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.

Flowers in the Sketchbook

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

 Golden Fluid Acrylics, Alpha Series Stillman & Birn sketchbook

Golden Fluid Acrylics, Alpha Series Stillman & Birn sketchbook

More birthday flowers as promised! OK, so I am blown away over how amazing the fluid acrylics are in this sketchbook. The paper took multiple layers, glaze, scumble, wash with no problem. I actually think it ripples less than when using watercolor, and it doesn't ripple much then.  Compared to the paper in the Beta, which is specifically for multimedia and is a heavier, (180 lb. compared to the 100lb in the Alpha) the paint moves more freely on the Alpha paper, less so on the Beta paper which is more absorbent. This means that with watercolor the paint soaks right in and leaves a brush mark, with acrylics the paint also soaks right in but as you continue to work you build up a layer of paint then it becomes much easier to move the acrylic around on top.

I really love heavy weight paper, so when I use my Beta series books for acrylic I will seal the paper with matte medium or gesso first and that will do the trick. When I use watercolor I'll simply plan on incorporating the brush marks into the paintings or stick with a very light wash. With markers I find a colorless blender helpful.

But back to the Alpha. I am so impressed with this paper, it's really standing up to everything I'm throwing at it. Gouache is next. If I could design a sketch-book's specifications I'd make one with the exact same kind of paper as in the Alpha (suitable for dry or wet) but just a little heavier, like 130-140 lb. 

Birthday Flowers

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

 Yesterday I celebrated my birthday! Since my birthday is in the spring and since I love flowers and gardening I tend to get a lot of flowers for my special day and yesterday was no exception. These beauties are from my husband who also got me an ipad3 much to my delight! I also got flowers from my friend Joan , pansies for my flower boxes from one of my sons, a container of tulips from another friend, and a gift certificate to the local garden center from my mother. Needless to say you'll be seeing sketches of flowers in the next few days.

This is done with my fav Uni-ball Vision pen, Daniel Smith watercolors, and Golden Fluid Acrylics. I'm really pleased with how well the 100lb. paper in the Stillman & Birn Alpha sketchbook takes all the wet in wet water media I throw at it.

I've put links to the Stillman & Birn website and Facebook page in the sidebar for you to enjoy!