26 Instax Packs - #5 - Baltimore, MD - Fuji Instax Mini Stripe Frame in Lomo'Instant Automat just after dawn (except for Magnolia Blossom). Closeup lens used for flower bloom photos, all handheld, on auto setting without flash.
26 Instax Packs - #4
26 Instax Packs - #4 - Toy Story Frame with Lomo'Instant Automat.
Brush Pen Sampler No. 2
Week 15 - Brush Pen Sampler Number 2 purchased for $26 with free shipping from jetpens.com. Also, this week, I tried out the 12 color Pentel Touch Sign Pen set from Target, purchased for $19.99 plus tax. There are six pens in the Jet Pens sampler, 5 of them disposable with fibrous tips and one nylon brush type cartridge style refillable pen.
The first brush pen I tried was the Kuretake No. 8 Fountain Brush Pen, it is the cartridge style refillable one with nylon bristles. It's very similar to a Pentel Pocket Brush Pen, only the brush tip is a little shorter. I really like this style of brush pen, as it allows me to get very fine lines in flowing strokes that can have varying widths. I used that pen to make "The Cooker" drawing, inspired by the audiobook I'm currently listening to on my work commute, "Maplecroft."
I thought I would make drawings of robots to test out the rest of the pens in the sampler. These pens have firmer tips that do not have bristles, but do allow for varying line widths depending on the firmness of each pen. I made the robot sketches a a large Piccadilly Blank Journal with light cream colored pages. I think these journals are really meant for writing, but I like to make sketches in them. I'm almost finished filling my second journal of 240 pages.
The Kuretake Fudegokochi produces a nice dense black line that does allow for slight variations in weight, but I really like the contrast produced on light paper. Another of my favorites in the sampler is the Zebra Disposable Brush Pen which produced crisp linework in my robot sketch. The other pens in the sampler are Kuretake Bimoji Brush Pen, Pentel Touch Sign Pen, and Pilot Fude-Makase Color Brush Pen. All the pens aside from the Kuretake No. 8 Fountain Brush Pen, are very similar in performance, so it would be a personal preference as to which one feels best in hand. As mentioned before, the Kuretake No. 8 is refillable and has actual brush bristles.
I made a Sugar Skull drawing so I could use all the colors in the 12 color Pentel Touch Sign Pen set that I purchased at Target after hearing about it on the Erasable Podcast. These pens are nice, and of course are just like the Pentel Touch Pen included in the JetPens sampler, only in colors. I think these would probably be good for hand lettering or writing in a journal.
Next up in Create-A-Thon 2017 - Winsor and Newton Watercolor Brush Pens.
Reeves Water Soluble Pastels
Week 14 - Reeves Water Soluble Pastels 24 color set purchased for $10.50 at The Queen's Ink in Savage, MD. Brenda and I decided to take a spur of the moment road trip down to the Historic Savage Mill so that I could make pinhole photos of the ruins beside the Little Patuxent River and the only remaining portion of a Bollman Truss Railroad Bridge. We found the art supply store in the Savage Mill shopping complex and they had a nice variety of supplies, mostly stamping and inks as the name would suggest.
Working with the pastels started off promising, when I made a drawing of bright red-orange springlike flowers. My next drawing of a Sunflower using a reference photo, was a bit more troublesome with it resembling a picture drawn with a box of crayons. And the last drawing did not work at all, not what I was envisioning of tentacles coming from the bottom of the page. I feel that my drawing skills were lacking for that one and that I was a bit tired before starting to work on it. Some of the colors did not blend at all when applying water, with a crayon type texture showing through.
I used the pastels on plain watercolor paper in a Strathmore Visual Watercolor Journal. I think I should have done a little more research for techniques on how to use water soluble pastels - I had watched a few YouTube videos and one in particular suggesting a base of Gesso to be applied to the paper first. I have to admit I was very busy this week with other creative and extracurricular activities, not leaving me much time to experiment with these. I may revisit them in the future and give them another try.
I also attended a live model figure drawing session on Sunday afternoon, and have been participating in the Sktchy30 drawing challenge using the Sktchy App, but I'm going to have to forego finishing the Sktchy challenge, my mind is mentally exhausted.
Next up in Create-A-Thon 2017 - drawing with a variety of brush pens.
Mixed Media Art
Week 13 - Mixed Media art made with watercolor wash, Derwent Aquatone Pencils, pocket brush pen, and white gel pen. I've explored this style before about a year ago, but I wanted to revisit the process and continue to create new pages in my visual art journal.
To start I like to make a colorful background wash using an inexpensive set of Prang Professional Watercolor pans. I usually prepare a few pages with background washes ahead of time and then when I'm ready to work on one, I choose the best color background for the idea that I have. I then fill in the page with solid shapes of color with the Aquatone pencils, which become quite colorful when activated with water. When those are dry, I then add details with brush pen and white gel pen. I think I like the anatomy illustration the best of the three I completed this week.
Next up - Reeves Water Soluble Pastels.
26 Instax Packs - #3
26 Instax Packs - #3 - Diana F+ with Instax Back using Fuji Instax Mini Monochrome at Gettysburg National Military Park in early evening. The exposure was a bit unpredictable and hard to get right, but there are interesting effects on the corners of some of the prints.
26 Instax Packs- #2
26 Instax Packs - #2 - Lomo'Instant Automat with Rainbow Instax Mini Frame celebrating the arrival of Spring in Baltimore, Maryland. Most photos made with close-up lens attachment.
Painting With Coffee
Week 12 - Painting doodles with coffee. I have seen numerous photos on Instagram of people painting with coffee and also painting at coffee shops, and I thought I'd give it a try. At the beginning of the week, I mixed up a batch of coffee paint using instant coffee at a super concentrated strength. I cracked open a brand new Strathmore Visual Watercolor Journal and began my coffee paintings. I didn't make any sketches with pencil, I went straight in with the coffee concoction and just made doodles roughly based on a few photos, with some of them just being images that came out of my head.
I mostly painted on my lunch break at work, able to complete two doodles a day due to the amount of time it takes for the sticky coffee paint to completely dry. Painting with the coffee was very relaxing, as the scent of the strong coffee mixture wafted through the air around me as I painted. The first painting of what appears to be a wild man, or as one of my friends described it, a rock star - developed after starting to paint a face. I tried to loosen up a bit on the next painting of my cat by adding some drips, but my painting doesn't really look like a cat, instead more like a cat/racoon. I looked on instagram and YouTube for inspiration and tips on painting with coffee, and there are far more talented coffee art painters out there than I could ever hope to be.
As I look over the paintings from this past week, I think that I should definitely have made them more loose with coffee drips, splatters, and a couple of coffee cup rings. I still have my coffee paint mixture, perhaps I'll go back and create a few more paintings using those techniques.
Next up in Create-A-Thon 2017 - Mixed Media art using Prang Professional Watercolor Pans, Derwent Aquatone Pencils, Pocket Brush Pen, and Uniball Signo White Gel Pen.
26 Instax Packs - #1
26 Instax Packs - #1 - Lomo'Instant Automat with Winnie the Pooh Instax Mini Frame at the Nixon Nature Center.
Winsor and Newton Pigment Markers
Week 11 - Winsor and Newton Pigment markers on Yupo paper. I have to admit I was not very inspired to work on this project this week. I was on vacation, but felt very unmotivated due to the snowy, cold, icy weather. When I scheduled this time off a few weeks ago, I anticipated having springlike weather as we've had in February, with plans of going outdoors for a few sketching trips and photo making. I instead indulged in some much needed down time including numerous naps, reading and watching YouTube and Craftsy videos under the cozy warm blanket on the couch surrounded by cats. Tomorrow I feel I will be able to jump back into my daily commute, full workdays, and evening creative sessions with renewed energy until my next vacation with Brenda coming up in May.
I managed to spend one afternoon working on a pigment marker drawing using a photo I shot last summer as reference. The photo was made at Codorus State Park using an OM10 camera with expired Portra 160NC film. The drawing was made on Yupo paper and that worked okay, but perhaps I'll use the Winsor and Newton Pigment Marker paper that I have at some other time when I feel like working with the markers again.
Next up in Create-A-Thon 2017 - painting with coffee and tea.