Scotland Vacation - Glasgow

I did not do as much painting/sketching while I was in Scotland as I intended, but I did do a few pieces.  Just too much to see and too much to do.  T did take a ton of beautiful pictures, so I have a plethora of source material to use for future paintings.

Below is one of the few watercolors I did.  It is not the most dynamic view of the Glasgow Cathedral (the best views had me standing out in traffic) but it is one of the best urban painting I have ever done.

                            Glasgow Cathedral watercolor, pen & ink on paper 8.5X5.5

On my first day in Glasgow I sought out  Mother India's Cafe for lunch (it was awesome, T and I ate at its sister restaurant in Edinburgh. . .twice, it was that good).  Sitting at the restaurant gave me a good view of Kelvingrove.  Below is the quick sketch. 

        Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum, pen & kiowa pecan ink on paper 3.5X5.5   


While in the Kelvingrove did do two sketches with water soluble ink (nice shading) and a water brush.  It was a great museum and I spent the entire afternoon.  I wish I had done more sketches of the Great Irish Deer (Elk). I admit to not being familiar with this particular megafauna but looking at its antlers and their 8.9 foot span, I can see how the legends of the Irish Wild Hunt were started.

                       Giant Irish Deer skeletal pen & ink on paper 5.5X8.5

And here is a sketch of the statue of Robert the Bruce (at Bannockburn).  Never made it to Stirling Castle (next time)

                                 Brian Boru statue pen & ink on paper 5.5X8.5

Feeling Froggy

A bit of illustration and a bit of abstraction.  All froggy.

                            Pen & Ink and watercolor on 140lbs paper 9x12

Tree in the Abstract

A bit of abstraction and negative space.  I had other intentions when I started this but liked the result. . .

                                         Watercolor on 180lbs paper

Throwing paint down

Been spending the majority of my creative time playing with inks and calligraphy (not posting everything) and have not painted much as a result.  I really wanted to throw down some paint and have fun on beautiful day.  I am most happy with two things: 1) The background green is mixed on the paper not tube green like the tree foliage (I put down hansa yellow medium and dropped french ultramarine and cobalt blue to mix) and 2) I am getting better at spattering paint.  

                              Watercolor, pen & ink on paper 5.5X8.25

The Rule about Bears

A simple ink sketch using two of my favorite brown inks with a little bit of watersoluble crayon to round it out.

                    Pen & ink, neocolor watersoluble crayons on 180lbs paper

Fun with new ink

Trying out new samples of Pilot ink.  From left to right is Ama-Iro (sky blue), Ajisai (hydrangea), Shin-ryoku (forest green) and Yu-yake (sunset).  These inks are quite vibrant and make nice washes.  I put shin-ryoku in a new Lamy (neon green) and have enjoyed writing with it.  Once I finish the chiku-rin in a different pen, I am going to try the ama-iro. I love how intense the tree in the second picture turned out.

San Diego

Lot's of conferences in San Diego but not lots of time to sketch.  One on the plane (the pen kinda sorta exploded, hence the dark arm on the one passenger) and one from the hotel.  Both sketches are small and fast..

                                                Pen & Ink on paper3.5x5.5 in

                                                    Pen & Ink on paper3.5x5.5 in

Back to the Middle Brook

A short hike off the beaten path for a different view of the Middle Brook.  Forgot to bring water, so it was fortunate I brought waterbrushes (pre-filled with water).  Used pen and ink, watercolor and crayon for this piece. 

               Watercolor, pen & ink and watersoluble crayon on paper 5.5 x 16.0

Sketches in Brown Ink

Some random sketches/doodles using Noodler's Kiowa Pecan ink. While it may not be water resistant and therefore not good for water color under drawings, I like taking advantage of its beautiful shading (shifting from dark brown to an almost yellowy raw sienna) and water solubility to create fun washes.

            Blue Pumpkin nib with Noodler's Kiowa Pecan Ink (and a bit of water color)

Calligra-Friday

                        Blue Pumpkin Nib with Noodler's Kiowa Pecan Ink

Bridge over the Middle Brook

Another beautiful Sunday and another opportunity to paint.  I am enjoying the surreal effect and look of watercolor on top of "activated" ink from the elegant writer.

              "activated" elegant writer marker and watercolor on 140lbs block 9X12

Calligra-Friday and Backyard Tree!

Calligra-Friday and my neighbor's tree collide in today's post.  I wanted to try out my new Caran D'Ache watersoluble wax pastel crayons, and what better subject that my favorite tree?  Exactly.  And to complete the sketch, I found this quote from Hal Borland.  The quote was a perfect compliment, especially using Pilot Isoshizuku chiku-rin ("Bamboo Forest" yellow green) ink. 

                     Watersoluble crayons and chiku-rin (Isoshizuku) ink on 180lbs paper

The Brause No. 361 "Blue Pumpkin" nib is notoriously difficult to control for mere mortals like myself (the nib exhibits a great degree of flexing but holds limited amounts of ink when dipped and therefore runs out of ink quickly).  People have created nib reservoirs for the Pumpkin (and the Rose) with masking tape.  It works, but is only a temporary solution.  However, I saw someone on the interwebs take a reservoir from Brause Bandzug italic nib and attach it to the Pumpkin.  And wow, does that little reservoir make a huge difference.  Glad I have my own personal McGuyver in Tina who kindly did the nib "surgery" for me.

Calligra-Friday

One of my favorite quotes from my favorite book.  The nib fought me on this.  I tried a temporary nib reservoir (but the tape fell off) and without it the ink did not flow well. Not my best effort (I need to work on my flair). . .but not bad.

                       Murasaki-Shikibu (Isoshizuku) ink on rhodia dot paper

Lake Creighton

This past Sunday was a beautiful day.  The perfect day for a hike and a painting.  For this piece I once again used the elegant writer pens for the initial sketch.  And unlike the eagle, I added watercolor over the top of the activated pen.  This marks a bit of a departure from my normal style (what ever that is) as this looks more surreal than anything else I have ever done (which is kinda cool).  There is a bit of "mud" where watercolor wash met still wet pen ink (I need to be more patient) but over all, I am quite pleased with this. 

           "activated" elegant writer marker and watercolor on 9X12 140lbs paper

Eagle Eye View

I saw this awesome instructional video by Karlyn Holman on the Cheap Joe's youtube channel on how to make incredible and unique washes using the Speedball Elegant Writer calligraphy pens.  I never would have thought to try this, but it is so cool.  I love how the ink creates blue-gray washes when the ink is activated with water.  And if you dab a particularly wet wash with a napkin, it lifts up pink!  How crazy is that?!? All of this great gradation of color from one pen. I initially intended to add watercolor to the sky but decided this picture did not need color.  To show how wild the washes are, I posted the black and white drawing is below.

                          "activated" elegant writer marker on 9X12 140lbs paper

                               The simple black and white of the drawing.

Just Doodling

Just doodling. . .and some random practice lettering.

Calligra-Friday Begins!!

Those who have seen my handwriting are always surprised to hear I did calligraphy (in a time before computer fonts).  It has been decades since I have put nib to paper in a meaningful way.  To flex those muscles (and play with new toys), I have begun practicing.  Every Friday I will try to post the results of my practice by writing out a passage, poem or quote from the many books I find inspiring.  This one comes from "A Guide for the Advanced Soul: A Book of Insight" by Susan Hayward (the quote has no attribution).

Not Quite Spring -- Wherein I learn that watercolor paint does indeed freeeze

That calender may say it is Spring, but the weather is not quite Spring.  Returning to Duke Farm to paint in the freezing cold (literally; more on that later) seemed like a good idea.  I have not painted much of late and needed to be outside, so off to Duke Farms I go.  It was supposed to be in the 40's this morning but was 25 degrees when I stepped into the park (the iPhone weather app, apparently, does not always tell the truth).   As I set down to paint and started mixing the colors, ice crystals began precipitating out of the wash as the water, literally froze on the pallet. It would have been cool if it was not so cold.  Ice crystals clung to the brushes and glomped on the painting, making the process somewhat strange.  I completed 90% of the painting on site and added finishing details in the cafe.  All in all, it turned out well, but I truly wish for Spring to really begin. 

                                         Watercolor, Pen & Ink on 140 lbs block 9X12

Practicing Calligraphy

Have not been painting or drawing much but I have been playing with my calligraphy nibs.  Mostly, I have been writing nonsense words in a notebook but I have tried more elaborate, design type writing.  All of these were done with the Brause EF66 nib.  The left two words used Omas New Gray ink, while the top right used J Herbin Violette Pensee and the bottom right used Pilot Iroshizuku Murazaki-Shikibu (Japanese Beautyberry).

Try to forgive the "typo".  :-P

Neighbor's Tree with Snow

The last (hopefully) snow storm of the winter provided the opportunity to paint my neighbor's tree covered in snow.  I tried something different and chose colored pastel paper, which strictly speaking, is not made for washes.  I taped it down (you can see the perfect straight lines at the top and bottom) and kept stretching it after each wash as the fibers in the paper swelled with water.  The painting was finished off using white gouache (which I recently found I had been mispronouncing all my life), using both sponge and brush.

                 Watercolor and gouache 9x12 on 75 lbs Canson Mi-Teintes pastel pater