Animal Pen and Inks from the late 1980s

Moms are so special, and my mom blew me away when she happily unearthed some old pen and inks from ages ago. I'd forgotten all about them, especially as after I drew them and began my professional career, all thoughts of art floated off in the breeze. [The breeze started to blow them back again about three years ago, and that's this blog story.]

Anyway, maybe the old pictures are worth posting. Disclaimer though, the elk and white-tailed deer pictures are from a National Geography book I found in my university library and was constantly borrowing. The only trouble is, I have no recall whatsoever of the title or even the year it was published, but certainly before the mid-1980s. If anyone knows, please please please share, because I so want to find and buy that book!

Pen and ink on A4 - 1988

Pen and ink on A4 - 1989

Pen and ink on A4 - 1990

Ball point pen on A4 copy paper ... what a shame not to have Bristol paper back then :( 

"Butterfly Dance" Mandala

With the outdoorsi-ness of summer over, I have time for the palette again. My second mandala, a dance of butterflies. Faber Castell watercolor pencils painted out with a water brush, micron pens (005, 05 and 08) and a Xeno brush pen, small. Just an FYI, the Microns have pretty good archival ink, but the Xeno does not, so it's not a good idea to even put a dab of water on the Xeno ink and expect it to stay put.

Sketchbook 10" x 13 3/4"

center of mandala - horizontal view

center of mandala - vertical view

"The Dance of Butterflies" Mandala - 10" x 13 3/4" with Faber Castell watercolor pencils

Derwent Artbar Color Swatches + Sample Painting

Am pretty good about stemming impulse buys, but I bumped into a few questions on whether the Derwent Artbar were still being sold so tried to find out if they were being discontinued. Who can wade through the rumors on the web, so because I had been looking at the Artbars, and because Amazon had one left and at the cheapest price I'd ever seen, I did the impulse thing and bought the full 72-color-bar set. 

Here's the result of my impulse buy -- a full color chart of the Artbars. My method was to liberally apply 3 cm of color on dry 200gm watercolor paper and then add water with a paintbrush and drag the color down about 6-7 inches.  I might add I didn't apply strong pressure when liberally applying the color as the bars easily break along the score lines. The outcome is that the paint looked light but dried even lighter. Before purchasing, I did know the Artbars were a bit light in color but I was a bit surprised at just how pastel they are, especially the 12 colors in the "light" category.

That said, there are many ways to apply color. To make the chart above I used the dry then wet approach, but I found that wetting a paint brush and swiping up paint from the edge of an Artbar was a more effective way of painting; more effective on not leaving a trace of non-hydrated Artbar from coloring dry with pressure and more effective because the color intensity could be more easily managed. Like in the dry bar on dry paper method, for this wet brush on Artbar technique I didn't need a palette to mix the colors, but who would with a selection of 72 colors to choose from?! 

So here's a sample painting using the wet brush and swipe on Artbar method to get color for painting: 

Chinese-style tiger painting

Derwent Artbars and Pigma Micron pens - Original

My opinion about the Artbars? Well, they are pastel and because they are so light, I do wonder about how lightfast they are, and so am unlikely to use them for a painting to be hung on the wall. However, they are quite fun to use and I can see taking these "fun" colors out (and 72 of them!) when friends or kids come over and having an art party! A party without having color mixing trays so easy to organize and easy to clean up after too! They'll be awesome for making greeting cards or putting some quick and easy drawing-painting like the above in a letter. So this impulse buy isn't one that I regret.

Color Theory - Those Tertiary Colors!

Claudia Nice, author of Painting with Color, Pen and Ink (2002), is an artist that resonates with my developing painting interests and style. Our artistic approaches: transparent watercolors with touches of ink! 

And when I saw her color wheel, I realized that our favorite color choices (the mixed colors) fell in the same color range as well. What I also realized from her color wheel below is that those favorite color mixes were equally spaced on the color palette and principally are tertiary colors. What an eye-opening moment for me! So I'm documenting this moment and in a year or two I'll look back and see how my color choices have changed and/or developed. The future of painting for me is ... still an open palette.

Color wheel taken from Painting with Color, Pen and Ink by Claudia Nice, p 11
color chart based on Grumbacher watercolors

Her colors of choice (grumbacher watercolors) are:

1. gamboge
2. thalo yellow green
3. yellow ochre
4. sap green
5. thalo green
6. burnt sienna
7. sepia
8. brown madder
9. burnt umber
10. payne's gray
11. thalo red (hard to replicate by mixing) 

Another note, Claudia never mentioned red iron oxide in her color choices, but this one, definitely a tertiary color as well, is an absolute must for my palette at the moment! Of course I would switch out several of the colors, but in principle, we have the same taste in color range, which reflects our choice in subject - for Claudia a range of landscape and wildlife, and for me more limited to wildlife in natural settings. 

I have to say, until now my choices of color and paint (M Graham watercolors) have been heavily influenced by Steve at Mind of Watercolor. The limited palette Steve introduced I very much love and several of them will probably always be in my limited palette as well: azo green, indian yellow (or new gamboge), and transparent red iron oxide. 

This chart evoked an interesting realization of the range in which my favorite colors fall -- the tertiaries, principally the earthy reds and greens!

Plein Air Painting at Sochi House

Today is the fifth day in the OAS (Oriental Art Supply) November painting challenge. Since I was traveling this weekend (did templestay at Ssanggye-sa Temple, Jindo Island, Jeollanamdo, South Korea, and because the temple is right beside Sochi House, the traditional home of the famous aristocratic painter, Sochi, penname for Ryun Hur (1808-1893), I did a bit of plein air painting at the traditional house. Actually I started but had to finish at home because before I could finish our templestay group had to hike up the trail to the temple where we were staying.) 

Sochi House

Jindo Island, Jeollanamdo, S Korea. 

Sochi, pen name for Ryun Hur (1808-1893), was a traditional painter and calligrapher with many disciples. Despite his father's wishes, he became a painter (an unstable job that didn't bring in steady income), but though he wasn't loaded with money, he was satisfied with his choice to exercise his creativity. He was a passionate artist, and he became the founding father of 5 generations of artists, with the fifth alive today. He and his artists descendants strongly influenced Korean painting; they seemed to have contributed to a more realistic approach to painting nature. Their pictures show development in depth and tone. Shading and brush stroke were changed to add to the more realistic style. 

Kaleidoscopic Altoid plein air palette --- M Graham paints are too messy for plein air! So are Sennelier too I hear.

Sochi House, home of Korean traditional painter, Ryun Hur (1808-1893)

The pond just in front of Sochi House, Jindo, South Korea

Micron pens and Altoid box plein air painting with M Graham on Fabriano watercolor postcard. (FYI, M Graham and Sennelier are honey consistency paints that are perfectly lousy for plein air painting .... but absolutely smooth and creamy for studio on site painting! My Altoid box is now a kaleidoscopic mess!)

First Watercolor Attempts

Other than an intro to Korean watercolor a year ago (an art exploration that absolutely sold me on watercolor painting) these watercolors are my first attempts at the art. Since that intro, I've watched a few watercolor YouTube clips and wow have I been inspired! Just needed a vacation with some time to put my new interest into action. 

I was trying to teach mom some basics of watercolor and since she's in love with her Birds & Bloom magazine, we referenced that for ideas. Watercolors done on 4"x6" tablet pad of mixed media paper for marker, pen and ink, and watercolor.

mixed media - water color and oil-based ink

mixed media - water color and oil-based ink

A friend really liked this baby elephant, to quote her "so sweet". She wanted it to frame but no way is someone getting a three-legged oddly-balanced embarrassment. Made the mom-and-baby elephant pair for her as a consolation, but think she still liked the "sweet" baby better. 

Must work on color mixing. Having trouble maintaining cool and warm tertiary colors. 

mixed media - water color and oil-based ink

Whip-sketched a greeting card for another friend - the background is kind of cool.

mixed media - water color and oil-based ink