Fern Leaf

A simple botanical sketch. I really like the way botanical sketches look. Unfortunately, nine times out of ten I just don't have the patience for them. I don't know why that is, but man, more power to the people who can happily sit and record every detail of a plant.

Lamp and Tea Bag

This is actually from a few days ago. My drawings are a little out of order from posting to illustration friday. In any case I like how this has a soft and fuzzy feel to it as that's how my head felt at the time.

Illustration Friday - Polar

For this one I played with the idea of an old globe. I did a quick and rough wash of a brown ochre color and let it dry. Then I painted over that to create a stained effect. Turned out pretty much how I imagined it would. It's fun playing with layers of color.

Kiko's Lonely Toys

I generally like the way this turned out. I really got the orange mixture dead on and I like the color and texture of the the scratching post.

Clinton Lake

The other day I went out sailing with my Dad. I thought it would be a good time to start with a crash course in both painting in front of people and outside. The verdict: neither is particularly easy. Also, probably not a good idea to have your first go at outdoor painting on a windy day on a moving sailboat. In any case here is the result, such as it is.

Iron

This is my first sketch where I did the ink first, then watercolored over it. I was worried that the ink would run but that fear proved unfounded. I used millenium pens (I got a set a few days ago to get some variety in line size and to test waterproofness). Seems very waterproof. I was going to write in some text but I liked the simple clean look of it. One of those times when I was sorely tempted to keep on adding but I think I'm glad I didn't. I think.

Kiko

I'm having way too much fun with watercolors. I feel like with every little sketch I do I discover some new way to manipulate them. I let the color puddle and run for Kiko's tail and I love the way it looks. Also did a bit of mixing on the paper. Fun stuff if a bit unpredictable.

Cutting Hair

My daily drawings are taking on a definite air of journal entries as well. I'm okay with that as it helps with coming up with what to draw. When you're open to drawing just about anything it's close to impossible to come up with an excuse not to. That's also why I'm a big believer in getting a few good supplies and a journal with nice substantial paper. Otherwise it's just too easy to put it off with excuses like "the watercolor will bleed through the paper" or "i'll do it when I get that new pen, otherwise it won't look right".

Nutella

I'm playing a little with the layout of my pages. Incorporating more text to make it more of an illustrated journal. I'm definitely fast becoming a moleskine addict. Or at least an addict of small journals that have pages that hold up to watercolor.

Illustration Friday - Green

For this I did a few green washes in watercolor and then used my uniball pen for the drawing. For the most part I like how it turned out. The text at the bottom is kind of "meh" but that's okay. I'll let you in on a secret: On accident I wrote greem and tried to fix it by adding the exclamation mark. Now when I look at it, my mind sees GREEM!. Which personally I think rather improves it. I might start using it as a word. Any thoughts as to what it might mean? Is it good, as in, "Wow that cake is really greem." Or is it bad - "Don't go into that public restroom - it's seriously greem."

Ceiling Fan

So I'm really getting into doing some sort of sketch a day. In this one I'm playing even more with ink. I penciled in what I wanted to draw, then watercolored, then inked with a black uniball pen. I like the look of the ink but I also think it gives it a more cartoon-y look. That's also probably due to the fact that I'm using a thick uniball. I'm wanting to get a pen with a thinner line that won't run if I watercolor over it. Any suggestions?

99 Cent Flowers

Apparently on Friday at a local grocery store they set out discount flowers for 99 cents. The colors don't necessarily match but if you separate some out and put them into a pretty glass they actually look quite nice. In this way you can get a few bouquets all for less than a dollar.
Illustration-wise I'm experimenting with using a pen with my watercolors right now. I liked the way the glass looked without the pen so I left it. I do like the pen work just picking out a few flowers up top. More fun with pens in the coming days.

Vanilla

I quite like this one. Drawn from life but loose. Also getting used to using a pen in addition to watercolor. As a side note to get really good strong vanilla extract you actually should let it sit for 4 to 6 months. But that's neither here nor there in terms of drawing.

The Peacock Post aka The "I Can't Draw from My Imagination" Post

The title of this post pretty much sums up how I feel about this little sketch. Although I do like the yellow background pattern. Oh, and I'm also figuring out how to mix bigger batches of color. Getting a better feel for all of that. Which makes it worthwhile. But none of this changes the fact that I'm no good at drawing from my imagination. Not to say that my sketchbook will never have to suffer from my attempts again.

Brick Sketch

I'm not very good at drawing from photographs. This is an attempt at drawing from a photograph. I like the color I made for the bricks. The problem is that I tend not to mix enough of a color when I make mixes. I'm working on improving that. Not a lot of depth of value in this one either. All of it will come with practice. The main thing is to not get discouraged.

Illustration Friday - Snap

This is my first illustration friday post in a while. It is my first non-digital media entry ever. Right now i'm loving working in little watercolors. I'm not super good at it, but it's so much fun. There is something refreshing about being able to physically flip through pages and hold the work you've done.

Blue Tea Set

Well here is my second watercolor attempt. I actually quite like it. It's a little looser than what I'm used to doing and I like that. With this one I feel like I'm getting a better feel for how to get different values out of the paint. It's also not too muddied up since I restricted myself to only using two colors: Winsor Blue and Cadmium Red.