#29 - One Year/100 Paintings - PIneapple - gouache and watercolor in Moleskine watercolor album. I was inspired to paint this pineapple by a photo I took at my sister's place in Florida, though I didn't paint it until returning to Hanover.
One Year/100 Paintings
#28 - One Year/100 Paintings - Perennial Plant - watercolor and gouache in Moleskine watercolor album. We went to visit my sister in Florida, and she had a vibrant orange perennial plant in her landscaped garden (she wasn't sure what it was called). I was drawn to the leaves on the plant, but I will say in my attempt to paint it in a more abstract manner, I have not achieved the vibrancy of the leaves in this painting.
One Year/100 Paintings
#24 - One Year/100 Paintings - Tugboat at the Baltimore Inner Harbor - Plein Air painting with Urban Sketchers Baltimore - gouache and watercolor in Moleskine watercolor album. This was the second painting of the day and though I do like the look of the painting, I feel that the tugboat appears to be sinking, much like the Titanic.
One Year/100 Paintings
#23 - One Year/100 Paintings - Plein Air painting with the Urban Sketchers Baltimore group using gouache and watercolor in a Moleskine landscape watercolor album. I'm very pleased with the impressionistic look of this painting though maybe the red ball in the water is a bit distracting. This was an absolutely beautiful day for painting, the weather was just cool enough for a light jacket and there was a breeze coming off of the water.
Pocket Watercolor Sketchbook - May 2015 - March 2016
I've completed two sketchbooks on my vacation - this is the Moleskine pocket watercolor sketchbook that I've been carrying around for the past year. I used a Sakura Koi pocket watercolor field kit for the sketches in the beginning of the journal, then switched over to a Winsor & Newton Watercolour Pocket Sketcher's Box. There are bits of other media thrown in here or there - Pigmamicron Pen, Uniball Vision Fine Pen, Platinum Carbon Fountain Pen, Watercolor Pencils, Uniball Signo White Pen, and Gelly Roll Pen.
Weekend Sketches
A few weekend sketches here, two pen and ink line doodles with the new Pentel Pocket Brush Pen that I picked up last week at Plaza Art in Baltimore. The third sketch is an entry in my Moleskine Watercolor Journal, made with Windsor & Newton Cotman Pocket Watercolor Sketcher's Box and Pigmamicron pen. I've been on a quest of sorts to find the perfect pen and ink brush pen, I've tried several. I've tried the Pilot Pocket Brush Pen, both hard and soft versions, both producing very nice thick and thin strokes, with the soft one producing thicker and heavier lines than the hard one. I also ordered the Tombow Hard and Soft Fude Brush Pens, these are ok, but I like them the least of the brush pens that I've tried. I have used the Pentel Fude Brush Pen for a number of sketches and find I can control the thin and thick lines I get with this brush pen very well. It is a a little larger in the hand than the other brush pens, feeling a bit more the size of a brush than pen as the other ones do. The line art sketches above were made with the smaller Pentel Pocket Brush Pen with available cartridge refills. This pen is more expensive than the Pentel Fude Brush Pen but has the capability to be refilled with ink cartridges as the Pentel Fude Brush Pen does not.
The third watercolor sketch continues my fascination with drawing skulls, but we all know that I love skulls, skeletons and anatomy and have a small collection of anatomy models, some of which I've assembled and painted myself. This skull was a yard sale find and features green glowing light-up eyes in a skull head made of a foam like material.
Argus C3
The Argus C3, the camera I'm currently carrying in my bag and shooting with. I bought this camera from ebay and it seems to be in working order. I've loaded it with Kentmere 100 that I'll develop in Kodak D-76. Watercolor painting created with Sakura Koi Watercolor Pocket Field Kit using Niji waterbrush in my Moleskine watercolor journal.
Lunch Time Watercolor Sketch
Today's sketch was completed during my lunch break using my Sakura Koi Pocket Water Colors and Niji Waterbrush. The little Koi waterbrush that fits inside the pocket water color box is pretty nifty to have in a pinch, but I prefer the Niji Waterbrush. The bristles seem to hold their shape a little better than the Koi. I'm using the small tip Niji Waterbrush, but I'm planning to get the other sizes in the line to have a little more variety. Last night, I picked up another pocket watercolor kit to try out, the Windsor & Newton Cotman Water Colour Sketcher's Box. This one is just a bit smaller than the Koi and includes a nice little brush in a metal case. I'll be trying that one out later this week. Today's sketch is from a photo of my front porch that I originally had planned to paint from life, but Sunday got away from me before I knew it.
Today's Sketch
I haven't been sketching that much this week as I caught an extreme case of poison something on my arms while working in my yard last week. A trip to the doctor for some Prednisone and being back at work after a two week vacation pretty much wiped me out every evening. Today's sketch is from a photo I took out at Natural Bridge, Virginia. Pigma Micron pen, pocket watercolor field sketch box, and waterbrush in Moleskine watercolor journal.