PB16

Inktober: Oct 11 – Toco Toucan

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101116-inktober-toco-toucanThe crab left an odd gap on my page, so I found something that would fill it right up. The Toco Toucan gets the job done! He’s mostly ink, with some color obviously on the head, feet, and that incredible beak. (Funny thing about toucans. Their bills are large, but not very powerful. It can be hard for them to crunch up a grape!) This one has a wash of PO62 Benzi Orange on the eye spot and beak, with a further wash of PO73 Pyrrole Orange to deepen the color, and PB28 Cobalt Blue to give a little shadow. The feet are PB28/PO62 mixed on the paper. Finally, there’s a streak of PBr7 Burnt Umber on the branch.

Background is PV19 Rose Deep and PB16 Phthalo Turquoise. Those two are an odd combination and I hated it for a minute. The turquoise is far too green to normally make a good purple, and I should have known that. Fortunately it smoothed out into a decent-looking red-violet. Drawn with the Kuretake #40 brush.

Reference photo from Wikipedia.

Inktober: Oct 8 – Ladybug

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100816-inktober-7-spot-ladybug…because who can resist a ladybug? Like damselflies, they also have very complicated heads. Fun to draw though, even with so much detail. Drawing shiny stuff with ink does light my fire, and there was a remarkable amount of shadows and subtle highlights to consider. I’d intended to draw the entire ladybug, and (as I do) started it way too big, which meant it would have been running over the Kestrel just a half-inch above. Oops. Proportion seems to be an ongoing challenge for me.

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Inktober: Oct 5 – The Key Clip

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100516-inktober-copper-clipIt was getting late last night, so I decided to draw a tiny thing. Here’s the copper clip off of the keys from Oct. 3. It’s a little larger than life size, whole thing is about 1″ x 2″. Still ended up being some good unwinding time. Strathmore 140lb CP Windpower paper, Platinum EF pen, Platinum Carbon ink.

Pentel Color Brush

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040116-people-aI do almost all my painting with a waterbrush. The vast majority of my work is outside on location, and waterbrushes are perfectly suited for that kind of habit. Thinking about finding a nicer waterbrush led me into the world of brush pens, and just for grins I bought a Pentel Color Brush with black pigment ink, to try out the concept.

Results? I’m in LOVE.

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Behold the Sunbird

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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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