Sketching Sculpture

To see my paintings visit my website www.janblencowe.com

 Trips to museums make great sketching days. At the Slater Museum they have life size plaster casts of  all the famous sculpture form antiquity. Pencil and gouache were used to capture the Hermes Belvedere and the Dying Gaul.

The next town over from where I live has a Sculpture Mile, a mile long section of the downtown that has a sculpture exhibit that changes every year. this privately funded effort brings art into the public spaces of the town. Pencil, watercolor and gouache capture two views of this figurative piece.

Spring Sketching, Lilacs and Trees

To see my paintings visit my website www.janblencowe.com

Every year I make sure that I do something with the lilacs when they bloom. Sometimes it's a full painting, sometimes just a watercolor or sketch. This year it was a sketch. These come from a large shrub in my mom's yard. I brought her a huge bouquet of them as she was in the hospital recovering from a hip replacement. The scent of lilacs is just intoxicating! Watercolor, pen, acrylic marker.

This quick watercolor was done just at the edge of our property looking up the road. It was very overcast and while I was working it started to mist creating beautiful star patterns in the paint similar to what you get when you drop salt on wet watercolor.

Beaver Pond, Compositions and a Trip to the Museum

To see my paintings visit my website www.janblencowe.com

 I've been documenting the activity in our beaver pond, and around the rest of our property. Here you can see the beaver's lodge and the trees they have felled. There are ducks, and swifts. Occasionally I hear a Great Horned Owl, and we have some lovely birch trees too. Pencil and watercolor.

One of the things a sketchbook  is good for is testing out compositions before you commit to a large painting. This is a local scene on our downtown and I admire the weeping cherry tree every spring. Four small, fast paintings let me explore several compositional possibilities. Then I was able to make notes analyzing what I liked and didn't like about each. In the end I went with a version similar to the one in the upper right. Golden Fluid Acrylic.

One of the really nice things about keeping a sketchbook journal is capturing the places you go and the things you see. This page has some figure studies of customers having lunch at Denny's along with my fruit salad! Then a trip to the museum followed where I jotted down the information on Tonalism that accompanied the painting by Emil Carlsen that I did a sketch of. Below that is a sketch of Willard Metcalf's sketchbook that he kept when he was in New Mexico and to the left two Canada Geese who were on the museum grounds enjoying the rain.

Sketching Spring Trees

To see my paintings visit my website www.janblencowe.com

Spring Trees, done on Easter Sunday, UniBall Vision pen, Daniel Smith watercolors, Stillman & Birn Beta series sketchbook.

Winsor & Newton Gouache, Stillman & Birn Beta series sketchbook.

 I thought this wold be an interesting comparison of two similar (yet very different!) mediums ,watercolor and gouache. Gouache is sometimes thought of as opaque watercolor, in the 19th century it was called body color, meaning that it had a heavier consistency than watercolor, hence it had more body to it. You can thin down gouache like watercolor and create semi transparent washes or you can build up color as I did here.

The watercolor and pen is a very fast way to work and the transparent color seemed the best choice for capturing the very sunny day and the light colors in the trees.  When i did the second sketch clouds were rolling in and the weather was changing and layers of heavier gouache seemed the right choice for that particular situation.

Gouache and watercolor also work well together, allowing you to sit opaque layers or areas on top of transparent areas which produces a really nice effect.

Zoo Sketches

To see my paintings visit my website www.janblencowe.com

 Sketching at the zoo is very challenging! Some of these are from on the spot observation, others developed and fleshed out from photos I took. I wish there was a zoo close to home so I could go frequently and become adept enough to capture the animals quickly and accurately while observing them.

The lions are done with 2B pencil and gouache, in a Stillman & Birn Beta Sketchbook.

The Baboons were very entertaining to watch especially the very young one, who persisted in pestering his elders even after getting a scolding. 2B pencil and gouache, in a Stillman & Birn Beta Sketchbook.

Wish I could have gotten the Bactrain Camels to turn around, but they were at the hay baskets munching the afternoon away. 2B pencil and gouache, in a Stillman & Birn Beta Sketchbook.

 This part of the zoo was fascinating. It's called the Deer Forest and a herd of 90 Fallow Deer roam free as you walk along the paths. The deer will come to you to eat if you buy corn from the little dispensers, they will follow you and walk freely in and out of groups of people. Here you see a chocolate variety, and a spotted. There is also a white coated variation. Watercolor, 2B pencil and gouache, in a Stillman & Birn Beta Sketchbook.

This was a spur of the moment visit on our way home from my daughter's college in Beverly, MA and I would have missed the opportunity to enjoy these beautiful animals if I didn't always keep at least one sketching kit in the car at all times!

Sketching Sea Turtles

To see my paintings visit my website www.janblencowe.com

 Sea Turtles at the Maritime Center in Norwalk, CT.  Pen, and watercolor in a Pentallic Nature Sketch sketchbook

Lots of fun watching these beautiful creatures swim and move, but challenging to sketch because they're always swimming and moving!

Easter Egg Sketch

To see my paintings visit my website www.janblencowe.com

Pen and watercolor in an Alpha Series Stillman & Birn sketchbook

 Have a beautiful, blessed Easter ! And Happy Passover and Happy Spring, too!

Landscape Sketches

To see my paintings visit my website www.janblencowe.com

 Beaver Dam, Golden Fluid Acrylics, Beta Stillman & Birn multimedia sketchbook

Having a great time taking my paints outdoors and doing quick painted sketches. The beavers have repaired their dam this year and the water level in the beaver pond on our property has risen significantly.

 Hammock River Sunset, W&N Gouache, Beta Stillman & Birn multimedia sketchbook. Getting accustomed to what gouache can do. For this sketch I primed the paper with some acrylic matte medium. This forces me to use a thicker application of paint (otherwise the gouache will bead up) which is good, it keeps me from thinning the paint too much.

 Spring Sunset, pen & watercolor, Beta Stillman & Birn multimedia sketchbook. Always nice to return to one of my favorite combos, wc & pen.

 Florence Griswold House and Daffodils, W&N Gouache, Beta Stillman & Birn multimedia sketchbook. Always challenging to do architecture in pen! it's a bit wonky but full of character!