Category: Blitherings

Too Dark

I just realized that if I want to do good – in my eyes, of course – or better ink and watercolor drawings, I need to work a bit more on my colors. For many years my colors were anemic and paintings ended up pale and wan. To compensate, I made my colors more intense – more pigment, less water. However, I think if I really want to do ink and wash, I need to learn to moderate the color intensity a lot. Next painting I do will have color swatches on another piece of paper before applying them to the paper.

This is a very contrasty painting – and it doesn’t really play well with the eye. The shadow along the dirt road, on the left, is too green. The darks between the trees, from shadow and overgrowth, are not well done. I liked the ink drawing but think I could have made better color choices. Unfortunately, when you use a limited palette of only 10 basic colors, color mixing becomes a bit of a challenge. That is not to say these were not good quality paints – they are Schminke pan paints which are very intense – but I need to work more with moderating the colors.

Well, I didn’t paint anything yesterday, but I am beginning to work on cleaning up and getting rid of stuff. Yesterday I worked in the garden, straightening things up, getting rid of debris, and taking apart the drip system. With fewer plants it is unnecessary. This morning, sorting through clothes and mish mash in the in the garage.

However, painting continues!

Sketchbook across 2 pages, about 6×16 inches; ink and watercolor.

Sunday Afternoon

After working on pen and ink and watercolor wash from the short course I took, I decided to sit down, pull out some watercolor sketchbooks, and choose one for A Project. And that project will be to try to do a daily – or more than one daily – sketch following certain steps: pencil drawing, ink, erase pencil lines, watercolor, and then more ink. And maybe no ink. The idea, though, is to draw and paint the real world just to see where it goes.

Today it was pushing 80F, and after days of 60F or so, it has gone from cold and damp to warm and hot. Hard transition! So, I sat at the patio table and looked around me. Not excited by much of anything, but here we go!

We have a small mandarin tree in a pot. This year, about 10 little delicious mandarins. Here I used a water soluble disposable fountain pen so there is some bleeding of ink and watercolor. This is the first one.

And here is the second rendition of the mandarin. I used Carbon Ink in a fude fountain pen. This ink is a bit more waterproof than the disposable fountain pen. The fude pen is by Sailor, and the pen nib is both wide and angled to about 90 degrees. Depending on how you hold the pen the lines will be fat or thin. The trunk is made up of the fat lines, and I think you can figure which ones are the thin lines!

Not quite ready to retreat from my experiments, I used the fude and the disposable pen to create this portrait of Miracle Gro potting soil (my all-time fave). Ink applied, painted around, and more ink afterward. This was sitting just next to me, ready and waiting!

And finally, one of the many podocarpus trees along the back wall. Here, pencil outline, then plain watercolor. No ink. Not great but an exercise focused on areas of color – as in the mandarin tree drawings – to show warmth and depth – as well as simplification of groups of color.

There is a little thing in my brain right now that is sensing a change in how I see things I want to draw. It feels good. You probably know that feeling – something is changing with a more sophisticated or skillful – but new – approach. Let’s see where it leads.

140# CP watercolor sketchbook, about 5-8, Carbon Ink in Sailor Fude pen, Pilot Varsity disposable fountain pen, watercolors.