nanke's stuff

After ordering the wrong thing and erroneously sending them back (I wish I had kept them ... the return postage was ridiculous!), I ordered the right thing and was really looking forward to trying them out.  I watched a video about them (sadly I can't give you the link because I have no idea where I saw it) and was completely intrigued.  In the video the artist sort of made a palette of them by thickly applying them in squares on a piece of watercolor paper, and then using them like pan watercolors.  I was intrigued, but also a tad nervous about using them.  I know, that's really silly, but there you are ... somebody let the wicked critic out of her cage and she wasn't happy.

So, finally I sat down and did a quick ink sketch in the sketchbook I'm zeroing in on to complete.  I was on the front porch and drew one of the chairs.  After that sat for awhile ... OK, a pretty long while .... several days, if not a week,  I finally decided to just jump in and outcome be damned!  To put it mildly, the piece is busy, but that's because I really wanted to just fiddle with these pencils.   They are fun .... they are easy to use, although I have to learn how much to put in my square, and they mix well.  As you can see, I chose to mix mine on a separate sheet of paper rather than in the sketchbook since the book isn't very big.  I bought them online from Dick Blick - 25 in a very nice tin, along with an instruction book and color-mixing wheel.   BTW, I don't know if the above link will work .... I had trouble with it and I'm not very good at trouble shooting this sort of thing ... well, really anything having to do with computers.  Anyhow, here's the experimental, very busy, piece.





The blue on the posts is actually burgandy, but I wanted to try out a different color.  I will play with them again ....  maybe soon!        Thanks for dropping by, and I'd love to hear from you!!  

It's been really hot and dry here in the mitten.  The only things growing in our "lawn" are the weeds.  I can't help but wonder why it is that weeds never seem to mind the weather ... not the heat, not the drought, not heavy winds or rain.  Even frost doesn't kill them - they just fade away until the next growing season.  Their roots  settle in for a  long winter's  nap, and in the spring pop right back up, bright eyed and bushy tailed.  Ditto with the crab grass, quack grass, and other grasses that have nothing to do with lawns or gardens.  OK, I'll try not to complain anymore and look at the bright side.  Yes, there is a wee bright side.  I don't have to mow quite as often.  Enough said about all of that!

So, the other night I sat on our front porch with my sketchbook (it only has 5 sheets left!), my little Windsor &  Newton travel sized watercolor set, and my waterbrushes.   I'm never quite sure what you call them - the ones with the tubes to hold water with a brush on the end.   While I like to use those brushes for this kind of casual playing, I like to have a container of water to rinse them off in.  That way I don't have to keep filling them up.  Anyway, what I ended up doing was painting the yard in front of me.  I haven't finished it yet, but you get the idea ... yellow grass.  So far the trees seem to be doing OK.  The gardens, flowerpots, and hanging baskets are all we water because of the size of our yards - hence the dry and dead "grass".  Maybe tonight I'll be able to add a bit more to it, although the truth is that this view doesn't really have much more in it.  Evergreens, trees, and dead "grass".  sigh.

Thanks so much for stopping by!  I hope you have a second to leave me a wee comment - I love hearing from you!

Last night I sat on the porch with my sweetie and did a quick little watercolor sketch.  I did it in my old sketchbook that's almost filled up (I'm going to quit saying that because I'm planning on continuing to use it until it's all filled up ... which I hope will be soon!).  I used an old set of Pelikan pan watercolors that I've had for about 100 years.  Ok, so that's an exaggeration, but I've had it for at least 30 years!  Clearly I don't use it all that often, but each time I do I wonder why I don't use it all the time.

Sweetie got home really late last night - it was almost 7:00.  Since he usually leaves for work at 4:30 AM, getting home at 7 made for a long day.  I settled on the porch to wait for him with my painting things at the ready when our son, Andrew, called me.  We talked for over an hour about lots of interesting things.  I loved every minute of it!  It did, however, leave me a tad short of time for painting, hence the abbreviated little study.  I didn't do any sketching first, just dove right in with water brushes and the paint.  It was fun, even though the results are less than I would have liked.


PS ... due to our rapid fire internet speed, it took me longer to download this picture than it did to paint it.

Last evening I sat on the front porch and played with my watercolor pencils. I have a small set of Derwents and a larger set of Inktense, neither of which I have much experience with. (By the way, I'm trying to do this on my iPad, which I'm just learning how to use, so please overlook the goofs ... Thank you very much!).

 Back to the pencils.  Anyway, I decided to do a rough sketch of a begonia plant ... I thought I'd better tell you what it is so you wouldn't have to try to figure it out. I first drew it with an 01 micron pen (or maybe it was a 005, but then who cares?). After that I colored it in with the pencils, starting with the Derwents, then adding the Inktense colors later. After that I used my water brushes to wet the colors to see what happens. Clearly I have a lot to learn about this medium, but I was happy to be drawing again and it was fun to play with my toys!

Since I wasn't able to download (upload?) the picture from my desktop, I have to finish this at home.  (I bet you were wondering about that, weren't you ... Not!).  So, here is the begonia plant:



Thanks so much for stopping by!! 

I'd like to introduce you to my friend, Kathy Staron.  She is a wonderful artist who lives and works in Florida, and I've been in awe of her work for many years.  She works in watercolor, oil, and acrylic, and continues to learn from and study with excellent teachers.  Unbeknownst to me, she did a watercolor painting of our dog, Abby, and gave it to me for my birthday!  And to top it all off, she had some note cards of it made for me too!  This is one of the note cards ... the painting is too big for me to scan.   It looks exactly like Abby, and she's in one of her favorite spots on our sofa with a soft pillow to rest her head on.  If you would like Kathy to paint a portrait of your beloved pet, you can reach her at Star_on3@yahoo.com.  It's a wonderful gift!



Yesterday for the first time in ages I went to a life drawing session with my friend, Vicki.  It's been years since I've done full body drawings like this, and the quality of these attests to that.  I had a great time and am looking forward to going back again.  So here area my humble offerings of the day.

I hope you have a wonderful weekend, and thanks so much for stopping by!

Some of you may remember that I volunteer at our county health department one day a week.  For a variety of reasons (including a flood that did a lot of major damage), things have been a tad slow there at the reception desk.  I expected that yesterday could be a bit slow because I knew that several of the staff would be off-site at a conference.  So, I went prepared!

I took with me my little "I've been drawing in it for years" sketchbook along with a little box of pencils, a National Geographic Magazine (I decided I would draw some mouths to go with the eyes and noses I drew earlier), along with a couple of puzzles from the newspaper.  I also take the coupon inserts that come in the Sunday newspapers and spend part of my time clipping all the coupons out for the people to sort through while they wait with their children.   The clipping takes me quite awhile as I usually have 5 or more of the inserts to clip. 

Anyhow, when I finished clipping and filing, I got out my drawing things and got started.  (Mind you, I do the "playing" in between answering the phone, greeting and directing the visitors, and anything else they might want me to do, lest you think I sit there doing nothing most of the time!).  A gentleman came in wanting to go to the VA office that shares our building, but he had to wait as they were closed for lunch.  He sat in our tiny waiting area with his iPad, so I got out my "waiting room" sketch book and did a really quick sketch of him.  Usually I'm the one waiting when I use this book, so it was kind of fun to be on the other side of the waiting game!  So, here are the two things I did.   As you can see, the mouth in the lower left isn't finished ... I don't remember whose mouth it was, so it will just have to stay that way for now!

In an effort to draw something Almost every day (notice how I made no commitment to draw Every day in writing, though that's what I'd like to be doing), I took my smallest Micron pen, 005, and did quick sketches of wee things I found in the kitchen.  They aren't very good, as in I really screwed up the screw for example, but nevertheless, I did something.  Some days that's saying a lot!

So here is today's humble offering.