Tag: ink

A Few Paintings

No joking when I said my “new job” was watercolor painting and drawing!  I’ve been getting daily life stuff done, but somewhen in between, I manage an hour or two a day with paper, pen, and paint.  It’s paying off (that’s what jobs are supposed to do, right?) I think.  Still a lot of goofs, but some progress, too.  Mud is now something I decide to paint more often than not.  Below is a gallery of the work I’ve done in the past few weeks – not all of it, just some of it.  Click on one picture to begin scrolling through them.

I have been using two different types of paper for the watercolors. One that is inexpensive, 100% cotton is Bee Paper, in 6×9 inch format. The other is Fabriano, in block format. 11×15 inch Artistico; this is a higher quality 100% cotton that is still affordable. Both papers are really good for heavier washes. The Artistico has more tooth than the Bee paper, but the smoother surface of the Bee really lends itself well to ink-and-watercolor drawings.

So many plans with impending retirement, and I am finding I certainly will not be able to do everything I want to do – just not enough time! I used to give myself 30 minutes to paint – now I can give myself whatever time I want. Thus, first loves take over other loves, but the sewing and the photography and knitting and, and, and will get in there. Time will be dedicated!

So, on this rainy Saturday morning, the studio will get cleaned up again, and the fun continue.

Sketch of a Rose

Yesterday was another run-around-and-get-things-done day.  Whew!  Taxes, appointments, scheduling, ya-da-ya-da.  It’s boring stuff, believe me.

Anyway, today was drawing day.  Eating lunch between all the craziness, I clicked on Alphonso Dunn (my hero!) on YouTube, and his tutorial of a rose popped up.  Very simple way to look at a rather complicated subject.  Essentially, a rose is a cylinder with layers peeling back.  Voila, there it is.

I did use a pencil to create the shape, and erased it multiple times.  If you enlarge the picture, you will see the paper is pretty dirty after 3 and 4 erasures.  However, the paper held up (Bee), the ink went down (Micron 0.3), and so did the paint.  I’ve never really done a rose well before, so Dunn’s tutorial has, yet again, explained things I never thought about.  Go watch him!

 

Midwest Farmhouse in Early Spring

I haven’t had time to do any artwork for the past four or five days, and I can feel it.  Colors, ink, brushes all feel like aliens.  To counter this, I watched a Peter Sheeler video – his pen work is phenomenal – delicate, spare, assured.  The same may be said with his usage of color.  With this in mind, I went ahead and did this.  The inking is okay; I didn’t do any drawing in pencil, but went straight ahead with a Micron pen.  From there, I applied color and tried to keep it simple, but my usual messy style took over.

White & Blue Flowers

After a lot of watercoloring, picking up a pen and using ink to draw feels really relaxing.  Adding watercolor to a pen drawing doesn’t need a lot of color, but it does require a bit of thought about light and shadow.

I thought about a daisy study of Peter Sheeler’s on YouTube – I remembered how very little color he added to his ink drawing of the daisy.  With this in  mind, I put in some greys and grey-blues.  I tried to apply the same concept to the blue flowers (which I want to call cornflowers, but don’t think they are), and to the grasses and leaves.  Below is my ink drawing, done freehand without a pencil sketch beforehand.  I am rather pleased with both – my inking skills are improving, as, perhaps, are my watercoloring skills.  Less is more has become more of motto than before!