Watercolor Journal at Utica Reservoir

I look forward to my annual camping trip to the Sierra Nevada mountains so I can play in my journal. This year I have a journal that has dark paper in it and I wanted to have my sketch go across the page. The granite was lighter than the dark paper, so I used a white opaque Sharpie pen. I tapped it on the paper to get the ink flowing. Because of the elevation (7,000 ft.) I got a blop of white ink. Oops. I sort of blotted it up with a paper towel. I liked the effect, but was afraid if I did it again I might loose all the white ink out of the pen. When the white dried it was not water soluble, so I was able to use watercolor over it.

calendar in sketchbook

calendar in sketchbook, a photo by vickylw on Flickr.

Through the last 3 months of medical stuff, I have tried to keep a record for doctors on when, how often, and how severe. At first I folded the calendar sheets and tucked them in the pocket at the end of my sketchbook.

Then I thought, for convenience, why not tape them flat on the last page, using this removable double-sided tape? There are 4 month pages here, taped on top of each other at the upper edge --- I can easily flip to see other months. And when I fill this sketchbook, the whole thing removes to be placed in the new sketchbook.

I found the blank calendar sheets at Walmart, but they could also be easily printed at home. The tape was found in the scrapbook section of Hobby Lobby.

on joining the gypsies . . .

on joining the gypsies . . ., a photo by vickylw on Flickr.

If I run away and join the gypsies, I need to learn how to tie a decent scarf head-covering, right?

Actually, I was working out my tears and frustration in my journal over losing my hair. An eczema scalp-rash plus the trauma the vertigo put my body through the past 3 months is causing my hair to fall out. The dermatologist thinks it will all come back in, but in the meantime I'm pretty upset about it. Drawing some possible temporary solutions helps me deal with it -- an excellent reason to keep an art journal, I've found.

BTW, I have not had any more vertigo or dizziness for the past 3 weeks. Looks like it is gone, thank God.

Sometimes, You Have To Outsmart Yourself! (Laure Ferlita)

After returning from my trip to San Francisco, I knew I'd be adding a page of the gorgeous California Poppies I saw all over the city. I also knew I wanted them to be loose and painting loose for me is always a challenge!

Detail from Full Spread
Click to Enlarge

Since I worship at the "altar of detail," I decided to really make it difficult to paint details by painting the pages while standing up with the sketchbook turned upside down with a #10 size brush.

Detail from Full Spread
Click to Enlarge

After the pages dried, I sat down to add just a few of the details to the flowers to suggest the crinkled and wrinkled texture of their petals.

More Detail
Click to Enlarge

Adding in those few details also fed that need I have for detail work without overwhelming the flowers.

California Poppies
11 x 8.5 inches
Watercolor
Ink for the writing only

This was way fun and a little scary as I was working in my sketchbook for San Francisco and I really could have messed up, but I had a game plan in case of failure. I figured I could either glue new paper over the ruined pages or possibly gesso over these and go again. Thankfully, I didn't have to!

If you are a detail painter with a strong desire to let go of the details with no idea where how to begin, let me suggest giving this a try. Choose a large, easy, organic/natural subject so that if you get "outside of lines" it doesn't ruin anything.

Lightly sketch out your page, gather your supplies, put your book upside down on a table, stand up, and let the paint fly! (I had to leave the room while it was drying to keep from fiddling in the paint!)

The other thing that helped me was leaving all reference material in the other room out of sight. That way I didn't start trying to add in any details or shadows.

After your page dries, consider where you can add just enough detail to clarify or suggest texture. Keep in mind that less is more. Go slowly by adding in a few details and then stepping away from the work so that you can view the page with a fresh eye.

If you decide to join me in the "upside down, standing up, large brush" painting method, please let us know by leaving a comment below with a link so we can see you efforts too!

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I hope you'll consider joining me on "An Imaginary Trip to San Francisco!" The "trip begins on August 16th. More information is available here! Hope to see you in the Imaginary Realm!

First Entry On My iPad Sketch Journal

Found a neat app - Paper 53 - that lets me make journals and offers sketching tools that include a pencil, fountain pen, broad and thin markers, brush and eraser. Colors are limited but it's fun to figure out how to best use what's offered.

First I tried a stylus that has a rubber tip. No luck at all as response time was way off. My finger worked okay, but I couldn't see where my lines were going. My new stylus that has a felt-like tip, by Stylus-R-Us, was amazing.

Sure am enjoying the iPad :)

Pam Johnson Brickell
Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Scouting for a Sketchcrawl

This was my quick sketch of the wetlands demo at the Anita Gorman Discovery Center, a Missouri Department of Conservation nature center.

It's a beautiful facility with lots to look at and explore...this is the lobby, looking toward the gift /book shop

I'd walked enough that my knees complained, so I tottered over to the tables by the wetlands display to sketch--handy!

I was trying out my Noodler's Konrad pen and some gorgeous new ink also from Noodler's, Kung Te-Chung, a blue so dark it's almost black.  Waterproof, too!  (Their little ink samplers are FUN.)  Brian at GouletPens.com also suggested Polar Brown, which seems to be working well, too.

Here's my setup with my new bag...more on that in a day or so!  Works great, so far...

The site has a wonderful garden, a prairie habitat, a half-size copy of Lewis & Clark's boat, mounts, skulls, turtles, bird feeders and SO much more...we'll definitely be having a sketchcrawl there!

new handbound sketchbooks

new sketchbooks, a photo by vickylw on Flickr.

Well they are together at least . . . I made so many mistakes while adding covers to these Coptic-bound book blocks! I had originally planned on different colors of book-cloth for contrast spines. But I'm still dealing with some vertigo/dizziness, so I kept it as simple as possible. I may add some small bit of embellishment to the front of each as I use them --- that helps to easily tell the front from the back. I may shorten those ribbon bookmarks a bit as well.

The first two covers were glued on before I remembered end papers . . . they seem to work fine with just the first and last pages of the book block used as end papers. Another one has a major folded ripple in one end paper . . . pure carelessness. One book's spine board was too wide. Oh, well . . . .

Most of my previous sketchbooks are the size reached when simply folding/tearing down from the original full-size paper -- ending with 5.5 x 7.5" book blocks. These are a bit bigger this time, about 7 x 9". Three are Kilimanjaro 140 lb cold-press watercolor paper from Cheap Joe's, one is Fabriano Artistico 140 # hot-press, and the last one is a combination of Fabriano Artistico 90 lb. soft-press and Mi Tientes toned papers. Oh . . . and making my own bookcloth worked great! Cotton fabric and white tissue paper put together with Heat & Bond iron-on adhesive.