Pencil gesture of my cat Ari

Ari Cat Gesture

6B clutch pencil on Moleskine pocket accordion fold journal

Sorry I forgot to post this yesterday, got very tired and distracted by home care visit. Saturdays tend to be intense, especially if I'm attending a Johannes Vloothuis class online. I don't usually paint along with him, just take notes and pay attention to what he's doing. It drums his principles of design and painting in deep and then I reinterpret them in my style. I'm much fonder of saturated color and especially greens than he is.

Today I'm going to ink this cat gesture, still observing the real cat. I haven't used washes in this journal not wanting them to soak through to the back. I plan to do the entire journal in pen work - so this ephemeral pencil drawing is recorded for now. Check this entry later for an added image, or I'll do a new one later.

Now he's inked, but I'll start a new entry if I do something more elaborate than inking my cat sketch.

Inking this sketch has given me the urge to go back to the Zeta and do another pen-watercolor page of some kind. I love how those turn out.

Pearl in Pearlescent Pan Pastels

Pearl in Pearlescent Pan Pastels

From life

on Stillman & Birn Beta 180lb rough white paper

Today's painting is an experiment with a new art supply. Always a joy. I'll be writing it up in more depth on Rob's Art Supply Reviews later, maybe tomorrow though as I'm feeling pretty tired. 

Painting a pearl to look like an actual pearl rather than a ping pong ball or something else opaque has been a lifelong goal. I saw paintings in museums as a kid, Renaissance and later, where artists did that. They put nobles in velvet with pearl and jeweled ornaments and draped goddesses in pearl necklaces and it looked as if you could reach into the painting and touch those precious things. I thought of them as the showoff stuff of art. Who needed a wealth of actual jewelry if you could paint it so well you couldn't tell it wasn't real? As many pearls and rubies as you wanted were right in your paintbox!

The only reason people like them is how they look, right? So paintings of them are as cool as the real thing. Not true for food or clothes but may still be true for precious gems. Ironically, today's synthetic rubies and sapphires are quite real and no more costly than cut crystal, they're chemically and physically the same with perfect color and any size you like. 

Being able to paint pearls though, is as rare a skill as it ever was. Bucket list item accomplished! I could have used the regular tints and gotten a good effect, but I like the Pearlescent Pans. There's an extra little shine to everything and the heavy glitter effect of the Coarse mediums is fun, sparkly, like those party nights when your friends toss glitter in your hair right before you dance. 

Pearlescent Pan Pastels Colors

plus four Mediums, Coarse and Fine black and white

The six colors are convenience colors in spectrum hues. I like them as much as the Tints they resemble, they'll give an extra sheen to many subjects. The fine texture effect is subtle and might go unnoticed in a painting, the Coarse is like throwing glitter in it and delightful for that.

Art journals folks will have a ton of fun with these, but fine artists can get good special effects with them too.

Life Sketches in Pen and Watercolor

Life Sketches in Pen and Watercolor

7" square Stillman & Birn Zeta journal

Pigma Micron pen size 01

Yarka St. Petersburg "Extended" watercolors set

I love my Zeta journal. All my life, as far back as I can remember, I've done pen drawing and wanted it to come out like these. I started getting there with certain small subjects from life even as a child because my dad taught me to pencil carefully first before inking. I did a lot of pen sketches of my pet white rat, Puck.

So this week I'm the host for the regular Scavenger Hunt challenge on "Artwork from Life" forum at WetCanvas.com. The host comes up with a list of 26 items to sketch from life, substitutions okay if you really don't have a cat or a figurine of a cat or a cat themed anything to draw. I suggested "Computer, because a CAT file in Windows is catalog," or "Person named Cat" since I know at least one. Several actually if I think back, but that's people not here at the moment. Of course my cat's very handy to draw and he's already in this one. He'll get in again under Animal and maybe under Matte since he's not shiny, and certainly if I do an eye from life it'd be more fun doing his than mine!

As luck would have it, I actually came up with a list that was hard for me. Usually that's other people's lists with items like "Something from your dining room" or "lawn mower" or something like that. I live in one room and the bathroom is separate from the loo, both shared with other tenants on my floor. Not in a suburban house with a car, driveway, living room, dining room, basement, attic, den, bedroom separate from studio, kitchen... it sort of boggles me sometimes how much space people have. No wonder most housemates are always bickering about cleaning up. 

So I did the list and I'm cherry picking the easy ones I have handy in my room. I'm sure I'll find more by the 22nd.

Love the 16 pen cube of Pigma Microns, All Sizes/Tips that I got from Blick recently. I use those a lot, actually use up these long lasting pens. They're perfectly waterproof so it's easy to pencil first and then ink, then start painting over it with a Niji waterbrush and any watercolor set I've got handy. Currently this is my new Yarka St. Petersburg Extended set. Extended has Rose in it and Rose Violet, two very useful colors, plus my favorite Russian (Hookers) Green and Ultramarine and Bright Blue (which I think is a Pthalo). Hansa Yellow. Raw Sienna and a redder earth that I really like, Shakhnazarskaya Red. Lovely earth red a bit softer and more transparent than English Red, which is also in it.

Yarka watercolors are particularly intense too. Very strong color and it dries nearly as bright as it looks wet. The lovely deep brown that predominates in the feather and rock is Voronezhskaya Black, actually more of a grayed brown sepia-ish color that I really love. The set has a warm and cold black. 

I might get the full range of these Yarka watercolors someday. Odd thing is, the cheapest way would be getting three full sets. Getting the two least overlapping sets and 12 extra colors would be more compact, but I'd pay $60 or so for the open stock pans instead of $40 for a third set. So I might just get the other sets in time and keep them stacked together. This was the best one for what I'm doing, though others have other favorites like Paynes Grey. 

Blick's doing a Zorn Palette Contest so I need to think about what I can paint in yellow ochre, Cadmium Red, Ivory Black and Chinese White. Could win $400 in watercolor supplies including 4 big tubes of those colors but also Kolinsky brushes and Arches watercolor block and pad. Very cool. Might go for something inspired by cave paintings since that's so much a cave painter's palette actually...

Winter Pines

Winter Pines

5" x 7"

Rembrandt pastels on Bee Bogus Recycled Rough sketch paper

Photo reference by PaintBoss on WetCanvas.com

A third painting for the September 2014 Pastel Spotlight challenge, "Blue." This photo reference was posted as part of the lesson showing a variety of hues, the surface of the snow was distinctly lighter and more purplish than the somewhat green-cast blue sky. I enhanced those differences a bit but the camera really pushed it farther. Light patches on the snow field were fun, the shadows of other trees were making that foreground area interesting. 

I'd worked out how to do snow laden pines years and years ago while playing with colored pencils, distinctly remembered doing a Christmas card design with them as my first successful snow covered pines. This time I got much more colorful working with pastels and sketched just the darks in the pines in with charcoal, then got at the rest entirely with pastels. As usual on unsanded paper I did some finger blending in early layers, then finished by rough layers of side strokes and heavier strokes over it.

Bluebird in Pastel

Bluebird

7" x 10" Pastel on Artagain paper

Photo reference for the above by Dave Slaughter on WetCanvas.com, where it's in the Reference Image Library. I had fun using my 60 Rembrandt half sticks on a pad that I know fits in my backpack with them.

These are practice and field tests for my using those pastels outdoors. I can get some good effects just using these, and the color range is sufficient for anything I want to paint when I'm out. They are a lot of fun and not that expensive. I almost got the 120 color set but I'd also wanted a watercolor set and some Pan Pastels so I went for the smallest set size that'd work for plein air.

It was a good choice. 90 or 120 colors are great if I'm going to be at home but when I'm out I want a smallish set that can be on my lap at the same time the drawing board or pad is. That became a serious point. 

I also think I'm going to be goofing around on the Artagain and Bogus papers with charcoal some more. Love how that goes so fast and comes out so powerful, it's a great sketch medium either under pastels or by itself. Shows up on the sketch wall just fine!

Charcoal Pear, bird sketch, wall crack

Charcoal Pear 

Yeah, just a quick sketch of a pear from life. The same one I did in my Art Lesson actually, though I should eat it soon. I may play with it some more or not. I have two more of them and quite a lot of plums! They're in season!

Also started another Pastel Spotlight painting with the charcoal sketch, fixative and then painted the background loosely with Rembrandt half sticks.

Bluebird WIP

7" x 10" pastel and charcoal on Artagain paper

Lot of fun. I'm going to enjoy doing this little guy. He's from a photo reference by Dave Slaughter on WetCanvas.com, posted to the Sept. Pastel Spotlight as part of the "Blue" theme.

And earlier, I did a sketch I meant to do for a long time. There's a crack on my wall, painted over, might actually be cracked paint from previous layers that looks like a caricature face. I meant to start doing drawings of the caricature faces and creatures I see in cracks in walls or smudges of dirt and all. So here's the start - just the original contour. 

Pen sketches in pocket Moleskine

Right side = Crack in Wall

What made that stand out is that I really did get it accurately without tracing. What I do with it later will be a whimsical figure, maybe a composition of a number of whimsical faces and figures flowing together. The wood grain of the bathroom door has an egret pointing its beak straight up in the air. I might get him sketched tomorrow in dark and light - it's where some varnish dripped on the wood grain, I think.

Last, I went back to the charcoal and pastel on Bogus paper again. Marked off two 5" x 7" areas and then glanced around for something to sketch. Of course someone I love volunteered to model, immediately!

Ari Cat Sleeping

5" x 7" charcoal and pastel on Bogus paper

Late at night, one more sketch. It's been a productive day! Much more than usual. Should do this more often!

Pastel Life Sketch Apple and Containers

Pastel Life Sketch Apple and Containers

7" x 5"

Rembrandt pastels on black Crescent rag mat

Odd little sketch of some things on top of my black refrigerator, using a 60 color Rembrandt half sticks set I just bought a couple of weeks ago. I've actually been back to "daily art, at least a gesture sketch" for a month or two now, barring sick days. August missed only four days. But rather than work back, I'll start posting forward again to share my artistic journey.

Sorry I didn't post anything much so far from 2014! I had several good ones so far this summer so I'll add them as highlights...

Open Road

8" square

Assorted soft pastels on Uart sanded pastel paper

Photo reference by DAK723 on WetCanvas.com

Did the above for a pastel forum challenge with a "Green" theme. Had fun with the clouds, it was a good breakthrough on clouds painting as well as landscapes.

Colourful Lemons

7" x 5"

Unison Pastels on sanded pastel paper

Another pastel challenge from a photo in the Reference Image Library at WetCanvas, a lot of us did these lemons. Best "colourist" painting I had done to date at the time for a "Yellow" challenge. Also in the same challenge, another yellow fruit...

Colourful Bananas

7" x 5"

Unison pastels on sanded pastel paper

Photo reference from WetCanvas June 2014 Pastel Spotlight

This one didn't reproduce as well as the lemons. It was hard to get the reds, greens and yellows all to come through even close to the original so that blue shadow is actually a blue green closer to the green of the leaf. There's more hue and value variation in the bananas than shows but they're smooth gradients. Achieved a fine detailed rendering with quite soft pastels on this.

And more recently, this month's challenge is "Blue." So another photo by DAK723, of a lake scene with clouds, changed quite a bit in the painting:

Lake Scene

8" x 10"

Assorted pastels on Uart sanded pastel paper

I had a lot of fun playing with textures and values on this, also using different textures of pastels at different stages. The blues in the water do not quite go as far toward violet in the painting as they do in the photo, it's actually more Ultramarine values and some mid-blues and greener blues. But cameras lie about color all the time and the photo makes me think it might be fun to carry it all the way to violet on one sometime!

Anyway, there's some high points of 2014 and I expect to post more often again. Some days might be no more than a quick pen gesture of my cat or a still life object, others may have stages of a painting. I'll try to get back in the habit of posting when I've done something. There are still days I don't have even a gesture to show for it due to chronic disease symptoms but I hope to build up to where I can manage at least that every day. My habit is returning!