Over the past several years a small group of us have met at a picnic table in a local park on Mondays to draw – “Art in the Park.”
I haven’t been in several months because, you know, life gets in the way. Yesterday I went. It was a warm, cloudless day, soft breeze, and a beautiful fall morning. With me came a new sketchbook, a bound Strathmore art journal of tan paper for mixed media. Along with an ink pen, my iPad, and a small easel, I sketched this from a photo from Pixabay.
Yesterday I went to my portrait class with a rather meh attitude. I don’t really like doing portraits or painting people. The fact is, portraits are intimidating and scare me! I get frustrated if I cannot make my picture look like my subject matter. As far as other subjects, buildings and ocean waves get me, too, but they don’t have to be as precise as a person. I think the stylized art of different cultures as humans are depicted is often quite adequate for the job. Still, as I have progressed through doing pictures of people on paper, I am getting a bit out of the perfectionist rut. To me, the spirit of something is more important than accuracy.
I went to Pixabay to find something to draw that had people in it. I found an especially nice one and used two of the people in the picture as my subject matter. I spent about 90 minutes doing this sketch seen below.
I used toned paper, a Blackwing pencil, a 6B, and whatever white pencils I had on hand – wax colored pencil, white charcoal (probably conte) and something else. Drawing freehand was what I did for the most part, but used my calipers for rough verification of proportions. It worked out fairly well.
Once the rough shapes were down and directional lines for the heads, the details of light and dark were added. Looking at the shapes of the light and dark are what give dimension to a picture of any subject as these give shape. Working through a drawing like this, I go from large areas of light / dark to smaller areas. This is when the subtleties work themselves into a picture.
In some ways I really limited myself – using a waxy white pencil and graphite is not a great combination as the white pencil could not be erased. So, a bit of pressure and a prayer – some areas worked out better than others.
Above is the final result. I am fairly pleased with it. It worked out because I wasn’t stressed out about perfection and was feeling rather smug that my eyeballing things was verified by the proportional calipers no matter how sloppily used.
Toned paper, Blackwing pencil, 6B pencil, white colored pencil and white charcoal pencil, about 9×12 paper.
We have some beautiful open space with oaks and trails. The dappled light beneath the trees is always something to enjoy, more so when a bit of a breeze kicks up and the sunshine dances on the grasses and paths.
After all the stress of fire and fears of fire, no electricity, setting up a generator, yesterday was just a nice, normal, and pleasantly dull day. The usual daily chores got done, things were cleaned and straightened, the yard cleared of debris. My fig tree is also pruned and ready for its next crop – the first new tips are already pushing their way into the world and bulbs are sending up new growth. Little things like this make for a much better day.
I got to see all this, and then settle onto a patio chair just to look around. With wind and cold, being outside was not much fun, and certainly not a place to sit with pen and ink. With it gone, I could settle and sit, enjoying the warmth of the day. And draw . . . above is a sketch of my dead foxgloves – the leaves are dried and flopping over the edge of the pot, under and over each other, and into the milkweed plants.
A friend gave me a wonderful pen, a cheapie from Amazon. The ink is waterproof, and the tip is fine. The paper I am drawing upon has a bit of tooth, and the result, for me, is wonderful. When lines are drawn more quickly, the ink breaks up and gives texture. The pen point is sharp enough to deliver beautiful dots. In between, the lines are steady and solid. All together, a great drawing experience.
A few years ago, Josh and I spent a number of days in Decorah, Iowa, and there I found a lovely little stationary – art supply store. An inexpensive set of pan paints was available, and I have found it to be perfect for adding color to an ink drawing. The colors are intense but not overly so, and seem to be of a transparency many fine watercolors possess. I have been using it a lot for such pictures. The colors mix together well, and with a light touch with water and brush, these paints (with a bit of help from yours truly) work very well with delicate drawings.
Ink, pen, watercolor on multimedia paper. About 5 x 10 inches.
No, I don’t mean life. I mean trees and piles of leaves and undergrowth – all the stuff that makes up a good fall scene! Some trees have dropped a bazillion tons of leaves and others are hanging on to them. Years of detritus build up on the ground, creating a fertile place for new growth, plant, fungal, insect, which in turn supports other life in the wilder world outside the super market.
Anyone who has taken a walk in the woods or tried to photograph or paint this jumble knows exactly what I mean – it is really a busy-ness of color and texture and shape.
This is my sketch, done with a fountain pen and some Carbon Ink by Platinum. The paper is a bit rough so it could be what caused some difficulties with the pen nib – or the pen itself is not the best – or both. I tried to convey light and dark and texture with different pen marks. Straight lines to show trees and texture and the shadows of the trees across the pathway. Contrast is suggested rather than emphasized as I wanted to use paint to give the sense of shadows and so on. With that in mind, I pulled a palette of my out-of-the-tube paints rather than pan paints, cleaned them up and went to work.
As you can see, light and dark are more emphasized with the use of color, as are the colors of the leaves and the complex shapes of trees on the left and undergrowth on the right. The leaves that have fallen have some variegation, depending on when they fell and how long they have been there. Green grasses and weeds peek through. There are a few rocks, too, and leaves on the pathway. Tree shadows fall across the trail and up onto the tree on the right. There is a brightness to the day despite the murk of the undergrowth.
After adding color, I waited for the picture to dry. I made some color adjustments. And then, back to the waterproof ink pens. This time I used Micron pens and my Uniball waterproof pens. Micron pens come in different nib widths (here 0.1, 0.2 and 0.5) and the Uniball is labelled as “fine” but in reality makes a darker, thicker mark than the Micron pens.
Overall, I am more pleased with today’s ink and wash sketch than the one I did yesterday of the plumeria. As usual, I did not do a preliminary pencil drawing but just worked from the end of the path and then moved back and forth to establish areas. I really like my tangled tree in the lower left and the shadows on the big tree on the right. The brightness of an autumn day is expressed. Now all I have to do is get to scuffling through those leaves and it will make my day.
Pen, ink, watercolor wash, on Strathmore Vision 140# CP paper, 9 x 12.
