The Wrong Stuff

When my friends and I do our Zoom sketch/paint sessions, 99% of the time I choose to do watercolor or ink and watercolor on my favorite paper -- Arches 140lb cold press.  It's the go-to paper for watercolor, no question.

Well, a month or so ago I ran out of it, and swore that before spending more $$, I would use up more of the supplies already languishing in the art closet first.  TONS of supplies, just going to waste. Surely I could sketch and paint on something other than Arches 140lb cold press paper, right?

I had colored pencil paper (and colored pencils).  I had oodles of canvases, and acrylic and oil paints.  And I had 140lb hot press paper for ink and watercolor efforts.  No problem!  

Harrumph.  Yes, problem.  Very much problem -- and many many frustrating sessions later, I caved and spent $$ on more Arches 140lb cold press paper.  Sigh.  

You see, cold press paper has a texture which is designed to absorb watercolor nicely and to allow for wonderful wet-in-wet work, while hot press paper is smooth and the paint just sits on it and dries almost immediately, hardly allowing any blending at all.  It's great for ink work and light paint washes but not for anything interesting, in my opinion.  I HATED working on it!

Here, for example, is one of the pics we chose last week, of a colorful nudibranch (underwater soft-bellied crustacean critter):

Painting the body on hot press wasn't too difficult, but that background has lots of texture, and trying to get the colors to blend was horribly hard.  Eventually I resorted to adding salt to the paint, a trick that can add nice textural elements.  

Next, I worked on this extremely challenging pic of an aurora borealis:

This time I had found an old pad of Winsor & Newton cold press paper buried in the closet, and decided to use it, much to my regret.  I quickly discovered why it was buried -- it had some sort of wretched sizing that made the paint bead up a lot.  With a great deal of teeth-gnashing, I somehow managed to get colors to blend, but working on that paper was so torturous that I threw the rest of the pad away.

You may also have noticed a certain lack of blueness in my painting.  That's because I don't have a good aqua/teal blue in my watercolor palette.  I've tried a gazillion different mixes of the blues I do have with the greens I have but nothing gives me the right aqua/teal color that I want.  I could NOT mix the color of that aurora picture, and I also did not have a blue like the one which can be seen in the water of our next lovely photo:

And again, this picture demanded lots of good wet-in-wet blending, and all I had was the dreaded hot press paper with its impossibly smooth surface, where the paint kept drying too quickly.  So again, I struggled mightily to produce something halfway decent, and with the help of a lot of white gouache paint, I got this:

Gah.  It's not too shabby but the BLUE is WRONG.  And I HATED working on that paper!!!!

I have learned my lesson.  Creating art just isn't much fun when you are using the Wrong Stuff.  Thus, after just one month of trying to use up supplies before ordering new ones, I threw in the towel.  

I am now anxiously awaiting the arrival of a whole lot of Arches 140lb cold press watercolor paper, and a tube of Daniel Smith's Cobalt Teal blue watercolor paint.

Sigh.

That was pretty much my week -- being frustrated over art.  Otherwise, I worked on the needlepoint project, stayed home in the cold weather, and tried to keep the Hounds suitably entertained.  One day I decided to take them in the car for a spin, just randomly for about 20 minutes, just to get out a bit.  As I was tootling out in the research district, whose buildings are interspersed with wide swaths of scrubland, I noticed a few magpies flying about, and a crow or two.  It was overcast and the light was terrible and all the birds looked dark.  Then I caught a split-second view of another dark bird as it flitted from the top of one short tree to the next.  In the space of that split-second, my birding brain said Much smaller than a magpie, not flying the way a crow does, acting more like a raptor, could it be a kestrel...?

I pulled over and got out the bins, and on close-up view, I could see the tell-tale markings and enough color, and yes, indeed, it WAS an American Kestrel:

Huzzah!

It felt great to know that my birding skills, while certainly rusty, are still functioning at times.  It made me want to go look for more birds, but alas, it was 34 degrees out.  No thank you.

Soon, though, it will warm up enough to get out for long birding walks, and I'm eager to get back to it.

That's all for now.  May you all have lovely weeks that avoid frustration!

One Dumb Dog, One Dumb Dog Owner

First, the art, which was rather coastal this week -- our first pic was of a lighthouse, which I drew in ink and then watercolor:

And the second pic we used was of the iconic cliffs of Dover, which I did in pencil and watercolor, rather quickly, for a loose effect:

Next, we move on to my other major creative endeavor of late, which is another Good Omens needlepoint project.  This time I'm using my own colored pencil drawing of Aziraphale at his desk, reading the Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch:

I popped it into the free, online pattern generator at pixel-stitch.net, and it came up with a 12"x14" piece with 35,000 stitches.  Yay!

I started this last November, and am nearly halfway through:

It may take until April or so to finish.  

Finally, on to our subject line.  Obviously, I am the dumb dog owner, and Pippin is the dumb dog in question.  The dumb thing I did was to leave a handful (about a tablespoon) of chocolate chips on the coffee table for all of sixty or so seconds while I went into the kitchen.  In my defense, neither dog has ever gotten up there to eat food, which I've left on that table countless times before. 

When I returned, there were no chocolate chips on the coffee table. Pippin stood right next to it, looking guilty, while Truman, so far as I could tell, had not budged from his perch atop the sofa.  So after a quick check on chocolate toxicity amounts per body weight, off I zipped to the emergency vet, as it was, of course, Saturday and our regular vet wasn't open.  There Pippin was forced to vomit his ill-gotten treat, and was given some stomach soothing drugs.  He was perfectly chipper about the whole affair, while I was left $361 poorer (but wiser).  

Here is the little bum lounging in the yard, on a day last week when it got near 60 degrees.  Isn't he ever so sweet?  Yes, he is, and that's how he gets away with everything.

Well, that's, thankfully, all for that week.  May your coming week (and mine) be less dramatic!

Yes, it really looked like that

 Sometimes when I post drawings from our Zoom sketch sessions, people scratch their heads and ask, "Did the original actually look that weird?"  Well, I do aim for accurate reproductions, but yes, sometimes the photo refs we choose to work with are downright odd.

For example, last week we did a Blue-footed Booby.  My drawing turned out like this:

If that isn't weird, I don't know what is.  But just so you know, yes, it really looked like that.  Here is the photo we used -- obviously the shot was taken at a bizarre angle, and to me it looks as if the bird pulled on a pair of blue, duck-footed Wellies to go walking about in:

It was an awfully amusing photo, and we did have a lot of fun drawing it, but boy howdy, it doesn't look very real.  

Our other effort for the week was perfectly normal, more or less -- this is the skull of payara fish, found in the Amazon, and apparently some sort of piranha.  All I know is that those teeth were quite challenging to paint dark color around:

That was pretty much it for my weekly entertainment, other than a few dog walks.  It has not warmed up enough to go for long walks, still struggling to get above 35 during the day, but I needed to get out due to cabin fever and a desire for exercise that didn't involve walking up and down the hallway in my house fifty times a day.  

So I just bundled up for an Antarctic expedition and headed out to Columbia Point, which was ever so lovely:

The Hounds seemed to enjoy the outing.

We've gotten out and about a few other times, averaging two miles for each little adventure in the frozen wastelands.  Well, okay, it's not as bad as some places, but still.  I WANT SPRING.

That's all there is to post about, so I shall leave you with adorable Pippin pics (sorry to leave out Truman, but he just isn't as cooperative). 

Pippin settles in for an evening of light reading.

Have a good week and stay safe out there!

Don't Let It Snow

Mostly I have snow pics, because that's what it did for the past week and a half or so.  Snowed.  Annoying stuff, and it kept me from going anywhere.  It's gone now and I do not need anymore of it, thank you very much.

But first, art!  We had three sketch sessions this week (yay).  Recently I ran out of my favorite watercolor paper (Arches 140lb cold press), which I've used nearly all the time for these sessions.  I decided not to buy more until I used up some of the gazillion other materials cluttering up the art closet.  Possibly this was not the brightest idea I've ever had and I'm already missing that paper terribly.  Sigh.

Anyway, this first drawing of an Icelandic scene was done with colored pencils on the special colored pencil paper I use (Strathmore Bristol Vellum):

I guess it turned out okay, more or less, but it took forever to layer all those colors and then blend them and I had to spent another 15-20 minutes or so after our 90-minute Zoom session ended to finish it.  Phooey!

One of the photos we chose to work from was of a gnarled tree trunk.  My interest in drawing trees is virtually nil, so I ignored it entirely and found a nice view of Eilean Donan Castle in Scotland to render instead.  I used my usual ink and watercolor on hot press watercolor paper, which is very smooth (unlike my beloved cold press paper, which has a nice texture). 

Again, it was okay, but not something to get excited about.  Sigh.  

We also drew a broken window, from a black-and-white photograph.  Now, this one I truly enjoyed.  I used the smooth hot press paper for it, and ink pens and brush pens, along with one shade of watercolor (a nice granular gray called Bloodstone Genuine).  I had a blast trying to capture the various textures and tonal values in this piece, and this time the paper worked really well for the subject matter and the media used.

So I liked one of the three pieces.  Well, we shall see what happens with next week's sessions, but at the moment, I'm leaning heavily towards ordering more of my favorite paper.  I miss it!

Okay, on to the snow!

We had a few days of light snow, with only half an inch to an inch, and it was easy to deal with.  But then a week ago it snow heavily overnight and we awoke to find four inches on the ground.  I had to shovel pathways for the Hounds.

Pippin seemed to appreciate my efforts.

I didn't have the energy to clear my driveway or sidewalks, but fortunately, a roving band of enterprising kids with shovels turned up, and did a fine job for only $10 each, plus freshly baked chocolate chip oatmeal cookies.  

The Hounds had to continue making do with their backyard pathways.

But look what a difference one day makes!  This is the same path after 24 hours of 40+ degrees.  Hooray!

The streets are all clear now, and we even got out and about to the riverfront park for a short walk.  It should stay above freezing this coming week, with no precipitation in the forecast.  Whew.

Which means I have no reason to postpone my Thursday dental cleaning appointment.  Dang.

Have a great week out there, everyone, and may your Winter be treating you kindly!

Snow Days

We got snow a week ago -- a whole inch of it -- and then below-freezing temps ever since, so it insists on sticking around.  So once again, I've been stuck at home.  Luckily, we had more sketching sessions than normal, which helped pass the time, along with a new needlepoint project I've been working on which shall remain unseen for now as it hasn't got very far yet.

The holidays were quiet and low-key.  I bought a gift for the Hounds via a fund-raising auction for my favorite charity, the rescue group  Hearts4Doxies.  It's a lovely blanket:

Friends who know me well sent a few gifts that all seemed to have a certain theme, like these stickers which now grace my fridge:

And this blank notebook with a cover from The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter:

Or this tote bag with imagery related to Aziraphale and his bookshop:

And this tote bag with demonic Crowley illustration:

Odd, how Good Omens somehow kept turning up!

On to the art work!

The pieces I produced during our sketch sessions all turned out okay, but not fabulous, as far as I'm concerned.  We did these pools, which are in Turkey, and I tried a mix of watercolor and colored pencil which proved difficult in terms of blending, and I failed to get the color of the water right (it's really much more aqua).

We did a mountain at night, which I knew would be hard to do in watercolor, so I tried it using the Adobe Fresco digital drawing/painting program.

Then we did some salt ponds, which were quite abstract and very colorful.  I used just watercolor for this one.

Then we did a moth on a flower, and I tried a mix of watercolor and colored pencil again, and struggled with it so much that I don't think I'll bother trying that multimedia approach again.  

And we did this bench, where I tried ink and watercolor, and wasn't all that happy with those, either.  Sigh.

Things might get interesting artistically, as I've run out of my favorite watercolor paper, and have sworn that I won't buy more until I've used up other art supplies in my house, because there are a gazillion other art supplies here.  Different papers, different media -- there are colored pencil supplies, pastel supplies, acrylic and oil paints, brush pens, and more!  So I'm going to try some at our upcoming sketch sessions, and we'll see how long I last before rushing out to buy more of my favorite watercolor paper. 

Okay, on to the always-photogenic dachshunds!

As I mentioned, we got snow, and that means photos of the Hounds frolicking in it, despite the chilly temps:

Poor Pippin slipped on the rocks in the garden while chasing a squirrel, and turned his ankle a bit, and had to be penned up for about six hours and given drugs until he bounced back.

Which, thankfully, he did!

Poor Truman never gets as many photos, as he tends to always look away from the camera when I'm trying to capture him, but I managed to get him to look at me while he was doing this silly pose on my mother's sofa:

Well, that's all for now.  Welcome to a new year, and let's hope it's a better year all round!