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.

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!

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. 

Golden Fluid Acrylics Outdoors

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

I've been dying to try Golden Fluid Acrylics in my Stillman & Birn, Beta sketchbook, and today was the perfect day. Spring sunlight is so beautiful and clear making all the delicate colors of spring pop! I worked on the paper as it is, no gesso, no priming with matte medium. The paper is very absorbent which is fine, as long as you know that. Next time I might coat the paper with matte medium first. Other than that the paper is wonderful and held up exceptionally well to repeated layers, scumbling and glazing. This is by far my favorite sketchbook for outdoor landscape work.

One of the great things about being able to paint in your sketchbook is well, that you can paint.  The sketchbook then becomes a very valuable tool in which you can practice color mixes, compositional strategies, explore a location for plein air painting, make color notes, catch an atmospheric effect or fleeting time of day quickly without worrying about completing a "painting". The work becomes just another sketch, which for me anyway means I'm freer, looser, more intuitive and means that I'm more likely to take creative risks, instigate happy accidents and in general be more expressive. 

A sketchbook that I can paint in becomes a safe place to push boundaries without fear of failure or judgement, my own or someone else's.