Funky Skeleton Drawings

We all know that I have a fascination with skeletal anatomy, though I'm not entirely familiar with all the names of the different bones. I'm especially fond of sketching skulls, mostly with an ink brush style pen such as the Pentel Pocket Brush Pen. I love the varying line widths that I can get with the brush pen. After completing a rough pencil sketch of the skeleton idea I have, I like to ink it in with the brush pen and then add color and texture to the drawing with watercolor pencil and Faber Castell Pitt Artist Brush Pens. I'm also quite fond of the of the waterproof Pitt Artist Pens with their bright colors and lightfastness. I'm thinking that I want to continue these goofy skeletal drawings and perhaps create a skeletal character that might be used on t-shirts, mugs, and such.

Camera and Film Prize

A couple of weeks ago, Brenda and I attended the 8mm movie screening of "The Basement" at Midtown Cinema in Harrisburg, PA sponsored by Film Photography Project. The Film Photography Project is my favorite podcast to listen to while commuting to my job in Baltimore. I listen to several other film photography and camera related podcasts, but this is the one that brought my love of collecting old box cameras and shooting and developing my own film together. I have been collecting old cameras, mostly Kodak Brownie type box cameras, since I purchased my first antique camera and a box of junk for $2.00 at a fire department auction back in 1989. The mirror was broken in the Spartus Full-Vue faux TLR film camera, but I took it apart and had a small mirror cut to replace the old one. My then mother-in-law bought me a roll of film to try it out and then I put the camera on the shelf and started my collection of vintage cameras. Several years ago I was intrigued when I saw a video on using Fuji peel-apart film in old Polaroid Pack cameras. I was amazed that film was still being made for these cameras and then I remembered that I had a Polaroid One Step in my studio closet. A search for Polaroid cameras on Youtube turned up a whole slew of videos by Film Photography Project and I proceeded to watch every one of them. Seeing that film was still being made for most of the cameras in my collection, I started a quest to shoot a roll of film in each one of my working cameras, now numbering over 100. So after finding the Film Photography Podcast several years ago on Itunes and listening to the entire back catalog and also keeping up with the current episodes, I was excited that I could meet the hosts from the show at the movie screening in Harrisburg. "The Basement" was a fun movie to watch and Brenda won an awesome Nikon N50 SLR with a Sigma 28-200mm zoom lens and I scored some free film (you might say that I won the camera, as Brenda has since given it to me). The next day I took the Nikon around town loaded with a roll of Svema 125 color film from the prize pack, then developed the film later that evening. I used the auto settings on the camera and plan to give it another test this weekend down in Washington, D.C. when we go to visit my son. A few samples from the Svema roll are shown here.

Urban Sketching

This week, I've gone on a couple of sketching outings to get more practice at loosening up my drawings. As I've been participating in Inktober this month, I find that my pen and ink drawings are much tighter than I'd like them to be. I would like to loosen up a bit, so I've been watching videos and reading about urban sketching, which is very similar to the mini-watercolor paintings I've been making in my pocket watercolor journal. I've been making photographs of the scenes that I want to paint as I've seen them on my outings around town, but I want to try to get out there and create on the spot pen and ink and watercolor drawings. This is going to get more difficult as fall and winter approaches, leaving less time in the evenings to get out there and sketch. I also still have my film photography hobby, but again it's getting more difficult to get out there and shoot. I've been trying to combine the two hobbies, which even my manic bipolar personality is overwhelmed with. But here, are a few of the sketches I made this week, with a walk around Hanover's Mt. Olivet Cemetery last weekend, and a lunchtime trip to the Walters Art Museum this week.

InkTober 2015

I'm a little late with this post, but I'll be participating in InkTober for the second time this year. Last year I was completely unprepared, not knowing what it was until scrolling through my instagram feed at 11:30 pm on the first day. I quickly sketched out something and posted it before midnight. Inktober is a month long daily drawing challenge using pen and ink in its various forms, with your daily drawings then being posted on social media. This year, I've prepared my folder of ideas and decided on a weekly theme of subjects for the month. This week's theme is "Cameras from my collection." Check in with me daily on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter to see the daily pen and ink drawing.

Maryland Steam Show with Two Classic Cameras

Brenda and I went out the Maryland Steam Show in Arcadia, Maryland on Saturday to see the wonderful old steam engines and browse the flea market for halloween costume parts. I love to watch the antique steam engines being driven around the grounds of the show, it reminds of the times I went to the show when I was a kid. I brought along my thirty-plus year old Pentax K1000 loaded with Arista 400 film to try out. I'm planning to develop some prints in my newly set-up darkroom in the basement next week and I needed some good shots to experiment with. I also brought the Ansco Panda 620 camera that I bought at the Rinely Yard Sale for a whopping fifty cents filled with respooled Ilford Delta 400 film. After walking around the steam engines in awe and shooting nearly all my photos we started in on the massive flea market to search for parts for this year's halloween costumes - Steampunk. There were lots of tables filled with brass valves and fittings, old gauges and watches, odd looking hand tools and other random bobs and bits. We even picked up an old english riding helmet that Brenda plans to convert into some sort of Steampunk headgear. She has been busy down in the basement working on accessories for her costume, I need to get busy with mine. I developed the film with Arista Liquid Film Developer and scanned the negatives with my Epson V500 Photo Scanner. A few of the images are show here.

Plein Air Painting at Sachs Bridge

On Sunday, I finally had a chance to get out and try Plein Air Watercolor Painting with a homemade watercolor field easel. I first saw the easel on one of my favorite YouTube channels, The Mind of Watercolor, and had wanted to make one for myself. I've been sketching in my small watercolor journal with photographs that I've taken for reference, but I really wanted to experience sketching out in the open after seeing it done on some of my favorite YouTube channels. I already had the materials I needed to construct the easel and I had a fairly strong and stable camera tripod to mount it on. I "borrowed" my son's no longer used camp stool to finish out my Plein Air setup and I was eager to get out there. I couldn't decide if I wanted to go out to the marina by Lake Marburg at Codorus State Park or drive over to Devil's Den at Gettysburg. On the way over to Gettysburg, I decided that maybe I would check out the Sach's covered bridge to see if there were many people there. There was no one else there when I arrived, so I walked around a bit to see what would be the best angle to capture the bridge and also not be in the way of anyone's photos while painting. After much fiddling and fussing with my supplies to get everything just so, I started sketching while also keeping a lookout for wild things in the tall grass behind me. After a while, I settled in and really started to get into the drawing and was about to start painting when the first onlooker came over to see what I working on. I will have to get used to people talking to me and watching me paint, which is not easy for me to do. One other gentlemen came over later to see what I was working on. I really only sketch and paint for my own enjoyment, with no intentions of displaying my work to sell, so it really shouldn't matter what someone else might think of my abilities. I really just want to enjoy what I'm doing now that our kids have grown and I have time to pursue my creative hobbies. It was starting to get really hot and also near lunchtime, so I decided to finish up and head home. I will say that I really enjoyed Plein Air Painting and would like to get out there again soon.

Enchanted Forest through a Kodak Brownie Hawkeye Camera

This past Saturday, my friend Elaine and I attended the 60th Birthday Celebration of Enchanted Forest at Clark's Elioak Farm in Howard County, Maryland. The farm is geared toward young children with activities such as a petting zoo, pony rides, and hay rides. I was only mildly disappointed that I was over the weight limit to ride the ponies, but the goats in the petting zoo were amusing and just way too cute. The main reason I was there was to see the restored nursery rhyme structures from the long closed Enchanted Forest Theme Park. I have a too distant but fond memory of going to the Enchanted Forest in Ellicott City on my very first field trip in elementary school way back in first grade. I have vague memories of that trip with the more vivid ones being of the giant slide on an island and my visit to the souvenir shop to buy a giant pair of Enchanted Forest sunglasses. My friend and I enjoyed looking at the brightly painted structures throughout the farm, but it was really hot outside! I brought along my Pentax Q10 mirrorless camera and my modified Kodak Brownie Hawkeye Flash box camera with a flipped lens. The modification is done by removing the film carrier inside the camera and popping out the lens and putting it in backwards. This creates photos that have blurred edges with a sharp center with a somewhat dreamy effect. I thought this would be perfect for the brightly colored nursery rhyme characters and buildings that have been restored. I developed the photos with the Unicolor C-41 kit from the Film Photography Project Store and the resulting images are above.

Evening Walk on the Hanover Trolley Trail

Earlier this week, Brenda and I took and evening walk on the Hanover Trolley Trail in Spring Grove, PA. This recreational biking/walking trail that goes from Hanover, PA to York, PA is in progress and two sections have been completed. The trail follows an abandoned trolley trail that originally connected Hanover and York. This section is approximately a mile and a half long and passes beneath a railroad bridge. Future plans call for the entire distance between Hanover and the Heritage Rail Trail in York to connect. I took the Nikon FG-20 SLR camera that I bought at the Rinely Yard sale last month with a newly acquired Nikon Series E 50mm 1.8 lens. I shot with Kodak BW400CN black and white film, one of my favorites, which has been discontinued. I still have a few rolls tucked away in the fridge. The next morning I developed the roll in a Unicolor C-41 kit purchased from the Film Photography Project store and the photos above are the result. I liked this film because I could get it processed for a couple of dollars at the local CVS, which I would scan myself and get some nice quality black and white images. I was very disappointed when the local CVS stopped processing film in the store and I don't think I've been back since. I've resorted to processing my own film now, which can be done anytime I have a few minutes, including 3:30 in the morning when our beagle wakes me up for breakfast.

Outdoor Sketching

I finally went outside to try some outdoor sketching at Lake Marburg over at Codorus State Park on Saturday. I found a picnic table underneath a shade tree by the shore and started creating my sketch. I began with a light pencil drawing and then drew in the basic line art with a Pigmamicron pen. I had my pocket watercolor set with me and decided to try out the new flat waterbrush I had just gotten. I was using a larger sketchbook than I normally carry and thought the wider waterbrush would be better suited for the larger watercolor sketch. Once I started adding the watercolor I had to work fast so that it didn't dry before I could drop in some other colors. I found the waterbrush worked pretty well for me but eventually I want to experiment with tube paints, palettes and larger brushes. I liked the process of creating an outdoor painting, the weather was beautiful and it was very relaxing to focus on the sketch. I want to try more of this to see if I want to invest in a Plein Air setup.

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.