Art
Here’s my latest art – both traditional and digital.
Dory boats are small, flat bottomed fishing boats designed to launch and land from the beach at Pacific City on the Oregon coast. Haystack Rock is a mile off the beach and is the tallest of several large rock monoliths along the Oregon coast. This is the second small 8×8 … Continue reading →
Click the picture to see a larger version. The local group of artists that I belong to (Artists in Action) will be holding a sale at the end of June (at the World Beat Festival in Salem) to raise money for the group. This year members are painting 8×8 inch … Continue reading →
I’m testing Faber-Castell Gel Sticks. These watercolors in gel form are meant for kids. They are like a twistable crayon and come in a set of 12 colors. I thought I would try them out on a flower sketch.
The last two days I’ve experimented with new art supplies. I bought a new Kuretake watercolor palette. It took a month to get here from Japan. So, I was anxious to try out the colors. I decided to use a portrait reference from the Julia Kay Portrait Party group on … Continue reading →
I did these small flower studies all on the same piece of paper. The first thing I did was adhere the paper to a piece of 2mm Sintra PVC panel with some brushed on acrylic soft gel medium. I let that dry for about an hour under some heavy books. … Continue reading →
I did this small study today to test out how watersoluble markers work on a smooth gessoed panel. It’s like working with a limited selection of watercolors. Also I discovered that ink just sits on top of the gesso. It does not stick or sink into it. So, if you … Continue reading →
I’m looking for a way to do plein air paintings without carrying brushes or water or wet media. I did this small study to see how tempera paint sticks and brush markers handle on canvas panel. I laid in the major areas of color with the paint sticks first and … Continue reading →
This bush is in our backyard. It’s in full bloom. I’ve been glancing at it throughout the day thinking about how I’d approach sketching it with paint sticks dabbing on the pure color. Finally, before dinner I found the time to sit down and try out my plan. Fabriano … Continue reading →
Sketching from Google Street View. Testing tempra paint sticks on smooth paper with water. Strathmore Mixed Media 400 Series 9×12 inch (22.9×30.5 cm) paper, pencil, Mod Tempra Paint sticks, Arteza flat waterbrush, ArtGraf Viarco 6B water-soluble pencil, Kuretake #13 brush fountain pen with Platinum Carbon Black ink, and Molotow 2mm … Continue reading →
Today I did two small sketches (3.5×6 inches each) of the same photo reference to compare sketching freehand and sketching using a traced underdrawing. I did the freehand sketch first.
The other day I found a box of cardboard heat-seal 35mm slide mounts and an old custom built slide mounting press. I wondered if it still worked and if so, how I might put it to good use. It occurred to me that I could do miniature paintings and frame … Continue reading →
Winter in the Willamette Valley has its own stark beauty – cold and gray. I thought charcoal would be the best medium to express this scene interpreted from a personal photo.
This is a seven color hand-pulled print 6×6 inches (15.2×15.2 cm). There are 10 prints in this edition. Some projects take a long time to complete. I worked on the first six colors over the course of several weeks last Spring. Then the project sat on the shelf for six months until I … Continue reading →
Posted in Art, Printmaking
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This little print (4×6 inches, 10×15 cm) is the culmination of two weeks research and planning and gathering of materials and tools. It is my first attempt at printing in color. It uses six plates to print six colors.
When I first moved to Oregon and lived out in the country, I got a puppy to keep me company. I called her Nikki (wild dog of the north). She was a Collie / Husky mix – a very smart, sweet dog. I used this photo of her as a … Continue reading →
I did this texture study in less than 10 minutes. The technique I was exploring was to use a large #3 brush set to about 30% transparency. I started at the top and worked my way down using the same “cross-stroke” technique. The #3 brush has a ragged start and end to the stroke. So, if you make short strokes it looks like multiple narrow strokes. This works great for clouds and bushes.
One way to start a painting with Brushes is to open an image that’s already stored in your iPod’s Photos. That’s how I started this one. I then filled the image with a transparent white so that it looked like a tracing paper image. You can still see part of the image in the paper that he is holding. I first drew a line drawing of Dad and indicated that background shapes. Then I painted in the colors. I stopped at this point and didn’t add any more detail because I liked the look of the rough drawing.
Here’s the original image.
To arrive at the working image I zoomed in on the Touch and did a screen capture (by pressing the Home button and then the On/Off button). Then I opened Brushes and imported the saved image.
We have a very nice book on the complete works of Van Gogh by Jan Hulsker. I used one of his sketches as a reference for this drawing.
Here’s the Van Gogh sketch I used as a reference:
I’ve been reading the book “
Fast Sketching Techniques” by David Rankin (seems to be out of print and used copies are outragiously priced). This sketch is based on one of his from the book. He is using traditional tools (soft pencil and smudge stick). I’m trying to learn how to make fast sketches on location to use as aids to making finished paintings – testing layout ideas, color schemes, poses, etc. His technique is to first draw the basic shapes and then fill in the shapes with up to 4 shades of grey. Then if you have time, you can add detail.
I spent just a few minutes on this sketch, but it captures the basic shapes, lighting, and mood.
This is the first painting I did using the Brushes app and a Pogo stylus. I worked on it on and off for about a week refining it as i learned new techniques. I started with a grid that I made in Photoshop. I overlaid the same grid over the original photo and hand drew the basic shapes while looking at the photo on my laptop.
After I blocked in the colors I could not longer see the grid so my proportions got off. The lighthouse is a bit long in the lamp. Since then I’ve made an acetate grid overlay for my iPod so I can check the drawing after the grid is painted over.
I soon discovered the Brushes app which (along with one called Colors) got excellent reviews. I checked them both out and decided to purchase Brushes. This is the first drawing I tried to test out the tools. I drew this with my finger in a few minutes. I like how you can blend colors together.
I???m continuing to learn how to use iDoodle 2 on my iPod Touch. Today I sat in the greenhouse and did a quick sketch of the geraniums. I used the Blob tool and the Pen tool. You can set the Blob tool to fill with a gradation. It always fills from the top down so you can???t do a side to side gradation. I work from the background forward layering shapes on top of shapes to create a three dimensional image. You can zoom in to do detailed work. I did the flower in the upper right hand corner while zoomed in.
I did the sketch while looking at the scene and altered the actual location of objects to suit the composition. Here???s a reference photo I took after I was done. See if you can pick out which flowers and leaves I chose to draw.
This is one of the first drawings I did with iDoodle 2. It can do geometric shapes like the ovals for the eyes, but best of all, it can do gradient filled “Blobs” which are free form drawn shapes.
This is the first sketch I made on my iPod. It was done in the Sketches app. As you can see the possibilities are pretty limited with this tool. The color choices are few and the brush can change size but not softness. I quickly moved on to another app called iDoodle 2.
Hi,
I want to share one of my Flickr photos with you. It’s called: “Minto Island”.
Hope you like it!
— Jim Blodget
Minto Island
by jimblodget
© All rights reserved
Just follow this link to see the photo:
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(If the link doesn’t work, try copying and pasting it from this email into your browser’s address bar.)
Flickr is almost certainly the best photo management and sharing application in the world. If you’d like to see what I use it for you can check out my profile page or browse my photostream.
Flower bed at Deepwood Garden in Salem, Oregon
