Today’s entry is a serenading Sedge Wren, drawn from Bob Tarte’s fabulous photo and used with his generous permission. Thanks Bob! Do check out his books and podcast at bobtarte.com.
Birdy at left drawn with the Platinum EF fountain pen on Strathmore 140lb Windpower CP.
Here’s another take on Il Fornaio. This time I wanted to capture the forest of umbrellas that shade their enclosed patio. Didn’t even notice, until deep in the sketch, that one of the umbrellas was a different shape than the others. I used a bit of Bleedproof White with PV23 to lay in the flower blossoms over the background. It was tempting to add a few silhouette diners behind the glass, but something told me that would go too far and I’d ruin it. Decided to listen for once and stopped, so here it is.
Thought I would take a break from the courtyard people and sketch this restaurant at lunch. It’s a sit-down place with a quick-serve sandwich shop off to one side – this is the door to the shop. I found a lovely shady spot on the open patio and soaked up some fresh spring air, and painted away.
Just for grins, take a look after the jump for my take on the same shop from early 2012. Read more
Here’s a sketch from my lunch break. The Platinum Carbon pen has been fascinating me, suddenly watercolor seems so much better with ink!!
Saw this guy in a food court, and his hair was a character unto itself. Fortunately he was also waiting for food, so I had time to sketch and paint him while my Pad Thai was cooking. One of the first faces I have attempted to draw in any detail.
Here’s some folks enjoying the early spring sun that was trying to break through the marine layer. I forgot my brush – roll to ink! Added color at home.
The ladies were deep in conversation for a good 20 minutes, enough for a nice detailed sketch. They were both dressed in silvery grays but I decided later to brighten them up a bit.
After they left, the gent with the phone arrived and sat in their place. He was head-to-toe in black except for one mad streak of blue provided by his collar.
I’m very happy with how these turned out – starting to like pen and ink more and more.
I painted three water birds to check out the Garza Papel 140lb sample sheets. Here’s bird #3, a Brandt’s Cormorant. Source image courtesy of stalksthedawn in the WetCanvas Reference Image Library.
Garza 140lb CP, PB28 Cobalt and PBr7 Burnt Sienna. Some of the darker grays are PB29+PBr7. Painted him with thoughts of the compromised young Brandt’s that practically flopped onto my feet during a morning beach walk a few weeks ago. He was struggling to move out of the surf zone and it almost seemed like he came to us for help.
I decided to paint a series of shorebirds on some of those lovely Garza Papel sample sheets. For extra fun/practice I am doing them without sketching first, just put up a ref and dive in. The Great Blue (heron) turned out nice, so I decided to do an American Avocet next. It was an adventure! I thought others might benefit from seeing a rescue operation in progress.
The short version: Better to plan ahead than try to fix things!
Testing a free sample of Garza Papel. I’m in love!! They have a standing offer for free samples, which I highly recommend if you’ve never used their paper. Now that I’ve tried it, I’m dying to purchase and make a sketchbook out of it… have to save up first though. It will be worth it.
Cobalt blue PB28 and Burnt Sienna PBr7. I mixed the samples up accidentally, this one feels like 140lb CP. It’s about 5.5″ x 7.5″.
The reference was a Great Blue Heron, although the red came on too strong and it’s looking more like a Little Blue Heron. Oh well. No base sketch, I just went right in with a wet brush, for the challenge.
Originally posted on WetCanvas.com.