper. It's 140lb cold press, probably cellulose or it would've listed a cotton or rag percentage, did not mention acid free or buffered but the evidence is there. Most likely because Pacon used a standard decent paper in it. I'll know more in a few years, but it is just as bright as when it was new.

The surface is a bit coarse. Cold Press watercolor paper has a range of textures from very fine grained to texture valleys so deep and large it might as well be listed as Rough. The sizing was just right for my techniques. I prefer not to stretch watercolor paper and to paint on the sized paper as it is. That gives me a little more control and less unwanted blurring when I want sharp edges.

Overall it's a good journal! I may replace it with another one, or get several sizes. The pocket size is very convenient and easy to fill. Big spiral binding did not get mashed or come undone over the years either, a big plus compared to some of them. It's got a double-wire spiral binding, not single wire, also the wire is coated. This is good if you don't want loose wire ends catching your sleeves or skin or scraping pages once they work loose.

Well made, reasonably priced, handy little thing. I'm happy with it and happy with all its contents. The strong paper let me play with a variety of water media and techniques and not one page leaked through to its following image, so that's a big plus for the full strength heavy paper vs. some other journals. 

Not the super quality of a Stillman & Birn journal but this was a good one and I did enjoy it. At its price, it's much easier to relax and just use it as a sketchbook! I've filled it mostly with life studies that I'll use for later reference in paintings.

Botanical Pen and Watercolor

Botanical pen and watercolor plus brush pen pine cone

Had a bad week due to problems with chronic conditions, but today went warm and sunny, flare ended or at least down to tolerable levels. My hand was shaky but it's beautiful outside, so I carefully drew and painted an interesting little blooming plant my daughter "Kitten" says is edible. Then finished the page with a pine cone, daring to try using my brush pen despite shaking. That wasn't too bad, I'm getting more familiar with the brush pen.

So here's hoping I can keep this up. Doesn't seem like spring's a good time for me but there were reasons for the flare that aren't weather, so may not be that major of a problem year to year. Stress sets off the fibromyalgia and I'm having moving-in problems getting a new doctor, or rather getting three different ones and a way lot more trouble than I used to just taking care of routine maintenance.

Cat, bird and botanical sketches

Ari Cat from Life, Two Views

Pen and watercolor in small Moleskine watercolor journal

Early today before I went out, I saw Ari looking at the wall and sketched him rapidly with the nearest pen, a Pigma Micron. He was so beautiful and his tail went at a lovely angle. Then later I sketched him again in another pose with the Pentel Pocket Brush Pen, gave it plenty of time to dry and watercolored with my Lukas 1862 pans set of 48. Combining Sepia and Payne's Grey gave me the smoky middle-dark tones of his tail and back perfectly, his tail is grayer and less brown than his back and his feet have touches of that coolness.

Then I went out on my usual every other Wednesday appointment and got done fast, started playing with the pocket brush pen again in the waiting room using my own photo of a pigeon.

Pigeon in Brush Pen and Derwent Graphitints

I made up the mysterious cool grey of his feathers by using Aubergine violet and a cool blue-green together, then added Dark Indigo in the lower shadows and Cloud Grey over the mix on his back. Legs are Cool Brown, shadow is Cloud Grey, then washed and was very happy with the effect. The bird had an odd little shape of white at the base of his tail that I reserved to keep in. Fun little project. I also got new pigeon photos yesterday on Voting Day along with possibly a seagull among them, won't know till I sort the pictures. 

Botanical sketches in Derwent Graphitints

Finally dispensed with pen work when I noticed some dried leaves on the ground and sketched them. By then I was out in the garden and just intrigued by the dead leaves, rearranged them to my liking. Over where I waited for the van, one lone white flower appealed to me so did that in Graphitints too, using my water brush to pick up some color off a yellow Derwent Art Bar for the bright center of the flower over the initial Chestnut rendering. 

Happy with all these pages, it's a good day when I can journal more than one page and not hate any of the drawings. If you do any art journaling, I'm sure you know the feeling!

Floral and Botanical Watermedia

Orange Poppies

5" x 7" W & N Watercolour Markers on Bockingford WC paper

Yesterday, despite ludicrous physical overexertion, I did some pretty good sketching with different water media. First, in the waiting room at my usual clinic visit, I used a photo I took last month to sketch some orange poppies that grew out in the SFGH Memory Garden. They were done blooming, replaced by some orange and yellow daisies in the same bed, but I'd gotten photos as I do almost every time. That helps when I need to find something interesting to sketch in a relatively dull waiting room.

Botanical sketches in pen and watercolor

Outside in the garden I got plenty of photos. Then went to the patient pickup and dropoff zone to sketch some interesting plants from the bed around the big fern. I've come to know that little patch intimately too. Didn't get the azalea bush, it was bloomed out, but an odd little bush with leaves that turn reddish at the tips of clusters and little sprays of waxy cream-colored small blooms, plus the copious plant that's dark red on the underside of its leaves, the tree or large shrub with gray green leaves with cream edges, one leaf of a big-leafed ornamental plant with reddish edges and a small bright green weed that appealed to me. I don't know the names of these plants, but I did want to sketch and remember them. 

I don't need to have a yard as long as I've got access to that beautiful a public garden. I like it even more for not having to keep it up.

Rose in Rose

Rose in W&N Watercolour Marker

photo reference by KreativeK on WetCanvas

Couldn't resist the title Rose in Rose even if it's actually in Alizarin Crimson Hue. It looks a lot like Permanent Rose to me. Blue shading in Pthalo Blue Red Shade and foliage in Hunter Green, which is more blue cast than the Sap Green marker and washes out beautifully. Lovely deep value range too. 

I got two new markers in my latest supply package along with some frames and yesterday's crayons, so this is very cool. There are a couple of cat references in the same challenge so I might have a go at doing them in markers or in gouache since I replaced my Pelikan Opaque Watercolor set too.

Black Bird, Ari Cat and Rose

Catching up for a couple of days past...

Black Bird

pastel on paper 8 1/2" x 11"

Today's black bird is for the Weekend Drawing Event on WetCanvas, hosted by artbyjune who provided 16 photo references and a challenge. I finished in under two hours so the challenge is there. I've always been fond of grackles, starlings, ravens, crows, any black birds. Their iridescence and dark intensity are beautiful to me and of course this one had a great pose.

Yesterday I sketched my cat in pastel pencil for the first art of 2015, on the same page as Wednesday's colored pencils lavender rose. So the last art of 2014 and first of 2015 are also in the same letter size sketchbook.  I'm having fun with this one, a gift that really got me going!

Lavender Rose in colored pencils 12-31-2014

Ari Cat in pastel pencil 1-1-2015

Happy New Year!

Ari was from life of course, he posed near the door and I sketched him mostly before he moved, did some shading after he changed pose slightly. The rose is from my own photo while I was out at the clinic garden. 

Now if I can just remember to post daily when I draw daily, all's well!

Breaking Art Block with Crayons

Roses in Crayon on Paper

photo reference by Ronnier at WetCanvas

This month I've been in the artistic doldrums. I spent November writing a novel and a half, got all wound up in Writing Mode and couldn't stop after the month was over. So I was writing sequels to the silly backstory tripe thing I finished Nanowrimo with, essentially fan fiction on some previous novels.

I did one new painting on the 3d with my Winsor & Newton Watercolour Markers, the Trilobites one:

Trilobites in W&N Watercolour Marker

And then nothing till today. This morning the Salvation Army delivered an enormous Christmas box filled with donated presents from my wish list. A gorgeous deep purple velvetish throw blanket, a huge warm deep purple bath towel, a black hoodie, a couple of books - and a letter size acid free sketchbook with medium weight drawing paper plus a Kids' Art Set:

100 piece Kids Art Set

These are anything but artist grade light fast mediums. Crayons, colored pencils, little short markers, cheap oil pastels... but something about it broke the block to smithereens. 

They didn't have these kits when I was a kid. There were watercolor sets and most of those pretty small with 8 colors and a horrible blunt brush (those haven't changed, the horrible blunt brush in this kit will be ignored in favor of a waterbrush for convenience), and boxes of crayons, little packs of colored pencils. That was about it. Not these saturated spectrum colors either. Let alone laid out intense against black to make you want to paint with them.

The ranges are a bit different. Hot Pink never made it into the lineup unless you got the big box of crayons when I was a kid, or the huge watercolor set. Magenta didn't either. Mixing purple was hard back then when your red was always a red-orange and blue was green cast. You'd get gray with "red and blue make purple."

But seeing that, thinking of the people who put together that great gift, I just cut loose and relaxed. I sketched the roses and took the complementary colors challenge of doing them just in red and green. Bang, down went the block. I can now relax and get back to daily painting. That's a lot of sketch pages. I've used about one and a half now. On teh following page is something that's my own holiday present for my readers everywhere:

Ari Cat Coloring Page

pen on paper

The cartoon coloring pad had hippo, elephant, dog, horse, snake... circus animals and pets. But no cat. Not even a lion or tiger for the circus. So I had to try the little short marker pen and fill the gap. Enjoy the Ari Cat Coloring Page. His real points are black mask, brown-beige body, smoke-brown paws and tail. But you can color him any colors you like, why not a purple and yellow Siamese with orange eyes? Or a brown eyed blue-point Siamese? Have fun!

And yes, for the record, I usually do open presents on Solstice Eve. Tomorrow is the Solstice, tonight or tomorrow night is The Longest Night of 2014... after this days will start creeping longer, the quiet soggy march toward spring begin and San Francisco is thirstily drinking up a lot of good rain after a parched summer. It's rained day after day here and we sure needed that.

Purring at you! Hope to post more soon!

Orchid Study

Orchid Study

5" x 7"
Pastel on archival mat board

Photo reference by Skappy on WetCanvas

Just a quick sketch from this weekend's Weekend Drawing Event, after yesterday's wave I wanted to do something light and simple. Flowers are fun. Nowhere near as layered or refined but I've got the anatomy and it's fun, it'll brighten my wall.

But wow is it different working on a sanded or unsanded surface! I may go back to the Uart again, I loved that paper and still have lots.

Pen and Watercolor Flowers, Life Sketches

Pen & Watercolor Flowers

Stillman & Birn 7" square Zeta journal

I had still more time after working on the pastel landscape and changed mediums to get some distance from its problems. So I opened up my photo collection in my Kindle and found lots of flowers from the SFGH memory garden. Picked out three that I have no idea what they are. "Daisyish" is not a proper species name or common name, it's just the lower left one is in that category. Then there's "red and yellow long trumpetish ones" and "weird shaped one with the two big petals like butterfly wings and a nozzle." Such scientific nomenclature. Anyone who knows what any of them are, comment and tell me!

Then after I went out, I sketched several San Francisco residents just hanging out in the Tenderloin and some beautiful old houses visible from the fifth floor family health center Gold Team clinic. The nurse took a look at it and recognized which buildings they were, so I'm very happy I got the likeness! No pigeons have commented to tell me if I got their likeness though.

San Francisco Residents and Housing

Pigma Micron Pen, Moleskine Pocket Sketchbook (plain)

No, that's not a silhouette, one of the pigeons was black and the other two were different shades of gray or blue/gray. I've seen many different colors of pigeons and even the birds in my city have diversity. Everyone flocks together. There was a pretty shine on the sun side of the black one that I may actually develop later in pastels from memory - he was pretty as a grackle, very iridescent neck, blue sky highlights on his sun side and rich darkness on the shadow side. I watched him walk around quite a bit before I finally got settled and had the sketchbook out. 

So today's been very productive, much more sketching and drawing and painting than usual. I'm feeling good but very tired.