Color charts, with mosaics worked to the edge. 100 People One Week, and a little bit of Foundations thrown in.
This week was dominated by the very rewarding 100 People One Week challenge. I did a couple Foundations lessons, and a color chart of the new Inktense pencils that arrived.
I’m really starting to enjoy the challenge of building these mosaic displays of the colors I swatch. I’m considering ways in which to do them more organically. I love the quilt block look, but I’d like to try other methods as well.
I started the new sketchbook, volume 19, with a Stillman and Birn Gamma, 8.5 x 5.5 inch, softcover landscape. This book has Ivory pages, but is the same weight and texture as the Alpha paper I usually use. I’m curious to see how the ivory paper goes for me.
This month has a challenge suggested within Liz Steel’s Patreon, to paint using negative shapes. So I tried that with my backyard on a very grey and rainy day. Not sure I got the planters very well, using negative shapes, but they are certainly expressive of the grey day!
I really began to explore a lot of color charts, and palettes, from a variety of media. With the color charts, I am beginning to explore means of using the colors in some sort of painting to see what they can do. The Colors of Inspiration watercolor palette from Daniel Smith. Gansai Tambi paints are quite interesting to work with. I warmed up with a couple people sketches, since the 100 People One Week challenge is coming up the first week of March. I swatched my current set of Inktense pencils, as I’m curious how are they different from watercolor pencils?
I did select colors to match the Travel Sketching Palette of pencils I’ve been using, so I could do a fair test of like colors.
To test them out, I took them out for my walk to Stonecreek and used them where I’ve been using the Albrect Durer pencils. They are a bit softer of a lead, and it easier to go over them after they’ve been activated with water. Once they dry the literature says they are permanent. I rarely go back over work, but it’s good to know. You can get the same vibrancy of color with both, but it perhaps takes less work with the Inktense.
I started my sketchbook volume 19 with a 6×9-inch Stillman and Birn Gamma softcover sketchbook. This is the same paper as the Alpha (150 gsm, Medium grain) but in an ivory color. I thought that I might try each type of paper, starting with the various offerings of Stillman & Birn, using the same size, to really learn how the papers work for me. It’s a nice small size, so I can go through them quickly.
The Ivory paper is nice, it seems softer to me, somehow. I don’t actually notice the difference much, except for portraits. I have to adjust for the yellow when I try to do skin tones.
I’ve been warming up on portraits in preparation for the 100 People One Week challenge the first week in March. So far with the captive subject of Livestream portraits. Not a bad way to document that I had a livestream, as it turns out.
My main subjects are the Foundations exercises, my livestreams, the weekly walk at Stonecreek Golf Course, and a lot of color swatching. (Great for those bad brain days!)
Here are my pages so far, from the Gamma sketchbook:
When I finished sketchbook 18, I decided to make the second half of sketchbook 17 into my daily sketchbook. I’d had the first half dedicated to the Travel Sketching course, and then to working through the Watercolor Pencil Magic exercises. However, by this time I was tired of carrying two sketchbooks!
There are a lot of color tests, particularly of different palettes and paints. I was enjoying testing the various new brands, colors, etc. Exercises for Foundations, a couple portraits to warm up for March’s 100 People One Week challenge.
Last week’s sketchbook pages had a lot more focus on sketchbook design since I am taking the class as an independent study program.
Having recently finished the Travel Sketching class, when I had the opportunity to walk Stonecreek, I brought my sketchbook with me, and tackled a scene that has long seemed very intimidating. This landscape view from the bottom of the pond. So I began with 5 shapes, and then added texture and details. Many of the details arrived while sketching. When the flock of Canadian geese flew in and landed on the water, so I had to add them in. When the American Coot swam up and gave me extended side-eye, perfectly posing for my sketch. He swam off just as I finished his addition! A cardinal in a tree branch, with the grey pond behind him, highlighting his colors. (He was so quick to fly off, I could only catch him via photo, and painted him later when I finished the page.)
I added the map, the titles, and the text block to finish off this page.
This also happens to be the first full spread page in my new sketchbook! I’m sticking with the 7.5×7.5-inch Stillman & Birn Softcover Alpha for now. The smaller pages are satisfying right now, and feel good. Keeping it simpler to encourage building a daily practice of sketchbook pages.
For this spread I used colored ink for extra notes, and the two ink color swatches to fill in a space. The ink is Diamine, and those are two of my favorite autumn colors.
This is a part of an Alley of Ambience image. Drawing campfires is hard, but I may be in love with those pumpkins!
This page is a little more abstract. I love Elisabeth Alba’s art and I had these various stickers of hers. I’d also put the 5×7 prints I have of her work into a newly purchased portfolio album. This simple spread marks that for this week. The raven is also on a half sheet, which flips over for a second color block of transparent red oxide, which is fun and interactive in my sketchbook.
I will cut half pages sometimes when I have a lot of collage, to reduce the overall bulk in the finished sketchbook. It’s a fun way to do interesting pages.
As usual, my participation in the Sketchbook Design class has me sketching more pages, and putting a lot more thought into their layouts and designs. I love them even more when I’m putting in the extra effort and time! I also seem to have leveled up in my drawing ability! Don’t ask me how THAT happened! It seems to happen at random intervals and I’m sure it’s a product of practice. And the many lessons, of course. That Travel Sketching class really did seem to help me level up, didn’t it?
Onto the next week! The holiday season begins in earnest and I wonder what my sketchbook will capture next?
Watercolor Markers! Okay, I admit, I saw these and they were a total impulse purchase last month. I will also admit, I gleefully squeed when they finally arrived! I have not worked too much with markers, though I have some Copic markers. I’m excited to play with markers that won’t bleed through the paper! The colors are nice and vibrant.
Here brings me through the first half of January. I’m starting to pick up some momentum now, and excited about what it is to come!
‘Tis the season, from holiday gnomes, to the annual quilt mystery! Capturing the bits and pieces during this cold, wintery season.
One of my gifts was 238 dot card set from Daniel Smith, so you know I had to make a color chart!
On the sketchbook design front, I noticed when I scanned these just how strongly I am still doing individual pages, and not really designing across the gutter. Only one of these four spreads utilizes both pages. I had not really noticed when I was making the pages, but I do when looking at the scans. This inspires me to think a bit more about my design, and layout in the future!
Happy Holidays everyone, and may your days be Merry and Bright! Happy New Year!
An actual, on location sketch of the fountain that I had a take-away lunch near.
I very much want to develop a daily sketching habit and capturing the stories of the day and this is a page with that intention. The buildings were from the show I was streaming and is an abandoned lighthouse in Michigan. I was attempting to use my newly learned buildings sketching skills. No doubt the sketch would be better with some color and paint, but time moved on, and so I’m leaving it and the sketch of the new brushes that got delivered as line sketches. Not finishing being part of the story, too.
More lost days, then a little Bob Ross inspiration. Since I’m really keen to learn how to paint landscapes, I decided to try Bob Ross in watercolor. I learned a lot about how different oil paints are from watercolor! Ha!
Then a second attempt. Yep, I need a whole different set of techniques than Bob used!
These four were also my first “sequence of pages’ designed as a set for my Sketchbook design class.
I had a variety of subjects I knew I wanted in this sequence, including large landscapes, clothing sketches, and open line drawings. Originally I was going to group the clothes on one page, and the line drawings on another, since they were the same, but after this lesson I realized that it would flow so much better as a sequence of spreads if I broke the subjects up. So I therefore definitely needed a second large, contained landscape to complete the sequence.
I love it now! These pages seem to now tell a story in a much better way than they would have had I gone with my first method!
Additionally, I used the same date stamp and weather temperature as a unifying marker through the pages. I probably could have done more with headings or text, maybe even a color block with the clothes, though I do like the airy open white space I have. It is a nice contrast to the fully painted landscape pages.
I certainly learned a whole lot doing this! Now I just need to practice a lot more so it gets faster! Though all told, I think all four spreads took me about three or four hours in total, so really that’s not too bad at all.
Wrapping up September with a landscape of Piestewa Peak that I’m very, very pleased with. I even love the outrageous amount of white space!
Jamie's Sketchbook 