I tried painting this last week with pastels, and it was a disaster. I could not get the shadows dark enough, so I put it away frustrated. This one (done in watercolor) is better, but I’m still not thrilled with it. I just can’t seem to make darks that don’t turn out muddy and overworked.
I was happy with my loosey-goosey sketch of that garlic crock the other night, and (apparently) lacking much in the way of creativity, I decided to try it again: this time a little more controlled, and I tried to make the composition a bit more interesting by placing a bit of garlic in front of the crockery.
I stuck with the Cotman paints and waterbrush just for the sake of seeing whether I could keep things from getting too messy.
The main issue I have with this is that I don’t think I got quite enough contrast. This has been an issue that I’ve had from the beginning; though I do feel like I’m slowly improving in that regard.
As I slowly reintroduce art back into my daily routine, I thought I would try a very loose painting today. This garlic crock stood out while I was cleaning up after dinner. It keeps moisture from getting into the heads of garlic stored within, and it looks nice sitting on the counter.
I eschewed the under-drawing, opting instead to lay down the paint directly. Accuracy suffered, but I like the looseness of the image. I also opted to use my student-grade paints and a waterbrush for this one, because they are just less hassle to deal with; and tonight was all about minimizing hassle.
My artistic output this past month has been–shall we say–light. In part, this was due to the planning and preparation for a two-week camping trip out west.
I had great plans for drawing and painting for hours at a time. But the reality of camping in Yellowstone and Custer State Park (South Dakota) was that we were either driving, hiking, sight-seeing, or cooking/eating/washing-up almost every waking hour. We did manage to shoot close to 1400 photographs while we were out there (hooray for digital photography! I would NOT want to pay for all that film to be developed), so maybe I’ll try drawing from some of the pics we snapped.
I did manage to spend one afternoon painting at our campsite. This was our home for most of the trip.
The summer in Chicago has been unusually cool this year. But that doesn’t stop people from taking full advantage of the beaches. This park overlooks the beach at Fullerton Avenue and the buildings downtown can be seen a couple miles south.
There are a few things that scare me (from an artistic perspective). Water and people are at the top of that list, so I had to work hard to stifle the voices in my head saying, “what are you doing? You can’t paint that!” The water didn’t work out as well as I had envisioned; but given that I was going for something of stylized painting and not realism, I’m really happy with the group of picnickers on the grass.
People who dine at this building in the Lincoln Park Zoo have a nice view of the lion habitat. The lions have an equally nice view of the people. I wonder who enjoys watching whom more?
This building caught my eye a few weeks ago, and I’ve been waiting for the perfect day to go back and paint it. Today was that day.
I arrived before the cafe opened, and sketched out the contours. I layed down the first set of washes, and then wouldn’t you know… someone came out and opened all the umbrellas. I decided to leave them closed in this painting and just rely on memory for the color and shadow.
One thing I learned from this painting is that I need to get faster. It took me an hour and a half to get the painting to its current state. And, while I’m relatively happy with the end result, it still looks to me like a rather quick sketch.
I’m still having trouble getting really dark darks. I’m not sure if this is a limitation of the medium or if I’m just doing something wrong. Given some of the better watercolor paintings I’ve seen, I am inclined to believe the problem is me.
Another thing I learned today is that people will leave you alone at the zoo. Everywhere else that I’ve drawn in public, people had no qualms about walking right up to me and looking over my shoulder to see what I was doing. Today, people walked by as if I weren’t there. That almost more unsettling than the other way ’round.
This is the first traditional watercolor I’ve done in a while. I’m not sure which I prefer doing: traditional, or ink and wash. I suppose I’ll have to continue working on both until one emerges as a preference. The ink and wash sketches are certainly faster to finish; but that may just be a matter of practice.
Note: The scanner washed the colors out slightly. Bad, scanner.
Everyday Matters challenge #37 is ‘Draw some keys’. These are mine.
Yes, that is a Garanimals key chain. No, I don’t have kids. Yes, I am a full-grown adult. That’s just how I roll.
And for the record, I don’t actually wear Garanimals. Although if I did, it would certainly have prevented a number of fashion faux pas committed by yours truly over the years.
I’ve been in an artistic funk for the past couple of weeks; waiting for inspiration to strike. It hasn’t. Fortunately, the Everyday Matters list has lots of things to choose from — no need to wait for inspiration. Too bad the list can’t come to my house and kick my lazy butt off the couch sometimes.
I stopped on my way home from work this evening to sketch parts of this tree in Oz Park.
Oz Park was commissioned in honor of L. Frank Baum who wrote the Wizard of Oz , and also lived in the area at the end of the 19th century. It has statues of the Dorothy, the Tin Man, the Scarecrow, and the Lion throughout the park, and is a nice place to go watch people play with their dogs.
This sketch was the result of some recent advice I offered to an aspriring sketcher who was trying to deal with a paralyzing case of fear of failure. One of those bits of advice was “set a timer for two minutes; go!”. It occurred to me that the same advice could also be used to overcome the ‘I don’t have time’ excuse that I like to use. So this is my two-minutes worth (well, actually, the line drawing was two minutes; adding the color was probably only another five or ten minutes after that).
There are plenty of things wrong with it. Certainly, the colors are completely wrong, because I didn’t have any paint with me at the time; so it was ‘get home, get out the paint, and fake it as best I could’. And that’s all fine. The point of this exercise was not to be realistic. It was just to keep the creative juices flowing.
I’ll tackle something a little more serious when I have more time. When I don’t have that kind of time, I have to make myself do more of these quickies. Sometimes quantity is just as valuable as quality.
Not everything goes according to plan. If I ever forget this, all I have to do is sketch something.
My plan for this sketch (another view from the back of our condo) was to make the telephone pole the center of attention. I thought framing it with the flowers and planters we have on our deck would help with that. Unfortunately, I think the foreground objects have taken over instead of retreating to the background.
I think the single biggest mistake I made in this regard is that I made the plants too colorful, and added too much contrast. I think if I had made them more sillhouetted, that would done the trick nicely.
Or, I could have cheated, and just done a strategic crop. But what would that have proven?
I’m also not happy with the how flat the background buildings came out. I wanted to push them to the background, so I knew I had to leave details out and avoid putting too much emphasis on their color and structure. Unfortunately, I think I went too far the other way.
Oh well, they can’t all be winners. Plus, I learned something as a result. And hopefully, I won’t have to make the same mistake a hundred times before I finally learn how to deal with it.
The Art Institute of Chicago has these giant bronze lions on either side of the steps leading to the main entrance. People sit on the steps and read between the lions when the weather is nice. As for me… I stand across the street and draw them. And of course, the woman on the steps was talking on her cell phone instead of reading, thus messing up my very clever title. Maybe I should have gone with a telephone-related title like ‘Hold the Lion’ or ‘The Lion is Busy’?
This lion is the one on the north side of the entrance. His unofficial name (given to him by the sculptor) is ‘On the Prowl’. When one of our home teams is in the playoffs, the lions are dressed in team jerseys. They even have super-size helmets for the lions for football season. Since it isn’t playoff season, the lions are naked.
I did the line drawing during lunch this afternoon and painted it when I got home this evening. There was just barely enough time to eat, walk over there, draw, and walk back. But the weather was really nice today, so I felt like I had to take advantage of it. People hovered around and looked over my shoulder. I could hear them whisper to each other, “Ooh, he’s drawing the lion!” It was, simultaneously, nerve-wracking and exhilarating.
This was real challenge for me for a few reasons: 1. I am intimidated by drawing living things, even if (as in this case) that living thing is not really a living thing; 2. Mostly related to number 1, I actually included a human being in this sketch; and 3. I had to paint from memory so I was left to my own devices with respect to color and shadow. The lion’s looking a little chubby, but overall, I’m happy with how this came out.
Today was a nice day to sit on the deck and sketch. In fact, it was a perfect day to stretch my ‘urban sketching’ muscles.
I spent the day roasting myself at the Cubs game. I can hardly think of a better way to spend an afternoon, especially when the Cubbies get a win.
The scoreboard at Wrigley is an icon of tradition… one of the last manually operated scoreboards in the Major Leagues. You won’t find any Jumbotron in Wrigley Field, no sir! This is baseball, as pure as it can be — at least as pure as it can be when you’re fielding a team full of multimillionaires.
That part of the field, by the way, is where Milton Bradley dropped an easy fly ball. Whoa boy… Chicago fans can be merciless when a highly-paid, highly-touted, professional athlete does something so inept! Just ask Rex Grossman; I’m sure he can tell you a thing or two.
By the way, anyone got any good tips for laying down a clean watercolor wash on smooth paper?
Truthfully, I have no idea what sort of plat this is. All I know is that it sits near the front window, and its growth only seems limited by the size of its pot.
The color in the real sketch is not quite as yellow as it appears here — blame the scanner until I can figure out how to make it behave.
EDM Challenge #12 is “Draw what you ate for dinner.” I don’t think anyone wants to see what that looks like at this very moment, so I did the next best thing and drew the ingredients. In truth, I didn’t use the pasta sauce. I just threw a little olive oil, basil, and garlic powder over the spaghetti. It’s actually got more fat and calories than the pasta sauce, but boy is it tasty.
Anyway, I wasn’t going for any sort of realism here; just playing with a PITT pen and some watercolors. This is the first time I’ve been able to get any sort of vibrancy out of the paints, so I’m happy with that. And the composition isn’t terrible.
My lines got a little out of control in a couple of spots. I didn’t realize until after I scanned this that everything is skewed a little off-vertical. All those years of keeping my wallet in the same back pocket must be catching up to me.
I’m really starting to consider laying down a pencil underdrawing before I drop in the ink on these. But tonight was really about forcing my butt up off the couch and spending a little time with the sketchbook. Every little bit helps, right?
I probably should have worked a little more shadow into the side of the pasta box. There’s really no visual cue about the direction of light at all other than the small ground shadow.
And I picked entirely the wrong red for the pasta sauce. But the only other red I have is Alizarin Crimson, and I wanted to try to stay with a purely transparent, non-staining pallet (only three colors here: Rose Madder Genuine, Cobalt Blue, and Aureolin); which did come in really handy when some of the red bled into not-red territory.
Color mixing is a real weak point for me. I know I should make some color wheels and do some paint chips, but that is so boring and tedious, I’m not sure I could bring myself to do it. I know I’ll have to do it at some point, but I can feel my back tighten up just thinking about it.
This is my bike helmet. It protects my noggin’ from damage when/if I fall off my bike.
I think I missed the mark in terms of conveying the three-dimensional form. I know one mistake I made was introducing a second blue paint which was darker, but not representative of the shadow of the first blue. Then I tried to tone it down a bit by glazing over with orange, but it must have had too much yellow because it turned my blue to green. Also, my shadows are not anywhere near dark enough — too much water, I suppose.
Probably a bit too ambitious for me. Anyway, something to try again later, once I get a better handle on the paints.
Everyday Matters Challenge #221 is “Draw a Handheld Game”.
Anyone of a certain age will be sure to recognize this (holy crap, did I just say that?!). These electronic games from Mattel were really the first of their kind. You can tell this one wasn’t mine, because we still have it. I think all of mine are rotting in the bottom drawer of some retired teacher’s desk.
Surprisingly, it still works. I didn’t play it long enough to see if it still creates that smell of cooking electronics that reminds me of Christmas morning. I must say, though, it is not as fun to play as it was back in the day.
The yellow (actually, raw sienna) is a little aggressive on the highlight side of the game. Sure, the plastic case has yellowed a little over time, but not quite as badly as I’ve depicted here.
I’ve noticed a tendency in my paintings to shift a bit too far into the greens. I’m trying get some decent neutral grays, but I find mixing them to be a huge challenge for some reason. I’ll blame this on a touch of color blindness, but I’m hoping practice will help me overcome that.
Believe it or not, this is what the top of my dryer looks like. You don’t even want to know what the cleaning supply shelf looks like. And yes, that is two spray bottles of the same cleaner. There’s a third one sitting on top of the washer. I suppose some things (like taco cheese), no matter how much you have, when you go to the grocery you think, “I wonder if I am out of that? Better buy some just in case.”
After another week completely getting away from me, I got a note from Blade over at The Artistic Biker reminding me that we’re supposed to get together for a little critique session soon. I haven’t even looked at my sketchbook in almost 10 days… panic sets in. Nothing like a deadline to get your butt in gear!
Of course, by the time I can actually get around to doing any sort of drawing, it is dark outside. So I am, once again, relegated to the great indoors.
I’m actually quite happy with this one. It is, by far, the most complex composition I’ve tackled. And I did this one without a net – no pencil, no eraser (I don’t usually erase anyway, so really not a big deal I guess). I went into it really worried about keeping my proportions correct and trying to get the perspective right. I know it’s not perfect, but it’s not too bad either.
Before I added the color, I took a quick scan of the pen drawing (just in case I screwed things up). This represents about a half hour of work.
The next hour and a half was highlighted by playing with my watercolors. I bought those things with the intention of spending the month of March learning how to use them. Then charcoal caught my attention, and now it is May. Funny how that works.
The one thing I wish I hadn’t done was so much shading with the pen. It helps to visualize things as the drawing progresses, but it really sort of competes with the paint in a way that I’m not completely thrilled with. Still, the scope of this painting is beyond anything I’ve done in a long time, so I’ll count that as win.
In keeping with the theme of the day, which apparently is “Washington DC Architecture”, I have sketched the Jefferson Memorial.
This is a tough one, because a significant portion of the light comes from inside the building. I opted for the pen and ink + watercolor approach on this one, and I sort of wish I had left the pen and ink out of it. Oh well, live and learn.
Sunday morning in the U.S. means political talk shows on every major network. And every one of them, it seems, is set against a backdrop of the U.S. Capitol Dome.
I’m thinking that March will be a good month to really work on learning to use watercolors. This painting was done using 2 colors (Winsor Blue and Yellow Ochre) from my Cotman travel set (my thanks to Kate Johnson and Phyllis who commented on my last post that I should use less water). I purposely left the colors largely unmixed just see what the effect would be.
I really admire the work done by the contributors over at Urban Sketchers, and I look forward to warmer weather so I can get outside to sketch some architecture. In the meantime, I have plenty of work to do.
I don’t know what it is about food-related subjects, but I seem to have an obsession with them. Here’s another rendition of the eggs I sketched in pen & ink last week. I think this one came out quite a bit nicer.
Ever since I got my watercolor kit, I’ve been disappointed by the quality of the color — they just don’t seem as vibrant as I want them to be. I’ve been wondering if that is because (a) they are dried pan colors, (b) they are student-grade paints (the Cotman line from Winsor & Newton), (c) I don’t know what I’m doing, or (d) all of the above. So I decided I would try artist-grade watercolor from a tube.
Because artist-grade watercolors are not cheap, and because I didn’t know how much of my problem was related to the paint, I didn’t want to break the bank on a whole pallet full of new colors. One tube would be enough to experiment with.
I chose lamp black. Yeah, yeah, I know… you aren’t supposed to use black from a tube. But it was a color that I didn’t already have in my pallet, and it seemed like a good color to play with while I decide whether I’m going to splurge on some “real” colors.
Here’s what I found:
First, while it is true that I don’t quite know what I’m doing, it turns out that the consistency of paint from a tube is very different from the consistency of reconstituted pan paint. Again, this might be due to the difference in artist-grade paint vs. student-grade paint; but the difference is akin to the difference between basketballs and bellybuttons.
Second, the paint from the tube is vibrant. It is easy to get good variations from the lightest light to darkest dark. I’ve never had this kind of positive experience with my pan paints.
Third, even though it seems like you are spending a fortune on paint ($7 for a tiny 5ml tube), you use a surprisingly small amount of paint. This egg painting is 5.5 x 8.5 inches, and the amount of paint I used would fit comfortably on the head of a roofing nail.
As excited as I am about what I’ve learned from this little experiment, I won’t be racing out to replace all my paints just yet. Now that I’ve seen what the consistency of my paint should be like, I’ve got a lot more experimenting to do to see if I can get that same consistency out of my pans (if you’ve got any tips, post ‘em in the comments).
What better way to beat the cold than to “Think Warm”? In this case, I’m thinking Jamaica, mon.
I gave myself a couple of days off. I desperately needed the break. Tonight’s effort was not exactly a triumphant comeback (it is almost bedtime after all), but I kinda like it.
I was thinking about adding a pen-and-ink outline; but given the amount of color, I think it may actually distract. I just wish I could get a little more contrast out of my watercolors. I wonder how much of this has to do with using the back side of the watercolor paper (yes, I know I’m being a cheapskate!)?
Media: Cotman watercolors and B pencil.
Winter isn’t done yet — we’re supposed to get a bunch of snow overnight. I’ll be glad when we can stop opening this closet every day.
My parents sent me a gift certificate to the Dick Blick art supply store, so today I went shopping. I went there with the intention of buying a set of good colored pencils and few black permanent markers in varying thicknesses (including a brush tip, which I’ve never used before).
As I perused the aisles lusting after much of what I saw, I came across a Niji waterbrush. I’ve read several blogs that espouse the wonderfulness of these things, so I grabbed one. I wasn’t sure how well I would like it, but I figured for six bucks, how wrong could I go?
Promptly after I finished my shopping, someone in my stomach decided to stage a minor uprising — no doubt in protest over being fed a spicy burrito instead of a salad. I was certain that I wouldn’t have a chance to play with my new toys. But no matter how badly I feel, I couldn’t resist spending even just a few minutes playing.
This is my entry for Everyday Matters Challenge #39 — Draw your toothbrush. I’m beginning to notice a preponderance of mouth-related subjects recently; I wonder if I should speak to someone about that.
Since I’m not feeling 100%, I didn’t spend much time at all on this. The perspective is way off, the line is sketchy and weak, the colors are wildly inaccurate; but that wasn’t the point tonight. Tonight was all about playing with my brush-tipped marker and my waterbrush.
I’m not sure how I feel about the brush-tipped marker yet. Since I wasn’t fully engaged in the drawing process, I probably shouldn’t rush to judgment on the merits of this new tool.
However, I am absolutely in love with the waterbrush. I know my work has not been particularly colorful up to this point. That’s in large part due to me just not being able to work quickly with my watercolor set. This little wonder is a plastic miracle. There will still be a lot of black & white work coming from me (the foundation of a good painting is a good drawing, and I still need to develop the basics), but I guarantee you will be seeing a lot more color work in the near future.
The colored pencils are still in their tin. They require sharpening before I can use them, and that seems like entirely too much work at the moment. Maybe tomorrow night I’ll feel a little more energetic and will be able to do something with them.
Despite the cold, today was sunny. The dentist on the corner has a nice green awning that catches the shadow of the traffic light when the sun hits it just right.
There are parts of this that I am really happy with, and parts that I’d rather forget. All part of the learning experience, I suppose.
In particular, I wish I’d left the building (brick, awning, etc.) a whole lot more pale to give some additional contrast to the light pole and shadow. I was impatient, though (this is getting be a theme), and was trying to shortcut the process by guessing how dark it would come out on the first pass instead of working in layers. And the more I worked the painting, the less straight my lines got. I know better; that’s what really bugs me.
Here is my palette — an entry for Everyday Matters Challenge #190. It is a Winsor & Newton Cotman travel set that I picked up at Dick Blick a couple months ago. It hasn’t seen much use yet, but I think that will change.
I’ve heard a lot of good things about Arches watercolor paper, so today I bought a watercolor block of cold-pressed 140 pound paper (7 x10 inches). That’s what I used for this painting. I really like not having to prep the paper in any way. It’s nice to do a painting without fighting with curling paper.