Abstracts

I’ve been working toward increasingly abstract options for my color chart examples. I have read a couple books, and been inspired by a couple artists. So I dove in to attempting a fully abstract, color exploration abstracts. The first was done because I really liked the colors I used for the Tuzigoot sketches, so I wanted to explore the same color combination in an abstract. I really love this one.

I also tried a plastic stencil with watercolor. The first effort, which is the Van Dyke Brown, worked great. I used a dry brush. The second effort was the white Acryla Gouache, which bled more because my brush wasn’t dry enough. I think I can get these stencils to work pretty well, though. I like how they look.

My second abstract attempt was using the Zorn color palette. Anders Zorn, a Swedish painter born in 1860, is attributed with this very limited color palette because he excelled at it. He worked with oil paints, using Yellow, Red, Black, and White.

I used a set of Sennelier paints: Bright Red (NR), Yellow Ochre (PY43), and Ivory Black (PBk9). The white doodles painted on top are done with Acryla Gouache.

Though I did not attempt any color mixing for these abstracts, from my research the Zorn palette is amazing at skin tones, and I’m definitely curious to try that. I do wonder what red pigment he actually used, however. One source said he used yellow ochre, ivory black, vermilion and lead white. Modern substitutions recommended are Cadmium Red Light, and Titanium White. I may have to explore the Zorn palette more fully.

Here are the full page spreads with these abstracts. I painted three values of the Ivory Black, plus the Yellow Ochre, and Bright Red.

I will definitely be doing more of these abstracts.

Foundations 2025 Complete

Wow! I did it! I completed every single exercise. I learned a lot about why I have not been successful in the past, and it’s mostly to do with life interference, and health issues.

2025
3 bathroom items
a door
Doors
Backyard
Park at PV

Here is the whole collection of exercises and I am so grateful for all I’ve learned and how much my drawing has leveled up. I’m not sure I can put what I’ve learned into three takeaways that relate to the lessons themselves, as much as to what pushing through to complete these assignments taught me. My skills certainly improved, but having taken the class five times before, I can’t say the words were new. Applying it massively helped. Pencil miles helped, as John Muir Laws calls it.

Many of my sketches still don’t have the look I really want to achieve, but I finally do understand that is about skill and practice. I need to learn and continue to improve things like depth, and dimension in my drawings. I also realize those are lifelong pursuits, not a once and one sort of learning. The learning spiral, as Liz Steel describes it in her class. I’m really proud of some of these sketches, as they definitely represent a level up of my skills. Particularly the chair, Stonehenge, and the sink.

On to the next. Travel Sketching is running as a live class in April. I will be traveling the first week of it, so I’m going to try to get those lessons done ahead of time. I will also try to apply the techniques to my travel sketches while on an actual vacation! I tend to not due to anxiety, but we shall see. I begin to realize that lots of practice in advance might be the secret to having the skills to overcome the on location challenges.

I may also do Edges as an independent study. I’ve never done that course, and I think it comes next in terms of building skill. I haven’t decided yet. If not now, I’ll certainly join it when Liz next runs it.

Tuzigoot

For the final livestream of class we were asked to submit a scene we thought was very challenging to sketch and she would select a couple to discuss for our final review. I was lucky enough that she chose my photo of Tuzigoot National Monument.

Tuzigoot National Monument

I took notes, and then attempted to sketch this view following her advice, and the techniques learned in class.

Not bad for my first attempts. I actually learned a lot by doing three versions in a row. One thing I certainly learned is I need more practice drawing these kinds of ruins, if I want them to make any sort of sense to understand what is going on. All that stone on stone on stone, yet to create the depth and shading to visually represent the many rooms, and layers. Plenty to practice!

Everyday Sketching 2025 Week 13

Not as much sketching this week as it was not only my birthday, but also a big week for plumbing issues in the house!

Park at PV

A leaky faucet got replaced, and I just had to document it with a couple sketches. These sketches were being done while the massive leaks underneath the sink were being repaired! (Plumber not sketched. Ha!)

I did these abstract lines of the colors in the sketch, and rather like the look of them. I’m inspired by Creative Abstract Watercolor by Kate Rebecca Leach which I got for my birthday. Nice ways to showcase color charts! As well as add color to an otherwise gloomy page.

Sketching from a Focus

My final sketching assignment for Foundations! Can you believe it? After SIX times, I have finally succeeded in doing ALL the sketching assignments for this course! Woot!

Sketching from a focus is such a great way to be able to sketch what is important first, and it’s okay when you run out of time!

I ran out of time sketching this little sideboard at the the restaurant, so the one side of the shelving unit just did not get sketched. My focus was on the tubs of utensils, so they are in more detail, and I let the rest be less detailed.

I did have a major week of plumbing issues get involved, so I decided to make sketching the faucet part of my assignment, focusing on the faucet itself, and greatly minimizing the clutter behind with only suggested lines.

Creating a Focus

Doing multiple thumbnails to tell different stories, and create a focus was a great deal of fun.

Backyard
Park at PV

I actually managed to get out and sketch on location for the outdoor assignment. I was rushed, and found the scenes overwhelming, but it was definitely rewarding to try. I look forward to being able to do more sketching on location!

Everyday Sketching 2025 Week 12

I read Jean Haines book, Painting Yourself Calm, and I loved it. Eager to try, I did her exercises in yellow. I think I can’t get her results unless I use full cotton paper, but the green streak on yellow really reminded me it was St. Patrick’s day, so I was off painting little shamrocks. Such a nice, festive page.

Sunsets really challenge me in painting them, so this time I went for a looser version just to capture the colors. I tried an exercise from the Paint Yourself Calm, but it seems to have ended up far more abstract that I originally intended. I kinda like it though. Maybe abstracts are a good way to document moods, and moments that don’t otherwise have objects or scenes to sketch? Interesting idea.

Fascinated by this upside tree I was watching in a television show, so I sketched it. I’m working on developing my pen and ink skills, too, and this was a great subject for that.

To celebrate the Spring Equinox, I used watercolor on a plastic stencil just to see what would happen. I did have some bleeding, but I was able to lift much of it, and clean it up. Good thing I used Serpentine Genuine, and not a staining pigment!

Foundations exercises, and a color chart of my kit for April’s Travel Sketching course. I dug out the neocolors I’d bought the last run of the class, in the class palette, but never used. I’m curious about Neocolor II, as they are quite popular.

Of course I had to swatch the colors of Jean Haine’s palette. After doing the mosaic style of color sampling, I had to try another organic one, and I’m finally getting the kind of results I had in mind! There is something very cheerful and uplifting about this rainbow page.

More color charts and tests, and mosaic sampling, this time with a bit more gradients within. These are starting to be fun and I love how they look filling the page to the edge, which is the March challenge in the Liz Steel Patreon group.

Finally two color charts using the new Haze supergranualting paints from Schmincke. I have all the other supergranulating colors, so I couldn’t have an incomplete collection, now could I?

My color charts are evolving, and I rather like what’s happening on these pages.

Everyday Sketching 2025 Week 11

A very experimental week.

I first tried doing a Nature Journaling style of page inspired by a You Tuber named My Nature Diaries. I love her work. I had even cut a fresh branch off the Bougainvillea before I pruned it, for sketching from a live specimen. Plants are hard! I love the layout of the page. I used the Schmincke Retro Palette, but I feel the greens really dried super flat. That cochineal red is gorgeous by itself, but doesn’t not seem to hold its vibrance when mixed. I missed using Quin Rose for this.

So I used Quin Rose for the pajamas and door sketch, and proved the vibrancy does hold up better when mixing. The color swatches was the paint left over in my palette from the Nature Journal page, and indeed have that muted, dull look, which is why I sketched a line drawing over it.

A color chart of the Art Nouveau Gansai Tambi palette. Instead of squares I was attempting merging the organic rounds, but my paper dried far too fast for any bleeds. So I did a second one attempting to add water. I did not get the results I thought I would, which definitely makes this a learning experience. I don’t hate how responsive Gansai Tambi is to water drops, actually. Then I did a second attempt at the sort of soft colors, and blended background I had tried in the Nature Journal page. Much better.

I also did a color chart, still attempting the organic circles, of the Green With Envy palette that Jean Haines did with Daniel Smith. Love, love, love these greens!

Pen tests, and Foundations exercises, and then another walk at Stonecreek. The Stonecreek page is an exploration of media. I used the Albrect Durer watercolor pencils for the birds, but then got curious how the Inktense would look next to it, so I extended the background using the Inktense. Then I decided to paint my usual Stonecreek Pond in Gansai Tambi. Love what the water effects did in the pond water. I did this at home, from a photo, as the Gansai Tambi are not easily transportable.

There were many turtle sightings in the pond on this particular spring day, so I had to document that with their little heads in the waters.