Category: Traditional Art (page 5 of 8)

Paintings, drawings, and sketches done with traditional art materials.

August 21, 2014

Sketching Architecture

Bush House

During the sixth and final week of Sketchbook Skool Liz Steel showed us her technique for sketching architecture. I did two sketches of houses in Bush Pasture Park in Salem, Oregon. The first (above) was Bush House and the other was Deepwood Mansion (see below).

Bush House is tough to draw from the front because it sits on a hill and you are looking up at it. I tried Liz’s method of working. I first spent some time looking at the structure. Then I did a thumbnail to learn about the basic shapes and proportions. Next I sketched with a Burnt Umber watercolor pencil and then I added ink using a Sailor Calligraphy pen with Noodler’s Bulletproof Black ink. Finally I added watercolor. I lost track of time, but I think the whole process took about an hour and a half. Drawn in Moleskine 5.5 x 8.5 inch watercolor notebook.

Here are my initial notes done on location before drawing.

Bush House Notes

With this workflow I end up doing three drawings of the house – the thumbnail, the watercolor pencil, and the ink. This allows me to warm up and practice and learn about the structure before drawing with ink. It works, but it takes a long time.

I used the same technique for sketching Deepwood Mansion – look first, then do a preliminary sketch to figure out the basic structure, next lay out the sketch with watercolor pencil, and finally draw with ink.

Deepwood Mansion Notes

Deepwood Mansion Ink

Deepwood Mansion Watercolor

I added the watercolor later at home. This is a good way to work. It breaks it up into manageable chunks.

Looking at this again a couple of days later I see a problem. I forgot a very important point in my workflow. You are supposed to work from the whole to the parts and then back out to the whole again. I worked on each part individually and forgot to step back out and check how the parts affected the whole. As a result some of the parts look disjointed – not connected properly to the surrounding parts. The top of the chimney is not lined up with the bottom of the chimney. The middle window isn’t aligned with the top and bottom windows. The peak of the roof is squashed (actually that’s because I ran out of paper and tried to fit it in). In general I worked my way down from the top and out to the sides drawing the overall shape of the next piece and then filling in the details of the section. It was careful piecemeal observation, but each section was tacked on as I went. I got so focused on each part that I forgot to step back occasionally and consider how the parts related to each other and to the overall structure of the whole house. This is a lot to do in one go on location particularly with a complicated subject. I can see why Liz prefers to do a fast sketch which captures the structure and personality of a building instead of attempting a detailed drawing.

When I go back out to the whole I step back and look at the entire picture. I no longer shift my gaze from piece to piece. I take in the entire thing as a unit. Instead of looking at the detail I consider the overall design – such things as overall structure (this picture for instance is based on a large triangle that goes from the bottom left corner to the peak of the roof to the bottom right corner), contrast (also known as values) where I look to see how much of the picture is lights, darks, and grays (usually you want a lot of this and a little of that – in this case I have a lot of gray and little black and white), color scheme (of which there are many variations too many to list here – this one mostly has greens, browns, grays, with some blue and a touch of red), and finally I look to see how each part fits in with its surrounding parts (things like alignment, proportion, and scale). So it’s a very different mental activity than when I’m working on each part’s detail, shading, and color. This sounds much more complicated than it is. In practice it may take only two or three seconds. Then I’ll discover something that needs work and I’ll shift back to working the part.

I should note that I really like this drawing of Deepwood. It has character and a good gestalt. I often do a post production project analysis which is a fancy way of saying that after resting a bit I look at the thing with fresh eyes and try to figure out what’s what and why things happened the way they did. I’m not thinking in terms of faults and strengths as such, more of seeking a deeper understanding of how these projects evolve and why things happen with a goal of doing things differently in future projects in order to reach a desired outcome. I know now that if I draw things piece by piece, it will look this way and if I do a bit more pre-planning with periodic checks for alignment and proportion, it will look that way.

Sketching or painting on location require dynamic solutions. Things like lighting and moving subjects change over time. Also as you explore the scene you discover different pieces as you go. One of the hallmarks of dynamic solutions is the notion of “checks and balances”. Working from the whole to the parts and back out to the whole and then back to the parts and then back to the whole is a key “checks and balances” technique when working on a complicated project with many different parts. In this case I realized I didn’t do that and because of that the drawing had certain inaccuracies. Surprise, surprise – process affects outcomes or to say it in a longer way: the steps or stages that you take and the order in which you do them affect the finished product. The way you change the outcome is to change the process. It sounds obvious, but it’s easy to forget and hard to put into practice particularly if you’ve already formed a habitual way of working.

Wisdom comes from knowing how ignorant your are and seeking understanding. I prefer to try different things and different ways of working. I don’t like doing the same thing in the same way over and over again. I say “If something isn’t working, try something else”. It might work. It might not. If not, try something else. If you’re lucky, you might discover something completely, wonderfully, unexpectedly different.

Jim

August 8, 2014

Oregon Gardens – White Blossoms

Oregon Garden – White Blossoms

I went for a walk today in the Oregon Garden and tried out my new art bag and travel chair and my new lap board. Everything worked great. The first thing I did was walk around looking for an interesting subject where I could sit in the shade. I finally found a spot, deployed my new chair, sat down and looked around. I spotted two possible subjects – dark cattails in silhouette, and a large bush with spectacular white blossoms. I opened my bag and pulled out a small clipboard. I had clipped several sheets of typing paper to it before I left the house. I did two quick thumbnail sketches and a larger analytical sketch to warm up and learn a thing or two about my subject. I then pull out my Moleskine watercolor notebook and drew the white bush using a Uni-Ball Vision black 0.7 pen which is waterproof. This is a new pen for me and this was the first time I had tried it on location. I really like it. It is very smooth and the ink drys immediately and does not bleed when you add watercolor. Here are my preliminary sketches and field notes which I wrote after completing the watercolor sketch.

White Blossoms Notes

I protected the white highlights of the blossoms with a white Phano China Marker. It was hard to see where I put it (drawing white on white) so I kept track as best I could and worked across the page from left to right. I knew that the wax would leave a splotchy texture on this watercolor paper and give the impression of many small flowers within the large blossom heads.

I worked from light to dark waiting for each layer to dry before applying the next. Finally I added interest in the background by lifting lights and adding darks.

Here’s a photo reference I took after I was done.

White Blossoms Photo Reference

All in all a fun and productive outing.

Jim

August 6, 2014

Drawing with a Match

Here’s a fun experiment. See how much you can draw with the charcoal from one burned wooden match. Draw with the match itself and use your finger to blend.

Here was my setup:

One match drawing setup

I found I could draw one or two small objects before I ran out of charcoal.

Jim

August 4, 2014

New Lap Board Setup

Saturday I simplified my watercolor lap board setup. Previously I had a water container holder made out of card stock and I used a bulldog clip to attach my Altoids palette to the board. I also used the handles of the clips to hold my brush and pencil.

New lap board setup

I modified the board by drilling three holes – one to hold the water container, one for the brush and one for the pencil. I also taped a business card sized magnetic sheet to the board to hold the Altoids palette.

This is a much simpler solution. There is less to carry and it takes less time to setup and put away.

Jim

June 24, 2014

Backyard Composite

I’ve had this idea for a while now that I’d like to paint composite paintings that capture how I feel about a place rather than the literal scene in front of me. This is my first try. I did it in the backyard to test out my methods and equipment before taking it all on location. The idea is to first explore a space with a camera taking pictures of the elements of the space that interest me. Then combine several of the photos into a composite image using Sketch Club on the iPod Touch.

Photos of Backyard Composite

Next, to save time, I use my 3M portable projector to project the composite image onto my sketch pad or canvas and trace the image with a pencil.

Projecting the Composite

Finally I add the color by looking at the scene and not the photograph because the eye sees more than the camera.

This is fun. The final result is a representation of the experience of the backyard on a summer day as a whole rather than a snapshot of a particular part of the place. It’s more like a poem than a description.

Pencil and Neocolor II watersoluble pastel on Sennelier Oil Pastel Pad. 5 x 8 inches (12 x 20.5 cm).

Jim

May 22, 2014

Neocolor Over Brush Pen

Neocolor Over Brushpen

It’s hard to get a full range of values with Neocolor II watercolor crayons. They all tend to lie in the middle values. This sketch experiments with using Neocolors over waterproof ink to obtain darker values.

Neocolor Over Brushpen BW

Here I’ve dropped out the color so you can see the range of values.

I chose a scene with a wide range of values. The irises were in the shade with bright sunlight behind. I took my glasses off to better see the values. I first used a middle tone gray Faber-Castell brush pen to mark in the mid tone values. Next I added light values with a light gray Faber-Castell brush pen, and then I added black with a Pigma brush pen. Then working left to right I went directly over the grays with various Neocolor crayons. Also, on the right I experimented with brushing over the pen with Neocolor washes. Next I put my glasses back on (to see detail again) and went back over the Neocolor in some areas with mid tone and light gray pen. The ink from the pen melts and blends the crayon color. The light gray pen worked the best for defining shapes with slightly darker values. Finally I used a wet watercolor brush to work over the Neocolor. I did this to strengthen the colors and to drag color into white areas of the paper.

This technique works to increase the number of values of the colors by darkening the existing colors. Both light and dark colors can be made darker. It’s a good, quick way to establish your values first and then add color. However, the neutral gray ink muddies the colors. Next I need to experiment with using complimentary colors to achieve darker values.

Jim

March 22, 2014

Viewfinder Sketch

Viewfinder Sketch Setup

I’m a photographer. I like to use a viewfinder to frame and compose a picture. Today I tried using a viewfinder made out of a 3×5 card clipped to my Moleskine pocket notebook. I first drew a frame the same size as the viewfinder and added guide marks on the edges using red erasable ink. I then sighted through the viewfinder and sketched the major shapes again using the red erasable ink. Then I used black ink to finish drawing and shading the trees. Later I erased the red guide lines with a hair dryer, and scanned the image.

Viewfinder Sketch

This worked reasonably well. Next I want to tape the viewfinder so it hinges out to the side from inside the front cover.

Jim

March 14, 2014

Composition Test

I’m trying out a composition aid on the iPod Touch called Digital ViewCatcher. It uses the iPod’s camera to explore different views and try different formats. It can also show a grayscale version of the photo and a sketch version and allows you to overlay various kinds of grids. I compared it to what I could also do in Sketch Club.

Digital ViewCatcher

I like the ease of using Digital ViewCatcher to quickly test out different views and formats. However, the images it saves to the camera roll are too small. Sketch Club can save at higher resolutions and I can overlay rulers and angled guidelines.

Next I put it to the test outside. I sat in a chair in the backyard with my iPod Touch and sketchbook in hand. I took a picture, cropped it and added guidelines and rulers. I drew two 3 inch squares on my sketchbook. I sketched the scene in front of me by eye in the top square. Then, looking at the grayscale/guideline/ruler image on my iPod Touch, I used a six inch clear ruler to measure and draw the guidelines with red erasable ink in the bottom square. After sketching the scene, I thought it could use a figure as a point of interest. I did a screen capture of a recent video I shot of my grandson, cropped it and added the figure. I then sketched the figure into the scene.

Composition Test Process

Here’s what my sketches looked like with the red guidelines.

Composition Test with Guidelines

I came inside, scanned the sketches, and then used a hair drier to erase the red ink. (I like to use a Pilot FriXion erasable ink pen). I then added some shading and scanned the sketches again.

Composition Test

I was surprised by how different the two sketches are. The composition aid really did help. It’s probably not worth the effort for a simple sketch, but this shows that it would be worthwhile to use this technique on a plein air painting.

Jim

March 12, 2014

Custom Wallet

I made myself a new wallet. My old one wore out and I couldn’t find a new one that I liked. I wanted a bifold that was lightweight and stayed closed when I loaded it up with all my stuff.

I discovered plans online for making your own wallet out of Tyvek (the woven plastic material that’s used to wrap buildings and to make protective clothing and shipping envelopes). First I made one using a large manilla envelope. This helped me figure out the folds. It’s a little tricky. I then made another out of the white plastic from the cover of a three ring binder and then I tried one using the clear plastic cover from a vue binder. I liked the clear plastic one. I found I could slip an inkjet copy of a watercolor in the pocket for the cover. This made a cool looking custom wallet. Everyone I showed it to loved it. The other advantage of using clear plastic is that the pocket that holds your driver’s license shows the entire card. After a week of use, I discovered that I needed more pockets for cards and a separator in the billfold area. I made another wallet with a clear plastic cover and license pocket. The rest of the wallet was made of paper. While I was testing this one, I ordered some free Tyvek shipping envelopes from the US Postal Service. Those arrived a week later and I made my current model which you see above. I used the clear plastic from a 12×12 inch memory scrapbook refill page I had on hand and the white Tyvek from a free envelope. Total cost almost nothing.

Here is a plan with dimensions in inches. Notice the scale is 3/8 = 1 inch. I should also mention that I taped down all the tabs with clear shipping tape.

Wallet Plan

I’ve been using this one now for a couple of weeks and it works and looks great. It has an outside pocket that runs the entire length of the wallet. It’s easy to slip in a 2 5/8 x 8 1/4 inch print to make a custom cover. I can also store some business cards in the same pocket behind the cover. Inside there are clear pockets on either side for identification cards or photos. These slip in from the center and each pocket has a curved opening to facilitate card removal. Behind each ID pocket there is a top loading pocket that can hold medical cards and credit cards. There are also two center loading pockets at the back. So, all told there are six pockets. The billfold is divided into two areas by a separator to keep your bills organized.

I really like this design – both looks and practicality. The Tyvek is very light and strong. It is flexible and slightly slippery which makes it easy to remove cards and put them back in. Of course the clear plastic cover is completely waterproof and should hold up well with wear.

Jim

October 3, 2013

Acrylic Tree

Experimenting with lots of new stuff, a new space, a new easel, new palette, new paints, and new technique. I cleaned up the den and rearranged things so I could set up a more or less perminent painting space. I modified a camera tripod to use as an easel. I'm trying a new Masterson's Sta-Wet plastic palette box which I'm using with Golden Fluid acrylic paints, and I'm both mixing colors and painting with a metal palette knife. I placed my iPad just to the right of the easel to use as a photo reference. The photo I'm using is one I took in the Oregon Garden a few weeks ago.

I haven't painted with acrylics for over 40 years. So, I'm re-learning how they mix and dry. I'm working small, 5 x 7 inches (13 x 17.3 cm), so I can work fast and have the paint stay wet.

I started by projecting the image onto the paper with my 3M Streaming projector and tracing the image with a pencil. I then applied Scotch- Blue Painter's tape for delicate surfaces to mask the edges of the painting. The paper I'm using is an Aches Hot Pressed 140 lb. Watercolor Block. I mounted the block on my homemade canvas/panel holder which is made out of 1/8 inch plywood. It has two wooden dowels that hold the panel at the top and a sliding block with a thumb screw at the bottom. It's my own design. The palette and water containers are clipped to another piece of 1/8 inch plywood. This shelf is clipped to the central stays of the tripod.

I cut a piece of Glad Press'n Seal sealing wrap to line the bottom of the palette. I sticks nicely to the bottom and is a lot cheaper to use than the special papers that come with the Masterson palette and cleanup is a breeze.

I bought a sample pack of the Golden Fluid acrylics. I comes with 10 colors in 1 fl. oz. (30 ml) squeeze bottles. The colors I used were: Hansa Yellow Medium, Pyrrole Red, Ultramarine Blue, Phthalo Green, Burnt Sienna, and Titanium White.

I like my new set-up. It's very comfortable and easy to move around. The tripod easel panel holder combination is stable. The mixing palette is a good size. The blue masking tape comes off easily and cleanly. The iPad works well for photo reference. I plugged it in and set the AutoLock to Never.

Pencil sketching a projected image speeds things up considerably. I only used it to place the basic shapes on the page. As I painted I looked at the iPad and as you can see I wasn't a slave to the reference photo. I simplified the values, colors, and details.

The hot pressed paper and fluid acrylic is a nice combination. You can make very interesting marks and mixes with the palette knife. If you zoom in, you can see how the wet paint blends with each stroke of the palette knife. I love it when a medium gives you a gift like that.

All in all I'd say my first experiment with acrylics was a success.

Jim

September 27, 2013

Computer Room

So, how do you draw a panorama of a small room showing everything on all three sides? I did this one using a projected panorama photo. I used my iPod Touch to take the panorama from the doorway of the room.

Then I used my 3M Streaming projector to project the image on my Moleskine watercolor notebook. I used a Pilot FriXion erasable pen to trace the major shapes. Then I sat and sketched the detail of the scene with a Micron 02 pen using the erasable pen sketch as a guide. That took about an hour. Here's the finished pen drawing after I erased the guide lines with a hair dryer.

After resting a bit and having a bite to eat, I came back and added watercolor using a Kuretake Mini waterbrush and Faber-Castell watercolor pencils.

Jim

September 22, 2013

Perspective Test

When I was a boy my older brother, Bob, showed me how to use an opaque projector. We used it to copy cartoon characters out of comic books. Today we have digital projectors, but they are much more expensive. For years I've been keeping an eye on pico projectors (very small, portable projectors that use LEDs or lasers for lights), but up until now they have been too expensive and too dim.

Recently I discovered the 3M Streaming projector. It costs less then $200 and is relatively bright at 60 lumens. I'm putting it through its paces. Here's my set up.

I put the projector on a tripod and aimed it straight down to project on a table in front of me. I set the projector to project the image up side down so it would look right side up to me. I put the free Roku app on my iPod Touch and used it to send photos wirelessly to the projector. It worked great and was bright enough to work with the room lights on.

I took a photo of a dollhouse that my wife, Kris, built for our daughter. I used The Sketch Club app on my iPod Touch to distort the vertical perspective of the house.

I then projected each photo and traced it with pencil.

Finally I added watercolor and pen and ink.

This worked so well that I want to use it for painting on location. The projector is very small and only weighs 11 ounces and its internal battery lasts for 2 hours.

Jim

September 10, 2013

Chemeketa Sketch

Today I went over to my old stomping grounds – Chemeketa Community College – to do a sketch. It was a beautiful day and I wanted to test out my new work method.

I started by taking a picture with my iPod Touch using the ProHDR app.

Next I used ArtRage on the Touch to create a quick color study working from the photo.

I then used Photogene to drop out the color to create a value study.

I used the value study to draw the major shapes in my watercolor notebook. I used a Pilot FriXion erasable pen so that I could erase the initial placement lines later if I wanted. Then I drew with my Mars 500 technical pen with Noodler's Bulletproof black ink. As I drew I looked at the scene to see the detail.

Finally I added watercolor using a small flat chisel brush. I looked at both my color study and the scene before me to determine the colors.

There's no way to know what the sketch would have been like had I just jumped right in and started sketching without the preliminary iPod Touch studies, but I feel they helped with the layout and color choices and they got my creative juices flowing.

August 30, 2013

Sketchbook Page 1

Trying out a new Stillman & Birn Epsilon series 5.5 x 8.5 inch sketchbook. It has smooth, heavy paper that takes light watercolor well with a minimum of buckling. These are backyard sketches. The top one was done with gel pens and a little watercolor. The bottom one was with erasable pen and watercolor pencils.

Here's what it looked like from my point of view.

The more I do this the more relaxed I'm getting about the process. I don't mind taking risks with new techniques. I really like the rich colors I got with the watercolor pencils. For the most part I used a wet brush to draw color from the tips of the pencils and then applied the brush to the page. At the very end, however, I drew directly with the pencils (blue, yellow, and a little red) into the still wet page. This really made the colors pop.

Jim

August 27, 2013

J.S. Cooper Block – Independence, Oregon

This is the J.S. Cooper Block at the corner of Main & C streets in Independence, Oregon. Independence was established in the late 1840's on the west bank of the Willamette River in Polk County a few miles south of Salem, Oregon. The river was instrumental in the development of the town and the ferries' arrivals were heralded by ringing the bell in the tower of this Queen Anne style building. It was built in 1895 by J.S. Cooper, a banker who later turned to hop growing, and still later became a state legislator.

This was harder to do and took longer than I expected. I want to sketch architecture and I thought I'd start by sketching a reference photo that I took last Fall.

I wanted to test several new things before trying to sketch on location. First, I wanted to try a new larger paper (Arches hot press 140 lb. 9 x 12 inches watercolor block). I also wanted to try blocking out the sketch first using a Pilot FriXion erasable pen and then do the finish drawing with a Faber-Castell Pitt S dark sepia pen which is waterproof. I made the mistake of doing too much detail and correction with the erasable pen. I could have saved time by just blocking in the major shapes and perspective lines with the erasable. As it was I ended up drawing all the details twice and the finished drawing looks like I traced it. I actually prefer the initial sketch done with the erasable. It has more spontaneity and life.

Anyway, I ended up doing the entire drawing again with the brown pen over the black erasable pen. I then added the darks (mostly in the windows) using a Faber-Castell Pitt brush warm gray pen. I used a hair dryer to completely erase all the black erasable ink. The drawing took several hours over two days.

I liked the pen and ink drawing. I wasn't sure I wanted to add color. So, I did a quick color version on the iPad using Procreate just to test it out.

I still wasn't sure. So, I held off for two days to think about. This morning I woke up and felt ready to add the watercolor. I used three brushes, all round, numbers 4, 8, and 10. I painted the building first, then the trees and foreground and finally the sky. I sweated the sky because I didn't want it to overpower the building. I used a spray bottle and brush to wet the area, dropped in some cobalt blue and mopped out the clouds with an old sock.

What I learned:

Bigger is better. I like detail and its easier to draw detail when you work larger. It does take longer however.
I like the hot press smooth paper. This is the first time I've used it.
The Pilot FriXion is an amazing pen. The ink completely disappears when you heat it with a hair dryer. Next time I will use it just for construction lines. I won't try to draw the whole subject with it.
It's very difficult to get perspective and proportions right. I need to practice. I didn't draw the initial angles right and the building ended up being too short.
I used rubber cement as masking fluid to maintain the pure whites in the signs and window trim. It worked, but I don't think it's worth the effort. It would be faster and easier to just paint around the whites.
I need to vary my greens. It's easy to forget to leave the lightest greens alone. You can't get them back with watercolor. You can only make them darker. Also, I need to explore other pigment combinations. Cobalt blue and lemon yellow just aren't enough.
Watercolor takes patience. I worked in stages from light to dark letting each pass dry completely before adding darker tones. This keeps the colors fresh.

Jim