Sketching from the Window

Today I did a monochrome tree sketch in acrylic, using the 14x22" spread provided by my Stillman & Birn 11x14" Alpha sketchbook. While I feel I could have worked on this much longer, I met my goals with it and also ran out of time. Sometimes I need to remind myself that I don't have to treat a sketch as if it's a finished painting! I have so many "sketches" in my books that I later wished I'd done on canvas or a piece of paper not bound into a book.

I use the Golden Heavy Body Neutral Gray acrylics when I do these. I keep them in a plastic container that has a waterproof seal. They last for years this way. I just add more paint as I run low. Having the values premixed means I don't need a palette, and I also don't need to spend time mixing.  I can just dip in and paint. The heavy bodied paints dry so fast that I can close the sketchbook pretty soon after I finish. The book is clipped to an 18x24" board, so it stays open easily. I rest the top on the window sill and the bottom on my lap as I paint. It's a very comfortable way to work if you have a really deep window ledge!

I don't do any pencil drawing when I work this way. I sketch in a few lines with light, diluted paint --- just enough to know where my basic forms will lie. Then I start blocking in the large shapes, initially working back to front, and then back and forth pushing layers and adding details as needed. I'll likely do some journaling on the left side of the page that I left blank. The S&B Alpha paper is so strong that there is no problem with painting acrylics on both sides of a page.

Palette Perceptions

I'm continuing with some palette ideas I started last winter and spring. You can see a couple more of them in this post from May. I'm interested in exploring how our perception of a scene changes with a warm or a cool palette, and the way a limited color range serves to harmonize a painting. This study was done 11x17" across a two page spread in a 8.5x11" Stillman and Birn Epsilon Hardbound sketchbook. I know it's not designed for wet media, but it works great. Their books will open completely flat if you break them in before you start using them, which makes it ideal for working across the spread. I used the new Golden High Flow acrylics, and just a bit of water instead of medium. I'm trying to arrange a setup that's easy to work with in the field at the same time, and hope to test drive that out on location tomorrow. I used six colors for this one. I'm very close to being happy with the selections, but I'm going to make a couple of palette changes today and try again.

Importance of Composition and Color Studies en Plein Air

I don't always do compositional sketches before embarking on a painting. When working out on location, the time to paint is always too short as it is. However, sometimes there are many elements we plan to move around or change. The sketches above are about 4.5x6", done in my Stillman & Birn hardbound sketchbook. The top one is acrylic over a pencil sketch, and the bottom one is watercolor over pencil.

In the top sketch, there was actually no pathway at all going into the field. I felt the scene needed a way to draw the viewer into the composition. I did the sketch in pencil to test drive my ideas. After setting up to paint applying some color over my pencil sketch gave me a chance to try out some color mixes too. When I stepped in to do the actual painting (in acrylic), which was 15x20, I'd resolved many potential problems before I even lifted my brush. This is the finished painting, which will be going up on my Hudson Valley Painter blog soon.

Based on the sketch I'd done, I made further changes when doing the painting. The sketch gave me a chance to consider more options.

The sketch of Croton Gorge Dam was done because the scene was so complex. I wasn't planning to make changes as much as I was trying to wrap my head around what would go where in the confusing mass of shapes, textures and perspective. It took three sketches before I had something I felt I could work with. The first two failures made me extremely grateful that I hadn't just jumped in on my 16x20" painting. Once I did this third sketch of the gorge, waterfall, dam, and bridge, I took out my watercolors and splashed some color on just to get a better idea of what it would look like. I felt I finally had a good working design, and broke out the larger panel for my painting and my acrylics.

This one still needs a few studio tweaks, but I don't think I could have captured this scene effectively if I hadn't taken the time to do the sketches. In this case, the sketches were more complicated and took a lot more time than usual. That proved to me how much I needed to do them, and how far off the mark my painting would have been if I'd neglected that step. It would have ended up as poorly designed as my first sketch of the day (which was so bad that I actually erased it even though it was in my sketchbook!)

The moral of my story to myself is that sometimes it is well worth the time and effort to Sketch Before You Paint. It's the artist's equivalent to Think Before You Speak, and Look Before You Leap!

A Day at the Farm

 

11x17" (across the spread) in a Stillman & Birn Zeta Sketchbook

Background monoprinted in several layers with a Gelli Printing Plate

and Golden Fluid and Iridescent Acrylics and Glazing Liquid

Sketches done with a Faber-Castell Pitt Calligraphy Pen

My plein air group went to Green Chimneys today, which is a residential facility for children. Their philosophy is that children benefit greatly from caring for and interacting with animals. They have a wonderful farm on the campus. Many of the animals here have been rescued and are in the rehabilitation process, not so unlike the children that reside here.

It was over 90 degrees today, and you'd never know we were into September. Due to the heat and my love of the animals, I decided to spend the few hours there sketching instead of working on a single painting. Of course the animals were in constant motion, so the sketches were gestures, done as they moved about. The sketch above (which you can click on to enlarge it), was actually the last one of the day. It was done across a two page spread of an 8.5x11" Stillman and Birn Zeta hardbound book, which gave me a full 11x17" work area. This is extremely heavyweight paper (180lb) and is fabulous for multi-media work. I've been using a large Gelli Printing Plate to print textured layers of color across the pages. I've done it in both Zeta and Epsilon books. I love having a toned, textured ground to sketch against, especially when working in monochrome. I sketched with a Faber Castell Pitt Calligraphy Pen. I wished I'd brought a bunch of Pitt Brush Pens with me, but alas, I did not.

Above is a two page spread in a smaller Zeta book, without a toned ground. The book is 5.5x8.5", which gives me a letter-size space when working across the spread. When we first arrived at the location, we gathered near a small pond filled with several different types of ducks, geese, and some beautiful swans. They were all highly entertaining! I started out with the little watercolor thumbnail sketch of the pond scene, then did some gesture sketches of the geese and swans, using the same Walnut Brown Calligraphy Pen, and a little watercolor.

I got tired of the brown and wanted to work with a brush, so for the sketch above, I pulled out a Pentel Aquash Grey (or maybe Light Black?) brush pen, plus my Kuretake brush pen, which was filled with Platinum Carbon Black ink. I added orange gouache for the beaks and cerulean blue watercolor for the shadows. I liked these two gestures. The goose on the left kept ducking his head down into the water to drink, then would raise it way up. Every time he stretched his neck and head up, I put in a few more lines!

11x17" across the spread, Stillman & Birn Zeta Hardbound book

Golden Fluid Acrylics background, printed with a Gelli Plate

Sketch done with Golden High Flow Acrylics

My friend Bea called me over to the other side of the pond to witness some swan antics. One kept swimming back and forth in front of me. I found this page that I'd printed using paper doilies on the printing plate to keep some clear areas, and decided to put the swans there. I worked on several views at once, changing from one to the other as he changed direction, swimming around in a circle. I mixed a violet out of some of the new Golden High Flow Acrylics, using Ultramarine Blue and Quinacridone Red, and did the sketches directly with a watercolor brush. The orange is Pyrrole Orange, a color I am becoming quite addicted to!

Just Splashing Around

Every once in awhile, we need to just throw paint. That's what I was in the mood for when I did these two acrylic sketches! They were done from life, from potted plants in my studio. I let the paint spatter and drip, painted into it, made some drips, and just kept doing that until I had enough! This two page spread is about 14x10" in my homemade blue Pescia journal. It was painted with the same Golden Airbrush paints described in my previous post, as well as some Golden Fluid Acrylics for a bit more body to the paint.

I still have two blank pages to fill in this journal. I think my "Kinda Blue" theme played itself out. I was ready to be cheerful by the time I got to the paint-slinging phase here! I will definitely finish it up though as soon as the desire to sketch on something blue surfaces.

Thank you for following along through this journal. This week I'll be posting my review of the new Golden High Flow acrylics.

Three Page Hudson River Vista

This is a 10x22" spread across three pages in my blue Pescia journal. You can click on it to enlarge the image. (Here is a link to how I made this fabulous 16-page journal from a single sheet, in case you missed it.) It's a scene from Dennings Point Park facing downriver through the Hudson Highlands, with Bannerman Island showing on the right side, just in front of the mountains. I had been wanting to paint this for so long, and will probably do a larger version to frame and hang in the near future.

This painting was done with traditional brushes, but I used the Golden Airbrush paints to do it. That line of acrylic paints has been reformulated, and has just hit the market as the new Golden High Flow line. I ordered some as soon as they became available, and was delighted to see the color range expanded to include some colors that I sorely missed in the Airbrush line. I have the new paints here now, and will be posting a review of them next week.

A Three Page Spread of Collage

This three page spread is about 10x22". I didn't take photos of the individual pages, but you can click the image to get a much wider, clearer view of it. It was done around Valentine's Day, hence the hearts on the left. Those started out as red paper heart doilies. I cut out parts of them, painted them with blue acyrlic, and decorated with a gold leafing pen. The paper snowflake on the right was cut out from blue patterned origami paper, which I then added to with gold paint. It was a memory of Sandy Hook and all the paper snowflakes that I made to send there. In the center of the three page spread is a poem about snowflakes by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. I copied it over and then painted over it with some glittery Mod Podge stuff, just to see what it would look like since I'd never used it. I kind of like it! I'm thinking I might paint over the cover of this sketchbook with it, since it's a polymer that would also protect the book.

This is the blue Pescia, 16-page journal that I discussed in yesterday's post.

Sketching Boats with a Figure 8

I often practice sketching items from photos that I have to be able to pop into plein air paintings quickly. This includes figures, boats, bicycles, cars, trees, rocks, etc. One rainy day, I decided to do some boat sketching. I first searched YouTube for any new tips on sketching boats, and came across this interesting video on how to make boats from a figure 8.

I pulled out my S&B Zeta Hardbound sketchbook and selected this page spread, which I'd monoprinted in several layers across the spread. (You can click here to go to the post where I explained how I did this.)

I started the page spread by experimenting with the figure 8 boats in the video, facing them in different directions. I tried them slightly larger and slightly smaller, varying the sizes and widths of the loops to find what would work best. What I found was that the figure 8 boat sketches are fun and kind of interesting. But it wasn't long before I saw that it only gave me a certain amount of perspective variation and boat angles, and applies to very few cases of actual boats I'd be painting. However, it did give me a feel for roundness and overall shape that I found useful. Once I'd gained what I found to be helpful from the video, I did some larger boat sketches from photos that encompassed other angles and drawing approaches. I'll probably add a few more to this page spread the next time I want to practice sketching boats.

Monoprinting in a Sketchbook Part 2 --- Plein Air Monotypes

11x14" Monotype print across the two page spread

of an 8.5x11" Stillman & Birn Zeta hardbound sketchbook

After spending some time doing the prepared backgrounds in my sketchbook with the Gelli Printing Plate, which I showed in Part I, it was time to explore more painterly monotype prints. After a few rainy days, a gorgeous day finally arrived, and I was too exhausted to head out to paint on location somewhere. I wanted to stay home. I brought all my gear out to the patio for an afternoon of plein air monoprinting. I was excited about trying this across the two page spread of my sketchbook, like I'd done the backgrounds. As you can see, it worked out fabulously well and printed right up to the gutter on both sides. As I stated in Part I of this monoprinting series, it would be ever so much better if they would make the plate size 11x17, rather than 12x14!

I set out a folding table and covered our patio table, and prepared for an afternoon of relaxed image-making. 

One of the tricky things about monotype prints is that when you paint on the plate, you need to create your image in reverse. The image will flip when you press your print. (This is especially important if you are creating text!) This was all so new to me, and I had a hard enough time wrapping my head around the whole technique of getting the paint onto the plate in a way that would transfer well. I decided not to worry about the reverse images for now, and allowed my landscape to reverse itself when I pressed the prints.

For these monotypes where I painted with brushes on the plate, I used Golden Open Acrylics. I had tried it the day before with the traditional Fluid acrylics and found that even though the fluids worked well for me when doing the textured backgrounds, they didn't give me enough working time for painting with brushes. Monotype printing is a somewhat subtractive process, so you need to not only be able to put paint down, but also to lift it off to reveal the white of the paper when the print is made. You need to think like a watercolor painter in getting lights down and working transparently, and like an oil painter in layering and removing color. It certainly keeps you thinking!

Later in the day, I moved over to the other side of the patio so I could take advantage of the view off the other side. I didn't like this one as much as the other, but I learned a tremendous amount from both of them, and look forward to further exploration of the monotype process. Generally speaking, it would be hard to do this plein air when traveling to locations, but definitely not impossible if you use a smaller Gelli plate and work in a smaller size. (You can see the wheels in my brain turning, can't you?)

Are you intrigued? Well, then definitely give these Gelli Printing Plates a try! They're inexpensive and a lot of fun. They give interesting effects and force you to think outside of the box --- always a good thing! If you have Stillman & Birn sketchbooks, you can take full advantage of their ability to open flat so you can print across the spread. Creating a sketchbook of monoprints is an exciting endeavor!

Monoprinting in a Sketchbook Part I

There's been a lot of buzz out there lately about the new Gelli Printing Plates, which enable artists to use traditional acrylics to create monoprints inexpensively, and without a press. I had to get on board that train! I ordered the largest size available, which is 12x14". As soon as it arrived, I dove in. My goals were to create textured backgrounds for artwork using monoprinting techniques, as well as traditional painting on the plate to directly monoprint a work of art.

I spent a couple of days creating all sorts of effects and exploring techniques. I used brayers, squeegees, textured surfaces of all kinds, stiff and soft paintbrushes, fingers, paper towels, Q tips, color shapers, put on paint and pulled out paint. I worked multiple layers on many different types of papers, and well as single-layer, brush-painted monoprints on good printing paper. I used fluid acrylics, Golden Open acrylics, and assorted mediums. I tried some interference paints, iridescent paints, and sprayers. Here are some of my more interesting results. (Believe me, with all that experimentation, there was a lot that wasn't worth sharing!)

I've always loved sketching on a prepared ground. I often pre-toned my sketchbook pages, or layered on textures using assorted tools. I've seen many YouTube videos where artists monoprinted the full sheets of paper, then  made sketchbooks out of it to get the prepared grounds. Other videos and blog posts showed printing in a hardbound book, using one side of a page at a time. The problem with either of those methods is that the left and right sides are from different prints, so they don't match. I almost always work across the spread in my hardbound sketchbooks, so that approach was not going to work for me.

Stillman and Birn to the rescue! Because their hardbound sketchbooks are designed to open flat, I thought they might enable me to print right across the spread. I opened up the book and pressed it flat down against the printing plate. And guess what. It works! Furthermore, since I was printing the background and not painting it, I didn't have problems of paint running into the gutter of the book and discoloring other pages.

Above is an 11x17" page spread of an 8.5x11" Stillman and Birn hardbound Zeta book. (It's about four layers of prints.) These new smooth surface books with heavyweight paper are ideal for monoprinting. Who knew! These will be fabulous backgrounds to paint and sketch on now.

The Gelli plate yields a great ghost image too, so it's worthwhile to have paper ready to take the second image. I decided to see if the lighter weight Epsilon books would also print well. I broke one in to be sure the spreads would lie flat enough, and started alternating between the books. That way I could get the most from my colors and textures. Below is the Epsilon spread with the second printings of some of the colors. (I don't know why it's showing sideways, but if you click the image it will right itself and enlarge.)

Below is one of my personal favorites. It was done as two printings --- the first with diluted Cerulean Blue, and then a layer of Transparent Red Oxide mixed with a little Iridescent Copper. It has a very subtle sheen, which is not visible in the digital image.

This one also has iridescent paint, and a few layers:

I'm looking forward to working on these prepared pages soon!

Why the Gelli Printing Plates are made in sizes 6x6", 8x10" and 12x14", I'll probably never know. Paper is sized 8.5x11, 8.5x17, and 11x17, or in the fine art full size sheets of 22x30 (which quarters to 11x15, and 1/8 would be 7.5x11). Therefore, the Gelli Plate sizes do not allow full use of plate nor paper. This is why there are side stripes on some of these page spreads that I printed. I tried to make the best of it. I kind of like them, and I can use them for writing text. For some of the page spreads I printed all the way to one edge, allowing the print to overlap the gutter and leave me with about 3" of unprinted space on the opposite side. Then I could either print that space separately and use it as another graphic block, or I could use it for text to accompany whatever artwork I ended up doing across the spread. I didn't take photos of those yet, so I suppose those will make their debut once the artwork is done over the top of the backgrounds and they become finished pages. However, I wish I had the option of printing across the full two sketchbook pages, and I also wish the plate would accommodate the standard 1/4 sheet size of 11x15 when I use rag paper. The awkward 12x14 plate size misses the mark on both.

Click here to go to Part 2.

The Golden Video Library

Today, I'm not bringing you a sketch. Instead, I'd like to direct your attention to the Golden Video Library. I'm always surprised by how few artists know about this fabulous resource that the Golden Paint Company has created. I am often asked by friends and blog visitors how to apply an isolation coat or varnish, or what the best way is to prepare painting surfaces, or characteristics of specific mediums. These videos explain and demonstrate these things and more, far better than I can! Do yourself a favor and take some time to explore the video offerings they've posted on their website. It may give you ideas for new things to try, ways to use materials you may already have, or better ways to achieve your painting goals. Golden also has a YouTube channel, but I like going to the library on their website because all the videos show on the page together. Enjoy!

Best of the Year, Part I

Happy 2013 to all my viewers! I'd like to start off the new year by sharing my favorite discoveries and new products of the past year. Some are new to the market, while others are things I'd just not explored before and hope to work with more in the year to come. I hope that some of you will enjoy using them too.

Today's post is about my favorite pigment of 2012: PR206. It is actually a Quinacridone red, but looks more earthy than many of the Quins. This pigment gives me a warm red, transparent earth color. It can easily be mixed with earthy yellows to yield the equivalent of a transparent red oxide. When mixed with ultramarine blue, it creates a dark, muted violet. I started using this color in my watercolor palette after taking a class with David Taylor. It became such a staple in my palette that I searched for the same pigment in oils and acrylics. The past few years have found me working transparently a lot more in both oils and acrylics, so this pigment was a natural fit --- especially for underpainting and glazing. I did several paintings using it as my only red. The pigment goes by many different names, so you need to look carefully for the pigment number, which is PR206.

Here are a few manufacturers that make it for different mediums.

Watercolor
Daniel Smith --- Quinacridone Burnt Scarlet
Winsor Newton --- Brown Madder

Oils
Maimeri Puro --- Avignon Orange
Daniel Smith --- Quinacridone Burnt Scarlet

Acrylics
Golden Fluid --- Quinacridone Burnt Orange
Golden Heavy Body --- Quinacridone Burnt Orange
Golden OPEN --- Quinacridone Burnt Orange

Click here to see Best of the Year, Part II.

Design Sketches for Palisade Memories

Click image for a larger, clearer view

Watercolor and acrylic on paper

(9x12" Stillman & Birn Beta Wirebound sketchbook)

This sheet of sketches was done to work out the major issues for an 8x16" painting of the Hudson River and Palisades. When I'm out painting on location, I don't usually have the time to plan to this degree. In my studio, however, time is on my side. I'm not having to drive long distances to locations and then try to make time stand still while the sun races across the sky and shadows change. Going through these planning stages yields a better painting in terms of composition, color, and overall design.

I began with the four tiny thumbnail sketches at the bottom of the page. Each is 1x2". I did them with black ink and a fountain pen, trying different places for the horizon, and scoping out where I wanted the boats to go. I sketched in a barge and tug for these thumbnails, but in doing so, I decided they detracted too much from the Palisades, which I wanted to keep as the main point of interest. When I went to do the larger study, I put in a small fleet of sailboats instead. They provide interest and break up the horizon line without stealing the show. Once I finished deciding what would go where, I pulled out some watercolors and played with color on the thumbnails. Then I did the larger study in acrylic, which would also be my medium for the finished painting.

Although I'd gone through all these stages, I still wasn't completely satisfied. I decided that when it came time to do the final painting, I'd shorten the foreground space so that the water and cliffs wouldn't mirror each other as much. I also wanted to scale back the tree on the left, so that it would break the horizon line, but not extend beyond the upper edge of the cliffs. You can click here to see the finished painting I did, based on this series of sketches.

Four Design Studies

Design Studies 3-6

Acrylics in a 9x12" Stillman & Birn Beta Wirebound Sketchbook

I'm going back to basics for awhile to revamp some things about my painting process. I've noticed some bad habits creeping into my paintings, and I'm really excited about correcting them and moving forward to make more of an artistic statement in my work. In order to accomplish these goals, I've dedicated this Stillman & Birn 9x12" wirebound sketchbook to the process, though I might do some of them on other supports too. This paper holds up really well to anything I throw at it, so here goes!

I'm planning to do at least one of these studies a day --- sometimes a full page, and sometimes just a portion of a page --- in addition to my regular paintings. Yesterday, I taped up a couple of pages into quarters so that I could do more of them faster. I'll do some of them in monochrome, but most in color. I may test drive different palettes too. The emphasis will be on design, and experimenting with how value, color, and composition work together in creating a painting that impacts the viewer.

These four studies were done with acrylics, using just Naphthol Crimson, Cadmium Yellow Light, Ultramarine Blue, Titanium White, and Carbon Black. I reverted to a red-yellow-blue simple palette in the interest of keeping my color clean and simplifying the process. (I usually do not use any Naphthol reds, but it's what I happened to have on hand, and whadaya know..... It worked!) I'm using acrylics because it dries quickly, doesn't lift, is opaque, and can be painted on paper. I'll probably do some of them in gouache and other water based mediums too, depending on what is convenient at the time.

In contrast to much of my work over the past few years, which builds on transparent layers, I am planning to work more directly with opaque paint on these. I'll work from life when I can, but I'll also work from photos. The two on the top of this page were done yesterday at the Eleanor Roosevelt National Historic Site in Hyde Park, New York. The bottom two were painted today from photos. The study on the bottom left was done from a photo taken during my recent Adirondack trip. The lower right is from a photo taken at my property in the Catskills.

I started out this series working the full 9x12 pages, but after the first two, I saw problems which would be more quickly resolved by working smaller and faster, and then bumping the size back up again once I've worked through the issues that I'm seeing. I'll do at least a few more quartered pages before I go larger again with these.

Hunter Mountain Fire Tower

Stillman & Birn 5.5x8.5" hardbound Beta sketchbook

Watercolors

Lamy Safari with EF nib and Noodler's Luxury Blue

Pitt Big Brush Pen (for page border only)

Text:
We took the easier route to the fire tower by riding the chair lift up to the Colonel's Chair, and then hiking the two miles uphill to the tower from there. The views from the tower were spectacular, though beter for experiencing than for painting. We were grateful for having made the decision to bring sweatshirts along! They were certainly needed on the chair lift ride up in the morning, as well as up on the tower, where the wind was brisk and chilly.

Once back down on firm ground, we sat on some rocks by the ranger's cabin and had peanut butter sandwiches, and I pulled out my paints to sketch the scene. The top of the tower was blocked off. We couldn't figure out why they would do that, but perhaps they were trying to discourage people from spending the night up there or making a mess.

As usual, the trip down was a lot easier than it was going up!

Helderberg Escarpment at Thacher Park

Golden Airbrush Paints

(painted with a regular synthetic brush)

Stillman & Birn Beta Hardbound Sketchbook

This sketch was done from one of the overlooks from the Helderberg Escarpment at Thacher Park. It's truly an amazing place, with a path along the escarpment's edge that runs for about two miles. There are many cleared vistas along the way, complete with rock outcroppings, beautiful foreground foliage, and views that span several states. 

I love painting with these Golden Airbrush Paints. They are very versatile, but a bit cumbersome to travel with. I have some ideas brewing to make cleanup on location go a bit smoother and faster. 

Siuslaw Forest Preserve -- Golden Airbrush Acrylics and Silverpoint Ground

Golden Airbrush Acrylics

Golden Silverpoint Ground

Stillman & Birn 8.5x11" Beta 180lb Hardbound sketchbook

I've still got so many August sketches to post. My vacation is now over, and although I didn't get any oil paintings done in my wanderings with my husband, I did take a sketchbook and some sort of paints/pens everywhere with me. Now I need to start photographing the more recent ones, which have been patiently waiting for my new camera to arrive. I got a Samsung NX1000 while on my break time. That was a good time to get a new camera, since I had some down time to actually go out and take photos and get through a chunk of the manual. I'm hoping it will result in improved accuracy, better color, and crisper detail in reproducing my sketches and paintings.

Golden Airbrush Paints and Silverpoint Ground --- Who knew!

Golden Airbrush Acrylics on Silverpoint Ground
8.5x11 across a two page spread in a Stillman & Birn Beta (180 lb) hardbound sketchbook

A few weeks ago I went to the Golden Artist Colors factory for the day. In addition to other things, I was able to spend a few hours with tech staff to discuss some things I've been trying to achieve with acrylic paints, and possible alternative solutions to my mission. One of the things I was able to play with that day were the Golden Airbrush Paints and Silverpoint Ground. When one thinks of painting with brushes, Golden Airbrush Paints are not what come to mind! (Neither does painting on Silverpoint Ground, or using Silverpoint Ground to reclaim whites in a painting.)

Well, I was smitten with the possibilities of these paints! First of all, they are very highly pigmented, yet already in an ink-like consistency. This gives me an ideal solution to achieve watercolor-like pigmentation without the pigment disappearing on me. Furthermore, the Airbrush Paints have something that the Golden Fluids do not: retarder! Yep, the retarder is already added to the paint, so it stays workable longer on the paper, and can be lifted before it sets if you work quickly.

The down side to working with these has been finding an easy way to use them on location while out hiking. I've been experimenting with a few different ideas as I've carted them around. This sketch of Kaaterskill Falls was done on location in about 40 minutes. The pages were prepared in advance with Golden Silverpoint Ground. I applied two coats, drying with a hair dryer in between. The idea was that by sealing the surface, it would be easier for me to make use of the lifting capabilities of the Airbrush Paints. On location, I coated the entire sketch area with Transparent Red Oxide mixed with some Airbrush Medium. Then I used a piece of paper towel, sometimes dipped in water, to pull out my lights, as if I were doing an underpainting in oils. I continued to work transparently for awhile, adding darks and pulling out lights, then used more opaque paint toward the end. I used a little Silverpoint Ground for some highlights and light, opaque color mixtures. It has a very heavy Titanium Dioxide content and worked great! I'd put about 5ml into a small empty vial from an ink sample.

Transporting paints in a watery consistency has issues for sure. For one thing, I can't use the same palette that I can for oils or acrylics, nor any flat or disposable palette, for that matter. I ended up using two small, rectangular watercolor palettes that I taped together on one end so it could fold in half. I put velcro on the outside to affix it to my lap board with the sketchbook. That's worked out pretty well so far. I bring several of the small airbrush bottles of color with me, and pour them into the palette on location. Cleanup is a serious mess, and remains the biggest problem for me to resolve when out on location.

Here's a photo of the scene with my sketch. Unfortunately the sketch was in shadow and the scene in light, so it's a bit hard to see the sketch.

Summertime at the Beach

11x17" across a two page spread of a Stillman & Birn Beta Hardbound sketchbook

Golden Fluid Acrylics

I think this is one of the busiest summers I've ever had. In addition to lots of painting and taking a one week workshop, I've been having such a great time with my husband while he's been on vacation that it's been hard for me to keep up with photographing images and writing posts. I've been sketching like a madwoman, so I've got a lot of catching up to do!

This was sketched on location at North Lake Beach while out painting with my friend Nancy. Sometimes I just don't want the pressure of feeling like I need to turn out a "finished painting", so I relax and play in my sketchbook. This was one of those occasions when in spite of wanting to work larger, I knew I wouldn't have time to complete a large painting. I couldn't stand the thought of yet another large, unfinished painting hanging around in my studio, and I didn't want to work small. It was just what the doctor ordered for this summer day by the water. I'm liking this scene a lot and will probably go back and do a painting from here sometime soon.

I'm loving working in these Stillman & Birn Beta Hardbound sketchbooks. The 180 pound paper doesn't buckle at all, and it's possible to experiment with all sorts of grounds and surface preparation, as well as any medium. I have an 8.5x11", and also recently started a 5.5x8.5" version for when I'm out hiking and can't carry such a large book with me.

Sketching the Pinta in Acrylics

11x17" across a two page spread in a prototype Stillman & Birn Beta hardbound book

Golden Fluid Acrylics

Writing done with Pitt Big Brush Pen

Image can be clicked to enlarge it

It's so much fun to have these large pages that open flat to be able to spread out and sketch across a large expanse of paper. Since I have this extra heavyweight (180lb.) prototype book, I've been doing some sketches in acrylic too. Why be limited?!

The Nina and Pinta replica ships docked in Newburgh, and a number of us from Lower Hudson Valley Plein Air Painters went to sketch them. To our dismay, they were way out on a private marina dock, almost completely blocked from view by yachts in front of them. A restaurant next to the marina, Bill Joe's Ribworks, came to our rescue and allowed us to paint and sketch from their beautiful property, which had a perfect view of the Pinta. Bonus: We all treated ourselves to a fabulous lunch there! Be sure to check it out if you ever find yourself along the Hudson Riverfront in Newburgh.

When I closed the book, the paint in the gutter of the book was still a little damp, which is why it stuck together a bit as you can see in the center of the sketch. This book is really amazing for multi-media work and wet washes. It doesn't move at all!