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.

Autumn Leaves, Two Views

 Autumn Leaves 1 

Tombow dual tip pens on sketchbook

I worked on these at the same time. First sketched the leaf shapes in pencil on the second one and inked the black background with my Pentel Pocket Brush Pen, then while that ink was drying took out some Tombows to sketch two of the referenced leaves in Tombows. The colors on the browned leaf are a little closer to the photo in this but lighter in value. I liked the effect. Sketched water ripples without filling in any dark around them, it was a study for the colored pencils version and I liked how it came out. This one makes up for yesterday's weather day, no sketching. I slept like my cat yesterday and barely managed to make coffee let alone do anything else.

Autumn Leaves 2

Pentel brush pen and Prismacolor Watercolor colored pencils

large Moleskine watercolor journal

This one I put more thought, layers and technical detail into. I washed the first flat layer of colored pencils in pink, gold and bright canary yellow for the three leaves. When that flat color dried, I used a scribing tool from Derwent to incise the veins so that going dry over dried wash, I'd have clean bright contrasting lines. That worked great. Last, with several colors per leaf, I went over them detailing and doing the water drops over portions of the yellow leaf.

I'm happy with this and posted it as my entry in the Blick Colored Pencils contest, theme Autumn. Definitely happy with it as the example of my work. Much faster using these techniques than my old colored pencils stuff!

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!

Pen Drawings

Leaves from Life in watercolor pencil and

Cat Gargoyle - imagination, brush pen 

Mother Bird and Ari Cat Portrait

Pentel Pocket Brush Pen

These are two facing pages in my pocket Moleskine watercolor journal. I did the page with the leaves sketch out in the clinic garden yesterday, washed that drawing at home and sketched the Cat Gargoyle directly with pen next to it. Also penciled hte mother bird from a video in the waiting room but changed her species from eagle to something less predatory and added a chick from memory. Penciled Ari from one of my recent photos in the waiting room.

Inked both of them today so this is my daily sketching - which may expand to more art later on, but if it doesn't, I'm still keeping up. Yesterday was extremely productive, the weather was just with me! Today, I'm a little slowed down. Pressure changes are what does that mostly, it can seem nice out or even the same but as weather systems move, wham, I suddenly lose most of my body energy. This gets frustrating as pain can reduce fine motor control on my hand. Sometimes I feel like painting or sketching yet know I'm not going to be able to control the tools. Worst part of the disability along with poor eyesight.

Day 17 - Primary Abstract

Primary Abstract

4 1/2" x 8 1/2" watercolor on paper

On the bottom area of yesterday's still life, I started playing around with some new watercolors to create graceful shapes. Began with yellow, brought mixed orange and some red over it, got some dry brushing in because I used paint right from the tube. Not just an experiment with this brand ut with some unfamiliar techniques. I like the "Cat's eye" shape on the left, it happened by itself and got some nice soft mingling going on within it. Some of the rest became dry brush. Blue was last but mixed very well with the Ultramarine.

Green's a bit muted because that's a warm yellow, but very glad to have purple cast blue and blue cast red for a combination.

For me abstraction itself is a huge experiment. I'm normally a completely figurative painter but today I thought I'd have a go. Not always my thing but I like this one, it's got figurative elements with the three plums but the rest is just shapes wandering around it. I guess the purple willow strand rambling left to right is also figurative but that's how my mind works - not in total abstractions. Or in keeping primaries unmixed. Some nice violet tones vanished in the photo being too dark. I also love the rough paper in the Stillman & Birn Beta journal for giving me that great dry brush effect.

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.

Spring Twig and Tree with Shrubs

Spring Twig and Tree with Shrubs

3 1/2" x 5 1/4" Pocket Moleskine watercolor journal

Pigma Micron 01 (black) and watercolor

Yesterday was my clinic visit and the weather's getting successively better. Enough that I was still functioning well after going down the stairs and could draw! 

My elevator's gone down. There's only one antique elevator in the building and apparently it's going to be months before the replacement motor arrives. This bites. It's going to cut deep into my summer plans. Hopefully if it gets fixed by August or September, I might get a 2015 outing late in the year. But while it's down, my best hope is to stay in for all but essential medical appointments.

I was reading a Claudia Nice book on my Kindle when the van stopped to take on another passenger who was late for the pickup. While we waited I saw this lovely sapling with scanty old dead foliage and its first few new spring leaves opening up simultaneously. Had to sketch that from life.

Then snapped photos from the van window and captured a ridge next to the road with trees and bushes and grass. Later in the waiting room, cropped that photo visually and sketched the tree scene above. Both of those I penciled first, then inked with a waterproof pen and then washed with watercolors. I used watercolor markers in Burnt Umber and Sap Green on the twig and washed, tapping the brush tips with the water brush for lighter color. Then used a little pan set of 8 Daniel Smith watercolors on the tree scene.

A couple of years ago I found that Richeson had a tiny children's watercolor set only an inch and a quarter by under 2" with tiny like quarter-pans round pans of kid color. I bought those for my grandkids as stocking stuffers, I got an extra one for myself, popped out the kid pans and filled the empty little plastic openings with Hansa Yellow, New Gamboge, an orange-red, quinacridone magenta or rose, quinacridone gold, pthalo blue, ultramarine and Paynes Grey.

Weirdly that little keychain set has become so handy. I've always got it in pocket, never have a problem with it other than the ultramarine popping out of its hole, just seem to reach for it and mix those colors easily. Bizarre but it's one of my favorites along with my ubiquitous water brush. Love that quinacridone gold, it's the one color that's wearing down fastest!