Project RS.52-2B

Today after receiving another encouraging email from Tatie, I decided to have another try at doing this weeks exercise for Project RS.52 but really wanted to do two things:
a) Really push myself with both accuracy and speed  b) experiment further with watercolour pencils. After making my breakfast of English crumpets, English cucumber slices and a tomatoe, I pulled out my tin of Watercolour pencils, my sketchbook and my waterbrush and got to it. Needless to say my crumpets were very cold when I finished sketching and I had to nuke 'em in the microwave to make them somewhat edible :-(

My tin of Derwent watercolour pencils

After 20 minutes

Even pushing real hard with only the watercolour pencils

I still only got this far but had the rudimentary breakfast

items sketched in. Did not get to the can of Nestea ice tea

though, only the outline. These watercolour pencils are

exceptional. The trick is to sharpen them well. I know 

that some pencil sharpeners have a bigger hole for

sharpening colour pencils, but I find with these it is

better to use the regular hole as per regular pencils.

When I start the sketch, I draw shapes negatively with

the outside colour then I rough in the shadows. Super

detail is not needed, this can be handled when the

sketch is wetted using the water brush with only

clear water. 

After another 10 minutes

I was having so much fun I decided to wet the sketch and

attempt to finish it. I was able to get the food, placemat

and plate done, but still not the drink. Again these

watercolour pencils are awesome and quick.

Final 10 minutes

Well at this point I just had to sketch in and wet in the

ice tea drink. I had prior experience drawing these

ice tea cans, but last time I did the sketch all with

blue fountain pen ink. I believe the sketch is shown

somewhere on this blog :-)

I am reasonably happy with the results of 40 minutes total and learned a lot today. I will record these new ideas in my journal under lessons learned.

Did I say "These watercolour pencils are awesome!"

All photo's above can be seen as larger images by clicking on each photo above.

Portrait: "Sahasra"

The painting below is a portrait of Harish Rayaprolu's daughter. Harish is a friend of mine that still works at Open Solutions in the New Delhi office in India. His daughter is 11 months old and her name is Sahasra.

Portrait is a 14" x 18" Watercolour
Paper: Arches 300lb Rough.
Started: Sunday January 8, 2012
Completed: Wednesday January 11, 2012

"Sahasra"

[Click on image for larger view]

Project RS-52 #2

18 minute sketch of breakfast [Pancakes, blueberries, raspberries, banana and a glass of skim milk - since I did the cooking, it didn't taste as good as it looked]. Just in case you are wondering, the plate is supposed to be frosted glass.

Sketch was done entirely with watercolour pencils and waterbrush to speed up sketching. No pencil used.

The watercolour pencils worked great for sketching and are very quick and interesting when wet. I drew the basic shapes with watercolour pencils dry then used waterbrush with clean water to just smudge-in the colour. Don't be afraid to mix dry watercolour pencil, it blends well when wet. You can see the blue blended a bit too well with the yellow banana and now it looks a little greener than it was in real life. :-)

"RS.52 - Week #2"

[Click on image for larger view]

Big Lesson Learned

Today I learned the hard way that you should ALWAYS use clean water and clean brushes when applying the first light wash to faces when doing portraits. Grr.. had a touch of indigo in my brush and water when applying the base flesh tones. Result a green face. AND Indigo pigment stains... so you can't scrub it out!

I now have to redraw the portrait...  @#%$#%$#%!

Project RS-52

My friend Tatie from France invited me to participate in the "Rural Sketchers" Project RS.52. Each member does a quick sketch each week that is to be completed in 10/15 minutes. Sketch must be done from real.. no photos. Each week there is a posted subject to be sketched. This week the subject is: "Your favourite drawing tools: pen, pencil, watercolour, etc".

As you can see my favourites are watercolour, my fancy ceramic palette and my drawing boards. I keep two boards with the one shown remaining upright and the second flat. My paintings  are done with the paper stretched and taped to foam board (Incredible Art Board) either 24" x 32" or 16" x 24". This makes it easier to handle multiple paintings at the same time. When I go out, (other than with my sketchbooks) I take a 16" x 24" foam board with paper pre-stretched.

My first a very humbling 15 minutes :-(

See: http://ruralsketchers.blogspot.com/

"RS-52 Week #1"

[Click on image for larger view]

Happy New Year 2012

Wishing all friends and visitors a very Happy New Year for 2012

Doreen and Alan in Ibiza

Painted over the 2011 Christmas holidays.
Watercolour 16" x 17"
Paper: Arches 140lb Cold Press

"Doreen and Alan in Ibiza"

[Click image for larger view]

Little Santa

Painted over the 2011 Christmas holidays.
Watercolour 17" x 23"
Paper: Arches 140lb Cold Press
[Update Jan 3, 2012: Painting being updated, will post revised version soon. IMHO this painting too washed out and has no punch. Revision will have bolder colours.]

"Little Santa"

[Click image for larger view]

"Little Santa" - revised

[Click on image for larger view]

Oliver

Over the Christmas Holidays I have been working on portraits. This latest one is of my cousin Julie's grandson. I was asked by my aunt and uncle (Oliver's GreatGrandparents) to paint this for them.

Painting: 17" x 21" Watercolour
Paper: Arches 300lb Rough

"Oliver"

[Click on image for larger view]

Out My Window

Last week there was one afternoon where the weather in Vancouver was really strange. Within an hour the weather went from sunny, to grey and rainy, thunder, lightening, high wind gusts, wind blowing leaves up, wind blowing leaves sideways, more rain, sun showers, dark and then sunny again. I sat watching this out my living room window. When the weather cleared I was left with this really clear view where all the colours outside were intense and crisp. I spent the next hour or so sketching this view. Unfortunately I have been having problems with a virus my eyes and had to set my sketching aside. On Monday Nov 21st I was finally again able to pick up and complete the sketch. This is the result. I have to admit that from my nice comfy chair I did get a little crazy drawing a lot of detail.. but hey.. that's just my style.

"Out My Window"

[Click on image for larger view]