Carbon Ink – Ink, Yarn & Beer

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.

California Coastal Cypress

Stuck at home for the most part because of my ankle, I need to find things to do. It turns out that my ankle, while a mess of historical injuries, has no tears in the soft tissues. That is good. However, my heel bone has “microfractures” from the hard landing dodging the car last month. This is a bone bruise, and it is painful! I finally got into see the orthopedist, got a walking boot, and return in a month. The boot makes a big difference though it does take some getting used to wearing and using. I have to be careful not to pitch forward or backward. And you can hear me coming a mile away – squish, squeak, squish, squeak.

Of course, painting is the first choice! I am still tired intermittently from Covid, but I don’t have brain fog (at least I don’t think so), and look for things to enjoy but not be a source of frustration. Thus, ink and watercolor.

The Monterey Cypress is a tree that is common along the northern central coast of California. It is shaped by the environment as it moves with the wind and seems to grow away from the prevailing winds. To me, this quality is what makes it so beautiful and eye-catching. The coast is also subject to foggy days, damp and dreary, even in the height of summer.

Carbon ink, watercolor, Koi pan paints, about 8×10.

Flower Farm

Since my return from Oregon, a lot has happened, much of which just threw life into chaos. I still have a messed up ankle which limits my ability to walk a lot – couch surfing became a major part of my life because Josh and I got covid. I don’t recall being so sick but luckily I got Paxlovid and that seemed to make a major turnaround in how I was feeling. Josh didn’t, but he recovered although he is still coughing. With covid and a bad ankle, TV was my friend, as was endless sleep. Before we got covid, though, we had to put our lovely dog Smudge to sleep – but that is a story for another time perhaps. We just miss her.

My energy levels have been really inconsistent, some days I sleep a lot, others I feel like my old self. The biggest issue has been getting back into our lives – doing what we like to do and completing them. Josh has been insulating the garage, and I have been thinking about things to do. Finally I had the energy to clean up the house a bit, and the studio, and finally to just get it together enough to fill a pen with ink and find some paper and paint.

I did a pencil sketch first, and then inked in the above using Carbon Ink by Platinum. Very nice stuff! You can put it into a pen and draw without too much worry about clogging up your pen. I think it is a pigmented ink, but I may be wrong. It is different from writing ink because of its intensity and being waterproof, which most inks are not. After inking in the drawing and letting the ink dry, I erased my pencil sketch and scanned the image.

From here, just find the right pan paint set. This is one by Koi, and as it got a good review, I thought I would try it. It is inexpensive, but the colors are really nice and have a clarity and beauty that many cheap watercolor sets lack. Very pleased with the results – good transparency combined with richness of color.

It always feels good to get back to what you like, doesn’t it? Slow steps. I am so bored with not feeling good and hobbling around! Hopefully the visit to the orthopedist – delayed because of covid – will not indicate surgery for messed up tendons and sloppy joints. Ah, well.

Carbon ink, 100% cotton paper, Koi watercolor pan paints; about 8×10.

Last Day of April – Morning Sketches

The last few days have been the quintessential spring days in Southern California – and I have been outside, but never enough. I planted some tomatoes and cleaned up some plants in the patio garden, basked in the sun, and have done very little. Today, though, pen and watercolor beckoned with the morning coffee, and the colors of spring and the outdoors called.

Grape hyacinths are so odd to me! I am used to the big ones, in pinks and blues and flower petals which curl outward. Grape hyacinths make me think of little bells. This is the first year I have ever grown them, and short-lived as they were, they were so much fun to see. Bulbs always make me happy, and I have a variety of them, such as iris, ixia, daffodils. Bulbs need to be hybridized for our warm California winters, so they are not so rare as they used to be, but never seem as exciting as they do when they flower in a patch of snow.

I was poring over some photos I have, taken by me or collected through Pixabay and other free online royalty sources. Palm trees and banana plants. I did this to practice dry brush on a wedge brush – nothing great but it accomplished what I wanted – a soft bit of blending, such as in the foreground.

Once more lavender fields in Provence and other areas of southern France. In particular, mixing lavender that is bluish is a challenge; here, in watercolor, I diluted my purples with some blue and rose, as well as some greenish colors to suggest the lavender’s foliage. The scan didn’t do a great job. Additionally, I wanted to capture the texture in the rocky faces of the mountain, cracks vertically and horizontally in the bare stone.

Finally, a favorite place of mine – Figueroa Mountain in Santa Barbara County. In the spring, lupines and poppies bloom, and the view across the Santa Ynez Valley extends for miles. To me, this is the epitome of a wonderful time of year in California. It is when the rains turn the hills from brown and dull to an intense display of yellow, gold, and purple.

Drawing with ink and watercolor is pleasant and relaxing, and doing it in a sketchbook takes away the desire to create a masterpiece. Here, exploration, play, practice.

Carbon ink on watercolor paper; Rosa pan watercolors.

Cliffs at Mesa Verde

I had a brainstorm the other day: Why not use vacation photos for drawing and watercolor subjects? I certainly do have a bucket load of photos. And, last summer we went to a lot of historical and beautiful places as we wandered through parts of the western U.S. Here, a view from a cliff in Mesa Verde National Park.

Colors include indanthrene blue, quinacridone yellow, organic vermilion, burnt sienna, cobalt blue, phthalo green and Carbon Ink in a Pentalic watercolor book.