Housekeeping

Lately, I've been starting things and then stopping in the middle. I have no less than 4 different things, in various stages of development, on the go in my studio. Then yesterday for some unknown reason, my creative mind was focusing on xmas cards. Possibly because it was the first day of Fall and we've been tossing around ideas for this year's celebration. Not really sure - all I know is I now have a short list of some ideas sketched.

Today was a more measureable bit of progress. I finally bit the bullet and settled on a selection of colours for my sketch palette. BUT here's the most important part - I actually put them in it! See, I had this idea of making my own paintbox, starting with the tin that comes with an inexpensive set of mathematical instruments from the big box office supply store. I then used the white plastic caps that I've been saving from small milk/cream containers as empty pans. By sticking them into the bottom of the tin with 2 sided tape I can switch them out as desired.

Because they're round, not rectangular like regular paint pans, I can only fit 11 into the tin. My final paint selection - cerulean blue, phthalo blue RS, undersea green, lemon yellow deep, raw sienna, burnt sienna, sepia, payne's grey, carbazole violet, quinacridone magenta and perylene maroon. It's pretty close but not exactly the same as the sketch above. I won't really know if it works for me until I take it for a roadtest, so more thoughts on this colour palette to come later.

I also did some much needed cleaning and refreshing of my workhorse palette. I haven't changed it since I set it up years ago and there were some colours that just weren't earning their keep anymore. In hindsight, I probably should have just flooded the whole thing and washed it out completely but a couple of slots I had just recently topped up so was loathe to waste the paint.

Through this exercise I've now become better acquainted with which of my colours are staining colours. I'm trying to clean up their little wells and damn, the paint is getting everywhere. They just don't want to be cleaned up LOL! I also learned today that paint is a cat hair magnet. OMG, the amount of hairs that I pulled out of the wells was astounding. Not really but I was impressed with what was lurking in the depths.

Now that that's all done it's back to finishing the works in progress!

Stratford sketch

During Kate's recent visit we went on a drive to nearby Stratford. While she did some shopping, I drove down by the river to do some sketching. There were lots of people enjoying the beautiful summer weather, some with their dogs, others with kids. 

As always there were plenty of Canada geese hanging around but this fellow caught my eye. Swans are such elegant, graceful creatures on the water and yet quite ungainly and awkward moving about on land. Reminded me of my earlier trip there with Nan in April to see the annual parade bringing the swans out of their winter housing and onto the river.

I did a preliminary sketch on site using a Prussian Blue watercolour pencil and then painted it in studio this morning. The background is a mishmash of blue, green and violet watercolour pencil washed over with a layer of DS Undersea Green.

Abbeydale Anniversary

This weekend marks the second anniversary of Nan and Tom's move to Abbeydale, their home in the nearby hamlet of Carlisle. Each occasion has been celebrated with a large party and last year Nan requested I paint a portrait of their house to use for the invitation.

Because I did not trust that my drawing skills were up to the task, I printed out an outline of the house using a photoediting program, reinforced some of the lines and then painted it in watercolour. The flowers were quite lost so I repainted them in acrylic for a bit of added punch. All in all I was quite happy with it.

This time around, Kate had found a pretty card showing a bird's eye view of a street in Stratford and requested that I try and replicate something similar for this year.

It was a bit of a struggle at first, I can't deny it. Trying to morph a satellite view of the property with my own photo references to get the desired perspective (streetview is not available for Carlise on google maps as of yet LOL). After trying to get it right for a few hours and not succeeding I did the smart thing and stepped away for a few hours. Had lunch, had a nap and came back to my drawing with renewed enthusiasm. Always a good idea.

This is done in a more illustrative style, with less attention to detail and accuracy than the picture above. Of course, this is not the final version of the painting as is typical for me once I felt it was done I signed it, matted it and wrapped it before I remembered to scan it! Duh. Oh well. The changes made were minimal so no one will know that but me and I can live with that.

The land was such a blank canvas when Tom and Nan bought the property that it will be fun to document the changes they make over time. It'll also be interesting to see what style and potentially what medium I might render it in as well. This year's was definitely influenced by my time spent at Sketchbook Skool. Who knows what might be influencing me next year.

Sketchbook Skool Week #6

Our instructor this week was Tommy Kane, a New York artist new to me. Tommy's philosophy is slooooooow down and draw lots of detail. And no starting over - once you've committed to a drawing keep pushing through, even if you feel you've screwed up. It really is amazing how what seem like huge mistakes in the beginning just don't really matter much in the end. Yes, they're still there but so what. Our assignment was to draw our kitchens and plan to spend anywhere from 5-8 hrs doing it.

When I first read about Sketchbook Skool a few months back on some of the art blogs I follow this was the assignment that they were all talking about LOL. I must admit, I wasn't looking forward to it in the beginning because it just seemed so overwhelming. BUT, now, having completed it, it proved to be very interesting. It was fun, frustrating, daunting and overall well worth every minute spent on it. I have a new appreciation for those skilled in crosshatching as a drawing technique. It required much more thought and attention to line than I originally thought. This assignment wraps up the first semester of SBS. I'm hoping they'll be rerunning the second term in October because I'll be there! 

ETA: I've tinkered a bit more with my sketch - I noticed that the white bowl in the glass doored cupboard on the right looked as if it was going to fall out, so I hit it with a bit of shadow to push it back behind the doorknob and it looks better to me now. I added my signature as well, to truly finish it off.

Sketching Out in Public. Twice

Mission accomplished. Last week I got my haircut and while I was waiting for Kate to finish up I took out my sketchbook and started drawing one of the shelves. It actually combines this week's focus, which is all about the details, as well as taking the plunge and sketching in front of other people. And guess what - as per the instructors, no one noticed.

The big takeaway for me though is how quickly the waiting time goes. I only had time to do the line work, first in lavender wc pencil and then ink. the bit of colour I put on was done from memory. It's not finished but I'm putting it aside because the point of the exercise was the act of doing it in the first place.

I also did a quick sketch while waiting for my car to undergo it's emissions testing and there again, the car was ready before the sketch was done. This time, the man across the waiting room as well as the guy behind the counter both were watching me but it didn't bother me at all. I haven't scanned it yet.

Another sketch I do want to post was done in pencil from the car while waiting for Kate's plane to get in. I had to shorten the wings to get them onto the page but I'm really happy with the perspective of the tail section.

Sketchbook Skool Week 5

Another week, another instructor and focus. Roz does a lot of animal sketching so is used to working with moving targets. To start us off though she had us sketching toys or figurines. Hmm, not a lot of toys around here and animal figurines have pretty much been decluttered over the years so what to do. Google of course!


So I went to a toy figurine website and picked out a hyena, a dinosaur (with a really tiny head but it was the angled scales I wanted to challenge myself with) and a stuffed but floppy moose.

These were gesture drawings done on smooth paper that does not accept water media so no colouring added which is too bad because it was also the colour of he dinosaur that drew me to him. He seems a little lacking here in cream and black because of that but I do like the moose and hyena. My hyena clearly is a good hunter though because his belly is a bit fuller than I intended now that I look at him here.

Virtual Paint Out - Kinmen Island Taiwan ROC

This month's Virtual Paint Out is set for Kinmen Island, part of a small archipelago of islands just off the southeast coast of China, near Taiwan.

The idea is you go to google maps and start looking around for someplace interesting to sketch. Once you've picked your spot you have to capture the link so the blog owner can verify the location.

This can take some time as it's literally as if you've plunked yourself down in the middle of this country to wander the streets at will LOL. Definitely a cheap way to travel and you can be there and back in an afternoon! Here's the link to the original location if you want to see where I was working.

My initial sketch was done with a lavender watercolour pencil to get shapes and proportions right. I then dropped in very loose watercolour and then added ink work with a water soluble pen. The challenge for me was to simplify what I was seeing and to capture the very specific roof lines of the building on the left. While not perfect, I was quite pleased with the results.

Now to see if I can figure out how to submit it to the VPO blog.

Homework for Sketchbook Skool Week 4

It's not much to look at yet; as a matter of fact I had to really play with the contrast to get even this much to show up but I wanted to document the stages. This is the layout with the design elements sketched in in watercolour pencil. At this point my plan is to use a palette of red green and gold. Will see what I end up with.

Here's the intermediate stage-

 

I'm calling this done and submitting it to class. Once again the greens are less yellow in reality so yeah, picture that. The hardest part was leaving that white area on the front tomato and yet that's what I'm happiest with. Just goes to show I need to get out of my own way sometimes.

 



Mille Fleur Chickens

I'd been thinking of something to paint for Kate's birthday and thought a rendering of her mille fleur chicken Chrissy with her future chick would have a sort of whimsical touch. I do love how even the chicks have the feathered feet.

 

 

Sadly, things happen and the egg is no more, so I'll just have to think of something else to paint. I have an idea but am keeping it a secret for now. 

A Bit of Housecleaning

Colour. I just love colour. For some people it's shape and line that draws them first to a piece of art but for me it's always been value and colour. So while I knew I had collected a lot of different colours of paint over the years, even I was a bit taken aback when I made a list.

I'm in the process of setting up my own personal palette to include in my spiffy new sketchbag - custom made by Taylor Made Too Saddlery in black leather and blue-grey snakeskin no less! My paintbox will only accommodate 11 colours so I'm going to need to choose them wisely - hence the inventory.

I'm quite happy mixing my own colours so a basic sketch palette would include a warm and a cool colour of each of the 3 primaries plus some earth tones. Sounds straightforward.

I have 13 reds, 11 yellows, 8 greens, 6 browns, 10 blues, 3 violets and 7 miscellaneous tubes of paint. That's 58 different colours and I have to narrow that down to 11 to grab and go with. This may take awhile LOL.

Note to self: make sure your painting is fully dry before putting it on the scanner!