These are really small, 3.5x5.5 inches, even smaller than postcards (4x6) but make for good practice. . With these, I was trying a few things out. I wanted to mix colors directly on the paper (wet on wet), glaze transparent washes over dried washes (wet on dry) and try out my new Lamy fountain pen.
This is my favorite one of the series below. It is the only one using ink. Unfortunately, the Lamy ink is not water proof, so the ink bled (which did create nice dark washes). I mixed the sky and clouds directly on the paper and you can see more color transition and gradation than I am normally able to achieve.
Mosquito Creek, Olympic National Park, WA
watercolor and ink on paper 3.5x5.5
I was a little impatient with this one and the color from the baby moose bled into the background, making it rather blurry. I mixed the trees in the foreground on the paper and when I did let the water dry, did several glazes of greens and browns on top to try and create the illusion of more distance. I think this one was semi-successful.
2 Moose, 1 Blurry, Isle Royale National Park, MI
watercolor on paper 3.5x5.5
The above two pictures used photo references while this one did not. I was very heavy handed with the water and flooded the paper. However, I really like the flows of color and the pigmentation that occurred organically as a result. The sky, clouds and foreground colors were all mixed on the wet, wet paper.
Golden Sunset (or Sunrise?)
watercolor on paper 3.5x5.5
The reference photo I used was cropped and only showed half of the moose. Rather than fill the caboose of the moose myself, I decided to leave half a moose. It gives it a weird, ethereal vibe that I quite like, especially with the light washes.
As with the backyard tree, I used a simple color palette of browns (raw sienna, burnt umbar and van dyke brown) but added a splash of green for contrast and pop.
Pen & ink and watercolor on 246 lbs acrylic linen paper 9x12
Here is the initial sketch using winsor & newton peat brown ink and kuretake comic pen nib G model. Lately, I have been using a variety of markers to draw as they are convenient and portable. I forgot how wonderful it is to draw with a dip pen and nibs. You cannot produce the variety of weighted lines with a marker that you can with a nib. Much of line work is obscured by the watercolor washes, but that is okay. It was still fun to do them.
