Serious Panda

I don't know why this red panda is so serious* but apparently he is.

Drawn with Robert Oster Melon Tea (Visconti Dark Ages) and Burned Orange (Lamy Studio Terracotta) inks. 

                       Pen & Ink on 230 gsm 5.5x8.5 etchr sketchbook



*serious panda, sad flowers, and smiling bears. . .oh my!

Give Trees a Chance

More mixed media.  The tree is drawn with Birmingham Ink James Salk Serum Umber.  They are such fun inks. I like how this ink goes from a light toffee to a deep dark walnut brown, such a nice range of color.  The background and leaves are watercolor.

                        Pen & ink with watercolor on 5.5 x 8.5 on 140 lbs paper

                          Reference photo: Key West, somewhere by Sunset Key

And here is a little warm up. . .just playing around with puddles of color.

                                     Watercolor on 5.5 x 8.5 on 140 lbs paper

Purple Finch

Initially, I was not happy with this but became quite fond of it after it dried.  The breast of the finch in the reference photo* was much lighter and mostly white.  And while the bird was still wet, it really looked just too dark.  I thought I messed it up.

When it dried, however, the colors lightened up (as watercolor does).  The addition of few strokes of a white gel pen (plus some splashes of blue paint for good measure) helped the contrast and made for quite a striking composition.  I think I like it.

                         Watercolor over pen & ink 7x10 on 140 lbs paper

Same picture in pen and ink before the watercolors were applied.


*Photo reference: Birds & Blooms March 2018 (pg 28; Joe Stambaugh)

Madrid -- Palacio Di Cristal

Sketching buildings ain't my thing, but sometimes you gotta try and stretch, and do things that are not easy.  And sometimes buildings just catch your imagination.  The Palacio Di Cristal in Buen Retiro Park (literally, according to the wikipedia, "park of the pleasant retreat") in Madrid was one such building.  I did not have much time for sight seeing whilst in Spain, but I had to see this building.  There are many other interesting buildings and places within the park, but I thought this was the coolest.  

So under the barest of shade (it was another scorcher, around 100 degrees out), I sat and drew and painted for close to an hour.  Sometimes when I paint, people ask to take a picture, in Retiro park lots of people asked.  Despite the heat, it was a very lovely day.

                        Watercolor 11 x 8.5 on heavyweight paper 270 gsm

Below is an actual picture of the palace, and the pen & ink before the watercolors were applied.

How about dem apples

More doodles. . .pen and ink with simple watercolor washes

Doodling with watercolor sticks

Doodling and playing around with some water soluble inks (Diamine Damson, J Herbin Vert Empire) and Daniel Smith watercolor sticks (Moonglow, Quin Gold, Quin Red, Undersea Green, Hansa Yellow Medium) to see which colors/inks work together.  Not sure if I found that match, but some of these ink/color combos work really well together.

Throw Back Thursday -- Herk the Barbarian

Back in the '90's, my medium of choice was color pencil over pen & ink (sometimes using pastels for the background).  Line work was minimal, layered color pencils gave the drawings depth.  This was a departure from what I was doing previously, lots and lots of line work and cross-hatching (I am looking at you Frank Miller's Ronin), regardless of whether it was pencil or ink. 

Back in that day, the drawings were small, less than 8.5 x 11.  The two below were 11x17, a real stretch for me.  Covering that much paper with color pencil took time.  That is when I started experimenting with adding pastel (see the blue mountains).  Now I am mostly playing around with water color, pushing color around.  Very little in the way of drawing.  Sometimes it is fun to look back and see how my "style" has evolved. 

Unfortunately, this was long and before there were inexpensive scanners or digital cameras so I have few digital records of these drawings.  Most of those pictures are long gone, given away to anyone who asked.  But a few remain.  

I give you Herk the Barbarian and Silv. . .  
 

 

              Color pencil, pen & ink, and pastel on bristol 11 x 17 (board circa 1994)

                      Color pencil, pen & ink on bristol board 11x17 (circa 1993)