Enjoying this not-using ink thang…
getting tired of flowers though they are great subject to learn while doing —
so cheery, especially in the middle of the night!
For some who don’t know, these are not pansies.
They are tiny, just a bit larger than a violet, and come up on tall strong stems.
And as you know from my earlier post, in many colors.
Pentalic Aqua Journal, with a Pentalic 2B woodless pencil,
Sennelier, Holbein, QoR and Daniel Smith watercolors.
Week Two, no time to think,
so busy, loving the simplicity of
pencil, pen, ink, waterbrush.
in memory of my baby brother on what would be his birthday…
Halfway through, fast sketching,
loosing inhibitions!
ABOUT SKETCHPACK PROJECT: The project began in 2011 to get folks to draw daily.
The sketchpack is a small zigzag journal with two usable sides, allowing one to sketch on both sides of 15 ‘pages’ to complete the month of August. There was much enthusiasm and the project is now repeated yearly in August, with a Facebook page for us to share as we go along.
(The page is closed for viewing but you can join to play along!)
There is an Exhibition held in October at the Artsauce Studio in Observatory,
Cape Town, South Africa of mostly local Sketchpacks!
Drawn on handmade Canson folding journal with Jinhao pen with blue Diamine ink,
Noodler’s pen with De Atramentis Tobacco ink, Lamy Al-Star with Diamine Ancient Copper, and Platinum Carbon pen with Platinum Carbon ink. + Waterbrush.
Sometimes when doing a lot of sketches one catches your heart — for me —
and this is one of those. I love this one. Done for the Sketchpack Project.
Altar object, Buddha.
Drawn on handmade Canson folding journal with Ahab pen with Goulet nib and
De Atramentis Tobacco ink+ Waterbrush. Doesn’t get any simpler than that….
Thanks to a month of very fast watercolors I’ve lost some inhibitions…
or left my editor in the dust.
I quite like this freeing fast sketching, and throwing on of color!
A page from our San Antonio River Walk:
Some lovely flowers that grow along the River Walk to break up the page.
To let the lovers meander, I imagine, looking for a place to have a nosh.
And the page.
Moleskin 8×11 watercolor journal, with a Pentalic 2B woodless pencil,
Lamy Al-Star with De Atramentis Document black ink,
and Platinum Carbon pen with Platinum Carbon ink;
Sennelier, Holbein, QoR, M.Graham, Greenleaf & Blueberry, and Daniel Smith watercolors.
My mom taught me about Mariposa Lilies; her mom taught her.
We used to find them on walks with Cindy above South Coast Hospital.
“Never pick them; they are endangered.”
They thrive in fairly dry hills with just enough water, but not lush green fields.
I think, like California Poppies, they are fragile and wouldn’t last long in water.
Some things are fleeting and so you stop in the moment and breathe them in:
Making a memory.
In truth, they are the palest lavender, but the light bounces yellow off the stamens, making them an odd color mix of pale lavender and pale yellow or peach…
Pentalic Aqua Journal, with a Pentalic 2B woodless pencil,
Sennelier, Holbein, QoR and Daniel Smith watercolors.
So cheery! So life affirming —
Happy little faces that pop up year after year. Edible, they are lovely tossed
onto the top of a summer salad; Surprise!
So many variations in color, from pale white with a tinge of purple, to bright cobalt blue-violet, to snappy orange!
They remind me of my mom…
These guys were a little overworked but I still like them… A lesson in not having enough of the background wet so the colors ran properly.
But ooooh, pretty colors!
Pentalic Aqua Journal, with a Pentalic 2B woodless pencil,
and Sennelier, Holbein, QoR, M.Graham and Daniel Smith watercolors.
I love these sketch-bags.
This is what mine looked like when it was new (and I have another one as of today).
I picked stitches selectively with a stitch picker (it is good to be married to a tailor-man) on one side of the bag to make the pockets the sizes I wanted.
Understand that all the bags are sewn in different ways pocket-wise so
I advise you to move slowly in this stitch picking thang
but at least if you make a mistake the bags are only $11
and you can always get a second one….
Then it was perfect. Okay not quite.
But I really am not a beige gurl. Give me grey.
Give me red, orange, green, black, but not beige (and not white either.)
So knowing that De Atramentis Document Turquoise ink dries completely waterproof on cotton paper, I decided to sponge it all over my cotton burlap beige bag.
That worked for the color, very petty, but it kept coming off on my hands even when dry.
blue hands!
So I tried soaking it in a mordant (hey I know a bit about dying)
and that didn’t help either.
I tried washing it several times to see if I could wash excess out.
No dice, still getting blue hands.
So the moral of this story is that you can’t dye a cotton bag with waterproof ink…
Now I will go the old school route and use regular old stupid dyes.
*sigh* into the trash, as I can’t stop it from coming off no matter what…
Pentalic Aqua Journal, with a Pentalic 2B woodless pencil, Platinum Carbon pen,
Lamy Al-Star with De Atramentis Document, Jinhao with Diamine blue,
and Sennelier, Holbein, QoR and Daniel Smith watercolors.
This sketchpack is going ot be all drawings. I almost passed on Di’s challenge but I had a good time last year! Making it simple, and all about the line —
and a waterbrush when blending non-waterproof inks.
MOST of these are near-gestural, under 15 minutes (not the Vajra/Drilbu).
ABOUT SKETCHPACK PROJECT: The project began in 2011 to get folks to draw daily.The sketchpack is a small zigzag journal with two usable sides, allowing one to sketch on both sides of 15 ‘pages’ to complete the month of August. There was much enthusiasm and the project is now repeated yearly in August, with a Facebook page for us to share as we go along. (The page is closed for viewing but you can join to play along!) There is an Exhibition held in October at the Artsauce Studio in Observatory,Cape Town, South Africa of mostly local Sketchpacks!
Drawn on handmade Canson folding journal
with Noodler’s pen with De Atramentis Tobacco ink + Waterbrush,
Lamy Al-Star with De Atramentis Document black ink,
Lamy Al-Star with Diamine Ancient Copper+ Waterbrush,
and Platinum Carbon pen with Platinum Carbon ink.
I’ve been married twice. My first husband died. You know how you don’t know what you don’t know until you experience it?
I didn’t know how unconnected I was in my first marriage.
I had doubts about getting married; everyone told me it was normal. Maybe. Or maybe the right man was living right down
Siskiyou Blvd and I should run to him. Quickly.
Gain a dozen great years with my destiny!
My first marriage wasn’t a “bad” marriage. I continued my
years-of-living-alone ways and didn’t know what I didn’t know.
We argued in unsatisfying ways, often never getting to the other side of issues.
I many ways I was unhappy, but didn’t know why exactly.
I kept working on myself, a Buddhist pathway.
I met Mitchell nine months after Bob dropped dead.
Mitchell walked in my front door to find me.
I knew and he knew and we were together within days, non-stop,
giddy with having found each other, and have been inseparable ever since.
As we grew toward each other with joy, overcoming the incredible hurls thrown at us, I began to know what I didn’t know in my first marriage.
I can BE myself with him — almost as I am in private. I don’t need to retreat —
I can be in creative mode with him hanging around doing whatever.
We can disagree and come to resolution. Usually without even fighting about it.
Forgiveness comes easily.
His happiness is, in many ways, more important to me than mine.
I don’t mean I lose myself in him; I want him to be treated well, to be loved, to be cherished as I cherished him.
I want his dreams to come to fruition.
All the corny lines from all the corny love songs make me think of him,
and I don’t mind that he changes the words to every great love song into
silly squirrel songs that I can’t get out of my head.
( I draw the line at Andrea Bocelli.)
I sing the demanding-coffee-chant to move him to get up with me in the morning,
and after working all day together, the best-time-of-the-day is curling up in bed together.
Our wedding rings are cherished because of what they symbolize!
I am a big believer in
signs and rituals.
Early in our living together, our ritual
coffee pot, the one
over which many of our first coffee songs
were sung, broke — just before a momentous
life change for us. “Oh NO,” I wailed, “Its a sign!” “Yes,” Mitchell said, “Its a sign we need a new coffee pot.”
(I learned not to put symbolism in fragile
glass press pots.)
This pragmatism is a good thing in him, because when I first stepped into arthritis
and could not wear my rings, he said, “Its a sign that you have arthritis!”
I took my rings off and began wearing them in a silk pouch around my neck. Always.
Now he has some of the same in his joints. I added his ring to mine around my neck.
As we realize our hands will never be the same size again,
we are having a ritual resizing of the rings this week. It’s a sign of a happy marriage.
Cherished Blogfest Starts today!
July 29, 30, 31! Tell us about a cherished object: post a painting / drawing / photo, and in 500 words or less, tell us why you cherish it.
Pentalic Aqua Journal, with a Pentalic 2B woodless pencil, Platinum Carbon pen,
Lamy Al-Star with De Atramentis Document,
and Sennelier, Holbein, QoR and Daniel Smith watercolors.
Thurman Street is a nice “hike” up into the West Hills.
Mitchell and I have been searching for good doors, and I have to say,
Great houses but such mediocre doors as to be boring!
However, many wealthy people who built these older homes had cars, and these are mostly small, buried in the side of the hill,the older garage doors built into the hills are pretty cool, and this is one. The garage itself looks like it should belong in Southern California, very Spanish Stucco, then there is a funny plaque
over the lovely wooden doors, a bespeckled man with a bird on his head.
Tell us the story you tell about one of your cherished objects.
Post a painting / drawing / photo, and tell us why you cherish it, 500 words or less,
posted on the July 29th, 30th or 31st. When the Cherished Blogfest goes live on the 29th, enter your blog post entry into the Linky List!
I'd love it if you shared this; please mention my blog name!
Hot Lips Pizza parked outside our favorite sushi bar…
Stopping in for a bite?
In the final days of the first World Watercolor Month!
Only a few days until Cherished Blogfest July 29, 30, 31!
Tell us about a cherished object: post a painting / drawing / photo, and in 500 words or less, tell us why you cherish it.
Pentalic Aqua Journal, with a Pentalic 2B woodless pencil, Platinum Carbon pen,
Lamy Al-Star with De Atramentis Document,
and Sennelier, Holbein, QoR and Daniel Smith watercolors.
What do I do when I am not playing with watercolors, you ask? I’m not retired! I work full time! This is the other me, where I work with my husband Mitchell on antiques. This is a different kind of … Continue reading →
Because of this great video I am taking a moment to thank the artists who have influenced me in the last two years. Not the ones who steered me toward good materials or a technique — they get thanked too — as much as those that influenced me. Gwenn, for keeping it in my head that I might not want to get dragged into realism tho I was doing a lot of it to learn watercolors and Felix Scheinberger, whose chapter on developing your style is perfectly brilliant. Marc Taro Holmes — you can’t see it, but he has influenced me a good deal. Pat Southern-Pearce, whose journal style is amazing. Rueven Dattner, as I borrowed this idea of using colored ink lines. Sanjeev Joshi, who keeps me loose and playing with layers.
Gwenn is responsible for me looking at copyright two years ago, settling comfortably (mostly) with Creative Commons 4.0, and since, I’ve noticed a few things:
Most of my favorite blogger artists do not put their names across their images, and make their images a decent size, which to me says “I want you to see my work and I’m not too worried about being ripped off.”
A few artists I know have been ripped off in various ways — two by having their items created as wall art for a commercial establishment (who immediately took it down, without lawyers, which tells me decorators ripped them off, not the restaurant folks). A couple have had a person post their art on FB as if she did the artwork. (Kind of sad, no?) One of the artists then took to making their images so small, that now I don’t visit the blog very much. When I want to see an artists blog, I want to see how they did what they did — If I love them I want to study them. I don’t want to copy them, but I want to look closely at brushstrokes, color mixing, whatever.
One of them got so snarky and defensive about the whole thing that it comes across in their writing even still, and is not a pleasure to read.
And, btw, all of them had copyrights on their work, for all the good it did.
I don’t fault people for Copyright, and I go back and forth on it from time to time. I tend to hit copyright when I have a piece in mind for something else, so I am not quite where Gwenn is in her freedoms.
Anywho, look at her book (which you can buy or read online, free) “You Share Good.”
I'd love it if you shared this; please mention my blog name!
Technically I’ve done over 30 paintings already for World Watercolor Month, which is good, because I have so much work to do in the next week I’d get behind. None are masterpieces, but they were good experiments, which I think is a good goal for a challenge such as this.
Today I will show two more.
Jean-Pierre Garau allowed me to use his lovely image of Delphiniums.
I continue my experiments with non-waterproof inks, mixing with watercolors and then painting with them all by themselves.
In the first image I under-painted with a contrasting watercolor, then overlaid the inks after the watercolor was dry. The inks didn’t like that much, and
my lovely wet Jinhao wanted to stop working. I won’t do that again unless it is a dip pen.
My pen was much happier when I let it lay down directly on paper, then used a wet brush to move the color around, and added a touch of Opera Pink in the mix.
Pentalic Aqua Journal, Platinum Preppie Pen with De Atramentis Document ink;
Jinhao pen retrofitted with a Goulet nib and Diamine ink, and Daniel Smith watercolors.
Only a few days until Cherished Blogfest July 29, 30, 31!
Tell us about a cherished object: post a painting / drawing / photo, and in 500 words or less, tell us why you cherish it.
These sketches came from a necessity to keep to my goal of a painting a day. They were busy days, and my ulterior motive was to continue to learn about both runny or non-waterproof inks and also wet-on-wet techniques. Wet-on-wet means I have to work fast. The background of blue, above, a lapis-cobalt-turquoise mix, was not dry when i began my fast impression (from memory) of a famous Buddha. I need to pick my pen up faster — the little blobs are from slow habits — but I like the overall effect.
Then, confident, I tried again below and CLOWN BUDDHA was born.
She’s a little scary. A little too much mascara? Deranged mommy dearest?
Not a fan of clowns and here Buddha became one….
Both were completed in under ten minutes.
Pentalic Aqua Journal, my Amazing Jinhao with Diamine blue ink,
and Daniel Smith watercolors.
What object do you cherish?
Paint it and enter it in Cherished Blogfest July 29, 30, 31!
Tell us the story you tell about one of your cherished objects. Tell us what your object is, post a painting / drawing / photo, and tell us why you cherish it. 500 words, pictures, posted on the July 29th, 30th or 31st. Help us spread the word: save (right-click, save image) the badge, right, and place it on your sidebar. Tell your friends on social media. Hashtag: #cherishedblogfest.
When the Cherished Blogfest goes live on the 29th, enter your blog post entry into the Linky List.
I'd love it if you shared this; please mention my blog name!
Enjoying this not-using ink thang…
Pentalic Aqua Journal, with a Pentalic 2B woodless pencil,
D.Katie Powell Art 