Not much time today. My apologies…. I’ll make it up to you!
Day 46: A quick scribble
Tag: miscellaneous
Day 44: (Monday)a zentangley peacock
I don’t exactly “zentangle“, but I do like to draw these sort of zentangled pictures. We are on a business trip but I won’t let that stall my threesixfive project. (Plus I love my art supplies like they are children. Almost. So brought a bunch with me. A mini travel version of my studio.) I did this project on the plane, on an empty lottery ticket I picked up at Food Lion. I wish I had thought to work the shaded areas into the design. And I thought of a way to work the feathers in better. But I’m needing a pencil on fewer and fewer projects, which feels like improvement.
Day 42: SHOES!!!!!
So here are my new favorite old shoes. I LOVE Calvin and Hobbes SO much.
I will be away for a couple of days, but promise I’ll still be doing some small artsy thing each day. I’ll try to post them, but if I can’t, I’ll catch up Wednesday night. Happy weekend!
Acrylic on canvas… shoe. Feline approved.
Day 31: watercolor and pencil studies.
A full month already!! I am 1/12th of the way to my goal. I’m amazed by how much I have learned in just a month. Mostly from youtube tutorials. And I’m back today with another two youtube studies… one watercolor ocean scene, and one water droplet pencil study. Definitely didn’t want to post the droplets, I even tried them three times. First with charcoal on toned paper. Then on pencil on white paper. Then pencil on toned (posted) Well, I’ll keep trying. And while the watercolor was fun to do, I’m not crazy about it either… but hey I can’t just post stuff I like, right?
Day 24: a shopping spree
I went to Michaels last night to get supplies for the drawing class. I spent like two hours staring at a row of pencils. PENCILS. Weird because A) I had no idea there were so many choices and B) I really had fun staring. It’s hard to find the right place between awesome quality supplies, and fun stuff, and a reasonable budget. My 50% off one item helped a little. (Really little. Because while it was an item I wanted, it was not an item I was planning to purchase yet)
My little haul: Charcoal… I’ve never enjoyed charcoal. But maybe I just wasn’t taught how to use it properly. A mixed media book and a watercolor book, $8 each, a pretty good deal. A leather chamois. Too expensive for a tiny scrap. Two drawing pencils… that you can use a paintbrush on as well! I’ve been wanting these. AND 6 alcohol markers!! (Illustrator, by Spectrum Noir.) I’ve been planning to get copics but they are so expensive that I keep putting it off. And I don’t like the colors in the little sets at Michaels. I decided to try these while I had the coupon, and I love them! (So far.) I can tell I’ll be wanting the next set asap. That’s the trouble with trying new things. It leads to buying even more new things.
(drawn for day 15, colored for day 24) I did more art than this, but I will post it tomorrow!
Day 23: a study in cobalt
While looking for something for a drawing class I’m taking, I found a tiny little unopened pot of powdered gum arabic. I knew it was used in painting but didn’t know how, so I watched some videos and found that one way it is used is to slow the movement of watercolor. The video shows how to create the impression of a reflection of plants and trees at a river’s edge. The gum arabic used in the video, however is liquid. The powdered pot I have came with a small delicate fountain pen and pot of ink, so I’m fairly certain I’m expected to mix it with the ink (?) but decided to see how it would work in the water reflection test. This probably interests no one but me, sorry.
So, the first sample I tried. I painted a rectangle of water onto the paper… maybe 2×4 inches. I mixed a small amount of the powder into a small amount of water (like… a ‘brushfull’ of the G.A. to six or so brushfulls of water.) Then I dragged a bead of blue paint along the edge to see what would happen. Didn’t do much. Nothing I didn’t expect, anyway. Second sample… another rectangle. This time adding no gum arabic. (my ‘control’ sample… I don’t know why I did it second… my mind doesn’t think scientifically.) Pretty similar results. I could see a difference, but not much.
So I doubled the gum arabic in the solution and tried again, producing an interesting effect, but not really what I’d hoped for. I scribbled some tree shapes in to see how it would look. .
One more try. Tired of playing, I painted my rectangle, and this time dipped my damp brush right into the gum arabic powder, and brushed it over the top edge of my rectangle of water. Then ran the bead of color along the top. Ah! There! Pretty cool, really. Except for that blob of white powder in the center. Sometime soon, I’ll invest in the liquid, and figure out how to really use the powder. Until then, I have this if I need it.
Day 22: three painted images
I saved the best for last (in my opinion.) So read all the way through.
I colored in one of Day 21’s drawings. It wasn’t my favorite drawing, and I think it does look better with color. Maybe? I learned today that the pink salt in my grinder doesn’t lift paint the same as our regular table salt. Because of the type of salt? I doubt it. I suspect it was just ground too fine. Hard to remove once dried. I had to scrape it off. But I still like what it did in the background. Also, I tried the masking fluid and really liked it. Dipped my brush in soap first, and had no trouble removing the fluid from the brush afterwards.
I did this dandelion a few days ago and didn’t like it enough to post it. But that’s the wrong attitude!
And the bird was yesterday. I copied a page from my devotional (thanks, Rachael!!) but mine ended up bloodied looking, and his beak, oh poor guy. But even with his faults, I love him. He’s better than I thought I’d do. I gotta learn to do it without COPYING.
PS: I’ve now finished two full art journals!!! (well, sketch books) A huge accomplishment for me. I generally do a few pages, and put it aside. To fill up two (even small) books makes me feel really good.
Day 19: inky doodle cowboy
Grabbed an idea from a safari search, and added doodles. Don’t even ask. I don’t know. But it’s my art for today. He has a rather Audrey Hepburnesque neck. Actually… now that I look at him… It may be HER! I like him better now.
Day 14: brush pen practice
More brush pen practice.
Day 13: miscellaneous
I actually thought I’d do a quick nothing doodle today because I was going out… but I ended up trying a new brush pen and spent more time than I’d imagined. I like it more than the kuretake marker I’ve tried the past couple of days. It’s a thin plastic tube full of ink, with a brush tip… like if a soft bodied fountain pen and a paint brush had a baby. It’s probably for Japanese writing, actually. (the blue pen in the photo) Found out the hard way the ink stays wet a LONG time and still smears even after it is dry if you erase around it. So… I worked the smears into the design and liked the end result MORE than without the smears! Tried three other new pens as well, micron and comic… Fun doodles! More time than I meant to invest, and certainly doesn’t look like it. But day 13 is finished.
ThreeSixFiveArt 