I remembered a photograph I had taken many moons ago at the JC Raulston Arboretum. It was a wonderful garden path wending its way through the garden. Here is the original reference photograph:
I particularly enjoy the shape of the walk way. So, I decided to use this as the reference and create a pen & ink with watercolor painting. I've not completed the painting. But I've done the pen & ink portion of the painting.
As you can see, I intentionally accentuated the perspective. I just love that shape and thought a little bit of emphasis would help others see how unique it is. But I'm pretty pleased with the plank of wood effect that I was able to create.
In addition to that change, I will change some of the background. For example I will probably add a phlox bed in front of some ornamental grass. I will use watercolors to create the impression of wood chips and pebbles. I should finish it some time tomorrow evening.
By the way, if you click on any painting in this blog, it presents you with a larger version. You can then exit by clicking on the "X" in the upper right hand corner of the window.
Well, as you can see, I decided against doing the ultra-realistic painting of a strawberry. Why? Did I think I would have problems doing that? Perhaps. But in all honesty, I just decided that I really love doing the pen & ink with watercolor. I *really* like it. So, that's exactly what I did.
Oddly, the color in this painting is much more vibrant in person than this scanned image. Ah, well, you get the idea behind it.
And since working on this painting put a song in my head, I thought I would share it with you:
Today is a day of reflection for me. 50 years ago we heard the now oft quoted "I Have a Dream" speech. Amazingly, it impacted a seven year old. So much of the world passes us without making an impression. But the depth and breadth of that dream spread hope to a young boy. Though I've not actively involved myself in civil rights, I have attempted to live by that dream. Throughout my life I attempted to befriend others and help all feel both welcome and valuable to others.
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr's dream helped change our world. Imagine that just five years later we would hear and accept from a science fiction show the concept of "Infinite Diversity in Infinite Combinations" (IDIC). Within a very short time from hearing the dream, the world had internalized it.
Sadly, the dream is not yet fulfilled. We must continue to stand against those forces that would cheapen the lives of others. They would take away the rights to hard won. Let us stand tall and actively resist such evil. Let us be counted among the dreamers of the world, who changed it for our better.
Well, the artwork is submitted. As I noted there are some really remarkable artists that have submitted work in the past. They submitted new works today. It should be interesting to see who gets what.
I'm just happy that I reached a point that I could submit a couple works to the show. I've not had any classes (other than YouTube videos and a painting course on DVD). While I've learned a lot from that, it's not the same as any sort of formal training. But it seems to suit me well. I enjoy learning new techniques.
Speaking of which, I happened to find a YouTube video of drawing a realistic strawberry. The artist, Anna Mason, offers an online workshop and shows, step by step, how to create realistic paintings. Though I do not think I will end up with "realism" as my own personal style, I am fascinated at the possibility of taking a very impressionistic art form and moving toward realism. I might see what the free membership provides and how what the results will be.
Here's the YouTube video if you are interested.
Additionally, next week I will start two courses that the Town of Cary offers. One is titled "Painting Fall Landscapes and Florals". The other is titled "Pen, Ink and Watercolor Painting". Should be interesting. As I noted, I love to learn new techniques and approaches.
I finished the framing of the Butterfly on Sunflower and the Ashworth Drugs. I affixed the entry tags for the Fine Arts League of Cary's 11th Annual Senior Show. Now to go down and wait in line tomorrow. They will accept the artwork from 1 to 3pm. I will probably try to arrive about 30 minutes early so I can submit both pieces. It's a first come, first serve arrangement for upto 55 pieces (with a maximum of two per person).
On the following Friday (August 30th) from 3 to 5pm there will be awards and a reception. That should be interesting. Previous years have seen some serious talent. So, while I don't really expect to win any awards, it will be interesting to see my work exhibited.
As you may have noted, the power of visual communication fascinates me. From my days doing presentations, I know that the most effective presentations often included few if any words. HP has a brochure about The Power of Visual Communication that discusses this.
It seems that the act of distilling information into visual format greatly increased the comprehension and retention of the audience. Why is that? Does it involve more portions of the brain? Or do we actually learn more by seeing and doing. That would seem to be the case. We retain more when there is both visual and oral communication.
Not only does retention increase with visual and oral communication, but we retain skills at a high level when we both see and do. People are hardwired to learn from others.
What does this have to do with a blog about watercolor and sketching? Well think about the act of communication via sketching or a watercolor painting. We can reduce the amount of detail to a bare minimum. Yet, the content of the scene comes loudly through the visual presentation. Our brains actively seek to understand the world we face. They see the sketch or painting and add the detail.
It's as if the sketch / painting taps into some secret pathway to your soul.
So, take the time to note the world around you. Note how much of the detail you actually see. I suspect it's a lot lower than you suspect.
Well, I attempted a simple sketch with Noodler's Ink. As you can see from the entry from my sketchbook the color and ability to spread it is quite good. Okay, the sketch is not anything phenomial. But that's not the point. My objective was to use four inks and create a quick pen&ink with colored wash. No watercolors. Just ink. I have two Noodler's Ink Ahab Flex pens (one with black and one with a gray blue). I have two ink fillable markers (one with green and one with sepia). Then I added a waterbrush to wash the ink into various shapes. I was even able to create the turquoise colored sea near the shoreline.
Yes, it's a very quick sketch and not something that I would want to frame. But the point is not that it's painting quality. The point is that these are a set of tolls that I can easily carry with me. Two pens and two markers and one waterbrush. Yup. This will work.
I would like to draw your attention the latest blog entry from The Seattle Sketcher. In that entry, he notes "When cameras aren’t allowed in a court of law, old-fashioned sketching can do the job of capturing the visual information we are accustomed to seeing in photos". While that's true, I contend that a good sketch can actually contain more information than just a photograph. And that's exactly what he manages to accomplish. Through additional notes and event he color choices, The Seattle Sketcher manages to capture far more information than is conveyed in just the picture of the courtroom proceeding.
As I start working on the mat for the Ashworth Drugs painting, I need to hit the books. Alto's EZ Mat cutters include (at an extra, but reasonable cost) three different books to help you understand how to create complex mats. I am essentially doing a single mat version of what they call a Photo Insert. And you can see why. It's a great way to frame both a group and individual photograph.
Of course, I hope to insert a poem and my "chop". The poem is a simple Haiku that helps express the ideas behind the painting. My "chop" is the combination of my three initials.
Sometime in the future, I hope to have a "chop" block made from that design. For this painting I will use my calligraphy nibs and create both the sheet for the poem and my chop. I need to finish this sometime during the weekend, since I want to submit this painting to the Fine Arts League of Cary's 11th Annual Senior Show. They will accept up to 55 pieces on a first come, first serve basis. They will accept a maximum of two pieces per person. With a little luck I will submit both the Ashworth Drugs and the Butterfly on Sunflower paintings.
I took a few minutes to tinker with some sketching techniques.
In the first sketch of the mountains, I used my fountain pen with Noodler's Black ink. I used a Pentel Aquawash waterbrush to wash the ink and create some shading.
With the second sketch of the mountains I used my Platinum Preppy marker with Noodler's Sepia ink and the fountain pen with Noodler's Black ink. Again, I used the waterbrush to wash the ink. Interestingly, the Sepia did not wash all that well. It did fine in the fountain pen. It appears the marker lays down a thinner layer of ink than a fountain pen. So, it dried faster.
With the third sketch, I combined the Noodler's Black ink from my fountain pen (again washed with the waterbrush) and the Sakura Pigma Micron color brush pens. I am VERY pleased with that sketch.
I had wondered if I should carry the color brushes in my sketchbook organizer. I think the answer is YES!. I can carry my fountain pen and the waterbrush without any problem. Of course, that presents the potential problem of leaks.
Hmmm... So I start to think about carrying a pocket protector now that I'm not doing technical things day in and day out?!? ... 8-) ... Talk about irony!
I am trying to develop the habit of always taking my sketchbook with me when I go outside. I can then make little sketches when I am waiting. I can always take a photo with my cellphone. But a sketchbook allows me to capture both my thoughts and the mood of a scene. I've often come back home only to wonder why I thought a photo was interesting.
And if I don't happen to see an interesting scene, I can always do some sketching exercises.
Here's an interesting video showing Cathy Johnson using mixed media sketches to capture various scenes she has seen. While these are good in themselves, even a simple sketch can capture the moment.
Here's the image of her completed work. Her completed sketch is far more impressive than my completed paintings.
It's not exciting, but it's important. Measure twice (or twenty times!) and cut once. Getting the measurements on for the Ashworth Drugs mat correct is important for me. So, I spent time redoing all of the calculations and measurements on the mat. Since I will be occupied with other activities this afternoon, tomorrow will be time to start working on cutting the mat.
Part of what I do during each day is spend time learning about watercolor painting as well as pen & ink sketching. This involves watching YouTube videos, reading books, and reading the work of various artists who are inclined to teach others.
During my reading time, I found the Hudson Valley Sketcher blog by Jamie Williams Grossman. She spent some time doing some Light Fastness Tests, where she showed how effective (or not) various "Light Fast" inks are during actual real world tests. For example, following photo shows what happens to ink that's exposed to sunlight for five months. Yikes!
Clearly it will be important to use glass or acrylic in frames that block UV light. This will help avoid this degradation over time. It won't eliminate it. As a result, I will need to focus on more light fast inks. The good news is that she found some that did stand up well.
So, a definite shout out to Jamie for sharing her work and knowledge. It helps all of us be better at what we enjoy doing.
First, a quick shout out to The Goulet Pen Company. In my quest to learn more, they have done more through their blogs and YouTube videos to provide educational material. Making it even more remarkable is that they take the time to provide detailed answers as I was exploring the idea of using a fountain pen to do pen & ink sketches.
I've always been fascinated with pen & ink sketches. You see them from court room reporters, where they are not allowed to use cameras, but can capture the scenes via pen & ink and watercolor washes. What's fascinating to me is how some simple lines and a wash of color can convey so much information.
So, when I decided to try pen & ink drawing, I did a lot of research of various tools. Or as I discovered line & wash as the Brits call it. Or if you want to merge the two, pen & wash. Along the way, I found the following YouTube video, that showed an artist doing a sketch in Venice, Italy. What was fascinating to me is that he was using just a fountain pen and a water brush to create a "painting" type effect with his pen & ink drawing.
Clearly, this had real potential. I had a calligraphy pen with a sketching nib, plus a waterproof black ink for calligraphy. I decided to attempt a fairly quick sketch. The following was that attempt:
My next effort combined both the pen & ink and the watercolor:
It came out fairly well for a simple sketch. I can definitely improve it, but I was wanting to see if it would work well with watercolor. I still was using the dip calligraphy pen. So, it was more tedious than I would like for a detailed painting.
I was pretty pleased with the results. But the constant dipping in the ink was NOT an option for any type of field sketching. I wondered if there were fountain pens and inks that would be good for this. Inks that are waterproof tend to be VERY bad for fountain pens. Worse, the last time I had looked the cost of fountain pens was through the roof.
I did a lot of research and reading. I found The Goulet Pen Company with their blog entries and many other sites that referred to Noodler's Ink. Some of their inks are formulated to be both waterproof and quite resistant to UV light. Plus, they make several fountain pens that can flex to create broader lines as you apply more pressure to the nib.
Then I ran across the following video:
Wow! Now, if I could only do that type of art. But it showed that with plenty of practice, I could achieve more with a flex pen than I could with a fixed size nib.
So, I started to research the Noodler's Ink Ahab Flex Fountain Pen. One thing that became obvious is that the pen would probably need some tinkering to get it to do what I want. Of course, that satisfied the engineer in me. I love tinkering with tools.
So, I purchased an Ahab pen from The Goulet Pen Company. And I purchased both the Noodler's Blank and Seipia inks. My first attempt at using the sepia was not too bad.
When I was preparing for this painting, I found that I had to tinker with the Ahab pen to get it to write more smoothly. That is, while it was fine for writing, using it as a sketching tool required a LOT more ink flow than it wanted to give. Nathan of Noodler's Ink offered a video that describes how to adjust the nib and allow greater flow through the pen.
One thing he mentions is that you can cut the Ebonite with a knife or box cutter. I took that idea and flipped it, using a Leatherman Multi-Tool. Instead of holding the Ebonite feed and cutting down into the feed, you hold either the file or serrated blade and run the Ebonite feed along either of those. Use only the very edge of the file. This will cut down with the edge into the feed channel. It will widen the feed channel and it will cut down into it. To clean up the edges and make it smoother, replace the file with the serrated blade. Not the saw blade, but the serrated knife blade. This will cut into the feed channel and smooth the edges where the file had run. By holding the Ebonite ink or air channels above and cutting down into either the file or the blade you maintain far better control and much greater safety.
After doing the painting, I wondered if something was still wrong with the pen. Drew Brown of The Goulet Pen Company helped answer my question. In addition to modifying the ink and air channels, he mentioned that more often than not using heat to set the Ebonite feed helped solve the ink flow issues. Also, he noted that some of the Noodler's Inks did not run as smoothly through the pens. So, I think I will:
First, I will change the ink from the Sepia to Black. The Sepia ink seemed a bit thicker, more viscous than other fountain pen inks I've used in the past. It's possible that it just does not flow all that smoothly. Obviously, if the black ink does fairly well with the pen, I will leave the pen "as is".
Second, if the pen is still too sluggish for sketching, then I will try to deepen the air and ink channels in the Ebonite feed. This procedure is fairly simple and should be able to make a difference.
Third, if the pen remains sluggish, I will set the Ebonite feed using a pan of simmering hot water to make the feed a little more pliable. I note that the feed is very tight against the nib. Per Nathan of Noodler's Ink, you should be able to just put a piece of paper between the nib and the feed. In fact, when I'm changing the ink I might test that. If it's too close, then I will skip to these step.
Oh, and I need to finish double checking the various dimentions I will use to cut the mat for the Ashworth Drugs painting. That should keep me busy.
An update .. I tested with the Noodler's Black ink. It worked better, but is not quite there. So, it's time to empty the pen back into the ink bottle. Then a thorough cleaning of the pen:
Then I'll work at deepening the ink and air channels on the pen. I will first test the nib to the feed to be certain that it has enough space. If not, I might tinker with setting the feed so it fits better.
Final Update: .. I found that two things help. First, I need a REALLY wet flow of ink when I do the deep flexing. This seems to have the pen performing just about how I want it. I may smooth the nib a little bit in the future. But right now I want to practice with it for several weeks.
So, what did it take. Well, I had to deepen the ink and air channels. It now tends to lay down a wet line when I do deep flexing. That's okay. It keeps up with my need. But it does not lay down too wet a line if I am not flexing it. I don't want to change anything at this point.
Did I need to do anything else? Yes. I found that the nib and the feed were pressed too firmly together. They should be just a small distance apart to allow the capillary action to perform correctly. The best way to check this is to see if you can slip a piece of paper between the nib and the feed. If they just catch, but can move with a little bit of resistance, then it's just right. If it can not slip between them, then the nib is too close to the feed. And if there's no resistance, then the nib is too far away from the feed.
What did I have to do about that? Well, I just backed the nib and feed out of the pen a little bit. I had pressed them too firmly into the pen. With them backed out just a little bit, there's enough room for the capillary action to work. Voila! I am now one very happy camper.
Many thanks to The Goulet Pen Company!! They did a superb job helping me tackle this problem. I can highly recommend them as a company.
Here's a close up painting of an iris. Compare this painting to the earliest painting of an iris that I did. There's been quite a bit of progress. Enjoy!
This was done on Arches 140lb hot press watercolor paper, using M. Graham water colors. I'm pretty impressed with the Arches paper. And the M. Graham watercolor paints continue to be very vibrant and lively.
Here's a painting of a leaf on a road. You'll note the leaf feels much more realistic than the background. Imagine a leaf sitting on the impressionistic painting of the road and background forest. Enjoy!
Here's an attempt to show leaves floating on water. The water is of course a pool. Though I need to improve the technique, I am very happy with my new paints, since they are so very vibrant. Enjoy!
I decided to dive into pen & ink with watercolor. Here's my first attempt to create a farm scene. Unfortunately, I used a cheaper paper that both crumbled and seemed to make the paint muddy. I'll use that paper only for practice in the future. Enjoy!
Here's a painting of a cardinal on a limb. It's a fun angle. I'm finding that I'm drawn to unusual points of view. I do not intend to accent those points of view, but seem to do so anyway. Enjoy!
A friend recently posted a picture of a train through an Aspen forest in Vail, CO. The result is the painting that you see below. She liked the painting so much that she had it printed on canvas for hanging in her house. That's pretty cool! So, enjoy!
Here is the original picture:
Though the photo shows a darker sky, the fact is that a photograph can not capture the brightness and open airy feeling of an Aspen forest. That's the sense I attempted to capture in the painting. Enjoy!
After several weeks of not painting, I once again picked up my painting. Here's a picture of a hummingbird. The background did not come out as well as I would like. Thus, the painting feels a little more muddled than it should.
Here's a painting of the sanctuary area of my mother's church, The Living Word Baptist Church. I'll eventually do a painting of the outside of the church when they've completed some of the painting and work on the church. Enjoy!
While hunting for butterfly pictures, I also found a great picture of a butterfly on a sunflower. This is my second butterfly picture. I will try to enter this and one other painting in the Fine Art League of Cary 11th Annual Senior Show. Enjoy this one!
This is one of my earlier paintings. I had managed to leanr some of the basic techniques. I decided to try a more difficult picture. Using Google Images, I was able to find a photograph of a butterfly on rocks. I decided to add dew drops. Enjoy!
Well, I was able to finish my pen & ink of Yates Mill. Yates Mill is a Wake Country park. They also have a website, which is titled "Escape the Daily Grind". You have to love a sense of humor!
This painting calls for a slightly different frame and mat than normal. In fact, it reminds me of an old photograph on which the colors have faded.
Since it evokes such a feeling, it only seems right to pay homage to Chinese painters, who in addition to their painting, include a poem and their chop on the painting.
So, here's a Haiku to accompany the painting.
summer's gentle breeze,
become our frozen moments
of long memory
Plus, I'll add a rendition of my signature to the bottom right hand corner.
The tricky part will be cutting multiple openings on the mat. Here's approximately how I would like it to appear:
The sizing is off. I've decided this should go into a 14x18 inch frame instead of the 12x16 inch frame that I had originally envisioned. So, I've been figuring out what the dimensions should be based on that. I'll post the picture when I'm done with it.
This painting brings back memories for our family. We remember going out on Wednesday at lunch (often during the summer) and getting two hot dogs for the price of one. And don't forget the orangeade!
You might think that using fountain pen ink would not be a good idea, since then run when you add water to them (as I did with the coloring that I added). But this particular Noodler's ink is what they call Eternal. It should withstand water, erasing and even UV light.
You will note that it appears as if I used a brush to paint on the ink to accentuate the value (light and dark) of the painting. In fact, all I did was lay down the ink lines using the pen and then use a cheaper watercolor brush dipped in water to wash the ink into place.
However, once the ink dried (I waited overnight to be certain that it was dry), the ink is now completely waterproof. I added the color washes using M. Graham water color paints without any problems.
I fully intend on getting more and different inks to do further pen & ink paintings.
