Watercolor for a change

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I’ve been looking through The Smithsonian Collection of Newspaper Comics, a massive compendium of American newspaper comic that covers from 1860 to 1980. Comic artists were doing amazing stuff, all of it with pen and ink drawing colored with watercolor or gouache. All of this graphic richness inspired me to forage in the supply pantry for my neglected watercolor paints.

I used my Cotman paints on Alley Oop and my Daniel Smith paints on Betty Burro. Daniel Smith paints are more brilliant than the Cotman paints, but they’re both fine for what I’m doing. The workflow included scanning the painting then loading it into Krita for cleanup.

Watercolor is definitely scary. It takes a leap of faith to put the wet brush on the paper. There’s no going back.

Chore Day, December 5, 2020: Laundry, Vacuuming, Baking, and Arting

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Bedside lamp and pillow and Monet print, Corel Painter, Sargent brush

Today was a normal chore day. I welcome normal. I love a day when there’s no snow, no wildfires, everyone is healthy. I ask for nothing more than normal.

For the record, I did all of the laundry, vacuumed the entire house, baked some quinoa flat bread for fun, and tested Rebelle 3. Rebelle is known as the best digital watercolor app, but oil painting is coming in version 4. It looks like it will be awesome. I want it!

Even though my day is normal, I have problems: I like Corel Painter, and I like Rebelle, and I like Photoshop, and I like Clip Studio Paint Ex. That’s a lot of likes. Am I spreading myself too thin? Time will tell where I eventually focus my attention.

My other problem is that I have to create a page for this blog that displays my books. That’s a good problem. The next problem is that I have a Tumblr site that gets updated when I publish a post here…but the images are not exported to Tumblr. I have to get into a groove so that I upload every image to Tumblr. The last problem that I’m aware of is that I need to do better with social media, by which I mean post regularly to Instagram. I should be posting there every time I create a post in this blog.

Post Post Election Day Computer Problems

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Today was not productive. My Windows 10 machine mysteriously froze up. After various attempts to get things working, I resorted to a reset. The reset re-installs Windows 10 and keeps my personal files intact. All of the programs I’ve installed have been deleted, including Clip Studio Paint, Photoshop, InDesign, and a hundred more that I rarely use. That’s fine. I’ll reinstall them when I need them, if ever. After the reset, everything seems to be working normally. I’m assuming I’ll be back on track tomorrow. Until then, keep the faith.

On the art front, I bought a Domestika water color course given by the Argentinian illustrator Flor Kaneshiro. It’s called Watercolor Illustration with Japanese Influence. It’s inspiring.

Al Fresco Art Club Challenge, July 12, 2020 -- Ink and Watercolor à la Miyazaki

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Today’s Al Fresco Art Club Challenge took place in the kitchen rather than outdoors. Besides being a little lazy, we had another good reason for staying inside: it’s too hot and windy to expose our carbon-based bodies to direct sunlight

Today’s challenge was the same as last week’s: paint an ink drawing and using watercolors. I looked into my copy of The Art of Kiki’s Deliver Service, A Film by Hayao Miyazaki and found a great drawing of Kiki lying in the grass daydreaming about her future. Rather than draw Kiki, I drew my own character, Jimmy Jay. Tonight I’m going to watch the movie again, in Japanese, of course.

Al Fresco Art Club Day, July 5, 2020: Ink and Watercolor

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Today was the fifty-eighth consecutive Sunday meeting of our Al Fresco Art Club. We’ve been meeting every week, through thick and then, through good times and hard times. Each week one of us will pose a challenge that will give a nudge to our comfort zone. I chose the challenge this week: make some ink drawings and color them. I sketched and inked four small self-portraits and used some simple pastel washes.

I started by dividing a sheet of mix media paper into four boxes. I used a reference photo and tried to draw a recognizable likeness in each box. Next I inked the sketch, erased the graphite, and laid in the colors. For the skin tone I used a mix of yellow ochre and alizarin crimson. Alizarin crimson is a fugitive color, but it will live on as a permanent color until the end of digital time.

Al Fresco Art Club Challenge, Dec. 15, 2019 -- Pen and Watercolor

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Today’s challenge was to do an ink drawing then color it one way or another. I inked with my Pentel brush pen and painted with my Cotman watercolors. The image was copied from the example of Swiss Design in the awesome Retro Graphics, by Raimes and Bhaskran. I’ve mentioned this book before — it’s been helpful and inspiring to me as I learn the basics of color and graphic design.

Al Fresco Art Club, Dec 1, 2019 -- Pen and Wash Day

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It’s been a dreary day, a SAD (Seasonal Affective Disorder) day. I’m located on the south side of a mountain. In the winter I get about 4 hours of sunlight a day. Today was a little different: I started having dreams of moving to Southern California.

I did feel a flicker of cheer as the sunlight entered the living room for a few minutes. Then it disappeared behind the mountains and I instantly began to feel blue.

At the Al Fresco Art club meeting I decided to paint another self-portrait with my trusty Pentel brush pen and my St Petersburg White Nights water colors on Canson Mix Media paper.

Jimmy Jay meets Buddy Butterfly

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44/365

Here’s another version of Jimmy meeting his friend Buddy. I’m trying out Buddy’s color scheme and wing markings. I’m considering this painting another inch forward towards my March 31 deadline that’s looming on the horizon. I now have 61 days to finish this. It sounds like a lot, but with only a couple of hours a days, I’m going to hustle. Getting this book finished is a big deal.

I haven’t got a finalized page yet and I’m feeling the pressure. To cite my favorite metaphysical poet, Andrew Marvell,

“But at my back I always hear
Time’s wingèd chariot hurrying near;
And yonder all before us lie
Deserts of vast eternity. ”

Enough poetry!

I didn’t forget Jimmy Jay’s nose this time.

Action line with Jimmy Jay trying to rescue Buddy Butterfly

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39/365

I’ve take drawing classes that emphasize that a character needs an “action line” in order to be dynamic and interesting. Unfortunately, it seems that my characters usually don’t have anything like a gesture or action line. Today’s drawing reverses that trend. I intentionally drew Jimmy with what I hoped was an action line as he’s leaping to try to keep his friend from being sucked down a chimney.

Why did I put Aeolus up in the left hand corner? Because everyone know that he’s in charge of making the wind blow. Besides, I like the antique versions of Aeolus with puffy cheeks blowing those gusty winds at poor Buddy. I think he looks mean, but there has to be a villain in the story. He’s a good one.

I’m still going with grisaille for this painting.

A Jaybird and a Butterfly Play Poker

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38/365

Another grisaille. This time Jimmy and Buddy are playing poker, it seems. I’m not much of a card player, but I do know that four queens is a good hand. Too bad for Jimmy, but Buddy has four aces. I know because that’s the story I wrote in my head.

One thing wrong with this picture that I’m thinking of: I forgot to add Jimmy nose. Even at this year 3/4 view his honker would be prominent. This drawing, painting, and processing, and writing this post, took about 1 1/2 hours. I was hustling.