Getting Back to Sktchy and Exploring Different Media

After coming back home from the Urban Sketcher's Symposium in Chicago - which was hugely inspiring - I had recommitted myself to getting outside and sketching. But, now that I've been back home for over a month and the kids are back in school, I've decided to get back into sketching some portraits from Sktchy and trying some different styles and media.

Here are some recent pieces inspired by the Sktchy app using watercolor with no underdrawing (for the most part):

I've been enjoying going straight to watercolor with no underdrawing, but I wondered if I shouldn't abandon my older style of drawing first in ink and then adding watercolor. So, I decided to attempt the same portrait in my old style.

Which do you prefer? I've gotten mixed responses on Instagram - with a few more likes for this one with watercolor and ink.

Inspired by James Gurney, I decided to try out using the casein paint set that I picked up at the Urban Sketcher's Symposium in Chicago.

Casein in a milk based paint that used to be very popular with illustrators and designers in the 1930s. It is opaque, yet can also be used watered down like watercolors. It is similar to gouache, yet when it dries, it can be painted over without reactivating the older layers. James Gurney has almost single-handedly brought casein back into modern popularity, so when I saw this 12 color set offered in a wooden box on sale at USK Chicago (at a reduced price from when you can get it for on Amazon), I had to get it!

I struggled a lot with this portrait, but in the end, I quite like it. Another example of needing to quiet my inner critic (monkey).

Next, I tried a technique that James Gurney uses quite often - starting with a casein underpainting and using gouache on top.

I feel like I have so much to learn from all of these different types of media! I definitely love using watercolor, but it is nice to mix it up and use ink with watercolor, or an opaque media like gouache or casein.

What do you think? Do you stick with one primary media? If so, which one? If not, what do you like to use and when/why? I'd love to hear!

New Artistic Obsession

I take many, many art courses online from fabulous artists through Sketchbook Skool and Craftsy for the most part. I have been improving my techniques by learning from these great artists - such as: Marc Taro Holmes, France Belleville van Stone, Felix Scheinberger, Anna Mason, Patricia Watwood, Paul Heaston, Lapin, Miguel Herranz, and many others. But, my latest artistic obsession with an artist is with Jean Haines, a self-professed watercolor addict.

What I love about Jean and her style is that she celebrates the qualities of watercolor that I've always loved and been attracted to. I've read two of Jean's four books so far:

In her books, Jean describes her background in watercolors, art instruction, and travels. Surprisingly, she was a highly detailed botanical artist at one point (like Anna Mason, who I greatly admire) - but, felt like her watercolors were looking like everyone else's. She also felt like she was losing her love for the medium. I have felt the same way - and though I loved using Anna's techniques to create very realistic botanical art, I admit that in paining in that style, I felt like I was working more than playing.

I also watched two of Jean's DVDs via downloads from North Light Shop. It is so helpful to see Jean paint in her style. In the first DVD, Watercolor Workout, she shows us how she warms up to paint each day by playing with her watercolors either pigment alone with water, or by mixing pigments with water, salt, or using plastic wrap. I had never before considered just playing with my watercolor pigments - but Jean is right in that doing so, helps you understand how the pigments interact with water or salt or each other! So, I grabbed one of my in expensive 6" x 9" watercolor watercolor pads and have been using three sheets a day to play with my Daniel Smith watercolors - and I love it!

What I really love about Jean's techniques are her lack of any preliminary drawings with her watercolors - though, I do admit I still love drawing with pen and ink otherwise - and her instructions to have fun with pigment and to stay loose by practicing doing only half of a piece at a time - stopping just when you can see your subject emerge. I love how Jean, like me, loves painting animals, flowers, landscapes, and people. I admit that I've been trying to find my style and what I subjects I should concentrate on - but, I'm happy to hear that a successful artist, like Jean, also refuses to limit herself to only certain subjects!

I could go on and on about what I love about Jean Haines' atmospheric watercolors and style - but, I'll just say that I feel energized by her watercolor outlook and committed to using it to find my own style! Let me know if you have encountered Jean - or another inspirational artist - and what you've learned from them.

Here are some recent pieces I've done inspired by Jean's style.

Painting Realistic Watercolors

I recently took yet another excellent Craftsy class - Anna Mason's Realistic Watercolors Step by Step. Anna is a self taught artist who specializes in painting realistic flowers and fruit in watercolor. Her method is very different than what I've done in the past and I love the amount of control you get with it.

Anna starts by drawing a light pencil sketch with a 0.5mm mechanical pencil with HB lead. She measures out the piece to get accurate proportions - which is time consuming, but effective. She them uses very light washes - and special spotter brushes that are much smaller than I'm used to working with and available in a set from my favorite brush company, Rosemary & Co. - and paints the lightest lights first. Next, she paints the darkest darks and then uses "tonal juggling" to get the mid-tones correct in relation to one another and to the lights and darks in the painting overall.

I loved the class and am trying out these techniques on my own macro photos and on portraits as well. Here is my rose from the class. I'm pretty happy with it!

I've also added the rose to my Redbubble products and it makes a great floral pattern!

Have you tried Anna's methods? Or other Craftsy classes?

Tours of Sketchbook No. 25

I just finished sketchbook no. 25! Here is a quick tour followed by a longer view.

A slower tour.

Lake Tahoe Sketches

It's an annual tradition for my family to spend Thanksgiving week at The Ridge in South Lake Tahoe. We usually hunker down and knit, watch tv, play board games, and just spend time together within two suites within the same building. This year, I spent a lot of time drawing and painting rather than knitting, with a little embroidery thrown in for good measure.

We were lucky enough to get a room on the 8th floor of The Plaza building with a light view of the lake. Instead of braving the snow and cold, I decided to sketch the view almost every day. Here are my sketches of our view of Lake Tahoe.

New Craftsy Classes

Craftsy has been having a Black Friday sale - all of its classes are $17.99 or less through this Monday. I took the plunge and signed up for 2 more classes because I couldn't resist (again!). On Friday, I bought Matt Rota's Portraits in Watercolor class and watched through all the lessons over a couple of days while being holed up in Lake Tahoe with my family.

Matt's course is excellent. Very, very thorough. He starts with materials and goes on to explain how to do different watercolor washes. I learned so much. For example, he showed us how hot press watercolor paper allows for the watercolors to stay wet longer than cold press which allows for easier mixing of colors and washes. He also explained how different washes and techniques allow for hard or soft edges and when you might want to use either in your paintings.

He then shows us how to do a tonal study of a portrait using a single watercolor in different strengths to understand the light, middle, and darkest darks of your painting. I've been struggling to understand values so this was very helpful. Here is our reference photo and my tonal study.

Then, we moved onto working on the portrait for the class starting with a light underpainting in either raw or burnt sienna using accurate measurements with your paintbrush or by eyeing how he features line up with other features. Matt explained how using a warm color for the underpainting allows you to cool it down later and for the underpainting to disappear under the final painting. He also recommended doing an underpainting instead of using graphite to avoid fussing and erasing. I liked that!

Then, we went onto adding color. First, we made a background wash of ultramarine and sepia, if I remember correctly, and painted it in wet on wet to get a soft edge on at least one side of the portrait. After that, we mixed two washes of a warm red and a warm yellow - then wet the entire face and painted in the soft washes which will tint the highlights in the final painting.

Going on, Matt explained how cool washes will make those areas of the portrait recede in space while warm washes will bring those areas forward in space. This was so helpful! As well as the rest of the lessons which walked us through each step to get us to the final painting. I really appreciated this as so many instructors skip steps and just expect you to be able to fill in all the gaps on your own. Here is my final portrait. I'm pretty satisfied with it.

The second class I bought during the Black Friday sale was Painting Realistic Watercolors with Mario Robinson. I watched the lessons this morning, but haven't had a chance to work through any of it yet. I'll post after I do so.

Hope you had a great Thanksgivng break! I'll post the artwork I made while in Tahoe soon!

Making Local Color Palettes

I recently picked up a copy of Mimi Robinson's book, Local Color - Seeing Place Through Watercolor at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SF MOMA). I had seen the book before at the de Young Museum and was intrigued.

In this book, Mimi Robinson creates watercolor palettes of locations both local to the San Francisco Bay Area where she lives (specifically, near Point Reyes, an area I love) and at other locations she's visited around the world. The palettes, themselves, are beautiful.

On my recent camping trip to Steeo Ravine, I made similar palettes for the scenes I was about to paint. But, I did these as preparatory steps, rather than as a means in itself.

After reading Local Color, though, I decided I should concentrate on making palettes as a way to focus on really seeing and mixing colors accurately. Also, the book has some great practices to keep inspiring me.

Here are some palettes I made recently. I am planning on making a palette and (possibly doing a painting if I have time) of the view from my balcony for the next five days at about the same time - shortly after sunrise.

I decided to make a palette for the wedding flowers we delivered in Napa the other day.

Inspired by the book, I made a palette for a rock from my backyard. It's amazing how many colors are in a rock when you really look.

Then, I tried unsuccessfully to paint the afternoon sky and couldn't get the clouds right. So, I focused on making a palette for the sky instead.

Have you ever tried making watercolor palettes of local color?

Drawing inspiring artists

One thing I definitely love about the Sktchy app is being able to pay tribute to artist who inspire or support you by drawing them! I did that with varying degrees of success over the last few days.

Vin Ganapathy is a huge inspiration for me. He has been one of my teachers at Sketchbook Skool and is one of the first artists from whom I've bought original artwork! I love his portraits done primarily in Tombow brush pens. They are so expressive! I used my watercolors, Kuretake brush pen, and some of Marc Taro Holmes's watercolor techniques to draw Vin here. I loved the shadows in this inspiration photo.

Jane Royal is a beautiful water colorist who I've met on Sktchy. She paints people with the minimum of graphite lines and really lets the watercolors do their magic. She has been very supportive of my art. I wish I had captured her likeness better here. Nut, it's the thought hat counts, right?

Who are your favorite artists? Have you drawn or painted them?

Latest Portraits for the 100 Day Project

I haven't posted my latest portraits in some time! Though you can always click on the link above to see my entire 100 day portrait.

And finally, yesterday's portrait.

Thanks for following along!

To ink or not with watercolors?

This weekend, I talked this portrait of my friend's nephew.

In tackling this portrait, I decided to start with my pencil and then use watercolor. I didn't start with my normal fountain pen with Platinum carbon black ink.

This was a departure from my normal style, but I kind of liked it. So, I posted it on Sktchy and asked for feedback. The majority of the feedback was that I should leave the portrait as is - and the hardest thing with watercolor is knowing when to stop!

So, I thought I would tackle this next portrait of Kiana - in my usual style with fountain pen and ink first and watercolor next.

What do you think? Which do you prefer - watercolor & pencil or ink & watercolor?