Seeing

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Opaque watercolor and sharpie pen. Portland Head Lighthouse

Opaque watercolor and sharpie pen. Portland Head Lighthouse

Sketchbook Skool has started! This semester is called “Seeing”. First assignment for this week was to draw toast. Ugh. I can’t say that was really enjoyable, but I get it. The goal is to get you to see things as shapes that aren’t associated with labels. Just draw the nooks and cranny’s. I was lucky enough to have some homemade bread that was stale enough to qualify as toast. I drew it for as long as I could.

Second part of this lesson was “Fast and Slow”. I have to admit this was kind of right up my alley–but a different take on how to start a piece. The instruction was to use one or two colors of paint to “draw” simple lines indicating the subject, and quickly. No more than 60 seconds to start. After you get that down, you draw in the details with a pen and really look carefully at all the complexity and proportions–take your time, draw for about an hour.

The most difficult thing for me in this was actually choosing the subject. I didn’t have anything from life that I was interested in drawing, so I just decided to work from a photo I had taken last May. I love this composition with the lighthouse and the Big dog. Buildings are not something I would normally choose to draw, so that was an added challenge. Proportions aren’t perfect, but no one really knows that but me. Fun assignment, and I definitely learned from it. And, I am inspired to maybe to do a Big Dog sketch book–he is such a fun subject.

Bread: micron pen

Bread: micron pen

Art Journal Challenge Day 16

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black prismacolor drawn in moleskin sketchbook

black prismacolor drawn in moleskin sketchbook

Black and White. #AJChallenge for today was black and white…I decided to try my acrylic metallic silver as a light wash underpainting and then black prismacolor for the drawing. I have always loved this image that I took of fallen plumeria’s in Hawaii…I think that we were in Maui. Even on the ground these blossoms are so beautiful. We were on our way out and these had fallen under the tree in the parking lot. It was the last photo I took on the island that trip. I think it would be nice to do a graphite piece of this, not sure about the acrylic ground.

Day 13 was a mythological character, I took a stab at a mermaid. Super fun to draw, but not great proportions. The great thing about the challenge is that even if I don’t have the time to do the day justice, it gives me great ideas for the future. Mermaids are a subject I will come back to for sure.

Mermaid: ink pen

Mermaid: ink pen

Challenge Day 4

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Cat from Castine: graphite

Cat from Castine: graphite

Animals! #AJChallenge Day 4. One of my favorite subjects, but I find that I don’t do many animal drawings really. Not unless it is part of an assignment or challenge. I am thinking that I will add animals to be subject matter for this year. They aren’t easy, so lots of concentration required. A good thing. Today I got the year right!

This cat was hanging out in Castine in front of Markel’s bakery last summer. She had such a personality. You could tell she was really engaged by everyone coming by. I think that she was mostly interested in our dog Big and that is why she looks so intense. I took a bunch of photos of her, I think I will do a few more sketches of her. Good practice.

Christmas Eve

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Inktense and colored pencil. 4x6

Inktense and colored pencil. 4×6

Everyone in my house is taking a nap (except me). It’s one of those kind of days I suppose. It should be snowing, but it’s not quite cold enough, so we have a little mist hanging around at the mountain. I was able to find just enough time to finish this little drawing that I started last weekend. Hoping to get a lot of time in for more projects between now and Sunday night. Tomorrow will probably be filled with lots of cooking for others.

If I can carve out some time tomorrow from cooking I will try to organize my little art corner and do some planning for the new year. Can’t wait until sketchbook skool!

Merry Christmas to all!

Stuck on shells

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Inktense and colored pencil

Inktense and colored pencil

Seems like shells are the subject matter of the moment. The great thing about them is that I have so many to choose from! Before my #sketchbookskool class  I was drawing a lot more from photos. I have discovered I really like drawing from life. Many of the shells I have are tiny, so I can just put them in my purse and pull them out to draw at any time.

For my next few drawings I am going to work on putting color down first and then working over in ink pen. Love, love, love working in ink. And, I am surprised at how much I like working without any guidelines.

Quick sketch: ink pen

Quick sketch: ink pen

New Materials

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Shell Study: Derwent Inktense

Shell Study: Derwent Inktense

Inktense are intense! Fun to try some new materials today. My first try was just the intense, the second sketch I decided to use the #inktense pencils to do the underpainting and then use prismacolor for the drawing. This seems to be a good combination. Next try will be inktense and then ink pen. I love how saturated the color is. This is similar to the water-soluble crayons…but different. Once you put the color down and it dries, it is permanent. Looking forward to exploring how to work with this medium. These two sketches were in my moleskin, paper is soft, so I am going to try a different paper next. Just in case you are interested here is the link for the Derwent Inktense.

Looking forward to drawing tomorrow!

Slipper Shell in progress

Slipper Shell in progress

 

Drawing for fun

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opaque watercolor and colored pencil

opaque watercolor and colored pencil

This was my for fun sketch today. A warm up for a longer drawing. I was surprised at how much I enjoyed this…it’s in my “no fear” sketch book. I really like the white paint marker, but it needs some ventilation! It can’t be healthy. I need to find a white marker that isn’t so toxic smelling.

All these shells came from the outer banks of North Carolina.

The Kitchen

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Micron blue pen and opaque watercolor

Micron blue pen and opaque watercolor

So, I ditched the shells on the counter idea. I did a quick sketch with a pineapple on the counter–which I liked, but all the proportions were off. The shells just didn’t look right on the counter, so off they went. In the end, I decided to block in the color first, so I put on a wash of a medium blue for the stove, a yellow for the counter and light green for the wall. This made me feel better. I started in with the stove and worked out from that. The pineapple was next to the toaster, but by the time I got over there, I couldn’t squeeze it in!

I have to admit this was somewhat painful for me. I did a lot of complaining while I was drawing. I looked at the clock a lot! I put in 3 hours, I was happy when I finished with this. It’s good to tackle difficult things, I appreciate the assignment. I loved, loved, loved Tommy Kane’s class. The ideas I will take away are:

  • Go ahead and “steal” from your favorite artists
  • Slow down and spend more time with your work
  • It’s okay and often preferable to make mistakes and keep going (often times no one else will know)
  • Finish what you started

Great way to end this semester. I have to say I am so sad that it’s over though. Looking forward to the next semester starting in January.