If you plan a disaster, you may be surprised at the result...

Sketching in the Kitchen with Kay...

See "Stream of Consciousness" below to read how this page came about!

Watercolors, graphite, and Pentel Brush Pen in Jane Davenport Canvas Journal.

Close up of face showing graphite around the eyes.

Close up of roses showing Pentel Brush Pen lines.

Close up of baby elephant show the primary colors: Azo Yellow (M. Graham), Quinacridone Pink (Daniel Smith), Phthalo blue (green shade) (Daniel Smith).

Stream of Consciousness:

...  it's dark, damp, chilly, a light rain falling, right now I'm sitting at Kay's kitchen table with my Jane Davenport Canvas Journal open in front of me while I decide on what to sketch as I look through Birds and Blooms at all of the stunning flowers and vibrant hummingbirds a torn page falls to the floor, as I pick it up I see that it is a page with a picture of a baby elephant that was obviously taken from somewhere else perhaps a National Geographic and what is it doing in a bird magazine I wonder when Kay hands me a brochure from a wig company containing lots and lots of pictures of glam gals in fake hair hinting that maybe I should work on "eyes" and taking that into my hand I notice there is a vase of very old roses on the other side of the table that were probably quite beautiful when received on Valentine's Day and I think to myself that I have a hard time sketching elephants, eyes, AND roses so why not put them all on one page and limit my palette to the three primary colors because if the page is doomed from the start there can be no fear of failure so YAY, freedom! and even though others may not understand the composition... I am fond of the outcome.

Oil Pastels are like yummy crayons...

Looking at a book about Nicolai Fechin inspired me to play with some oil pastel crayons.

Sketching in the Kitchen with Kay.

Strathmore 500 Series Mixed Media Sketchbook.

Tree #144/10,000 "Friendship is a sheltering tree." Samuel Taylor Coleridge

Black Chinese ink and watercolors in Strathmore 500 Series Mixed Media Journal.

Sketching in the Kitchen with Kay.

Tree #143/10,000: The Temporal Aspect of the Standing People is beyond human understanding...

Wise Old Possum Woman was contemplating the temporal aspect of trees when she saw one in a rock.

The story in the stone inspired a journal page.

It's hard to see the texture and sheen of the page with a scan or photograph.

In the close up you can see the underpainting of light molding paste and resin sand.

The sheen is from iridescent acrylic paint.

In Kay's kitchen with acrylics and a Strathmore 500 Series Mixed Media Journal.

Winter is here....Meteorological winter and Astronomical winter.

"Winter is here." 

George R R Martin A Game of Thrones

We are in the "Dead of Winter". In the Mid-Atlantic it's the time of the lowest average temperatures, usually during the middle of January. Meteorological Winter is based on the weather. The further north you travel the earlier this happens. Astronomical Winter is the time from the Winter Solstice to the Vernal Equinox.

Watercolors in the Strathmore 500 Series Mixed Media Journal from a reference photo . Done in Kay's kitchen last week.

Oil Pastels (Why did I buy these?): Calla Lily

Don't remember when, don't remember why, but some time ago I bought these oil pastels and then put them away. Well, I got them out a few days ago and

took them with me along to Kay's kitchen to try an oil pastel sketch in my journal. She had a large faux calla lily that I used as a model.

First I lay down some color and then used a brush and Turpenoid to move the color around. I put down more color and used my fingernail to scratch into it to add texture. I think the fact that I gessoed the page first helped to add even more texture. 

After the page was complete, I read somewhere that oil pastels NEVER dry (Can that be true?), so I just sprayed some Workable Fixative over the page a few times to seal it. 

Sketching in the Kitchen with Kay: Earth, Woman, Mountain

I was fascinated with a tiny plant arrangement that Kay had made. She called it "Heaven, Earth, and Man."  She explained "Ikebana" (ee - kay - bana) the Japanese art of flower arranging that brings humanity and nature together. (My second new word of the year!) The emphasis is on shape, line, and form. These attributes can refer to not just the flowers but the stem and the leaves of a plant.

So even though Kay had a lovely bouquet of roses and baby's breath, I wanted to sketch the plants because of their different heights, colors, textures, and interesting leaf forms!

I started with a really fun really blind contour sketch to loosen up. But I was soon to learn that it didn't help much! Maybe I was way to excited to use this set of Derwent Art Bars that had been tucked away in a drawer for a VERY long time. 

I was all agog and so focused on the texture that these water soluble waxy crayons produce that I was not "seeing" my sketch.

Kay looked up from her incredibly beautiful painting and was silent for a moment. She asked me what it was that I liked about what I was doing. Still focused on the media, I must have said something about the colors or the texture. Kay queried, "Is the picture about the paints or the plants?" (Below is the original sketch.)

Obviously, I was NOT in touch with nature. There was no FEELING in what I was doing. No CONNECTION to my subject. No SEEING in the true sense. So we went over the different dull and stiff aspects of the picture. Later on, while her lesson was still fresh in my mind, I made a second sketch. Here are a few comparisons between the first and second versions.

#1 The plant leaves stacked in a row. No feeling. Too stiff. No movement. Notice lower stems are bare and awkward.

#2 Plant leaves at varying angles. Livelier. Definitely more feeling. See below for lower stems.

#1 Kay said this plant looked liked "soldiers marching in a row".  Too uniform. Definitely too stiff.

#2 Dancers instead of soldiers! I also added some "ghost" leaves behind the dancers so the lower stem of the tall plant doesn't look so bare and awkward.

#1 Completely lost the form on this little plant!

#2 More shape and form.

#1 This flower stem is all wrong! Too stiff. Too few blooms.

#2 Closer to the real thing. More blooms on the stem.

#2 I added a second stem with flowers and put a touch of an bright aqua background. 

Happy with the final result that I named "Earth, Woman, Mountain."

Happy Winter Solstice 2016..

Sketching in the kitchen with Kay. She has a brilliant red poinsettia and I thought to add its color to my sketchbook.

Lots of layers and spritzes for texture. Sketched with a Lamy Safari fountain pen, more black lines with a Sakura Glaze pen, colors are Derwent Inktense pencils, and white gouache touches in my Strathmore 500 Series Mixed Media sketchbook.

I added a Winter Solstice Greetings to the opposite page:

Best wishes for an environmentally conscious, socially responsible, low stress, non-addictive, gender neutral, winter solstice holiday, practiced within the most joyous traditions of the religious persuasion of your choice, but with respect for the religious persuasion of others who choose to practice their own religion as well as those who choose not to practice a religion at all;

Additionally,

a fiscally successful, personally fulfilling, and medically uncomplicated recognition of the generally accepted calendar year 2017, but not without due respect for the calendars of choice of other cultures whose contributions have helped make our society great, without regard to the race, creed, color, religious, or sexual preferences of the wishes.

(Disclaimer: This greeting is subject to clarification or withdrawal. It implies no promise by the wisher to actually implement any of the wishes for her/himself or others and no responsibility for any unintended emotional stress these greetings may bring to those not caught up in the seasonal spirit.)

Tis the Season...to paint fat birds

It's that time of the year! Who can resist painting a Fat Cardinal in a snowy pine? Anyway, I'm pretty sure it's a required "change of season" thingy as we approach the Winter Solstice. Also required, I believe, are paintings of Fat Juncos. Acrylics in Strathmore 500 Series Mixed Media Journal while painting with Kay in her kitchen.

Two Turnips and a Pig...

Sketching in the Kitchen with Kay November 18, 2016, Walnut Woods, Boyertown. 

Kay had these turnips for awhile and when they began to sprout, they became our still life to sketch. 

My mantra that day was "No black lines, no black lines, no black lines, no black lines....." just to see what would happen without them. I always feel the NEED to add those black lines. I feel like it is something I MUST do to finish the sketch. I NEVER just let the picture be. Well, never say never. Watercolor (WITH NO BLACK LINES) in Strathmore 500 Series Mixed Media Soft cover sketchbook.