Sketchbook Skool

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Beginnings: Page One

Beginnings: Page One

The Sketchbook Skool Beginnings class started yesterday. This is the first Klass I have taken in a long time! The first assignment was to draw and feel. The guidelines were to pick an object to draw that evokes some feeling (bad or good), use a color wash in the background, add an opaque color in the shape of the object(s) and then do a line drawing in ink over the color. And, add WORDS! So, for me, it’s really the words that are the challenge!

It was hard to decide what to choose, so I thought about that for awhile. I love the sea urchins and I find them challenging to render, so that is what I went with. Sea Urchins remind me of walks on the beach and also they bring to mind a couple of very special friends that share my love of beach collecting. I have gathered a lot sea urchins over time and I have tons of them to choose from. Most of them are from the Maine coast, but some have been given to me and some are from other places. These are from Maine. This assignment prompted me to learn more about the sea urchins…because I needed WORDS! That part I really liked.

As the time goes by I will get better at the word journaling part of all this. I like the idea of capturing your feelings or part of your day in an illustrated and written journal. I am looking forward to this Klass.

Below is my warm-up sketch for the journal page. Doubling as my #inktober drawing!

warm up ink sketch

warm up ink sketch

Dandelions!

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Encaustic, oil pastel on cradled birch panel. 6" x 6"

Encaustic, oil pastel on cradled birch panel. 6″ x 6″

The week is going by so fast! I have so much that I still want to do, but there is plenty of time. I am pretty happy with this piece…I decided to limit myself (working on the discipline) to only using the brush. No drawing! No guidelines, just throwing it down. Trying to keep the spontaneity going. It was a good learning experience. I really like the encaustic and the oil pastel together. Oil pastel is great to work with this way, it melts beautifully on my griddle palate and with just a little beeswax medium added has a nice fluidity going on. The other nice thing about the oil pastel as opposed to the wax pigment is that it doesn’t “dry” as quickly and has some opacity. I like the way the brush stroke can be maintained.

I think that I need to get a few more brushes. The encaustic/oil pastel combination can get muddy if one isn’t careful. Mixing colors is something I would like to get better at. However, keeping the color pure and simple is forcing me to make serious decisions when putting the color down…so that is good.

On to the next project! And, I still need to get to the inktober work!

Art, Art and more Art!

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Encaustic & oil pastel: 5" x 7"

Encaustic & oil pastel: 5″ x 7″

This is my week to devote just about every day to my Art Projects. This makes me so happy. I am going to have to counsel myself not to be disappointed that I can’t get everything done that I want to. Today started slow…it’s amazing how quickly the morning gets away from you. I took some photos and decided to just play around a little–the result is this little encaustic painting of a dandelion. This afternoon I am going to work on some ink drawings for inktober (I am behind on this) and do some planning for the week. I need to get organized so I can make good use of my time. And, I need to remember to eat and walk the Big dog!

amandbig1014

Exploration

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Graphite sketch in progress

Graphite sketch in progress

I have never been keen on working on landscapes. But, this sketch changed my mind a bit. I like the perspective…from way down low. I really like the charm of this perspective–but it might just be the mushroom! The Facebook Art Journal group I belong to suggests a little fairy creature under the mushroom is begging to be added. This scares me! I am going to try it, but I don’t do figures and faces so that adds some struggle for me! And, what to do, how to do it! I am looking at resource material and considering how this might be accomplished. It won’t happen fast though. I do think that this little sketch has shown me that I can enjoy a landscape drawing or painting, I just need to make the composition dramatic in some way in order to enjoy it. I will work on finding interesting and dramatic perspectives for landscapes. And, I will broaden my mind and think about magical creatures too!

We had a particularly beautiful weekend here on the coast of Maine. Really more like August weather. John and I took advantage of the sun and warmth, took Big dog and headed out on the boat to Marshall Island for an overnight camping trip. It was awesome. We had a nice hike on the island in the morning and then scooted over to Wheat Island for some shelling. It was especially nice for Big who is always on leash to be able to run around free! He had a great time.

Marshall Island Memories: encaustic, collage on stone

Marshall Island Memories: encaustic, collage on stone

 

Realistic, but abstract

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Bird of Paradise: water soluble crayon and graphite

Bird of Paradise: water soluble crayon and graphite

This turned out pretty much the way I wanted it to. That doesn’t happen often. It was planned…but yet loose. I made myself put the color in loosely knowing that once the color was down, that was it, no going back in color. Just over drawn in graphite. I will try to do more of these, some in graphite some in ink. My goal is for the over drawing to simply have beautiful lines, even if that means changing what is in front of me. I am not exactly happy with the lower right corner, but the rest of it I am pleased with.

No place like home

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Water-soluble crayon & colored pencil

Water-soluble crayon & colored pencil

This is our last day on Oahu, Hawaii. I am ready to head home. It’s been so nice seeing a different place, although I admit that Oahu is not really for me. I love the other islands and look forward to coming back to Maui in February. I am just not a city girl, and it really doesn’t matter that the beach is here and that the temperatures are warm. I like the slower pace of the other islands. I feel good that we came and better yet that we had a nice relaxing few days on the North Shore of Oahu. I did get some good photos for painting resources.

In progress: water-soluble crayon & graphite

In progress: water-soluble crayon & graphite

Traveling

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In progress: water soluble crayon & colored pencil

In progress: water soluble crayon & colored pencil

My husband and I are visiting Oahu Hawaii. The destination was not our exact choice, but the conference that he is attending is located here. We have been to the Big Island, Maui, and Kauai. Oahu is so very different than the other islands.  We are not city folk, so we are a little less comfortable. We were lucky to find a really nice spot on the North Shore for the days before the conference, and that was great! I have spent my time taking lots of photos and thinking of future drawing and painting subjects. Today was the first day that I really had enough time to devote to some artwork. It is super hot in the city though, so I have to watch my materials closely for melting!

Shell sketch: North Shore of Oahu

Shell sketch: North Shore of Oahu

Re-discovering Ink

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Ink and water soluble crayon, 5" x 7"

Ink and water soluble crayon, 5″ x 7″

I had forgotten how much I actually liked ink. I think when I was young I may have sketched the drawing in pencil first and then gone over it in ink. Now I seem to have less fear and I can dive right in and put that ink right on the page. The lines now have loosened up for sure. Adding splashes of color with the water soluble crayon adds a spontaneity that I really enjoy. And, If I keep that color thin enough I can sneak in and add just a little over spots where I have drawn and then ink right over that too. I will keep working with this.

I started out with the micron ink pen just thinking of planning a painting, but the second piece I did really turned out well. I think that it’s a good medium for small planning sketches and also finished work. Next experiment is to use the ink drawing for a base for encaustic. We’ll see how that goes.

Planning sketch: ink pen

Planning sketch: ink pen

Sticking to it

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Moleskin Journal: tide pools from Wheat Island, Maine

Moleskin Journal: tide pools from Wheat Island, Maine

Devoting the time. Quick can be good, but I am getting frustrated with just 5 minute sketches. It felt good to take some time to devote to this sketch. The Moleskin has such nice paper, it deserves the time. So, all the Moleskin sketches will be well considered. 

sunflowerbkcasein

I am going to try to work with the casein and the encaustic and see how that goes. I think that the casein will be “finished” though when I apply the encaustic. At least for now, once I have a handle on how the material works I might branch out and add encaustic paint too. Casein really is for noodlers! It changes as you work it, so it’s a real learning process. Fun!

Painting

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Black-eyed Susan

Black-eyed Susan

The thing I like most about encaustic painting is that you always have some sort of surprise. Sometimes things work, sometimes they don’t, sometimes you can fix it. I have discovered that casein paint works really nicely on birch panel and that they encaustic works really nice over the paint. Now the experiment is to see where the balance is between ground, underpainting and encaustic painting. I enjoy both of these mediums and I am going to keep trying to find the balance to see how they can work best together. Oh, and in the end, for some reason I decided to scratch into the wax surface,  liked the way that turned out! There is so much learning to do!

middle ground

middle ground

Here is the casein underpainting with the encaustic ground.

underpainting

underpainting

and here is just the casein underpainting