Author Archives: Jamie

Sketchbook Design January 2023

Here’s the wrap-up of my third run of this course. This class remains, by far, my absolute favorite, and it never fails to inspire and elevate my sketchbook practice.

I appear not to have uploaded the other pages from this run of the class, so maybe I’ll update this page at some point, if I do upload the rest.

Master Palette

For my Master Palette exercise I decided to take “local color” quite literally. I took a walk around my Phoenix, Arizona neighborhood looking at the colors and taking some photographs. (A very short walk, it was 106F/41C!) What IS the color of the tile roofs, the stucco, the cactus, the palo verde, the bougainvillea? I could call the results my Phoenix, Arizona Palette! I really enjoyed doing this. It took some work and a fair amount of trial and error to get the right shades of green, but I really was able to get both the bright greens of the leafy plants, and the muted greens of the cactus.

Harris Hills, L2 E2

My First Harris Hills is a layered approach, where I started with watery layers of Hansa Yellow Medium, Burnt Sienna, and Cerulean Blue Chromium. When that had dried I mixed a green and layered it on top. My third layer were the details and shadows. 

My second Harris Hills I worked fast for a wet in wet. I used no pencil lines so I lost the shapes. My paper dries super fast! Is it the Alpha paper or my desert climate? I did the entire painting in 12 minutes, not including drying time! I rather love the atmospheric mood of this wet in wet one. I might add ink lines to another one, just to see how it affects the landscape, but I love this one as is.

I did this Welsh landscape mostly wet in wet, though my foreground got too dry too quickly. I love what happened in the sky with the blooms and bleeds. This one took me just ten minutes, not including drying time! The grey background hill I’m quite happy with, and I’m definitely preferring using cobalt for skies over cerulean. My trees in the foreground had some trouble, and using some ink lines may help define them better.

Mixing Colors L2 E1

It was great to mix just two colors in a variety of ways on one large page (8×10 Stillman & Birn Alpha). There are some new to me colors in my palette that I haven’t mixed much previously, so I focused on those pigments, primarily. My first mix is with Burnt Sienna and Ultramarine (All my paints for this exercise are Daniel Smith) as I wanted to try to get that nice grey this pair can mix. My next mix is Quin Gold and Pthalo Blue (GS) to see what kind of greens I can get. I mixed Cerulean Blue Chromium with Pyrrol Crimson, as I haven’t worked much that red before. I was pretty pleased with the purples I cold get from it, as well as the crazy way the Cerulean exploded into the Pyrrol Scarlet. My favorite magic happening there! Last I mixed Pyrrol Scarlet with Pthalo Green and was surprised at what a lovely grey that made, as well as an excellent earth orange red that will be perfect for tile roofs!

Continuous Lines

I do so love drawing with a continuous line. It is so freeing! It reduces a complex subject into something utterly doable, and low pressure! I must remember to use this technique far, far more often!

First was a few kitchen items. I grabbed a box of lemon ginger tea, a lemon, and fresh ginger root. Cute! The exercise was to do the outlines, and here they are. I had so much fun I had to do it a few times!

Next assignment was to sketch part of a house that had some foliage in front of it. At least that’s how I interpreted it. This was even more fun! I really love how easy these were, and the energy in the sketches. It capture something special my more careful sketches don’t.

Next time I look forward to trying an even more detailed version. Maybe add the roof tiles for some texture, over and above the tree limbs. My sketchbook page got a bit crowded, but that’s the fun of being “on location” and working with what you have! I am nearing the end of this 7.5 x 7.5 inch Stillman and Birn Alpha. I’ll have to decide what size I’ll be going with next!

I decided to dust off my food sketchbook. Since this is the week of continuous line, I had to apply it to the food sketches! Not all of these little sketches are in continuous line, but I found it super helpful to sketch the pasta and the chocolate chips. Subjects where the detail typically overwhelms me.

I am also working on my sketchbook design skills in the food sketchbook. It is a good subject to practice spanning the gutter, and varying layout options. I’m obviously heavily influenced by Liz Steel and her magnificent classes, especially Sketching Now Sketchbook Design.

Speaking of challenging subjects, I attempted drawing something I would never have tried before, and I sketched this view of the Natchez steamboat by using continuous line. I rather love it! The cathedral I sketched using what I learned in Sketching Now Buildings, and much to my surprise, it turned out so well. This might be my favorite sketchbook page of all time, and certainly my favorite in this sketchbook!

Thanks Liz! I couldn’t be doing this without you!