Say What!

I was sitting here yesterday munching on some fruit and it suddenly hit me how everything these days is catalogued and bar coded. All the fruit in front of me was labelled with bar codes and product numbers to help the grocery stores figure out what they were selling. I just wondered what people did before all this technology took over and what they would have thought about all these stickers and bar codes on their produce.

Well inspired by my friend Brian and his "So I Noticed This" blog I pondered some more and thought about where this was all going. Today those annoying stickers, tomorrow why not Genetically Engineered or Modified produce. Why not grow the produce with the bar codes right in the darn food and save having to print and stick on all these tags. LOL

So after having a break from sketching and painting for a long while, I thought this would make a good piece to practice on. So I got out my blue Mont Blanc fountain pen ink and sharpened up a handy chopstick. The sketch was all done in ink with only the stick as an application tool. I kind of enjoy doing this as the stick and ink are hard to control and it makes me concentrate but keep things relatively simple. The single colour helps me concentrate on hard and soft edges.

"From Bar Coded Stickers to Genetically Modified Produce"

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Little Blue Sketchbook

More sketches in my "Little Blue Sketchbook". Also shown is the sketchbook cover.

Sketchbook Cover

"Robson & Bute - Rainy Day"

                    &

"Starbucks - More Customers"

"Blow Dry and Fluff"

&

"Starbucks - Chance Meeting"

August 25, 2011

A couple more sketches done in my smaller - handy to carry - 8.25" x 5" Moleskine sketchbook. Henceforth this book will be referred to as my "Little Blue Sketchbook" as all sketches to-date in it have been sketched using a #6 watercolour brush and a bottle of blue Mont Blanc fountain pen ink. Gets a bit messy on the hands if not careful and I get a few stares from passers-by. Anyway, these two sketches done sitting on bus stop bench at Granville and West Broadway in Vancouver. I had just got out of a meeting with a client at Starbucks at that intersection. The sketches are of two different buses on the same route. The second bus I did not finish the details until a day later, but the first was done on-site.

"Granville Bus - 1" and "Granville Bus-2"
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I have found that it is easier to start with the outline with a mixture of 75% water and 25% ink and rough in the area. Quickly sketch the window locations with this same light ink mix and the wheels and shadow. Fortunately both buses did two circuits while I was there, so picked up details missed on second round. Next took 100% ink and sketched in all the darks for contrast. Then taking a 50/50 mix of ink and water did the middle-tone. Careful to leave white for the numbers and lettering. Then carefully negative painted in the letters and numbers. I did forego the background as I did not have the time to do that. I was starting to get fried in the sun. (Need to invest in a wide-brimmed painters hat.. LOL.

Still a bit OCD with the details and tightness of the sketch.. I am working on that next to loosen up.

August 24, 2011

More  brush and ink sketches. These two done at Starbucks on the corner of Granville and W. Broadway. One of these I informally labelled "Mr Spock meets Dr. Mc Coy".

"Starbucks" - Granville / Broadway

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Brush and Ink Sketches

I am finding the brush and ink sketching is a little tricky. Firstly the ink I am using (Mont Blanc Blue fountain pen ink) is a little tricky to control. Once the ink is down there is no erasing. Successive applications of ink makes the area darker and once added cannot easily be lightened again. It is also difficult for me to get used to just one colour - but I like the result. It is teaching me each day to look at the different shades of a scene.

Just imagine if you could only see in shades of grey..

Brush and Ink - p1 & 2

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Brush and Ink - p3 & 4

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Brush and Ink - p5 & 6

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August 19, 2011

Today I tried experimenting with sketches with only brush and ink. The brush used was a standard #6 watercolour brush and the ink was blue Mont Blanc fountain pen ink. The idea was to sketch without my regular crutch of resorting to watercolour. The sketches were done in under ten minutes each. Today I broke in a new sketch pad - Moleskine 8.25" x 5" Watercolour book. I normally favour the larger Moleskine 11.25" x 8" Watercolour books. I will continue in parallel with the larger Moleskine for my regular sketches while using the smaller for experimentation.

"Nestea Lemon"

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"Portrait"

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