Colored Paper

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Tulips on colored paper.

Tulips on colored paper.

Quick experimental sketch for email sketchbook skool assignment. Orange colored paper stock with water-soluble crayon a sharpie and white marker. Absolutely something to try again! The colors are so different…not exactly what I was hoping for, but it’s fun to try something new. I really like using the white marker, and I actually picked the sharpie up by accident. Once I started with it however, there was no going back. I had intended to use a water soluble ink pen in order to get some funky shadow. I will have a do-over with that technique.

Really enjoying the extra bonus of sketchbook skool email assignment. What a nice surprise every Sunday to get them. I will tip this in to my ink only journal. #sketchbookskool, #art4all

Imaginary Color

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Goldfish in imaginary color

Goldfish in imaginary color

My 75 days of Ink only is still proving to be fun and even more educational than I realized. I am using all kinds of different references–my own photos, life drawing, magazines and books. I don’t normally use resources that aren’t my own, but I am just learning after all. I am trying not to take each sketch so seriously.

The fish resource is from a book I found in my studio, I forgot I had it. It’s called Animals 1419 Copyright-Free Illustrations of Mammals, Birds, Fish, Insects, etc. Selected by Jim Harter. It’s AWESOME! That is where the fish came from. They are all black and white. I did a quick sketch of this great fish–the book says its a type of gold fish. Then I thought–this might be fun with some imaginary color. A lot of fun!

I think that the first black and white only sketch is actually nicer, but I felt like adding the color from my imagination was a good experiment, one I will work on improving. I used a water soluble disposable fountain pen and inktense pencils.  The water soluble pen offered up some nice surprises.

Goldfish black ink only. Quick sketch.

Goldfish black ink only. Quick sketch.

Encaustic Experiments

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Graphite, tissue, encaustic

Graphite, tissue, encaustic

I decided to try and draw on tissue and incorporate that over the stone with encaustic. I had a failure, you just can’t overwork it. But, the first one I did actually turned out the way I wanted. I was surprised that I could do the drawing on tissue without any tearing and that the graphite didn’t smear! So, I think this will work for future pieces.

oil pastel and encaustic

oil pastel and encaustic

I am liking using the encaustic and oil pastels together. The impressionistic look is nice and it keeps me working loose. I think I might need to embrace the fact that I do best working quickly….which might make the encaustic a good fit for me. If I take to long on anything it seems to just get overworked and to tied tight!

casein, colored pencil and encaustic

casein, colored pencil and encaustic

This last piece I did as a lark, casein painting with colored pencil on stone. I actually worked on this in the vertical, but I like it best in the horizontal.

Now I need to get back to my lobster claw and mussel shell casein painting on panel.