Giraffes at the Bronx Zoo

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Pitt Pens and Watercolor

Background prepared in advance with diluted acrylic

At the end of the day, we wound up at the giraffe house. They are indoors for the winter in a very comfortable and inviting space. The lighting was good and visibility excellent. I really fell in love with sketching these beautiful, graceful creatures. Aside from the ballet-like way in which they move, they have the most expressive faces, which became the focus of my attention. I want to go back and spend more time with them very soon.

Siberian Tiger at the Bronx Zoo

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Pentel and Pitt Brush Pens

Watercolor

Diluted acrylic background

Fortunately one of the tigers at the zoo was lying on a rock in front of me napping! That gave me a few minutes to sketch an animal who actually stayed still. We made it a very brief stop at this exhibit because with only a lean-to for shelter, we were getting really cold! I did the border, lettering, and watercolor wash after I got home.

Turaco and Macaws at the Bronx Zoo

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Pentel Aquash Gray brush pen

Pentel Pocket Brush Pen

Watercolor

Pitt Brush Pens

Page background prepared in advance with scumbled and sprayed diluted acrylic paint

This was my second sketch from this week's trip to the zoo, and the last one at the bird house. The Macaws were adorable! They looked like two matching bookends. Hyacinth Macaws are the largest of the Macaw family.

The forgotten turtle

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Watercolor and fountain pen ink (Private Reserve Copper Burst)

Stillman & Birn Epsilon hardbound sketchbook

How did this little guy get forgotten amidst my sketches from the Animal Kingdom store? Anyway, here he is, sunning himself under a heat lamp and resting on a rock. I figured that since he was under the heat lamp, he would stay still so I could sketch him, and I was right!

King Vultures at the Bronx Zoo

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Stillman & Birn Epsilon hardbound 5.5x8.5" book

Pitt Brush Pens

Watercolor

Background prepared with diluted acrylics

I went with my sketch group to the Bronx Zoo yesterday. The weather was pretty nice --- not too cold to walk around a bit. We met up in the morning at the end of the World of Birds exhibit. I'd wanted to sketch these folks the last time we went, but didn't get a chance. I made sure to do it first on this trip! The vultures weren't such cooperative models, but birds generally are not. I loved using the Pitt Brush Pens, and wished I'd had more colors with me. I only brought some warm and cool greys along on this trip. The background had been lightly toned in advance with some diluted acrylic paint, then sprayed with some sparkley iridescent paint. There's a nice shimmer to the page, which isn't evident in the photo.

Usually I do the watercolor work right there on location, and only the lettering/writing at home later, but this time I worked in monochrome on site, using just the different values of the grey pens. I added the few splashes of color back in the studio. I hadn't done it that way for quite some time, and I definitely prefer doing the color work on location also.

Deer Jawbone

Stillman and Birn Epsilon 5.5x8.5" hardbound sketchbook

Background prepared with diluted fluid acrylics

Drawing done with Prismacolor Pencils

Border and lettering done with an Eversharp Symphony Fine point fountain pen and 

Private Reserve Copper Burst ink.

While out walking last weekend, my husband and I came upon an area covered with tan and gray fur. There in the middle were both jawbones from a deer that must have fallen victim to a pack of coyotes or some other wild animals. It was pretty creepy, but wow, what a sketching subject! I had to bring this back to the studio. Colored pencils seemed an ideal medium for some of the details and subtle coloring of the subject.

Found Objects

 You can click the image above for a larger, clearer view.

When I go out hiking or walking the dog, I'm often on the lookout for things to bring home to sketch. Sometimes it's a few bits of pottery, or an interesting rock, or leaves and flowers. This time I found an old rusted beer can (which my husband estimates to be about 50 years old!), an old rusted piece of a stove (I think!), and a broken piece of glass with interesting, rounded shapes. I sketched them with different values of warm and cool Pitt Brush Pens, then used some watercolor over the top.

You may notice a difference in the border style here. I've been experimenting with more decorative border and letter styles in another sketchbook, then trying some of them out here in my art journal.

Birds and Mammals at Animal Kingdom

Stillman and Birn Epsilon 5.5x8.5" hardbound sketchbook

Gouache

Noodler's Apache Sunset ink

I was back at Animal Kingdom with my sketch group last week. One of the staff members came in and gave us lots of peanuts and goodies to feed the parrots who were out loose in the rain forest room, so we had a great time sketching in there. I focused on the Sun Conures this time, and was actually very happy with these sketches until I got home. Then I decided to spray the sketch with iridescent acrylic paint. Big mistake. It clouded the brightly colored image and made the ink run. I guess it was well worth the disappointment for the lesson learned.

We all went out for a wonderful lunch together at Eveready Diner. When we returned, I decided to draw some furry critters. Of course as soon as I started to sketch the baby guinea pigs, every single one of them went to hide in their little house! So, that was that! The rabbit was more cooperative, and also their store mascot guinea pig named Rosie. (Sorry about the glare on the sketch.) You can click either sketch to enlarge the image. I still have one more to post from this excursion, which I haven't had time to photograph yet.

I've been so busy lately that it's been hard to keep up with all the photographing of my work and adjusting of images. I've been finishing up a large oil painting commission (stay tuned for that on my Hudson Valley Painter website), plus as usual I'm doing a lot of color and media experiments. I'm working on some new background ideas and new border thoughts, and have some lightfastness test results to reveal on the recent fountain pen ink tests I posted. So, stay tuned! Lots coming in the week ahead.

Sea Turtle tank at the Maritime Aquarium

This was my last sketch of the day. I was all out of black background pages, so I went to this page. The surface was prepared with sprayed blue and gold iridescent diluted acrylic paint with a slight pattern, created by putting a stencil over the page before spraying it. The painting was done with watercolor and gouache, and the writing with a Sakura Gelly Roll pen. The iridescent surface is beautifully shimmery in a subtle way, but I don't know if you can see that in the photo. The turtles stayed more to the background this trip. Last time they were nearly in my face the whole time I was sketching their tank!

Sea Ravens and Wolfish from the Maritime Aquarium

Stillman & Birn 5.5x8.5" hardbound sketchbook

Golden Black Gesso

Golden Interference Fluid Acrylics

Gouache

Sakura Gelly Roll pens

This sketch was done on another spread with a background prepared in the studio in advance. The sketch itself was done on location at the Maritime Aquarium in Norwalk, CT. The gouache stood out pretty well against the black and iridescent surface, and the metallic Gelly Roll pens were the perfect defining touch for these eerie creatures of the deep!

Golden Black Gesso and Sakura Gelly Roll Pens

This was so much fun! (Image can be clicked for a larger, clearer view.) I used Golden Black Gesso to coat a few page spreads in my Stillman & Birn 5.5x8..5" Epsilon hardbound sketchbook, drying each with a hair dryer before going on to the next. One coat of the Golden Black Gesso perfectly coated the paper. I did try a couple of different dilutions of it also, but it was best right out of the jar the way it came. It applied a thin, totally opaque covering of the paper with a single coat. I used an inexpensive foam brush.

Then I diluted some Golden Fluid Acrylic Interference paints in spray bottles, using a little airbrush medium, flow release and water, and spritzed each page spread with a couple of different colors, drying them again with the hairdryer. I did this in preparation for a sketching trip to the Maritime Aquarium in Norwalk. They have a few very dark rooms with extremely interesting things and flourescent lighting, like jellyfish! This page in the book almost exactly mimics the dark, flourescent tank they were in. I grabbed a handful of Sakura Gelly Roll pens, purchased at a Jerrys store on my way to the Aquarium, and went to town with them.

The Gelly Roll pens worked fabulously on the gesso and the paper. They are very opaque, bright and smooth. I am going to get more!

Here's what the Sakura Gelly Roll pens that I got look like on black and on white. On the white paper, I brushed over the crosshatched sections with a waterbrush to see which ones will wash and which are waterproof.

That first sketch was fun, but it didn't give me exactly what I wanted. I turned to another black/interference page spread, and this time used gouache with some Gelly Roll pens over the top. I was much happier with this one!

This is something that I definitely want to spend more time exploring in the weeks to come!

Sketching at Carol's House

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Watercolor and a bit of ink across a two page spread

of a Stillman & Birn 5.5x8.5" Epsilon hardbound book

(The black along the center is black gouache from other pages that bled through the thread holes.)

A member of our sketch group invited us all over to her house to sketch her yard from her windows. I loved the colors and light in her sun room, so I sketched the room instead!

Daniel Smith Watercolors and Palette Thoughts

New paints are so much fun! I got a bunch of colors from Daniel Smith last week --- some transparent yellows, as well as earthy reds and maroons. I also had to try their Blue Apatite and Moonglow, and Serpentine while I was at it!

I did some swatches and color comparision tests, and tried a few mixes, thinking about what might be effective for some new palette ideas I have.

I pulled out Craig Nelson's book, 60 Minutes to Better Painting. He has so many great ideas in there, and some interesting palettes too. I was admiring his analogous palette paintings and decided to put together a few analogous palettes to try out. I had some extra kids' watercolor sets that I'd popped the pigments out of. These tiny palettes are wonderful for trying new colors and ideas. I set three of them up as analogous palettes --- one red, one yellow, and one blue. That means that the entire painting should have that color in it, so for example, the blue analogous palette would have blue, a blue-green, a yellow-green, a bluish violet, and a reddish violet. The complement is used only to dull the colors, so although there would be an orange in the blue palette, it would be only for mixing purposes. Here are the three palettes and some test swatches I did:

The next day, I went to Adams Fairacre Farms in Wappinger NY. I decided to test drive the blue analogous palette in the greenhouse.

In the end, I couldn't resist adding the yellow flower centers, and I realized that an analogous palette is probably not the best choice for a flower garden or greenhouse! When I got home, I wanted to try it again, so I set up a still life and did a quick color study.

I'm afraid that for me, the jury is still out on this. Maybe I'm just not fond of all those cool colors, or maybe I like the pop of the complements too much for this limited approach. I haven't tried the red or yellow analogous palettes yet, but plan to do so soon. In the meantime, I'm going to let the color junkie in me have a little fun with some full color!

Note: The sketches above were done in a 5.5x8.5" Stillman and Birn Epsilon hardbound book. The color samples were done in an S&B Epsilon 8.5x11" hardbound book.

Little Juniper Bonsai

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Page was prepared with diluted acrylic paints--fluids and iridescent
Sketch Ink is Private Reserve Copper Burst in a Pilot Petit
Writing ink is Private Reserve Sepia and Noodler's Golden Brown
Sketchbook is a Stillman & Birn Epsilon, 5.5x8.5" hardbound

I was walking around the greenhouse at Adams Fairacre Farms in Wappinger, New York. As I rounded a corner, I noticed a little bonsai garden tucked away on one of the display tiers. I fell in love with this twisty little juniper bonsai. It made a perfect pen and ink subject. I definitely want to do more of these next time I go back there! I selected this teal page spread for it's greenish tones, and also because I felt this color ink would stand out so nicely against it. I just got a bottle of this Private Reserve Copper Burst, and it immediately became my favorite brown ink.

Copper Weathervanes at Adams Fairacre Farms and more glittery stuff

You can click this image for a larger, clearer view

Stillman & Birn Epsilon 5.5x8.5" Hardbound Sketchbook

Collage, ink, gesso, and acrylic background

Private Reserve Copper Burst ink in a Pilot Petit fountain pen

Noodler's Midnight Blue ink in a Kaweco Sport EF fountain pen

Watercolor

Schmincke Dry Copper Gouache

I have the most challenging time adjusting these iridescent images. The copper is really stunning, but in a photo it looks dull and brown without the shimmer of the light on it. If you can imagine the shimmer that you see in spots, spread throughout areas of the sketch, you'll have a better idea of how this looks in real life. The border and box shadow are copper iridescent acrylic, and there's a light coating on the multi-layered page background too. In fact, that background has eight layers of assorted media on it! If you click the image, you can see through parts of it to various background layers of patterned ink and shapes.

I was sketching at Adams Fairacre Farms in Wappinger, NY this past week. I had prepared several page spreads in advance, including this one with the copper background. When I walked by a display of large copper weather vanes, I knew I'd found the perfect subjects for those pages! Combined with my love of birds, it was irresistible! I sketched them with Private Reserve Copper Burst, added some Noodler's Midnight Blue for contrast, and blended/shaded a bit with a waterbrush.

I loved the Schmincke Reichgold Dry Gouache so much that a couple of weeks ago, I got three more jars of different colors:

This was a perfect opportunity to dip into the copper version, so I mixed up some of that after I got home, and added it to areas of the weathervanes, and painted the page title with it.

Louise King Mud Ponies on Parade

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Stillman & Birn Gamma 9x6" Hardbound Sketchbook

Private Reserve Velvet Black ink

Private Reserve Chocolat ink mixed with PR Velvet Black

Noodler's Sequoia ink pluse PR Chocolat/Velvet Black mix

I sketched my little herd across the two page spread using fountain pens filled with the listed inks. Afterwards, they were washed with a waterbrush. This Gamma paper has an ivory-toned surface that lends itself to certain colors and applications. I like these inks on it a lot. This sketchbook opens up to a large spread of 18". It's nice to have that spacious feel to expand a sketch, and still have room to write a bit!

Back in the days when my sister lived in New York, she gave me a Louise King "Mud Pony" clay sculpture as a holiday gift for a few years in a row. I've always treasured this little herd of ponies, and I'd like to get a few more of them too....someday! Here's a little video about her and her clay horses:

Noodler's Eternal Inks Lightfast Testing Preliminary Report

Brian Goulet of the Goulet Pen Company contacted me regarding some lightfastness testing I've been doing on a number of inks. So far I've tested 39 fountain pen inks. (If you haven't seen those results, you can click here and then keep scrolling down to see them all.) Whether or not lightfastness is an important issue is a decision you need to make for yourself, and your particular applications. Having the information available is always a good thing, and it gives us one more factor to consider when choosing an ink for a specific job.

In the interest of providing information to his customers, Brian suggested a collaborative venture to test all of the Noodler's Eternal inks, and have those results available on Inknouveau. Although some of my previous testing did include some of these inks, having them all done together at the same time, and available both there on Brian's site, and here on my blog, will be a good resource for those times when some UV resistance is important. The line of Noodler's Eternal Inks that we are testing includes the following:

• Noodler's Bad Black Moccasin
• Noodler's Black
• Noodler's Blackerase Waterase
• Noodler's El Lawrence
• Noodler's Heart of Darkness
• Noodler's Polar Black
• Noodler's X-Feather
• Noodler's Lexington Gray
• Noodler's Whiteness of the Whale
• Noodler's Blue Ghost
• Noodler's Bad Belted Kingfisher
• Noodler's Bad Blue Heron
• Noodler's Luxury Blue
• Noodler's Periwinkle
• Noodler's Polar Blue
• Noodler's Bad Green Gator
• Noodler's Hunter Green
• Noodler's Polar Green
• Noodler's Dostoyevsky
• Noodler's Year of the Golden Pig
• Noodler's Empire Red
• Noodler's Fox
• Noodler's Rachmaninoff
• Noodler's Socrates
• Noodler's Tchaikovsky
• Noodler's Kung Te-Cheng
• Noodler's La Reine Mauve
• Noodler's Mata Hari's Cordial
• Noodler's Pasternak
• Noodler's #41 Brown (2012)
• Noodler's Polar Brown
• Noodler's Whaleman's Sepia

I selected a Stillman & Birn Alpha 7x10" Wirebound book as my paper to do the tests. It's nicely sized, acid free, archival, heavy weight, doesn't have too much tooth, and is a clean bright white. Brian sent the 32 ink samples to me, and I got busy making swabs, crosshatches and washes to test in my studio window.

The ink samples were sorted by color group according to where Brian placed them in the Goulet Swab Shop, then by alphabetical order within that group. The swabs were done with Q-tips --- twice across on the top swab, and once across on the lower swab. All writing was done with a glass dip pen (including the crosshatched sections), which was washed and dried between samples. Artists who use fountain pens are often interested in knowing how much an ink's lines will wash with a water-filled brush after the ink is dry, so I washed a portion of the crosshatched sections with a wet brush. That also spread the ink thinner, providing additional information as the UV light interacts with the ink. Here are the prepared pages. You can click on any image for a larger, clearer version:

Black, Gray, White, Clear (Blue Ghost):

  

(My apologies for some ghosting on a couple of these images, due to the next page showing through a bit. I didn't realize that was happening until I was adjusting the images, and it's not too relevant at this stage in the process.)

Blues:

 

Greens, Turquoise, Yellow:

Red, Pink, Magenta:

Purples:

Browns:

The pages were then cut down the centers vertically, so that the name of the ink and half of each swatch is on each side. The right sides of the pages were placed in my south-facing studio window. The left sides will remain in the closed, wirebound book, where they will be in total darkness. Here they are, all set to go:

Most fountain pen inks are more fugitive than you'd think. That may not matter if whatever you write will not be exposed to UV light in its application, but it is certainly a reason to keep all of your inks stored in darkness.  Even colors in artists' paints that fade very quickly, like genuine alizarin crimson, take many times longer to show signs of change than fountain pen inks. Some inks start fading in just a matter of days. Others take six months or more.

I actually did this almost a month ago, so I will be posting preliminary results in about a week. That will give you an idea of which inks fade the fastest. I can tell you that a lot of them already have changed. So, stay tuned, especially if your favorite ink is on that list!

Tall Sketch with a Muted Palette

Watercolor in a 9x6" Stillman & Birn Gamma Hardbound sketchbook

I decided to test drive my new little mini, warm-toned, muted palette in a Stillman and Birn Gamma sketchbook, which has ivory paper. I gave myself the additional challenge of working a two page spread in a landscape format book (6x9"), holding it in a vertical orientation. This made the sketch 18" top to bottom.

I cut a paper template with a 2x6" opening beforehand, so I could peer through the window to size up potential subjects and compositions, and get an idea of how they would fit on the page. I'll keep that tucked inside the book.

Compositionally, I was really pleased with the way this glass pitcher and flowers worked in the tall format, and I am loving these colors on the ivory paper, even though I've decided that some of them will definitely be switched out of the palette. But I think you can see that it's difficult to showcase the 1:3 verticals in a digital image on a short computer screen. If it fits on the screen, it looks like a skinny ribbon of a sketch! And you enlarge it, then you can't see the whole thing. Here's an image to show you what I mean:

The logistics of actually holding the book vertically and painting this were more awkward than I'd anticipated. I clipped the book to a 12x18 piece of coroplast, which I'd cut previously to hold open some 8.5x11" sketchbooks. But this book was in fact longer than 18" when open, so it extended past the support a bit on either side. Fortunately, in this instance I was working in my kitchen, which has an enormous granite peninsula. Out on location, it would be difficult to work this vertical format.

For a painting that will be matted and framed, I think this vertical 3:1 ratio is a stunner. For sketches that will be seen mostly on a computer screen, not so much! I thought that working this way both horizontally and vertically would be an interesting exploration of 1:3 ratio compositions, and I haven't necessarily changed my mind about that yet. I'm going to pursue some horizontals this way. I can certainly see a benefit to the format for many landscape applications as studies for future paintings. More to come as I work my way through this challenge.

Mini Muted Palette

Stillman & Birn 5.5x8.5" Epsilon Hardbound sketchbook

Watercolor, Noodler's Lexington Gray ink in a Lamy Safari

I had an extra mini kids' watercolor palette lying around, so I decided to use it for a limited palette. I chose an assortment of seven muted colors (since there were 8 spaces for paints after popping out the ones that came in the set), plus the white gouache that I always carry along "just in case". But then I thought, "Gee, seven colors plus white is really not a 'limited' anything!" Although I titled it Limited Palette because it's a range of muted colors, that's a term that us usually indicative of not only muted colors, but also just a few of them!

I played with mixes and made some determinations regarding what I want to keep and what I'd like to swap out for something else. The colors listed are a starting point, and I expect this palette will be an evolving exploration. I've already ordered some new colors to replace a few of these. I've been looking forward to using a group of mostly warm colors like these on lightly toned paper --- ivory or peach or some other warm tint. I am really loving the olive greens I'm getting with the Quinacridone Gold and Paynes Grey.

Private Reserve Blue Suede Ink Review

You can click on any of the images below to get a larger, clearer view.

Stillman & Birn Epsilon 5.5x8.5" Hardbound book

Border prepared with Golden and F&W Acrylics

Private Reserve Blue Suede ink, washed with a waterbrush

Private Reserve Blue Suede ink is so color-saturated that I probably should have put up a sunglasses warning icon at the top of the post! As winter gets colder, this color conjures up images of clear Caribbean waters and tropical skies. I love it. Not only is it colored strongly enough to create great washes, but it also shades when writing with it.

Here are some closeups of writing done with this ink using several different pens. These were done in a Stillman and Birn Alpha book, and posted previously in my long post on shading inks (though not in this closeup form.)

First up are three dip pens. Each crosshatched section was allowed to dry, and then washed with a brush dipped in water.

Below is Blue Suede with three fountain pens, which display better shading than the dip pens did:

I liked the broad range of shading that was present with the flex nib, so I wrote up a page of quotations, posted below. (Check out that first one from Erma Bombeck! Can any of you relate to that? LOL)

The writing in this sketch was also done with Blue Suede.

So, what's not to love? Well, I do wish the ink would hold a bit more line when washing with a wet brush. I had to go back once it was dry and restate some of the linework on the sketch where I had washed a lot, and put the darkest darks back in. Still, it didn't give up the line as easily as many others do. I haven't tested it for lightfastness yet, so we'll put that assessment on hold for now, and I'll start testing it soon, along with some other new samples. In the meantime, if you love teal and turquoise, you're definitely going to want a bottle of Private Reserve Blue Suede!