Watercolor Pencil Class with Kate Johnson
Lesson 1a

This is done on Strathmore Art Paper (pink) with Derwent Inktense watercolor pencils. The water and the sky were done with five light layers. The process was color, followed with a wet brush that had been wicked on a sponge before each stroke, dry thoroughly and then repeat. The sky and the reflections on the water are primarily the pink paper, with a little bit of Chili Red pencil. Tangerine pencil is at the skyline. The pink in the foreground is the only area where the pink is pure paper. The distant trees and mountains were a single, heavy layer of a combination of Ink Black, Deep Indigo and Bark which I used a wetter brush on and drug the pigment into puddles and also into the skyline to get a jagged edge. The foreground is a light coloring of Bark on the ground and a combination of Deep Indigo and Ink Black on the blades of grasses. Light water was applied to the foreground. I'm pretty satisfied with this, especially since it's the first watercolor pencil I've done in months and months! The reference photo is from the reference library on WetCanvas and can be viewed here http://www.wetcanvas.com/RefLib/showphoto.php?photo=34786&si=southwest

Revised!

Doug at WetCanvas gave me some good instruction on fixing the spot of sun. Then I realized that the tree trunk needed to be more shaded, after all the sun is on the other side. One of those "slap myself on the forehead" revelations! I'm much happier with this. . . not perfect, but improved.

Jazz Alley Triad 4 - Winter Scene 2

Another one using a photo ref from the WetCanvas January challenge for winter scenes. This is done on Arches CP block, 7 x 10. I was pretty happy with most of this, I'm not sure about the sun spot shining through the branch of the tree, though. It was a very nice aspect of the photo. . . Maybe I didn't do it correctly. I masked the circle, painted the sky and the tree branch. I let it dry completely and then removed the mask, I used a wet brush to soften the edges. While that area was still damp, I dropped in just a haze of the brown/rust and then let it dry. I followed up with some strokes using the same pigment mix. It just looks "funny" to me, like it doesn't fit.

I AM enjoying using this triad and am getting somewhat accustomed to having no green - ha ha.

Jazz Alley Triad - Winter

This is from a photo on WetCanvas. It was posted along with two other winter scenes that were a January challenge. I decided to try this one using the triad. Since there's no green or yellow, I made the evergreen trees rust - :) I have to admit, I'm getting obsessed with this triad. I find it VERY challenging!! We are supposed to get snow where I live tonight and tomorrow, so maybe I'll be able to get out and take my own "winter" photos.

It is painted on Arches CP block and is 7 x 10.

Jazz Alley Triad - Bee on Lavender

I'm still searching for subjects to paint using JUST the pigments in this triad. I've found a few flowers and insects to add to my sunrise/sunset photos. I am finding that I REALLY need my yellows - LOL! After I finished this, I realized that for this lavender sprig a light grey would've been more effective to portray the fuzzy coating of the lavender pods. I just might attempt this one again, it was fun to do the bee. I think this may be the first insect I've ever painted.

Daniel Smith's Jazz Alley Triad - Desert Sunset

WetCanvas has an upcoming challenge for February to paint something using ONLY the DS triad called Jazz Alley. I've never participated in a WC challenge and thought maybe I'd try this time. The triad is challenging in itself! The pigments are Indigo, Quinacridone Sienna and Deep Scarlet. So, there's NO green and there's NO yellow to make a green! I can mix up some nice lavender and a nice range of terra cottas, but oh my! this challenge is going to be challenging in just finding subjects. Sunrises/sunsets will fit the bill, so that's what I've attempted here. I poured the sky (my first pouring experience) and then when I painted in the mountains, the sky was still damp and so I got runs and my mountains looked like volcanoes erupting - LOL! After the paper was completely dry, I tried to give some solid shape to those eruptions!! Rather than completely covering the runs, I decided to leave the tops just because they were unexpected. I hardly ever have the opportunity to use my rigger brush and really love it - it was fun to do the bare tree with such a fine tool!

Watersoluble Graphite Sketch with Watercolor Pencil

I couldnt' resist. . . I had to see what would happen when I added COLOR! I used Derwent Inktense Pencils and found that the graphite did reactivate just a little bit when I added water to the watercolor pencil lines. After it was completely dry, I touched up some of the graphite lines and then dabbed a bit of water on them. This was a fun experiment and now I'm REALLY eager to see what the graphite does with watercolor tube paint.

Watersoluble Graphite Pencils

I bought a set of these pencils (Cretacolor) back in July and had not even given them a test run yet!! Yesterday my friend, Irene, and I went to DBs in Pasadena and I talked her into buying some and so figured I probably should try out my own set - LOL! Last night I drew this simple little still life using the 4B pencil. After the initial drawing, I wet it with a brush and water and let it dry completely. Then I used the 8B pencil to add some darks and brushed those areas with water. Once water is added, the graphite is "set." When water is added, the lines just instantly melt -- it's really neat! Now that I've given this new/old toy a test run, I'm eager to try something a bit more complex. Kate's watercolor pencil class starts in a couple of weeks, so I'm gearing up for that and now am wondering what would happen to do a mixed media with these pencils and watercolor pencils or tube watercolor -- the graphite could certainly be effective as an underwash for shadows!!

Here is where I bought my set http://www.fineartstore.com/Catalog/tabid/365/List/1/CategoryID/13320/Level/a/Default.aspx

I just got a new "toy!" It is Derwent Tinted Charcoals and they are watersoluble. Currently, they are only available in the UK and I ordered them here www.artifolk.co.uk

This is just a quick little scene I did to give this new toy a test run. The background mountains were drawn and colored in using a variety of the charcoal tints, then water was added with a brush to blend. The sky is DS watercolor and the lake is a combination of the tinted charcoals and DS watercolor, as is the foreground. It is done in my Raffine sketchbook.

The charcoals go on just like regular charcoals, and they blended very easily when I added the water. As you can see, they don't completely dissolve, which I rather like as it adds a neat texture. I like how the combination of the charcoals and paint worked to give a sense of depth in the lake. In the foreground, I drew the grasses with the charcoal and then washed over them with watercolor. I look forward to working with these pencils again!

SF Golden Gate

My final gate in the series. This one, which should be simple, caused me so much frustration! This is the third attempt and it is still no where NEAR what I had in my head - LOL! It's a bit different than my other gates in it's subject, but I thought since I'm a Californian, I best do THE gate of all gates that we seem to be rather known for. It is done in my Lama Li book and I used all DS paints. I bought the DS set called Color Map Mixing Set - which is 10 tubes that give INCREDIBLE mixes. You can see the color chart on my flickr here

http://www.flickr.com/photos/brendas_watercolors/

I think I'm going to enjoy working with these pigments.

This morning I got an idea for my next series and I'm really excited about it! It will be "clouds." I've done some research online for some ref photos and there is TONS of really terrific shots of all kinds of clouds. . . I am eager to start.

A side note. . . my friend, Lin Frye, of http://viewfromtheoak.blogspot.com/ recommended a book and dvd to me a few weeks ago, "Watercolor, The Spirit of Spontaneity," by Karlyn Holman and it is fantastic. Karlyn has such innovative ideas and techniques, so I may be implementing some of her techniques in the next series. If you are interested in this book, you can find it here www.karlynholman.com

2008 ART GOALS

Stuffed French Toast Casserole This is a photo I took of one of the Christmas Breakfast dishes I make. It is a family favorite that I absolutely MUST prepare each year, at least according to my DH, DS and SIL! We women like it too, but the men practically fight over getting their fair share. It is appropriate to post today because it represents one of my art goals for 2008. Speaking of goals, I've finally fine-tuned my list. This year, I am wiser and remembered to work on ALL my goal lists at the same time so I wouldn't get carried away in just one area of my life. I prefer goals over resolutions, resolutions always seemed to set me up for failure. Or rather, I set MYSELF up for failure. The pastor of my church has a saying (and I don't remember who the original author of this is) and it is "he who aims at nothing hits it every time." That really sums up goal setting for me!
Here's my 2008 Art Goal List:

1 - Set up a Food Blog that will be illustrated with sketches/paintings/photos. Publish the blog for Christmas gift giving. If I don't have it complete for Christmas 2008, then I'll shoot for Christmas 2009. For years now I've had family and friends urging me to write a cookbook. Ronell's http://myfrenchkitchen.wordpress.com/ is my inspiration to do this cookbook in a blog format. Thanks, Ronell!!

2 - Continue participating in the "painting a week" group that was started off of Kate Johnson's alumni group.

3 - Continue working through art books, dvds, and online classes.

4 - Get out and do more plein aire.

That's it!!

Happy New Year to each and every one of you! Here's wishing us all a very blessed 2008!!!

Sunset Gate

Done on Lama li using Holbein paints. The paints are in a seminar palette put together by Holbein for Tom Lynch -- pretty neat little set that I'd not used since the workshop I took in September. This is my very first attempt at painting the Sun. I found the reference photo at Yotophoto. I usually don't paint this dark, so that's a couple of new things for me. I don't know if it's the Holbein paints or if it was because of the pigment rich mixes, but it sure took a long time for each section to dry!

Gate 7

Off Kilter Gate. Lama li paper and DS paints. I used DS Kyanite Genuine over a mix of sepia, UM, and Quin Red to get the blackish asphalt and deep shadows inside the fence. There were several challenges with this painting. I masked the gate and the top of the fence and discovered that masking does NOT work well with Lama li - the paper pulled off with the mask. What a mess that was!! Rather than trashing the piece, I decided to just fix it as best I could. I have a limited palette of DS so many mixes were made! I don't mind mixing, actually I enjoy it, but I found that I'm lacking in some basic pigments that would've made mixing much more effective, if not easier. Hmmm, I wonder if DS has "after Christmas sales." I like DS paints, but find that I still favor WN so not sure if I should invest in more DS or not. And truly, there is no reason why I shouldn't mix the two!! LOL!

Gate 6 - Rusted Gate

Done on Lama li with WN paints. The barn came out too dark and I tried to lift some pigment. Lama li doesn't lift too well, it starts to peel! This was done very quickly, I'm trying to get a looser look and not fuss with it too much. I like how the posts and the gate came out. . . well, except for the scroll work on the top of the gate, not crazy about that part!! I'm still enjoying working on this series.

Gate 5 - Winter Gate

This is my first attempt at anything "snow." It was actually more work than it looks -- very difficult trying to define the shapes of the snow clinging to the branches of the tree was a challenge. For a first attempt, I'm pretty happy with it. I'd like to try some more snow scenes. I used Cerulean VERY WATERED DOWN and then did some outlines in a cool gray that I mixed. Now to decide on the next gate.

Gate 4

I really liked the reference photo for this (found on Yotophoto), but it's one of those where the painting didn't live up to what was in my mind. It just seems "flat" to me and I'm not sure why. I'm not going to try to fix this, I'm just going to "keep on keeping on," and I'm real inspired to start the next gate in my series. This was done on Lama li (I think I'm going to do all of these gates in my Lama li book) and I used all WN paints.

Easy - No Sew Throws for Christmas!

I've made four of these for Christmas gift giving and plan on doing at least two more. Here's how!

Purchase 1 1/2 yards each of fleece in a print and a solid OR you can do two coordinating prints or two solids -- doesn't have to be a Christmas print. Trim the selvages off of each piece of fleece. Lay out the the pieces with wrong sides together and make sure they are the same size - some trimming may be in order. Using a piece of 2" x 4" cardboard for a template, cut through both pieces of fleece making 2 inch wide and 4 inch length "fringes." On the corners, you will cut out a 4" x 4 " square. Tie the front to the back by tieing each "fringe" into a square knot. I cut one side and tied it and then cut the next side and tied it and so on -- it broke up the cutting and tieing and helped to rest my fingers. The finished size is approx. 46" square and it took me right at 1 hour from start to finish!

Gate 3

Well. . . ANOTHER lesson learned! I had visions of a clean, crisp metal gate with wonderful golden rolling hills behind it. I very mistakenly thought my Sepia Pentel Brush Pen was waterproof. . . thought I'd checked it out months ago when I purchased it. The first step I took was to use this brush pen on the metal gate, after all it would make it so much easier to paint the rolling hills in the background if I could just paint right over that gate - LOL! As we can all see, as soon as I started painting that sky, I had BLEED!! Rather than trash this little scene, I decided to continue painting it anyway and to just chalk it up as another lesson learned. So here it is!!

Gate 2

My immediate goal with painting is to have fun. I'm not striving for perfection, I'm just "playing." As I started painting this gate, it occurred to me that I had goofed BIG TIME on the first gate and all of my online art buddies were too kind to point it out. Well folks, I realize now that I had mixed up my cool and warm placement and put the cools in the foreground and the warms in the background - Yikes!! What in the world was I thinking. . . or rather NOT thinking!! LOL!!

This gate is from a ref photo I found on Yotophoto and it is of a gate at Stevens-Coolidge Place, Andover, MA It is done on Lama li and I used all WN paints. One major flaw I see is the rock fence on the right looks like it's on the ground -- just didn't get the perspective right or something on that. Possibly it's fixable, but I'm ready to go on to the next gate!!

Gate 1

I've been away from my blog for far too long! Several reasons why. . . my daughter, who lives in Las Vegas, had her first baby on Oct 27. A beautiful little girl they named Katie after my mom. I stayed with them for three weeks to help out. What a joy it was!! Another reason I've not done art is simply because I ran into a HUGE creative block. Actually it was more than a block. . . I really questioned WHY I spend time on something that will not bring any financial gain and that I probably won't even use as a tangible gift to friends/family! While in Vegas, I had one of my periodical read-a-thons. I read 8 novels, which I enjoyed immensely. As I was reading, it occurred to me that reading is not going to bring me any financial gain and it's not producing a tangible gift! So, if I'm willing to spend time on reading, why is it that I'm guilt ridden with time spent on art? I learn things when I read, even it it's fiction. I learn things when I do art, especially when it is nature---intense observation brings knowledge. So I started looking through some of my art books with a freedom that it's OKAY to do something I enjoy just for the pure pleasure of it all! I got inspired to work through another book, then I got inspired to work on a series. I found some good reference photos for gates that got me excited and so this is my first gate. It's done on lama li and I used all WN paints.