Pen, Pencil & Paper

New Sketches

2006-08-22T17:59:00.000-05:00

I have been so busy, teaching a drawing class for one thing and doing a lot of plein air painting and art shows for another that my drawing time has been severly limited :( I've also had some problems with my scanner:( But I do have some new sketches to share today! The soup, roll and white tea was lunch at Bruewiler's Bakery which is right downstairs from the art center where I teach and my daughter takes lessons. We stopping in fo lunch one Saturday after her animation class. My daughter is into a card game based on the Japanese anime show Yu-Gi-Oh! and every couple of months they have tournements and she likes to go and that's the room full of people you see here. After the tournement we went for an early supper and I drew the salt/pepper and sugarbowl. Hopefully there will be more sketches soon.

sketching
drawing
moleskine

Posting Again, Finally!!

2006-07-26T19:00:00.000-05:00

Busy, busy, busy!!! I bet you tought I wasn't posting because I wasn't drawing LOL Not so! Actually I'm teaching a drawing class right now, also have an oil painting student, doing lots of plein air painting and continuing with the Flower-a-Day series. Oh yeah and then there's the rest of my life, husband, three teenagers, dog, rabbit and turtle and garden to take care of LOL I need sleep!! Here we have #8 black boot and 9 Oriental vase from the WetCanvas scavenger hunt which I am woefully behind in. Someone won the first hunt and they are well into the second now. I'm left in the dust! The others are in my large moleskine cinnaomn raisin bagel from Dunkin' Donuts, Cafe Allegra a restaurant down town which never got finished because it started to rain, and the prayer garden at the new school my daughter will be attending in the fall. I went for the bagel and sketched while she was taking entrance tests. I'm hoping to get back into the sketching groove again, I miss it when I don't draw everyday.

drawing
sketching
moleskine

My New Small Moleskine

2006-07-13T13:23:00.000-05:00

I have a new small size moleskine that I'm carrying around in my pocketbook in an effort to create more opportunities to sketch. I also carry the landscape set of Faber-Castell brush pens, and I'm thinking that I will need the "bright" set too. That should give me enough colors to tackle man-made and natural subjects. I am sooo hooked on these moleskins!

sketching
drawing
moleskine

Squidoo

2006-07-12T19:02:00.000-05:00

First there were websites, then blogs and now lenses! Yes, you guessed it there's a new craze taking over cyberspace! Squidoo.com allows you to build a free "lens", a single page on the internet that allows you to share, links, photos, music, videos, on any topic you choose. I've built a lens in conjunction with ArtByUs.com, a site that I sometimes use to auction paintings. This single page hosts my bio, links to and describes all my blogs, shows examples of my artwork, and (if I can ever get the link to work!) links over to my auctions/sales at Art By Us. Pretty cool! One really neat thing is that RSS feeds will update automatically, so snippets of my latest posts from my blogs will be timely and allow you to simply click on the headline to switch over to the blog and read the whole thing. The other enticing thing about lenses is that they automatically come with relevant advertising and you can earn money automatically if purchases are made from your lens. You may have noticed the Squidoo logo over in the sidebar, it's that hideous orange thing LOL!! Please take a moment and visit my new lens and while your there, if you would be so kind, please rank my lens. A better rank means more exposure and better results on search engines, and I would appreciate that greatly. Also there's a guestbook where you can leave comments or ask questions. See you at Squidoo!!

squidoo

Sketching Scavenger Hunt

2006-07-10T17:53:00.000-05:00

The Artwork From Life Forum over at WetCanvas is hosting a sketching scavenger hunt! They have posted a list of 26 items, the first person to sketch them from life (no photo references) wins. These are my first 7 entries, the pitcher is done with a Derwent terracotta pencil, the hat with Aquamonolith pencils and some H2O, the broccoli, the vacuum cleaner, the geranium with Faber-Castell Pitt brush pens, the dog a 2H pencil, the boy at the computer a sepia Chinese brush pen. If you'd like to participate, it's not too late just get over to WetCanvas and sign up. If you'd just like to take a peek at what everyone is doing here's the thread.

sketching
drawing
art

Lots of Blind Contours

2006-07-09T06:51:00.000-05:00

I was first introduced to "blind contour" drawing in high school and have loved it ever since. Just recently I learned about Niff and Sutter's Blind Contour First Friday. Niff and Sutter are the authors/illustrators over at Inkfinger, a fabulous blog. They choose a topic for the first Friday of every month for a blind contour drawing and people participate and share their results. I didn't get on the list for this month but I'll be participating from now on! Now, if you think I can't draw worth a hill of beans based on these sketches LOL let me tell you what a "blind contour" drawing is. A blind contour drawing is made by looking only at your subject, you're not allowed to look down at your paper and you're not allowed to lift you pen off the paper, the drawing must be made in one continuous line. You might be thinking at this point "what good is that? The results are terrible!!" This exercise is not about results it's about training your eye and your hand to work together. Danny Gregory's book The Creative License, explains and takes you through the process in detail if you've never done it before. It's actually a lot of fun and really produces tremendous results in increased skill if you dedicate time to these and do them reguarly. I labeled all the drawings but I don't know how ledigible the writing is in the scan so here's a list of some of the things I drew. See if you can pick them out. Windchimes, lounge chair, geraniums, gas grill, flood lights, a jar, the crank handle, my dog. These were all done in a hardback Canson sketchbook, 9x12, with a black uniball vision pen.

sketching
drawing
art
blind contour

The 4th of July!!

2006-07-04T17:27:00.000-05:00

Went down to the beach this afternoon before the thunderstorms began to roll through. The beach is less than 10 min. away and I usually don't go on holidays too crowded LOL but I thought it would be fun to sketch all the beach-goers. The building is the nature center.All in my new moleskine, with my favorite Faber-Castell brush pens!

sketching
drawing
art
moleskine

The Elephant's Trunk

2006-07-03T09:13:00.000-05:00

On Sunday I went to a really, really big outdoor flea market called The Elephant's Trunk. I take my son there every year for his birthday. He just turned 16. We're both flea market/antique show enthusiasts. This is such a festive and fun place we had a blast and bought some neat stuff too! These three sketches complete my first moleskine sketchbook!! I have another one ready to go, can't wait to begin it. I have to think of a really good place to got and sketch because I always like a new sketchbook to have a really nicely done sketch on the first page. That kind of sets the tone for the whole book. It's all in my head, I know it's just a sketchbook LOL Uniball vision pen, and Faber-Castell brush pens...love those things!~

sketching
drawing
art
The Elephant's Trunk

The 10th Annual International Sketchcrawl

2006-07-01T18:25:00.000-05:00

Today was the 10th International Sketchcrawl. People all over the world gathered in groups or went out individually and sketched their world!! That's exciting!! You can check out the whole thing at the Sketchcrawl Forum. I also had a paint out today so I painted first then sketched my painting set up. By then it was 1:00 and HOT so a lunch break and a yummy icy drink, then back for more sketching. All this took place at the Florence Griswold Museum of American Impressionism, Old Lyme, CT. Everything is in the large moleskine, uniball vision pen and my new set of 48 Faber-Castell brush pens...heavenly!! If you'd like to see my painting from today check it out at Art & Life.

sketching
drawing
florence griswold museum
sketchcrawl
moleskine

Waiting at the Orthodontist

2006-07-01T18:12:00.000-05:00

Making good use of time here. Did this while I was waiting for my daughter during her orthodontist appointment. All the poor parents bored and waiting, especially poor after putting braces on their kids teeth at an astronomical cost LOL. Large Moleskine, uniball vision pen and Faber-Castell Brush Pens.

sketching
drawing
art
moleskine

Classical Bust

2006-06-28T14:45:00.000-05:00

I've never had instruction in drawing the human head or painting portraits. Well I'll revise that we did learn how to draw the human head in the first 2 weeks of drawing 101 in college, but that was it. Since I've never really had any interest in painting portraits it's a skill I've never developed. But I have this friend Marc who's a teriffic artist and works in the classical style and he says that an artist should be able to draw or paint anything. He's also a cracker jack sculptor and paints in several mediums. Humpf!! Now I have it in my head that I need to slay this dragon!! To that end I bought this faux classical bust at Homegoods for $10.00 a couple of months ago. She will be my uncomplaining model who can stay still for forever while I noodle away at getting eyes and nose and mouth drawn correctly. So this is the first attempt. It took a long time and was hard work! It doesn't really look all that much like the statue LOL I hope next time it's a little easier!! 2H pencil in a Canson 9x12 black hardback sketchbook. The blue is a Pitt brushpen,the blue from the landscape set.

sketching
drawing
pencil
portrait

Playing with Gouache

2006-06-27T15:19:00.000-05:00

I took some time today to get better acquainted with my Yarka Gouache. The chimnea is handled more like an illustration, flat areas of bold color, with black accent lines. If I ever illustrate a book I think I would choose to do it in gouache. This one was done in the moleskine. The Begonias in the pot a are handled more lik a watercolor and were done in my Lama Li watercolor journal which has handmade 100% rag paper. The strawflowers were approached just like I would an oil painting and was done on multi-media board. The gouache is turning out to be very flexible and a lot of fun!

gouache

Machu Picchu at the Natural History Museum

2006-06-24T18:53:00.000-05:00

It was pouring rain today so no plein air painting, but a fabulous day to go to the museum! Unfortunately, everyone else thought so too and it was a little crowded. The museum is the Peabody Museum of Natural History in New Haven CT. I love going on weekends because you can park free in the parking lot of the Yale University Geology Lab which is right next door. The special summer exhibit this year is about Machu Picchu the center of the Inca civilization, in Peru during the 15th century, approximatley the same time as the Aztec civilization in Mexico. When I first arrived I knew I'd have to go to the dinosaur hall and sketch one of those behemoths first LOL! Today I chose the stegosauraus. The hall was crowded especially with kids and more than a few little ones bawled in fright when they encountered the T-Rex head and the Dinonicus, making it hard for me to concentrate. So I left for Machu Picchu. The exhibit began with a short 7 min. informative film. Machu Picchu was discovered by a Yale expedition in 1912 led by a man named Blanchard. (Ok, I didn't write any of this down and I hope I got that all straight!!) The figures were part of a diarama, there was a lot of ceramic work and stone carvings. The most interesting part was the display that showed how they moulded the skulls of their infants into different shapes, presumably to identify the person as belonging to a certain clan or social status. Now the technical details...the steggie and the figures were done with uniball vision pen and Yarka Watercolor with Aquaflow brushes, the kind that hold water in the handle, very convienient. I was able to sit in the dinosaur hall but not in Machu Picchu. So for the rest I switched to Faber-Castell Pitt Artsist Brush Pens. I love these things! They are quickly becoming my favorite when I can't juggle the watercolors and moleskine at once. I only have the landscape set(6 colors) but when I got home a Cheap Joe's Art Stuff sale flyer was waiting in my mailbox to announce that Faber-Castell is making 24 new colors and the NEW 48 color set is on sale for a one time only price of 69.99....I am soooooo tempted! I like these pens because it's like I'm painting. They cover in broad strokes very quickly creating a solid area of color not lines. They blend and mix when you layer and dry instantly. They're extremely lightfast and waterproof meaning that I could also combine them with watercolor if I wanted too. The only weird part of the day was that I had the distinct impression that people pretended to be looking at the exhibits but they were really peering over my shoulder! That was just creepy LOL When I paint outdoors people always come up and chat, which I usually enjoy. It seems that when you set up an easel you really go public and people feel free to come over. Sketching though seems to be a more personal, private affair and I don't think people feel comfortable saying anything, but their curiosity gets the better of them and they just have to sneak a peek LOL! It's always an adventure out there!! (little angel on my shoulder waving a credit card says I don't really need anymore pens, and can make due with what I have, plus who's going to lug 48 pens around?...oh but the little imp on the other side is waving all those beautiful colored pens around and telling me that I can select just the colors I think I will need for where I'll be sketching and they're not that heavy anyway, a lot lighter in fact than the French Easel I tote around.......)

sketching
drawing
art
pen & ink
watercolor
moleskine
stegosaurous
machu picchu
Incas
peabody museum of natural history

Yarka Gouache

2006-06-20T10:31:00.000-05:00

Today I tried out my new set of Yarka Gouache (rhymes with squash!). Gouache are water based paints and can loosley be described as opaque watercolors. They have intense color, dry matt, dry quickly and have good coverage and blending ability. They also "take" on the moleskine paper better than watercolor. These were awefully fun as they are very creamy and feel nice as you push the piant around with your brush. I have some reservations with the lightfastness of the colors, but I'm not concerned about that aspect for sketchbook work. I'll be doing several more gouache sketches to really get a good feel for them, so check back soon!

moleskine
painting
gouache

Lobster and American History

2006-06-17T20:23:00.000-05:00

Today was my daughter's birthday! I dragged the poor thing to an art sale I was participating in to raise funds for three historic homes that are now museums. I painted in the colonial revival garden it was BEAUTIFUL!!. You can see that painting and read all about the fascinating history of the homes on my painting blog Art & Life. The sketch with the buildings is the back of one of the homes, the Webb House and part of the gardens. Since it was my daughters birthday I took her to a nearby Red Lobster restaurant for a birthday lunch of lobster tails!! The Webb House sketch was done with my new Faber-Castell India Ink brush pens, the landscape set, with the addition of a few Sarassa gel pens. Interestingly enough if I go over the gell pen with the Faber-Castell, the gel pen kind of liquifies and makes a wash of sorts. A very nice effect for blending and getting more colors. The Lobster and Pina Colada are uniball vision and Yarka watercolor. All in the large moleskine.

sketching
drawing
art
moleskine
watercolor

Gardening Day

2006-06-17T20:16:00.000-05:00

A perfect day....gardening and sketching!! Lots of fun! Uniball vision pen, w/ Yarka watercolors in the moleskine(large). I have a little trouble with the Yarkas sticking to the opposite page when I close the book. I've remedied that by spraying the pages lightly with Krylon clear matt acrylic spray. Only problem is when I'm out and about sketching. I don't want to drag along a can of spray. I'm thinking that I might be able to bring a small jar of acrylic varnish and brush that on.

sketching
drawing
art
moleskine
watercolor

Hammonasset State Park

2006-06-11T17:43:00.001-05:00

I bet you thought I'd given up sketching!! NOT! It's just that we've had such rainy, dreary weather for so long I haven't been able to get out and I wasn't motivated to sketch indoors. Today we finally had sunshine and I made the most of it painting and sketching all afternoon. These are all done at a local state park, one of my favoriten places to go. All in the large moleskine, with uniball vision pen and Yarka watercolors. You can check out the painting I did today at Art & Life my plein air blog.

sketching
drawing
moleskine
watercolor
plein air

Formal Gardens at Eolia

2006-06-04T17:43:00.000-05:00

Today I went to Harkness State Park, which includes Eolia, the Harkness mansion and several formal gardens. What a treat!! The weather wasn't really great, it was overcast and sprinkled lightly now and then but this place was beautiful none the less. Edward and Mary Harkness inherited a huge fortune from Edward's father who was a silent partner of John D. Rockefeller in the Standard Oil Corporation. Eolia is a 42 room Italianate mansion over looking Long Island Sound. It was one of their seven homes, and named after the island home of the Greek god of the winds Aeolus. Eolia was also once a working farm that included a prize herd of Guernsey cows, and an orchard and greenhouses. The west (Italian) garden's layout and paths were designed by James Gamble Rogers' firm and between 1918 and 1929 Beatrix Farrand, niece of novelist Edith Wharton, and one of the original founders of the American Society of Landscape Architects, designed new plantings for the Italian garden. She also designed the east (Oriental) garden and the boxwood parterre and the Alpine Rock Garden. The Rock garden was really fabulous!! We toured the mansion and wandered all around the grounds and had a marvelous time despite the gray day. The views were stunning everywhere you turned. I had hoped to paint there today but though it was a better use of time on a gray day to explore, sketch and take photos so that when I go back on a sunny day I have a better idea of what I'd like to paint.

sketching
drawing
moleskine
gardens
watercolor

June 1st in the Garden

2006-06-01T14:20:00.000-05:00

It was perfect day for sketching in the garden! I took almost the whole day to look, draw,paint and just enjoy being in the garden on a perfect day. The peonies are in full bloom and are so frilly and voluptuous!! The iris come in a close second! The page with the color swatches was an exercise in color mixing. I sat in the shade and looked out into the garden and picked a color an then tried to match it as nearly as I could. So those are some of the colors I saw in the garden today. On the opposite page I wrote about the day...

"An exqusite day! The fog and mist of the morning has burned off. The sun is glowing and warm, a slight breeze cools things. The peonies, iris, roses, salvia, geraniums are all in full bloom. The air is still and warm...bird song~ cardinal, mourning dove, wren, chickadee, even the crow sounds beautiful today. Inchworms swing in the breeze on their silky cords, the bees romance the flowers, butterflies linger onver nectar, the dog lies in the shade. There is a sweet stillness to this long, slow moment. Right now everything is as it should be on June 1st."

All of these sketches are done with uniball vision pen (black) yarka watercolors (10 pan set) in the large moleskine.

To see more of the garden visit my Flower-a-Day project at Art&Life.

sketching
drawing
watercolor
flowers
garden
moleskine

gazebo, pansies and geraniums

2006-05-31T07:33:00.000-05:00

Been real busy of late....work around the house, in the garden, plein air painting...but always time for few sketches. I'm about 1/2 way through my new moleskine, so I bought another large and and I'm going to try out the small size. It was so cute I couldn't resist!!

Ok...here are the details: the double spread of geraniums, the gazebo and pansies, are uniball vision pen w/yarka watercolors. These are semi-moist pan watercolors and if you don't water them down too much they don't bead up on the moleskine paper. The geraniums at dusk are ebony design pencil and aquamonolith colored pencils.

Dress Rehersal

2006-05-19T19:54:00.000-05:00

Tonight my daughter had a dress rehersal for her dance recital. It was very challenging trying to capture all those very excited little girls dancing and wiggling about. I quickly found out that I couldn't draw quick enough to get even gesture drawings of the girls doing tap or hip hop but the ballet classes weren't too bad especially the older girls who hold their poses longer. I didn't draw my daughter who had a solo performance I was too busy watching!

Moleskine, uniball vision pen, yarka watercolors.

sketching
drawing
moleskine
ballet
dance

Man at The Orthodontist and Iris

2006-05-19T09:15:00.000-05:00

Man at the Orthodontist, sounds like it could be the title of a Hitchcock movie LOL! I'm not very confident when it comes to sketching people, and though it's a bit nerve wracking I'm going to continue doing them IN PEN, so I don't get timid with the pencil and keep erasing over and over to get it right...just do lots and lots of people sketches in pen until I see improvement. The iris is the first one blooming in my garden this year. You can see an oil painting of this iris at Art&Life, click the link in the sidebar.

Uniball Vision pen, Yarka watercolors in the moleskine.

sketching
drawing
art
moleskine
watercolor
iris

Oliver's Tavern

2006-05-17T18:40:00.000-05:00

Had a fun lunch with my daughter at Oliver's Tavern we were both sketching away and enjoying some huge burgers LOL.

Uniball Vision pen in the moleskine.

sketching
drawing
moleskine

Gnome

2006-05-14T20:45:00.000-05:00

Classic American Kitsch! When I was a kid our neighbors had a meticulously manicured yard and garden that was populated by an entire clan of garden gnomes LOL! My imagination ran wild, it was like a fantasy, fairytale land where anything was possible. I guess I've never lost that, being a big Hobbit, Lord of the Rings, Narnia fan as an adult. However, I drew the line when it came to my garden...no gnomes! I do have lots of garden statuary, enough so that sometimes I wonder whether I have a garden with sculpture or a sculpture garden with flowers LOL! Anyway this year I decided what the heck....partly due to that ridiculously funny Travelocity commercial. So one of my kids got me garden gnome for Mother's Day! Well there goes the neighborhood LOL!!

Derwent 2H graphite pencil, aquamonolith colored pencils in the moleskine.

sketching
drawing
art
moleskine

Flowers and more Flowers

2006-05-13T17:28:00.000-05:00

All these flowers were used as part of my Flower-a-Day painting project. Since they were all still lovely and fresh I decided to put them in the moleskine too. The flowers in the glass were done with my wonderful set of Sarasa gel pens + a little colored pencil, and the lilacs were done with a sepia micron 05 pen + colored pencil. I really love this about sketching the many different materials available and how easy it is to combine them and switch back and forth.

sketching
drawing
art
moleskine
flowers

Waiting in the Doctor's Offfice

2006-05-12T20:33:00.000-05:00

What do you do while waiting in the Doctor's office??? Sketch in you moleskine of course!!
My seat was directly across from the bathroom and I could see myself in the mirror...so I guess that's self-portrait of sorts LOL.

uniball vision pen

sketching
drawing
moleskine

Apple Blossoms

2006-05-12T20:29:00.000-05:00

Gotta draw'em before they're gone! And after all the rain this week there won't be any left when the sun finally comes out again.

In the moleskine w/ uniball vision pen

sketching
drawing
moleskine

A Rainy Day in the Garden

2006-05-02T14:26:00.000-05:00

Looking down on the garden from an upstairs window. It was a grey, rainy, misty day today. Looking forward to the weeks to come when the garden bursts into color!

Derwent venetian red pencil, several aquamonolith sticks, Derwent Graphitone 4b, uniball vision pen and a brush w/H2O.
sketch
sketching
drawing
sketchbook

Doing the Bunny Hop

2006-05-02T14:15:00.000-05:00

I've already told you that animals don't like to be stared at particularly animals that are stared at and eaten by predators in the wild Such would be Rosie's lot if she weren't a house rabbit!! I went down to sketch her just as she was finishing her afternoon snack of early first cut western timothy hay (this we have delivered in 25 lb boxes ) Then it was time for her to wash up. You may not know this but rabbits groom themselves just like cats do and Rosie is a particularly tidy bunny, so she was twisting and turning in the oddest contortions making sure she her fur was immaculte. Three pages of sketches in the canson 9x12 hardback sketchbook, cream colored paper, uniball vision pen and waltnut ink w/brush.

drawing
sketching
sketchbook

Forsyethia

2006-05-01T19:35:00.000-05:00

Trying to keep up with the daily walk and sketch. This is done in the moleskine with walnut ink and a crow quill pen, the old fashioned kind you actually dip into the bottle of ink. Also, aquamonolith watercolor sticks and a brush and water.

sketching
sketch
drawing
art
moleskine sketchbook

Your Comments Are Now Published

2006-04-28T19:43:00.000-05:00

Ok....my apologies, Blogger has not been sending me e-mail notification when someone leaves a comment, so I thought there were none!!! I've now figured out where to go to check for comments and I thank each and everyone of you who took the time to comment. From now on I'll be checking for comments daily and will be able to post my replies for you to see. Keep checking back...I'm hooked on the moleskine and the new pens I have and intend to do a lot more sketching!!

What's Blooming in the Garden???

2006-04-28T14:53:00.000-05:00

A beautiful day for sketching outside! This is what's currently blooming in my garden. I'm lovin' these new gel pens! The set didn't include a yellow but that's easily fixed with a little yellow colored pencil.

Tulips

2006-04-28T11:56:00.000-05:00

Giving the new pens a workout today!! These pens make it easy to do a lot of layering of color. Lots of fun!

Sarasa Gel Pens in the moleskine.

Pink Trees

2006-04-28T10:00:00.000-05:00

I got these great new pens at Staples! Ten colors, acid free, archival ink and perfect for the moleskine sketchbook. I've been taking along the moleskine when I walk the dog to a nearby park in the morning and do a sketch, nice way to start the day! The pens are Zebra brand SARASA Gel Retractable.

At the Computer

2006-04-28T09:58:00.000-05:00

Seems like we all spend a lot of time doing this!! This is my son at the computer, unaware that I was drawing him!

Micron 05 sepia pen and watercolor pencils.

Frog Pond

2006-04-26T09:20:00.000-05:00

Tried out some walnut ink in the moleskine today. I loaded up one of those watercolor brushes that have a handle that can be filled up. The ink only took so-so on the paper. I understand that moleskine now makes a watercolor sketchbook. I'm gettin' me one of those!! Beautiful morning, backlit trees and a chorus of frogs serenading me!

Weeping Willow

2006-04-19T18:31:00.000-05:00

A double page spread in the moleskine. Morning light (approx 9:30-10:00 am today), filtering through the weeping willow and illuminating the new growth on the tops of shrubs and trees.

sepia micron 05 pen. aqua monolith watercolor sticks, brush & H2O.

Daffodils

2006-04-18T17:31:00.000-05:00

I love daffodils! I did this yesterday in preparation for a large oil painting of daffodils, which you can check out by clicking on the link to Art & Life in the side bar.

Sepia micron 05 w/ cretacolor aqua monolith watercolor sticks, in the moleskine sketchbook.

Pansies

2006-04-17T09:59:00.000-05:00

I christened my new moleskine sketchbook with an ink drawing of some pansies. Done with a sepia micron 05 waterproof pen. For those of you who have never tried a moleskine sketchbook let me highly recommend them!! Borders usually carries them. They're beautiful leatherbound books that open and lay flat so you can draw across two pages and they have a beautiful creamy colored, slightly shiny paper in them that takes drawing and sketching pens and pencils beautifully. This is my first moleskine and I LOVE it !

Time to Sketch Again...FINALLY!

2006-04-17T09:39:00.000-05:00

I'm finally making time to sketch again. It's one of those things that's very beneficial (like exercise) but seems hard to make time for. I have a new moleskine sketchbook (nothing like a new toy to generate enthusiasim LOL). I love the surface of the paper in these. This sketch was done at a nearby park this AM, took the moleskin along when I walked the dog (multi-tasking LOL) the sketch was done with a sepia micron 05 waterproof pen. I also brought along 4 Cretacolor aqua monolith woodless watercolor pencils. Delft blue, yellow ochre lt., red-brown and pea green. When I got home I added some magenta into the blooming tree and softened things up with a little brush and water.

Illustration Friday - Tea

2006-03-03T08:50:00.000-05:00

This weeks Illustration Friday topic was tea! Here I went right to the heart of the matter, the tea itself. Painted in oil on wood. Here's a fine cuppa in a blue willow tea cup. This is painted with casein, a milk based paint. (Yes I did say milk!) also on wood. Nothing quite as wonderful as taking a moment to relax with a cup of tea in the midst of a busy day. Practice "tea mind" and you'll be calm inside ready to take on the rest of the day with ease. Slow down, sip some tea and enjoy!

Canyon Sunset

2006-02-12T19:04:00.000-05:00

Now I've moved on to some amount of complexity. Complexity of color and shape but still very little in the way of detail, except for what might bee viewed as a window or doorway.

Watercolor once again in a Lama Li watercolor journal.

Desert Flowers

2006-02-12T18:59:00.000-05:00

Here's a little watercolor painting once again based on simplicity, only the barest essentials are there sky, the outline of distant mountains and fields of color indicating flowers.

Out to Sea

2006-02-12T18:55:00.000-05:00

Another painting about simplicity, this week's Illustration Friday topic. A very simple watercolor sketch featuring water, sky and sun, no detail just simple color fields. This series of paintings are small, I used a jewel case as a template for the format to give you an idea of the size.

Illustration Friday-Simplicity

2006-02-12T18:49:00.000-05:00

This week's topic for Illustration Friday is the concept of simplicity. Being a landscape painter always requires one to simplify the great complexity of nature that is before our eyes. Here I created a landscape from imagination that is extremely simplified, and analogous color scheme and a very simple division of space with no detail whatsoever, just the suggestion of water, land and sky the three essential elements of landsape painting.

Japanese Doll Poses

2006-02-06T18:02:00.000-05:00

I used this Japanese doll as a model, as if this were a life drawing session with a live model. I spent no more than 10 minutes on each "pose".

Graphite and walnut ink/brush

Maggie in the Sun

2006-02-06T17:57:00.000-05:00

Here's Maggie taking a snooze in the sun, the only time she's really still enough to draw. Even now napping in the window she still has one eye and one ear tuned into what's going on outside so she won't be asleep for long. At the merest hint of a squirrel or worse yet a cat anywhere near her yard she'll but up in a flash growling, barking and carrying on LOL!

sepia pen in a canson sketchbook, cream paper

Blooming Amaryllis

2006-02-01T09:38:00.000-05:00

Well after many weeks of waiting the amaryllis has finally bloomed!! It is beautiful and RED ! All these lily-type flowers are challenging to draw, especially when their petals fold backwards. So after some fiddling with a pencil drawing I used a kneaded eraser to pick up most of the graphite and leave just a "ghost image' so the pencil wouldn't muddy up the watercolor. I'm especially pleases with the richness of the reds here. I mixed them up with varying amounts of vermillion, carmine, burnt sienna and yellow.

Illustration Friday- Zen Cat

2006-01-25T15:39:00.000-05:00

I just joined a group called Illustration Friday , each week they e-mail a theme to you and you do an illustration by Friday, post it to your website and theirs. I'm trying to get a link button here for them but it's just not working at the moment. This week's theme was cats and in keeping with my oriental theme this is called Zen Cat. BTW this group is NOT just for artists but anyone who likes expressing themselves visually, so if you can scribble or doodle this is for you too...lots of fun!

Here's the link: http://www.illustrationfriday.com/

Oriental Doll

2006-01-24T19:01:00.000-05:00

Today's sketch is done with acrylic paint and continues my recent oriental motif. An interesting set of color combinations is going on here. Opposite or complementary colors are at play. Red/green, yellow/purple create a rather intense visual atmosphere. Thank goodness the green is toned down and light in value! I enjoyed painting this and will probably rearrange some of these objects and do a larger finished paintng at some point.

Playful Primrose

2006-01-23T18:16:00.000-05:00

Here is an entirely different interpretation of the red primrose! The whole point of this sketchbook exercise was to really explore the possibilities of watercolor. My goal was to work wet-in-wet for that soft, diffused mysterious look and to see how many colors I could pile on before I got near the point of muddiness. I was hoping to achieve the feeling of ornate richness on the vase, intensity of color in the flowers and a soft harmonious background that functioned as an actual element in the painting not just an after-thought. I did far less planning upfront and just let things flow....and now I'm beginning to see the kind of spontanaity that watercolor is famous for.

The Wetlands Restoration Project

2006-01-21T19:07:00.000-05:00

Today I took my sketchbook outside. I went to a local state park where the DEP is working to restore some of the wetland habitat. It was late in the afternoon, I'd already been to the town beach and done 2 oil paintings (click the link in the sidebar to my plein air blog Art & Life) to see them. So after having already painted for a few hours outdoors it was nice to sit in the car and do this watercolor sketch. I was hoping to see ibis or herons but not today, just a sunset.

More Chinese Vases

2006-01-21T08:39:00.000-05:00

Continuing on with an oriental motif, I made use of the Chinese vases and primroses again. One thing I always notice, and dislike in many watercolors I see, is that the colors seem thin and pale. It's as if the artist was timid or perhaps was painting with one of those little watercolor sets you give a child. On the otherhand, a really well done watercolor IMHO makes use of deep, rich, resonant colors. That's what I'm after here in these sketches, learning to get that depth of color without overworking and getting muddy. Watercolor is hard because you ability to "fix" mistakes is limited and there quickly comes a point of no return. It unfortunately happened in this sketch. I wanted to correct the edge of the blue vase at the opening on top and to the right. I went back with paint but it was a bit too dark and when I tried to lift the paint I damaged the paper surface, leaving it rough and ragged *sigh*. No amount of careful scraping with a razor blade would restore a smooth surface. So I let it dry and carefully added a wash of color, but to no avail. Though it doesn't look bad in the photo in reality when you see this piece you notice the damage to the surface of the paper and it detracts from the rest of the piece. And that's the hard thing with watercolor! After working on a painting and bringing it nearly to completion you go back to make a minor correction or change that's supposed to improve the painting and you end up ruining the whole thing! Which my explain why many watercolorists "quit while their ahead", and leave their paintings thin and pale. Continuing to work and develop the piece can be risky, but probably worth the effort, if you can stand the frustration!!

Primrose in the Corner

2006-01-19T12:14:00.000-05:00

Aren't these colors absolutely delicious!!
Pink, purple, green and yellow. If that doesn't say spring I don't know what does. Too bad it's only spring on my windowsill and not outside. It will be a long while until I see these kinds of colors in my garden....I'm already poking around looking for snowdrops and snow crocus! But it's too early. This little painting is 8"x8" and done in acrylic paint on illustration board.

I wanted to call your attention to the link in the side bar for Blogs Illustrated. It's a web-ring that will take you from one illustrated blog to the next. There are many wonderful things to see in the ring so take a few moments out of your day to make the journey, you'll be glad you did!

Primroses and Chinese Vases

2006-01-18T12:13:00.000-05:00

The winter has been particularly gray this year, day after day without any sunshine. Very depressing! A good remedy for the blah feelings you get from such gray, rainy spells is a trip to the local greenhouse and garden center. Colorful racks of seed packets fuel dreams of this spring and summers' garden. But the greenhouse is the real treat. Filled with warmth and light and table after table of glorious green, growing plants and colorful flowers. I chose two varities of primroses and some elegant chinese vases to put them in. They have brightened up my winowsill considerably and provided interesting subject matter for this watercolor sketch. The Impressionists, as a group, were very influenced by oriental art. In the 1854 after more than 200 years of isolation Japan begins to open trade ports for western ships. By the late 1800's, the time of the Impressionists, Japanese art was flowing into Europe, and the beautiful and elegant stylization and forms of orientl art began to inspire their paintings. I love oriental art, although I confess I don't have much "book knowledge" about it. I just know that whenever I see it, it strikes an aesthetic chord in me. So much to explore and so little time!!

Click here for a "primrose haiku"
http://allpoetry.com/Poem/583483#add

Thy smiles I note, sweet early Flower,
That peeping from thy rustic bower
The festive news to earth dost bring,
A fragrant messenger of Spring.

from To A Primrose - Samuel Taylor Coleridge

Oriental Vase

2006-01-16T12:04:00.000-05:00

I wish I could afford a real blue and white porcelain oriental vase! They are just so elegant in their shape and delicate decoration. This is a cheap imitation I bought recently with the intent of using it in floral still life set ups for oil painting. The shapes of these vased is always tricky to get right, especially the symmetry. After about 50-100 sketches I think I'll have a feel for it. These are just the beginning!

Charcoal, white conte and watercolor.

Out of Control Amaryllis

2006-01-16T11:58:00.000-05:00

Here's the update on the amaryllis. It's sitting in the front window beautifully backlit by the SUN, which we haven't seen much of this month! I've grown an amaryllis each year, as a winter ritual of sorts, for a least a decade probably longer, and this is the leafiest one I've ever had! The sketch doesn't do justice to this sprawling giant! I'm definitely going to have to put a stake in the pot to hold it up.

Black marker w/watercolor

Flowers Yet Again

2006-01-14T14:37:00.000-05:00

Here is yet another interpretation of the flowers done in oil paint. This has been very interesting! It's reminded me of the similarities and differences of the different media. It also reminded me of the things I like and dislike about each one. Watercolor can be overworked so easily and requires a lot of up front planning but has such a crisp and fresh look to it. Acrylic allows easy corrections and re-working without ever looking overworked and muddy but dries quickly and requires other ways to blend and soften areas. Pastel is soft and smudgy, too smudgy! Your hands get sooo dirty! But the colors are delicious. Oil paints are really my favorite, having good color, the ability to create a hard or soft look and work in layers or wet in wet. But they require turpentine or mineral spirits and messy clean up. Each has its own unique characteristic and look. It's a lot of fun to be able to work in different media now and then.

Flowers Again

2006-01-14T14:34:00.000-05:00

Here's that same $5 bouquet done in pastels. This is turning into a very interesting little project, exploring the same subject in many different media.

Flowers Again

2006-01-13T12:53:00.000-05:00

Well here's that same bunch of flowers again, this time painted in acrylics. This is just a small 8x10 study and started out as a demonstration for the students in my beginner's class. Every medium has it's strengths, weaknesses and particular "look" as you can see by comparing the watercolor to the acrylic. Which do you like prefer?

Watercolor Flowers

2006-01-12T07:56:00.000-05:00

Watercolor is a difficult medium and one I have never fully mastered. So towards that end I'm doing some work in watercolor hoping to improve my skills. Working directly from your sunbject is always the quickest way to improve. A $5 bouquet from the supermarket in a cobalt blue bottle from the flea-market makes a cheerful subject during the gray days of winter. Watercolor is all about planning. The more work you do up front the bigger the pay off at the end. My pencil sketch for this was more detailed and accurate than I would have done if I were working in oil or acrylic.The shape and placement of the flowers, stems and leaves needed to be correct right up front, as did the bottle. The luxury of waiting and making decisions about what's included and what's not, is not available to the watercolorist. You need to know going in where everything will be. The other big area of planning is leaving white space for your lightest light. In this piece I had to know ahead of time that I wanted to leave that little strip of paper white for the highlight on the bottle. With an oil or acrylic painting I wouldn't be thinking about that until the very end. "Practice makes perfect" is as true for painting as it is for everything else, so expect to see more watercolor sketches from me soon!

A Dog's Life

2006-01-11T11:29:00.000-05:00

Life is busy, busy, busy for me. But not for a border collie! She has time to laze around chewing a beef ear. It's truly a dog's life.

graphite on paper

Cedar Island Sunset

2006-01-09T18:25:00.000-05:00

Capturing the sunset is always a race with the inevitable. Not only is it inevitable that you'll only have about 30 minutes, it's also inevitable that the sunset will keep geting more spectacular as you are working and you can never capture it all! Thus the drive to go back again and again hoping to capture that elusive "perfect" sunset. Pen and watercolor on Lama Li handmade paper.

Red Teapot and Marble Rye

2006-01-04T21:53:00.000-05:00

More in the "All Things Tea" series. An oil sketch, keeping things loose, no photo-realism here!

9x12, oil on board

Red Teapot and Cookie

2006-01-03T21:28:00.000-05:00

Another piece in the newly formed "All Things Tea" series. First a light pencil sketch and then watercolor. My skills with watercolor aren't anywhere near what I can do in oils, my main medium. But it's always a good idea to learn new things and challenge yourself. So here's to learning, growing and teatime!

Teapot

2006-01-03T07:50:00.000-05:00

Familiar household objects are always fun to sketch. I'm a tea lover and have a collection of teapots and cups and other tea related things and I thought it would be fun to do a series of "all things tea". So here we have the first piece, a china teapot. A bit of an experimental technique using a watersoluable crayon along with traditional watercolor paints.

Staedtler Karan Aquarell-burnt sienna and watercolor.

Fast Away the Old Year Passes......

2005-12-31T17:37:00.000-05:00

....fa la la la la, la la la la
Hail the New Year lads and Lasses,
Fa la la la la, la la la la!!

New Years Eve on the marsh, grey and cold with a snowy wintery mix coming down at times. You might wonder why I conside these sketches since they're not drawn with a pen or pencil. Well, the truth is that I begin these with light pen or pencil drawings and wash the watercolor over that, and I don't spend very long on them, just jotting down my initial impressions. All three of these were completed in a little over an hour. So, in my mind they qualify as sketches. And since they are sketches I might use them in the future for larger more finished studio works. Good- bye 2005!!

Winter Sketching

2005-12-30T11:47:00.000-05:00

Today I did some plein air sketching; that is to say I went outside to sketch since the temperature was mild. I got a beautiful Lama Li watercolor sketchbook for Christmas filled with lovely handmade paper, which is a joy to work on.

sepia drawing pen and watercolor.

Rose Hips & Birch Cone

2005-12-27T08:52:00.000-05:00

Wild Rose, known as rosa multiflora, though very hardy and proliferous has such a delicate look to it both when it's flowering and when it leaves its hips behind. Long, slender climbing stems weave their way through other plants and in June festoon the underbrush and small saplings with a garland of petite white flowers. In winter the hips decorate the landscape as an endless string of red beads draped over its head and shoulders. The White Birch, produces tiny "cones" on slender twigs all through the winter. At first they are tightly closed and then they open and form a plump cone.

These sketches were done the old fashioned way, with a bottle of ink and pen with a nib that must be dipped in the ink every few strokes. With the advent of markers and rapidographs, very few artists use the old fashioned pen and ink method. But I have to say that there is nothing quite like the result of using the old fashioned "crows' quill ". The pen nib, like a pint brush has "spring" to it and is very responsive to the artists' hand producing a quality of drawing that no other tool can duplicate. Here I used walnut ink and a crows' quill pen.

White Pine Sprig and Cone

2005-12-27T08:50:00.000-05:00

Here we have a sprig and cone frome a White Pine. Delicate and fragrant.

Blackmarker and watercolor.

Winter Gleanings

2005-12-27T08:42:00.000-05:00

A short walk produced all these wonderful sketching subjects: the pod from a Tulip Tree (Poplar) flower, the small cone from a White Birch,
a large cone from a White Pine as well as a sprig of White Pine, and a spry of rose hips from the wild rosa multiflora.

Graphite, black marker and watercolor

Funny Bunny

2005-12-22T11:36:00.000-05:00

A whole page full of Rosie!! A funny bunny with many moods and expressions. These very quick sketches were done with vine charcoal on Ingres paper which has a very unique texture to it.

Winter Solstice

2005-12-21T09:29:00.000-05:00

Happy Winter Solstice!! Time to celebrate, after today the days begin to get longer and longer!!! This is a quick morning sketch done looking out the window. This took about 40-45 min. and it's done on eraser paper. This is special paper that's coated with a layer of charcoal and instead of a pencil you draw with an eraser, removing the charcoal. It's like drawing in reverse!

Christmas Globe

2005-12-19T22:16:00.000-05:00

This beautiful Christmas globe is a "snow-shaker" and a musicbox. It plays " O, Holy Night" and is filled with irridescent glittler for "snow". It's quite beautiful to watch and listen to.

2H pencil

Wooden Duck

2005-12-18T22:04:00.000-05:00

This is Agnes, a beautiful hand carved wooden duck. She has a sister, Winnie. I originally bought them to put in my garden but they are so beautiful that they grace the mantel in our livingroom. This was a fun sketch, trying to capture the inquisitive expression originally given to her by the person who carved her.

Ebony Sketching Pencil

Dog Day Afternoon

2005-12-17T14:10:00.000-05:00

Here's Maggie making herself comfy in the sun on this winter afternoon. For a little change of pace these were done in charcoal, then sprayed with clear acrylic to keep them from smudging. I awlays liked charcoal as a sketching medium. I think it's as close as you can get to painting while still drawing. Charcoal is very soft and easy to smudge and blend, in many ways like oil paint. Whole areas can be covered thickly and then the lights pulled out using an eraser. Lines can be very rich and thick or very delicate allowing for a great deal of variety and expression.

Black Boot

2005-12-16T11:21:00.000-05:00

These boots are made for walkin' !! Well not really! But it was fun to tackle an all black subject.

Black marker and watercolor.

Paint & Brushes

2005-12-16T11:17:00.000-05:00

The tools of the trade for any painter! And a reminder that you can click on the link to my painting blog ART & LIFE and see my recent work including some beautiful snow scenes, and a full moon over the marsh at sunset, breathtaking!!

black marker

Amaryllis III

2005-12-14T19:38:00.000-05:00

I've moved the amaryllis to a sunnier south facing window and it's growing like crazy!! I'm eagerly anticipating the first sign of a bud!!

Pinecone

2005-12-14T19:01:00.000-05:00

This is a cone from a pitch pine, those scrubby pinetrees that grow near the beach. It comes from Fire Island, NY off a tree that was blown over in the great hurrican of 1938 but survived and continued to grow horizontally and then finally upward again. Life will find a way!!

House Wren Nest

2005-12-11T10:05:00.000-05:00

House wrens are perky little birds with delightful songs. I have many of them living in my garden. They make nests both in the birdhouses I put out and in the shrubs and bushes in the garden. This nest shows how wrens have adapted and made use of their human neighbors trash !! Woven into this loosely constructed and somewhat messy nest is a ziplock bag, wrappers from the straws that come with juice boxes and a good deal of pink birthday ribbon. In case you were wondering it is permissable to remove house wrens nests, though most other birds' nests cannot be touched, as they are protected by law.

LAWS
The Migratory Bird Treaty Act makes it illegal to disturb a nest or eggs of any native bird. Non-native and non-protected exotics are the House Sparrow (Passer domesticus), European Starling (Sturnus vulgaris), Domestic Pigeon or Rock Dove (Columba livia), the Monk parakeet (Myiopsitta monachus - the only parrot that doesn't nest in cavities), and the Eurasian collared dove (Streptopelia decaocto). Empty house wren nests can be removed. Don't remove tree swallow, tufted titmouse, or chickadee nests or eggs. House sparrow nests, eggs, young, and adults may be legally removed or destroyed.

Black marker and watercolor.

Beech Tree in Winter

2005-12-11T09:59:00.000-05:00

Trees in winter offer an opportunity to better understand the underlying structure of individual tree species. This is a portion of a Beech tree, with some of last summers leaves still hanging on. It sits right outside my diningroom window in the second story of my house. It's a favorite with the local squirrel population, who enjoy eating the beechnuts.

Pointsettas

2005-12-10T20:54:00.000-05:00

What would the holidays be without some cheerful red pointsettas?? Just a quick, simple little sketch here to capture their festive look.

Black marker and watercolor

Amaryllis II

2005-12-09T22:14:00.000-05:00

Snowy, slushy and mushy today so no birdnest hunting for me today! A good day to stay inside and post an update of the amaryllis' progress. It's nice to see something green and growing.

Vireo Nest

2005-12-08T15:46:00.000-05:00

A little research helped my identify this as a vireo's nest. It's about 2 1/2 inches in diameter, cup shaped and situated in the "v" of two thin branches on a beech sapling. It's exquisitely woven and attached to the branches with spider silk or perhaps the silk from a caterpillar's cocoon, a material that vireos commonly make use of.

Black marker, walnut ink, watercolor, white acrylic.

Winter Hydrangeas

2005-12-07T17:16:00.000-05:00

Hygrangeas are wonderful plants, green and leafy early on in the season, full of white "snowballs" in August and September and tawny delicate papery flowers all winter long. I collected these from the yard this morning when I was out for a walk with Maggie.

Just in case you were wondering the sketching pen I prefer is a Micron 05, black, acid free, waterproof ink. Today i also used walnut ink and Pelikan transparent watercolor pans and a size 10 round brush.

Let Sleeping Dogs Lie

2005-12-07T06:37:00.000-05:00

Before Maggie came into our lives we had two dogs who lived to ripe old ages. I sketched them hundreds of times and knew every line and angle that was necessary to capture them in a drawing. We've had Maggie for 2 1/2 years and during that time I've been concentrating on painting "en plein air" a French phrase meaning "in the open air". A fancy way to say I paint outside! As a result I haven't gotten to "know" Maggie with pen and paper yet and I'm not really able capture her "look". In this series of sketches she's sleeping on the floor, I think in the sketch on the right side I'm beginning to get the hang of drawing her.

Black marker and walnut ink.

Give the Dog a Bone

2005-12-07T06:33:00.000-05:00

This is Maggie the border collie mix. Animals don't like to be looked at intently, it makes them nervous so it's always easier to sketch them when they occupied or sleeping. Here maggie is enjoying a beef ear!

Black marker and watercolor.

Red Eared Slider

2005-12-07T06:26:00.000-05:00

Meet Shelly, a red eared slider. It's not legal to own this type of turtle anymore, but we got Shelly over 10 years ago when they were available in any good pet store. They're called "red eared" because of the red markings along the side of their head and neck. As they grow older the acquire more colorful striping and splotching. You'd think a slow moving turtle would hold still and be easy to sketch. WRONG!! In the summer when Shelly is outside and very active she moves around quite a bit, but now that it's winter she's inside and in semi-hibernation, and she was a better model.

Black pen and watercolor.

What's Up Doc ??

2005-12-07T06:20:00.000-05:00

This is Rosie again. She gives me a real sketching workout!! She never stays still for more than a few seconds, I'd say 20 seconds at most! She's so interesting to draw though, because of her breed. Rex rabbits have a wedge shaped head and a general triangular shape to their whole body. I've spent a long time learning to get her ears right, they more than any other element convey her attitude.

Black pen with walnut ink washes.

Amaryllis Bulb

2005-12-06T19:32:00.000-05:00

You know its the holiday season in my house when you see an amaryllis bulb growing on the windowsill! If you are patient and watch closely you can practically see these amazing plants growing.

Look for updates on the amaryllis' progress over the next few weeks.

Black waterproof pen and watercolor washes.

December Gleanings

2005-12-06T19:27:00.000-05:00

Bittersweet, rosehips and dried beech leaves all gathered from my yard. The leftovers of summer's bounty. Black waterproof pen and watercolor.

Pen, Pencil & Paper

2005-12-06T19:06:00.000-05:00

Welcome to Pen, Pencil & Paper: a visual journey through life. Each day I'll be posting quick sketches of ordinary things from home, nature and travels.

This is the Honorable Rosemary Woodsorrell, Rosie for short. She's my pet rabbit, a Rex for those of you who know about such things. She doesn't like to be stared at so I usually only have a few moments to capture her in a sketch. The sketches were done with a black waterproof marker and a walnut ink wash to round out the forms.