Camels and Macaws at the Discovery Zoo

Camels seem to be in perpetual motion, so a portrait attempt was no easy feat. Not only do their heads move continually from side to side, but also from ground level to about nine feet in the air! I'd wait patiently, popping in a couple of lines each time he looked straight at me.

The pair of macaws was a riot. In spite of the fact that the zoo owner kept putting them up on their tree stand, their will proved stronger. With clipped wings, they waddled around wherever they pleased, occasionally flying up to a low perch. They were especially interested in watching me sketch the camels. One came over and literally sat by my feet almost the entire time, saying "Mama". I figured they were waiting for their turn to be sketched. I did a few quick watercolor gesture sketches of each of them. Here's a photo of one of them with the sketches:

Materials
Camel sketch: 0.5 Platinum Preppy fountain pen filled with Private Reserve Velvet Black, washed with a waterbrush
Macaws: Sakura Koi watercolors and waterbrush
Sketchbook: Stillman & Birn Delta
Borders: Golden Fluid Acrylics and F&W Acrylic Inks

Great Day at the Discovery Zoo

Life as an artist is sometimes too much fun to be legal. I had such a great time at the Bronx Zoo a couple of weeks ago that I started wondering if perhaps there was a smaller zoo closer to me. It turns out that there's one only four miles away from my house upstate! So, today I went with Gretchen to check out the Discovery Zoo in Catskill, New York. We brought our sketching stuff and bug spray and hoped for the best!

The zoo actually exceeded our expectations. It is small and they don't have a lot of animals, but one can only sketch so many beasts in a single day! The people were friendly, the habitats were inviting, and we were able to set up to sketch wherever we wanted. There were lots of nice, shady spots, and the owner went out of his way for us, telling us about the history of the little zoo and the names of all his "pets"!

These two camels are named Christopher and Serena. They are among the few animals who came to this zoo from the old Catskill Game Farm, which closed five or six years ago.  I did a bunch of sketches and got some great photos too. In fact, I had such a good time there that I got a season pass! I figured with it being less than 10 minutes away, I'd surely get there a few more times before the year is out.

Sketch: Sakura Koi 24-color watercolor set with waterbrush, 0.5 Platinum Preppy loaded with J. Herbin Cacao du Bresil
Sketchbook: Stillman & Birn Delta 6x8"
Writing: Noodler's Purple Wampum in a 0.5 Preppy
Borders: Golden Fluid Acrylics and F&W Acrylic Inks

Two More from the Bronx Zoo

Watercolor, painted across a two-page spread in a 6x8" Stillman & Birn Delta sketchbook. The pages were prepared in advance with diluted acrylic paint.

Hiking in Kaaterskill Clove to Inspiration Point

My husband and I hiked out to Inspiration Point, which overlooks Kaaterskill Clove to the east, west and south from South Mountain in Haines Falls, New York. This is the view facing west. When visiting these locations in the northeastern part of the Catskill Mountains, it's easy to understand why the Hudson River School Painters made this area their home base. The land speaks to you here, and you can feel the presence of all who came before you and admired its beauty.

This is another sketch in my "Travel With Me" book for the Brooklyn Art Library's "Sketchbook Project 2012". 

Tree by the Lakeshore in Ink and Wash

If you're interested in ink and wash materials and techniques, check out my guest blot post today for the Goulet Pen Company on their Ink Nouveau blog site!

I sketched this last week at the lakeshore using a combination of Private Reserve Chocolat ink mixed with about 25% Private Reserve Velvet Black to cut the red a bit. After doing a line drawing, a waterbrush was used to form the midtones and shadows, using ink from the lines. The paper is a Stillman and Birn Beta sketchbook.

Giraffes from the Bronx Zoo

Watercolor and ink across a two-page spread in a Stillman & Birn Delta sketchbook. These were sketched at the Bronx Zoo, with the page borders prepared in advance using acrylic inks.

Giraffes are so graceful and fun to sketch. The Bronx Zoo has a nice habitat for them with a shady spot to sit and enjoy their company. While we were sketching them, a peacock came along from the habitat next to them, and they all started following the peacock in a long line, as if playing Follow the Leader.

Flamingos at the Bronx Zoo

Last week I went to the Bronx Zoo with a group of artists. What a great place for a sketching trip! I even took out a membership so that I can go back for free. There is a cafeteria called the Dancing Crane Cafe, which overlooks a pond with beautiful Flamingos. Here are two that were begging to be sketched.

I knew I'd be sketching on the run for the most part, so I prepared some sketchbook pages in advance. This two page spread was done with acrylic ink. I painted the borders with brown, then sprayed it with water while the ink was still wet, and blotted it with a paper towel to further texturize the surface.

This is a Stillman & Birn 6x8" Delta Series sketchbook. I've done several multi-media pages in it of this type, and it's handled all the abuse spectacularly well. It's very heavy paper with a heavy layer of sizing, and not too much texture, so my fountain pens seem to like it as well.

The Sketchbook Project 2012 --- Peach Lake, Brewster NY

Today I did my second entry for the Brooklyn Art Library's sketchbook collection, through The Sketchbook Project 2012.  This was sketched on location at Peach Lake in Brewster, New York.

The Sketchbook Project 2012

This is my first sketch for the The Sketchbook Project 2012! If you haven't heard about this annual, ongoing venture, you can check it out here.  For $25, artists can register for the project and select one of 40 themes for their book. They each receive a sketchbook in the mail, which must be returned by February 1, 2012 in order to participate. The sketchbooks become part of the permanent collection of the Brooklyn Art Museum, and go on a world tour. I really wanted to do it last year, but didn't find out about it in time to have a chance at completing a book. So, I'm jumping on it early this year! My chosen theme is "Travel With Me", and my sketches will depict my travels up and down the Hudson River Valley.

Today I went to Stonecrop Gardens in Cold Spring, New York. It's always hard to start a new sketchbook, but I figured today was as good a time as any! The paper's quite thin for watercolor work. Many artists are changing the paper in the books for something better than what they're sending us, but I'm going to try to work with what they sent. It'll be a bit wrinkly for sure.

The Arrival of FedEx

I figured I'd have a half hour or so to sketch, but my daughter re-emerged from her appointment in just 10-15 minutes! When I got home, I thought it would look much better to throw some color behind the truck, so I added the watercolor afterwards. Here's what it looked like when I brought it home:

Text: I dropped my daughter off for a doctor's appointment this morning and set up in my car to sketch the rainy scene. Just as I took pen to paper, this massive FedEx truck pulled up right in front of the awning that was planned as the focal point of my sketch! This was done with my favorite Kuretake brush pen and a waterbrush of Gris Nuage. Journal writing: Lexington Gray and Lamy F fountain pen


When I added the watercolor, I discovered that the ink that comes with the Kuretake brush pen is very washable. Once that runs out, I'll probably refill it with Noodler's Bulletproof Black, or some other black ink that stays put. The J. Herbin Gris Nuage (lighter color gray) stayed put pretty well.

Speaking of package deliveries, look what UPS delivered to me today, along with some of the new Stonehenge Kraft colored paper:

All this rainy weather is a perfect time to dip into these acrylic inks. Can't wait!

This Is Not the Bronx Zoo --- Rainy Day Sunflower in Watercolor

Today is the day I'd been looking forward to for such a long time. I was planning to sketch at the Bronx Zoo. As you can tell from this still life, it is pouring rain outside, and the zoo trip is postponed. Still, one could do worse than to be painting these gorgeous flowers.

Images can be clicked to enlarge them.

Winsor Newton and Holbein Watercolors
Noodler's Lexington Gray in a Lamy Safari fountain pen with "F" nib
Writing: J. Herbin Poussiere de Lune in a Platinum Preppy fountain pen
Fabriano Venezia 6x9" sketchbook

Review of the Nomadic Wise-Walker Messenger Bag

I have been dreaming of getting this Nomadic messenger bag for sketching materials ever since I saw it on the internet. The messenger bag I'd been using for sketching supplies was a bit larger than what I needed, and had a couple of serious drawbacks that the Nomadic bag addressed. My husband got it for me as a Mother's Day gift, and it is just perfect for my needs! I unpacked my old bag last night and loaded up the new one.

Here's the front of the bag. I selected the blue color, and it's a nice dark, neutral navy. It has a zippered pocket right on the front where you can keep identification, money, or anything you might need to get to quickly without having to open up the whole bag. As you can see, it easily stands upright, which is an important factor for me, since I keep lots of fountain pens inside it.

One thing this bag has that my other lacked is this wide, long shoulder pad. Since the strap adjusts from both sides, I finally have a bag that allows me to shorten the strap enough while keeping the shoulder pad centered. This is an excellent feature that more bags and straps should employ.

On each side, there is a mesh compartment for a water bottle. This particular bottle is oversized at 20 oz, yet still fits in there. A regular 16 oz. bottle would fit better. Not having to carry the water inside the bag is a great feature. It makes it much easier to take a sip while walking without having to open up the bag, or to pour extra water into a palette cup for painting. My old bag didn't have these water holders on the sides.

The bag is divided into two main sides. I set up one for sketching materials, and one for painting. Usually I do one and then the other, so it helps to have my materials organized this way. Here's a peek at the sketching side:

As you can see, there's room straight across the bag for loads of pens, pencils, waterbrushes and markers. A pocket in the front of that compartment can hold my sketchbook. There is another large pocket behind the pens that runs the length of the bag. I keep some tissues, erasers, a ruler, viewfinder, and other sketching supplies in there.

One really neat feature is these mesh pockets because they are translucent. I label all my pens so I can tell what ink is in which pen. I used to have to remove them from the pockets of my old messenger bag to read the labels and find the pen I needed, but now I can store them with the labels facing outward, and I can see what every color is! This is a huge advantage for me and a timesaver.

Turning the bag around and lifting the big flap, you can see into the main compartment of the bag:

If you carry a 9x12" spiral sketchbook, this is where you'll probably be keeping it, and it will fit easily. In front of that large, open area there is a zippered compartment where I keep my watercolor sets:

There are also pockets in front for brushes, waterbrushes, pens, and other supplies. You wouldn't believe how much this side of the bag can hold, even though the bag is not that large. I emptied out this  side to show you (below).

• Viewfinder
• Sunglasses
• Reading glasses
• Extra clips
• Palette cup
• Lots of waterbrushes and travel brushes
• Correction fluid
• Two watercolor sets
• Hand wipes
• Small sketchbook
• Insect repellent
• Sponges
• Date stamp
• Masking tape
• 7x10 watercolor block
• Drawing board
• Tissues
• Paper towels
• Viewfinder
• Small water bottle
• Garbage bag

There's actually plenty of room left for my camera, binoculars, and sun visor. I don't necessarily carry this much when I go out sketching, but it's nice to know that it will all fit when I go off on a trip; then I can leave whatever I won't be needing in the car, or wherever I'm staying if I'm traveling. There are a few more compartments in this bag that I haven't detailed in this post because I'm not even using them yet! I'm sure that as I get out there and start painting and sketching with it, I'll reorganize it a bit and shift some of these items into those other pockets.

If you think you'd like a Nomadic Wise-Walker too, you can find them at Jetpens in black, blue or gray. You can see lots more photos of the bag there as well.

Sketching Karen's Waterfalls

I've been painting and sketching the waterfalls on my own property lately, so when my friend Karen invited me to come and paint hers for a change, I jumped at the opportunity. My friend Gretchen came along too, and the three of us set up to paint beside this waterfall.

There's a reason why our town was nicknamed The Land of Falling Waters by the Indians. There's nowhere you can go in that town and not hear the sound of rushing water from a nearby waterfall, especially in spring. Much of the water that comes down from the Catskill Mountains passes through our town of rocky ledges, spilling over into waterfalls on its journey to the Hudson River.

As I often do when checking out a new location, I just packed some sketching materials. I didn't know how far we'd have to trek to the falls, or what spots would yield the most interesting compositions, or if there would be somewhere to set up an easel. I brought some ink pens and watercolors, and my Fabriano Venezia Journal that I'm working through. After doing the sketch above mostly in watercolor, I moved further upstream to take on a larger waterfall.

I did the one above with Private Reserve Black Velvet ink, then worked my lights and darks with a waterbrush, taking the wash color from the washable ink lines. After that, I added some watercolor.

I moved back near where I'd done the first sketch, and this time did a composition that included more of the foreground, with the waterfall peeking through between the trees below me.

I think I like this last composition best. I'd like to return to do an oil painting, as well as additional sketches of other waterfalls on the property.

Five Minute Portraits on a Prepared Background

You can click the image above to enlarge it.

Well, I have to say, this was really fun! I prepared a background using diluted Golden Fluid Acrylics. I wasn't sure how a fountain pen would respond to the prepared surface, but it worked quite well! In fact, the pen skipped less over the surface than it did before, and it washed with the waterbrush just fine. This is Noodler's Sequoia ink, sketched with a Platinum Preppy pen. I'm still setting the timer for five minutes.....

Scrambled Easter Eggs --- Mixing Inks

The Goulet Pen Company has an "Ink Drop" program where they send you five fountain pen ink samples at the beginning of each month. It's a lot of fun to experiment with the inks that seem to magically appear in my mailbox every four weeks or so. In April they sent out five unnamed vials of samples as an "Easter Egg Hunt", and we were supposed to try to guess what the inks were. Great fun.

Yesterday I was looking at these five samples and it occurred to me that they might provide an nice muted, dark color that would wash easily when mixed together. So, I put one eyedropper full of each color into a vial, shook it up, and loaded up my Lamy Safari fountain pen with the resulting mixture. To test drive the result, I used photo references from the Weekend Drawing Event on the Wetcanvas website, and gave myself just a couple of minutes for each sketch, to explore the properties of the ink.

I was really surprised and pleased by how much the colors separated with the waterbrush wash after I'd done the initial drawing. The initial color was a beautiful navy blue, but it washed into shades of blue, blue-green, and violet. If you click the drawing above and take a closer look, I think you'll be able to see it. I love it when these unexpected things happen! I'll definitely be using this mixture some more. I think it might work beautifully for some architectural drawings.

Sketchcrawl in Hudson NY

Click any image to enlarge.

Today I went sketching in Hudson, New York with artist friends Janice Filkins and Gretchen Kelly. The City of Hudson is an old Hudson River town with fabulous architecture. It's filled with restaurants, antique shops, galleries, and small stores. You could stand just about anywhere and find something to sketch or paint!

We started out at the Hudson Opera House. I brought my Stillman & Birn Beta Series sketchbook that I reviewed yesterday, along with ink pens and watercolors. The sketch above is the Hudson Opera House, done from across the street with Private Reserve Chocolat ink and a waterbrush.

From there, we walked a couple of blocks to the exquisite Hudson Courthouse. This was done with Private Reserve Velvet Black and a waterbrush. The foliage was just starting to bud and there were flowering trees all over the town.

From the walkway to the courthouse, you can turn in any direction and find a charming scene to sketch. I could have stayed right there all day! I turned to the left and painted this row of colorful buildings. After two monochrome sketches, I desperately needed a color fix, so after drawing with ink and brushing out some values, I broke out my Koi watercolor kit to add splashes of color.

I am loving this Beta sketchbook! I've always been partial to stitch-bound/hardcover books, but I'm finding different advantages to working in a spiral.

Stillman & Birn Beta Series Sketchbook Review

Above is a waterfall sketch that I did last night while test driving the Stillman & Birn Beta Series sketchbook. There are five different paper types in the S&B sketchbook lineup. I've been working with all of them, and as I accumulate enough knowledge about their performance, I'll post reviews here. Hopefully I'll be reviewing all five within the next few weeks.

Features of the Beta series are a heavy, bright white paper with some texture and excellent sizing. Although it is called "rough surface", I don't find it to be rough at all compared with the rough watercolor papers I've used. It weighs in at 180lb --- 270gsm. As you can see from the color brilliance in the sketch above, this paper really allows the color to sit up on top and show itself well. There is no show-through from one page to the next, and the paper doesn't buckle with my watercolor work.

I use fountain pens with various inks and waterbrushes in my sketchbooks too, so I put this book through its paces with my pens too.

Using a hard touch with the fountain pens sometimes resulted in the tip catching in the paper fibers, but with a light touch it was not at all a problem. You can see that the writing is not skipping, and the inks sit on top of the paper enough to wash beautifully with a waterbrush. The little watercolor test revealed the same brilliant color results  as on the sketch.

If you've lamented over the fact that watercolor sketchbooks are often only available in landscape format, you can now celebrate! These babies are available in 6x8, 7x10, and 9x12 portrait formats, plus a 7x7" square! For those who prefer stitch-bound books, that will be your only disappointment, as these are only available spiral bound. I'm one of those folks who definitely prefers a stitch-bound book, but this spiral series will end up converting me when I need the heavier paper.

Here's a link to a series of posts done using this sketchbook.

These sketchbooks are available at Utrecht Art Supplies and Wet Paint Art Supplies.

Rondo's Loyal, Royal Subjects --- International Fake Journal Month

Rondo's International Fake Journal, continued. Click image to enlarge. If you'd like to see the rest of Rondo's journal, click the "International Fake Journal" category in the left sidebar.

This entry was sketched first with a fountain pen filled with J. Herbin's Gris Nuage. You can see some of the remaining lines. They look just like light pencil. I love that ink! It's subtle and doesn't overpower the watercolor.

A Peek Inside My Sketching Bag

You can click on any images in this post to enlarge them.

Everybody always wants to know what's in my sketching bag, so I thought I'd take a post and open up the bag to show what materials go with me lately. This bag came with my Plein Air Pro easel. It's actually way too small for that. Although it just barely holds the easel, it cannot fit any of the supplies you need to go along with an easel --- like paint and water and mosquito repellent! Meanwhile, my sketching supplies were in need of a larger bag, so it was re-purposed to accommodate them, and the easel moved into a roomy backpack. This messenger-style bag fit the bill perfectly, with numerous pockets, a nice carry strap, and it's super lightweight.

 From the side, you can see that it has a zipper to expand/contract the entire back compartment. This is so convenient for when I want to lighten my load. I just remove a bunch of stuff and zip that up for a smaller bag, and I'm good to go anywhere.

With the front flap up, you can see all those great pockets for pens, pencils and brushes. The left hand pocket holds all my fountain pens. I've been experimenting with lots of different inks lately.

I spread out all the pens in this pocket to show you how I've been keeping track of what ink is in what pen while I'm test driving so many inks. My husband has a little label maker that's come in really handy, so I always know what I'm working with.

Most of these are Platinum Preppy fountain pens with a 05 nib. Some have been converted to eyedropper pens (as I explained on a previous post), others I'm refilling cartridges with, and I also use a couple with converters. They're very fast to write with and can easily keep up with my quick sketching. The three colored pens up front are Lamy Safari pens. I like that I can easily switch out nibs on these from extra fine to broad, and they write very smoothly.

 A separate pocket holds some mini misters for my watercolors, my beautiful Escoda sable travel brushes and a travel squirrel mop, a little brush thing for scrubbing from the pharmacy, and a correction pen. I see here that one of my Escoda brushes is missing. I probably put it in the wrong pocket and it will turn up somewhere....

The next couple of pockets hold my wonderful Kuretake brush pen, pencils, calligraphy pens, Uniballs, waterbrushes.....and OH! There's the missing Escoda travel brush, off cavorting with the calligraphy pens. :)

 

The middle section of the messenger bag is where I keep my sketchbooks and a foamcore board and clips. With a stitch-bound, hardcover sketchbook, I keep it open fully by placing the foamcore behind the open sketchbook, and clipping each side to the foamcore. There is no added weight to carry, and it's been a perfect solution to the deep gutter problem.

Now for that BIG back compartment....Let's take all that stuff out of there.

Inside you'll find:

• sun visor
• sun block
• bug repellent
• extra pair of sunglasses
• inexpensive reading glasses
• a couple of small watercolor sets
• date stamp and ink pad that I always stamp my sketches with
• pack of Pitt brush pens
• masking tape
• white-out
• small bottle of water
• pack of tissues (or cut up paper towel sheets clipped together, or both)
• palette cup that clips onto the watercolor set
• extra clips which are always needed for something
• masking tape
• white gouache
• sponge
• plastic ruler
• small plastic container with kneaded eraser inside. 

This is what the little black watercolor set in the photo looks like when it's opened up. The middle row is supposed to hold a travel brush, but I put extra half pans in there so I can carry more colors. This is my favorite set for sketching. When I use a waterbrush, I don't need to clip on the little palette cup. I set a piece of sponge into a full pan to clean the waterbrush as I go. I can just wring it out when it gets soaked. If I need a larger one, I use one of the clips to attache the extra sponge to the kit.

To the items shown above, I might add:

• A bottle of drinking water
• Car/house keys
• Cellphone
• Wallet
  
• Camera
• Binoculars (depending on where I'm going to sketch)
• Snack/Sandwich if I'll be out all day
• Pack stool with shoulder strap

Materials lists of course change over time. Sometimes I empty a lot of it and go with gouache, or colored pencils, or even acrylics to work with in my sketchbooks. Part of the joy of working in sketchbooks is multi-media experimentation.

I hope you enjoyed this browse through my sketching bag.

Rondo Goes to the Catskills

Here's Rondo at one of his favorite spots. We call this one "Mossy Falls" due to the abundance of beautifully colored moss that covers the rocks. There's a smaller waterfall that he likes to play in, but with all the rain we had over the weekend, there was way too much forceful water rushing over the rocks to let him do that. I was afraid he'd get swept away!

Winsor Newton and Holbein watercolors. Platinum Preppy pen with Whaleman's Sepia ink. (Lettering with a Pilot Parallel.)

Rondo is not a model

Rondo sleeps for long periods of time without batting an eyelash, but he hates to model for me. Dogs must have a sixth sense about knowing when somebody is staring at them. No sooner do I lift a pen than he gets up and changes position. The best I can get from life are quick gesture sketches. They were done on graph paper and glued into my journal.

These were done with Private Reserve Velvet Black ink in a Platinum Preppy pen, washed with a watercolor brush just a bit in shadow areas, then Koi watercolors surrounded the sketches.

Roz Waves to Rondo

Rondo's adventures continue during International Fake Journal Month. You can see the series by clicking here. The posts will appear in reverse order, from the most recent down to the first of the series. The explanation about IFJM appears in the bottom post.

The Treat Cabinet

 

When Rondo wants a snack, he tap dances on the laminate floor in the kitchen, next to the cabinet where we keep his treat. On rare occasions, we've forgotten to close that cabinet door, and he's helped himself to an entire bag of doggie junk food!

This sketch was done with Iroshizuku Yama-guri ink, in a Lamy Safari fountain pen with an "M" nib, and washed with a waterbrush.