Dabbling in Color

Well, I have finally scanned another sketch class effort. I first sketched the flower with pen and then added the watercolor. It was fun, but I can really see that I need some help and practice with the colors.

Hopefully I will get more opportunities to work with this approach.

More Loudoun Landscapes

Yet more landscapes from what used to be beautiful rolling hills and farmland. This land is soon to be covered with McMansions and concrete. Below is a serious jackhammer. I did this in pen and ink using a Rapidograph. I then added watercolor - not my best effort - I think I should have stuck with the pen and ink.

This is a study I did in pen and ink before the sketch above.

If You Build It They Will Come - In Droves

These are a very familiar sight around my county, thanks to the corrupt county politicians. I think I will try to do a series of the construction equipment in use around our once sparsely populated county. This one was sort of fun as I am experimenting with watercolor on ink. So this was done with black India ink using a 00 Koh-i-Noor Rapidograph and colored with water colors from my home made water color set.

More Moleskine Suff

Here are a few pages from my mole. Over the past year I have tried lots of different things to draw with and on. One of the tools I found was the Lamy Safari fountain pen. Several other folks have raved about this pen and I decided to give one a try (since they are not expensive). I really like the feel of the pen. It is light and comfortable - it also comes in several colors and nib sizes. I tend to like an extra fine nib but wanted to try a medium and broad as well. So I got one of each. I found that the EF nib was not as fine as my Rotring EF pens (Artpen and fountain) and that all the pens EF, M, and B tended to scratch or drag on the paper. With my Rotring the writing and drawing is very smooth no mater how I hold the pen. I can even use the nib upside down and get a really fine line. With the Lamy if I try that the pen skips or doesn't have any ink flow at all. I do use the Lamy a lot though so I tried to hone the nib a little using the stone and leather strop that came with the Rotring caligraphy set I got my wife for Christmas a year ago. It helped some - will give it another go to see if I can get rid of some more of the drag because it is a pretty reliable and comfortable pen.

Pretty soon it will be time start my chili pepper seedlings for this years crop of peppers. This mole entry is a sketch of last years batch.


I saw a couple of plan perspective drawings done in a molekine a couple of months ago and thought I might try a Danny Gregory exercise and draw the floor plan of the appartment I lived in in Key West many years ago.



Last June our 19 year old cat, Emma, passed away. In September we found two new kittens at the local shelter and brought them home. This is one of their faovirite play grounds - the rest of the house is also their playground.



I got interested in watercolor pencils and picked up a few to experiment with. I did a couple test patches in my mole to see what they looked like. These pages had been pre-treated with a thin coat of white absorbent ground. I am waiting on a copy of Cathy Johnson's book 'Watercolor Pencil Magic' to see what nifty things she can teach me about these.

Traveling Moleskine

My Moleskine is always with me - even if I don't often make an entry. I thought I might add a couple of the pages from my old and tattered Mole. This was at one of last seasons Nationals games.I am on the road a lot and I thought I would include this on of my breakfast. I also made a promise to make more marks in my Mole - something I have yet to follow through with.


This is another road trip. I usually wake up to Robin & Company on CNN Headline News. Must appologize for the likeness of Robin - it doesn't do her justice.


I have been experimenting with watercolor in my Mole and have found that I get the best results when I prepare the page with an absorbent ground. I use a thin coating and it seems to allow the watercolor to brush on evenly instead of beading up the way it does on plain Mole sketchbook pages. I will be trying out the new watercolor moleskine next.

Freehand Sketching Book Review

One of the books that I have recently found very usefull and would highly recomnend to anyone interested in learning freehand pen and ink drawing. The book is Freehand Sketching: An Introduction by Paul Lasaeu. He has a very good step by step approach.

I did some of the exercises in his book and tried soem of them in my small sketch book to see if I could mimic his style a little.


This is one of the first, using a still life arangement. I copied this from his book.

















Next he did a simple landskape example step by step and this is my mini attempt at that exercise.

















Those were followed by a slightly more complex landscape in the same fashion.













These are some of my own attempts with a little bit of color added.
















A house I have always thought would be great...Overlooking the ocean with a wrap around porch.

I am amazed at how well this little Strathmore sketch book holds up to watercolor - maybe I have figured out the right amount of water to use and have become a bit more patient.

Small Steps

I usually carry a small (3.5”x5”) sketchbook with me most of the time (either my Moleskine or a Strathmore). Some times I manage a presentable sketch, but most times I end up just doodling a bunch of thoughts. I am on the road a lot so my sketches/doodles tend to be of my hotel room or if I have time to get out and about some of the things in the area. Usually I am beat by the end of the day and don’t do much but crash in my room. I can relate to the “Block Problem” many of us experience and that often prevents me from doing any drawing.

These are some of the sketches from my little sketchbook.

<- Cafe Umbrellas

Window and Bird Doodle ->

One of my goals is to learn to use watercolor with my pen and ink sketches. In search of helpful examplesand guidance I came across the book “Work Small, Learn Big!” that showcases 17 different artists and their sketching and painting techniques. Great book! I really enjoyed the articles about each of the artists especially Don Getz, Tony Couch, Janice Donelson, Dave Beckett, and Gerald Brommer - and all the rest really.

A lighthouse sketch of a Tony Couch illustration. ->

I have not had the opportunity to take any classes in watercolor so I have been experimenting a lot and reading books. The first and one of the most helpful has been Kate’s (Cathy Johnson) First Step Series book “Painting Watercolors”. Kate’s book helped me understand some of the little details about watercolors and how to use them – I still keep coming back to her book a lot.

Another book I really enjoy and find it really inspires me is John Lovett's book “Watercolor For The Fun Of It: Getting Started”. He has a very exciting palette and an interesting approach to watercolor. A couple of my small attempts at his examples:

.

Tribute to Emma

I thought I should post a tribute to Emma, our cat. She will be 19 in a couple of months, if she survives. Three years ago she was diagnosed with kidney failure and the our veterinarian said that she would only live 3 months unless we hydrated her subcutaneously each day, in which case she might last 6 months. We tried the hydration but it only made her life miserable. We decided to forgo the hydration for more quality time with Emma. We began mixing pumpkin pie filling with her canned cat food – a suggestion by our vet. It has made a difference – she is still here. About a month ago our vet came by the house and examined Emma and decided that she had suffered a minor stroke and was rendered blind. The vet said that she felt that Emma was on her last leg and would probably pass within the next four months. Of course the vet did qualify that by saying that this was Emma and she didn’t always do what was expected. Well, Emma is still here and aside from bumping into things from time to time she is getting along quite well. She will leave a very large hole in our lives when she finally does pass, so we intend to enjoy her as long as we have her. Below are a few sketches and experiments of Emma’s likeness.

A little watercolor and pen and ink experiments. More to come, if Emma will sit still long enough!

Sigh. . . Time to Take Down the Decorations

It's that time again. Time to take down the Christmas decorations and put them away for another year. I sat having my coffee and realized that I had not skecthed any of the decorations for EDM # 46 so I grabbed my moleskine and my artpen and went to work.

After I finished taking all the decorations down and sat recovering from the effort I started to add in some color. I am pleased with the result because it brings back the beauty of our Christmas each time I look at it.

Colors, Colors, more Colors

Well, I have been playing with my new watercolors. My wife gave me a set of Dr. Ph Martin's liquid watercolors so I have been experimenting.
Here is a colorization of two of my previous posts. I colorized my books sketch and the one of our rockingchair.
While these were fun I can tell I really need a lot of practice. Hmmm...guess I had better get busy and draw more sketches.

Practice! More Practice!

Try as I may I cannot seem to get enough practice but I have managed a few sketches this last week. But first I will put up one from last month that I didn't get scanned until last week.


While I was in florida I walked past a building that cought my eye. The thought of a 24 hour dentist was intreaging enough but the sign below made it laughable.

As I sit in my office in the morning I am watched by a small wooden sculpture that my son gave me upon his return from vacation in Mexico. I quickly drew this sketch of it in my Moleskine.

the sketch on the other side is one of those portable backgrounds used for taking ID photos. As I waited to get yet another ID card I decided to sketch it. I experimented with using Prismacolor Art Markers. I was surprised to see how much it blead through the page...won't us them in my Moleskine again. I originally got the Prismacolor markers for coloring some of my wood turnings because they do penetrate..guess I should have expected the penetration of the Molskine page.

This weekend I went down town to try my hand at sketching some of the old buildings in town. I'm not really satisfied with my results. The sketch might have been better left uncolored. I put to much detail in for a wash - I need to work on that alot. I also need to work on my color mixing - cannot seem to get the colors I want.

I still seem to be trying to put lots of details into a drawing - I need to try to simplify the sketching. I guess the need for detail is a carry over from past times, for example:

EDM #32. This is a sketch of a race car engine - made from a photograph as reference. Does this count as something metal?

Catching up a little

I have finally scanned some of the sketches I did last month on a trip to Orlando, FL. These were my first sketches in many years...so I will also include a couple flash backs as well. The first is a quick ink sketch I drew while waiting for a colleague to join me for breakfast. I was sitting in the atrium of the hotel and I looked up to see 14 floors of balconies that facinated me...


I drew this in my Moleskine sketch book and added some watercolor afterwards. I was trying to capture a wash like affect sort of like this sketch I did in highschool...


Another sketch here of the stopwatch on the table in the restaurant where we had lunch...


Again this was done in my Moleskine adding watercolor afterwards...


Right now I have just returned from a few days down at the Folly (what we affectionately call our weekend/retirement place). It is located in a small town on the Potomac River. It has been pretty well forgotten for the last 50 years. I had a little time to sketch and decided to try one of the EDM(#3) chalenges to draw a wallet, purse, or bag.


Later this weekend I will try to get some of the other sketches posted as well.