75 Day Challenge - Day 16

The past two days I've done portraits of my dogs. I'm happy to say there's only one more dog to go because this is the first time in the past week or so that I've really missed being able to make corrections with an eraser. BUT....that's part of the challenge.

75 Day Challenge - Day 13

My go to camera when I want to carry less but still end up with a decent photo or video.

75 Day Challenge - Day 11

I think it's gotten to be a habit now and a good habit to keep going. I'm not worried about if I can finish all 75 days now and it's not like I'm going to run out of things to sketch either.  Yesterday I was running out of time to do my sketch so I picked my favorite pens to model for me.

75 Day Challenge - Day 9

The view outside the window.

75 Day Challenge - Day 8

A size 8 on day 8.

75 Day Challenge - Day 7

The rest of my travel kit and it fits into a pencil case.

And I made it through the 1st week of not using a pencil or eraser. I'm on my way.

75 Day Challenge - Day 6

Coming up are some days filled with the stuff I'm currently using. Here's my ultra lightweight watercolor pallet that I made up from other peoples ideas on the internet. It's difficult finding a tin that does not have the impressions of the name stamped into the top lid. I found this vintage sucrets tin on ebay. I chose to use full pans on the primary colors and half pans on some of my other favorite colors. You could get up to 12 different colors by using all half pans but for now, this set up is working for me. Next time I just have to remember to wait long enough for the freshly squeezed paint to set. The yellow traveled around the tin on it's first outing. Live and learn right?.

75 Day Challenge - Day 4

Day 4 and I decided to keep this one totally inked, no watercolors. I like buildings.

I really missed not having the preliminary erasable pencil sketch on day 2 of The Gorilla and day 3 The Pink Truck but that's what this is all about, right?

Lamy pens and Noodler's ink.

75 Day Sketch Challenge - day 1

I've been thinking about starting this challenge for the past few weeks and decided today would be a great day to begin for no other reason than for me to make the commitment and do it (otherwise known as sh*t or get off the pot).  So this it the first of 74 more of ink drawings. Besides the daily sketch the other requirement is no pencil is allowed allowed, only ink. It's already made me see the lines, shadows and space differently and slower too. I think I'll be getting a ton of experience out of this exercise. Done in Noodler's kiowa pecan in with a light water color wash.
Check out the challenge here..... the supporting artist, Brenda Swenson, provides a very cool incentive for completion.

Clouds and Reflections

Yesterday in Southern California we had rain showers off and on all day long. What came with the rain was some really magnificent cloud formations. Since we haven't seen or felt either one in over 6 months, our art teacher, Steve Allan thought it would be a great time to do an exercise on painting clouds. We learned it's not so much painting them, it's more like removing them from the sky.

 After doodling around with clouds for 15 minutes Steve took us to our assignment.  He has a way of showing us what we'll be drawing while he's telling us the "story" of the picture.  Then he puts us on our own but walks around and provides valuable input or even a helping brush.  What we worked on with the second painting was reflections....from the clouds, the trees or anything else you might have added to the scene.  He really gives everyone in the class a lot of encouragement.

The Korner Store

I spent about 90 minutes parked outside the Korner Market. I don't know how many times I've driven by the place and always thought it to be a good painting subject and finally. I think I'll be hitting up more of the little stores in town as well as some of the many tattoo shops.

ADNW - October Challenge

A Day Not Wasted painting challenge for October was a picture of this lad in Dublin. I used my Lamy pen for the outline then tried out my Progresso colored pencils. I'm happy with everything but the face. I made the young man a few years older. sigh

The Lighthouse

I thought retirement would lend itself to days filled with little to do. Meaning I would have many hours available to do sketching and water colors. One month into this so called free time has given me a chance to do only two drawings and the latest one comes directly from attending a class. I need to re-prioritize my "to do" list and become better at the retiring part.
Instructor and water-colorist Steve Alan stepped the class through this painting and provided some insights on developing a sky and cutting rocks into the paper. It felt good to be back with the pallet.