Beach House

121315-Sunset-Bch-HouseHad a rare opportunity to really put some time into a plein aire painting today. I spent most of the day working on this, from a very careful base sketch to laying in all the paint. The house really is shaped like a paralellogram! It’s old, it’s built right on the beach and it has obviously settled over the decades. To be honest, I’d love to live in it. That third floor has a window looking over the sea – guess which room would be my studio?

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Sunset Evening

120515-Sunset-TankersAh, the tankers at sunset. Spent a lovely hour or two sketching while the sun went down. We were there late enough for the tankers’ lights to come on, so I dabbed those in with a bit of Bleedproof White. Otherwise, that’s cobalt, PO62, and a dash of PO73.

Tankers were not the only thing in view this evening – in addition to the usual birds and porpoises, I made friends with a beetle.
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Behold the Sunbird

102115 Sunbird_800Had a color fit this week, painted across the spread in my sketchbook. The black lines are freehand drawn with a permanent brush pen, with watercolor and a few touches of white gouache.

On Winsor and Newton 90lb hot press, about 8″ x 10″. Paints used? Oh, goodness.

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A Banner Day – Osprey En Plein Aire

090515-HCP-OspreyThis was an unforgettable trip to the park – I was painting a fairly nondescript landscape of the pond when a man passed by, and asked if I had seen the osprey. I hadn’t, and of course asked him where it was. He pointed – maybe 20 feet away and practically over my head! All that time there was a fabulous bird of prey right out in the open, and I missed him completely!

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A Pocket Sketch Kit

Pocket-paletteI spontaneously decided to pick up a pizza one night and found myself with 20 minutes to kill and nothing to paint with. Curses! So I made good use of that time thinking through initial designs for this.

The plan was to create a unified thing that would hold paint, water, brush, something to sketch on, and a bit of paper towel to wipe the brush. It had to be 100% self contained – not that it’s bad to put a brush in a pocket, but in this case I wanted something that was entire and complete by itself, with no extra parts to forget. The palette could be limited but had to be adequate for general painting. Ideally all the parts would remain attached, so there’s nothing to drop while using it. Finally, I wanted it to fit in a back pocket, so it would be easy to grab-n-go without having to think about it.

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A Quick Killdeer

040815-KilldeerJust found out it’s #DrawABirdDay on Twitter. Since “today” didn’t have much time left, I decided to Draw A Bird with my brush – no base sketch! About 20 minutes in my sketch book, from a Wikipedia ref.

I’ve always loved Killdeer, they have enchanted my summer nights since I was little. Didn’t find out for sure what birds they are until last month! They fly and call in the dark and you can’t see them. They never sound the same on the wetlands during the daytime.

6″ x 9″ on Fabriano Cold Press 140lbs. Bird: Raw Umber, Sicklerite, Jane’s Gray, and PO71 for the eye ring. For the background, a little Raw Sienna and premixed Hooker’s Green (PB27 and PY150).

Originally posted on WetCanvas.com.

Making the Starry Sketch Kit

My sketching tools go nearly everywhere with me – what it’s stored in has to be ready for any situation. I wanted something with a little class, very “me,” and just the right size. It had to hold the requisite art stuff, possibly a phone, and some ID. Any number of purses would have done the job, actually, but I’m not really into carrying purses! Some messenger bags looked good as well, but they were too big. Oh, and I didn’t have a huge budget for this either. Nothing out there really was just exactly right. What to do?

Why, make something of course!  Read more

Beads and Wire

Bead and painted closure I’m designing a small case, like a mini messenger bag, for my sketch kit. It needs something cool to close it though. Thought about that for a while and came up with a solution based on a little thing that’s been sitting around on my bead board.

Once I had the idea, I painted it out at lunch today just for fun. The original bead design is on the sketchbook page, but it was at home – I did the sketch from memory.

About 6 x 6 on Fabriano CP 140lb.

Originally posted on WetCanvas.com