Drawing with Two Different Tools

Yesterday, we worked with a Nita Leland exercise from her book- The New Creative Artist

We used two different drawing tools (pencil and pen), one tool in each hand.  I like the organic flow of the lines. Others selected a colored pencil or pen along with a black drawing tool.  The possibilities are endless. One can work with each tool parallel to the other or in different directions. One side of the flowers was drawn with a pencil and the other side with a pen.  Later, I shaded in some of the areas. This exercise helps use the right side of the brain more.

Mixed Media Experimenting

Today, our sketch group started doing different exercises to get away from our usual tools and techniques and explore new ideas.  We sketched on black card stock using a white pen. Then, used different pencils, crayons to add color. Above is a drawing of my favorite jumbo-sized colored pencils:  Farb-Riese color giant Lyra pencils and Koh-I-Noor Hardtmuth Triocolor pencils. They're smooth, don't require constant sharpening and the pencil points don't break easily.

The colors from this sketch come from Caran d'Ache Neocolor II water soluble crayons. I like that you can
take a water brush and smooth out the colors or leave the original drawn texture.

I colored the flower with both the colored pencils and water soluble crayons.  We enjoyed playing with this exercise and look forward to exploring more each week.

Spring Flowers in Bloom

Gestures and a New Brush

In continuing Inga Dubay's curriculum on Calligraphy and Drawing, this week we explored gestures. Since I didn't own a #20 brush, I used my Michael's 40% off coupon and bought a really nice Round Princeton Newton.  Oh, I'm in love with my new brush- the way it holds the watercolor paint, responds and makes gestures.

I chose one gesture and repeated it thirty times.

It's not easy to repeat the same gesture thirty times. Some didn't look at all like my first gesture.  I selected the three that I liked the best.  My favorites held energy and spontaneity, a free form look.  I can see how it takes lots of practice to get the feel of making gestures.  I'm much more comfortable with the contour drawings.

Next, we paint gestures to music in neutrals and then in color.

Happy Valentine's Day

Signs of Spring

It's winter wonderland here with snow, ice and bitter cold.  This week, I saw the first primroses in the nursery.  They bring a promise of Spring.

Mixed Media Backgrounds

A friend told me about Nicole Maki's Mixed Media Background Tutorial.  It's a fun way to make a variety of backgrounds for journaling or other artwork. You work on several pieces at one time adding many layers- acrylic paint, stencils, ink, texture, ephemera, stamps, etc.  One thing that I learned is that each layer needs to be dry before adding another one.

One technique that I really liked is spraying ink with a stencil (I used Ranger Dylusions) on a painted surface, letting it dry and scraping white gesso over it. It gives a very subtle, ghost-like image of the stencil-  as seen in the white circles below.