Merry Christmas!

Best wishes to you all for a happy and joyful season.

Hope to see you all here in 2019 for more drawings!

Regards, Linda

Spoons - individuals

Spoon Studies

'Apostle' Jam Spoon - unknown maker

'Nemesia' pattern spoon from Rodd

Whenever I am in a Op-shop, I scrabble around in the cutlery drawer looking for a silver spoon or two. Once I find one, it then turns into an few hours of internet searching to find out the spoons' history. I have used the above spoons in a larger drawing in an earlier post, but as I had two small frames and mounts available I did a couple of detail studies of the 'Apostle' and 'Nemesia' spoons to fit.  These two studies were done in graphite pencil  on Lana 300gsm hot press paper.
As I found a new 'sugar' spoon yesterday, you may see another one here soon - in colour pencils.

Recent demos in ink & Inktense

The Rose

Using A5 Art Spectrum hot press watercolour pad, ink wash and dip pen

Christmas fun

Just a little Xmas card - cold press watercolour paper scrap, A5 size, Cuthbert Mill? not sure. Using Inktense pan paints and Adel pens

Brown Thornbill

Ink on board

A further exploration into ink this time using a different type of surface. This is an 8 x 8" Ampersand Artist Panel - the 'value series', Primed Smooth.These are pre-primed gesso ground boards. I purchased a few of these panels several years back and forgot I had them - digging around in my paper drawer for some offcuts of hot press paper I found them again and thought I would try them out. The boards weren't cheap at $6AUS for an 8 x 8" one though!

I found the surface texture smooth as silk to draw on with ink. No absorbtion so you must wait until the ink has dried. Difficult to get a very fine line even with my finest nib. I used Art spectrum Acrylic ink/black, nib pens as well as a Derwent Graphik line painter 05 #16 (light grey) pen (from the #4 palette of pens). Honestly, those Graphik pens are not my favourite - nice idea but I have yet to get a handle on them, they constantly 'blob' out on me. Luckily the Artist Panel is so smooth and non-absorbant I could wipe clean the blob before the grey ink dried! I have a couple of boards left and will try again. It is always fun to explore new mediums, surfaces and techniques.

Image used from my own photography of the resident thornbill dancing about in my winter crepe myrtle tree.

Honey Bee

Lavendar Buzz

Another ink demo using nib pens and wash - Art Spectrum black acrylic ink on Arches 300gsm Hot press - A5 size. Reference was personal photography from my garden

Bumbling along in ink

The Humble Bumble

The assignment for my students this week was to draw an insect using dip (nib) pen and ink. These are the two demo drawings I did for them - 10 x 10 cm, Art Spectrum black ink on Arches Watercolour Hot Press A5 pad. I used photos that I had taken in the US as well as some I found online open commons images. 

Inktober development

Thunderstorm over Mansfield

This is a larger development of a work done for the Inktober series, (8, 9, 30). Using nib pen and ink on Lana 250gsm Bristol board. Size is 25 x 18cm. Took around 4 hours to complete.

New Fav Review; Derwent Inktense Paint Pan Travel Set

All Hail Inktober!

Even though Inktober is now officially 'finished', I am still having fun playing with inks and experimenting with the different types. Yesterday I was in one of my local artshops, The Artshed, and saw this fabulous new product from Derwent - an Inktense Paint Pan Travel Set.

This is a great little product, containing 12 half pans of Inktense blocks, a water barrel travel water brush, a little spongey thing, and a reference chart all packaged in a neat little travel box. Price was reasonable for the item at $42.95 AUS (less artists' Art Shed discount) - not super cheap but worth the price IMO.

So the first thing I did was trials and test strips of the colours. This was done on some offcuts of 250gsm Bockingford Not Press watercolour paper.

 12 hues of the 72 colour range are in this set, but if you already own a 24 set of the pencils these would be an excellent back up to that set. Five of the colours match in number/hue to the 24 set of pencils: 0400 Poppy Red, 0200 Sun Yellow, 1000 Bright Blue, 1300 Teal Green, 2200 Ink Black. All the other colours are new numbering/hues to me - they are probably found in the set of 36 or 48 or 72 pencils, so if you own one of the expanded sets you will have a match.

The hues have the brilliance and intensity we have come to know with the pencils and blocks of the Inktense range. The colours wash very well, creating even gradations. I found doing tonal gradations easier with these pans than I have with the pencils. Some colours are more opaque than others (0400 Poppy Red for example).

A picky thing about the set - the brush does not come with a cap for the brush section - it does have a little black sealing cap for the water barrel. So, after use you must screw off the brush section and cap the remaining water with the cap. Not a big deal, but I know I am going to lose that little black cap very quickly. Obviously they couldn't fit a full capping brush into the brush section... but maybe they could have reduced the size of the sponge area and lengthened the brush area to accomodate this?  Not a big issue, just saying.

Then I played around with the pans more, creating a little painting of California poppies on a 300gm Daler-Rowney watercolour postcard. 

I really enjoyed working with these and found mixing and creating the brilliant hues of the poppies alot of fun. Building up the tonal range and hues over dried layers worked well, there was no movement of hue from layer to layer. A little sepia from an Adel .04 pen was added when dry for emphasis. As a first attempt with this product am reasonably happy with the result.  

This travel set will now be part of my reqular 'kit' I take for nature drawing and studies. Great product!

Inktober 31

Final drawing - Minature drawing of Oak tree in pen & ink

Sorry for the days delay... here is Inktober 31!

First drawing of subject - 250gsm Bristol Board, nib pen and Art Spectrum Black ink.  Wash applied after ink drawing completed. Trim size 10 x 10 cm

Final drawing of same subject. I concentrated more on the dark black shadows, refined and thinned the linework of the back ground, lightened up the trunk and branches areaas. I like this one better.

Hope you have enjoyed Inktober with me - it has been a fun journey!

Inktober 30

View across the bay from Tiburon

This is a 'miniature' work, dimensions of 9 x 9 cm image area. It was created using Speedball dip pens, 513CF Standard nib and 99 Standard nib, Art Spectrum black acrylic ink on Lana 250 gsm Bristol Board. This is the 5th drawing I attempted of this subject and is (possibly) the best result. I am not putting this in the Inktober book, I will put one of the earlier attempts - this one I have a frame for and will put into the annual Miniature Art Society show in NSW, Sydney.

The view is from memory of my recent trip back to the Bay Area in July.

Inktober 29

Final contour drawing

The last contour from my drawing sessions with students. I have decided that I actually LIKE doing contour drawings! It's been a bit of a journey, but I am happily pleased with the results.

Also: Final week at Tacit Galleries!

If you haven't had the opportunity to visit my solo exhibition 'The Mechanical Pencil' at Tacit Galleries, 123a Gipps St., Collingwood, this week is your last chance. The exhibition finishes on Sunday, Nov. 3. 

Gallery hours are 11 - 5pm Wednesday to Sunday.

Please drop in and have a look.

'Steam-horse' Sold 

Inktober 28

Still more contour drawing

This one was REALLY tricky to draw, and keep to a continuous line and try and get proportions and angles correct - it got a bit wayward around the buttons. It wasn't really one continuous, for the 'spokes'  and fan bits etc I did lift the pen. But due to the complexity of the subject I am going to forgive myself. 😁

Inktober 27

Contour drawing continued

Sledgehammer - another contour drawing from Victorian Artist Society Friday night class.

Inktober 26

Another contour drawing

Only a few more days left in Inktober... here is another contour drawing of Bird of Pardise flowers and leaves. Copic .4 pen on A5 sketchbook/visual diary.

Inktober 25

Contour Line drawings

As part of a series of exercises, myself and my Wednesday class spent 2 hours of contour line drawing - our own hands and various objects about the studio - no pencil underdrawing! These were timed drawings (10, 20 or 30 minutes), with some being completed before the time elapsed.  If that happened, another drawing! Here are three that I felt were my best attempts. All done with a .5 copic pen on A5 visual diary.

Opening tonight - Tacit Galleries

'Second' chance opening

'Nest' Graphitint and Graphite pencil now on exhibition at Tacit

Tonight at Tacit Galleries - 123A Gipps Street Collingwood. 

Another round of artists will be opening during the run of my exhibition 'The Mechanical Pencil' giving me the chance of having a 'second' opening night. I will be there from 6.30pm, come and say hello!

More info @ Tacit

Inktober 24

'Ice' plants

We always called these 'Ice Plants' when I was a kid - I think it's correct name is Lampranthus. Anyway, this little skecth was done using Inktense pencils washed in successive layers followed up by sepia pen. Again on the Art Spectrum 250 watercolour pad paper.  Personally I feel I need a lot more practice to really get a handle on these pencils!

Inktober 23

Poppies again

The same poppies as yesterday, only this time using Inktense pencils with some black fineliner. Drawn on an A5 sheet of Art Spectrum 250 gsm watercolour paper and put into the book.

Inktober 22

Trying out ballpoint

First attempt using ballpoint 4 colour pen trialled yesterday. Think I need to work on the technique a bit more! These are poppies from my spring garden.

Inktober 21

Trying out ballpoint pen

Although I gravitate to felt tip pens and dip pen/ink wash, I wanted to try some drawing in ballpoint. As well, I am looking to move into some colour ink drawings so decided to fiddle around with the high school favourite - the Bic 4 colour pen. I did some googling and there are some fabulous ballpoint pen artists out there!  I found this great way to create tonal tests on Youtube from Alan Barbeau and reproduced it. Watch it and try it yourself!

Inktober 20

'Dogrose' tree

I am not very happy with how this one turned out - I wanted to show the soft white/pink blossoms against the dark green leaves and thought the best aproach was pointilism. But I guess I got a bit impatient with it (hence washing in the leaves) so the work is not as successful as I would have hoped. Oh well, practice!

BTW- not sure if this really a 'Dogrose', that is what we call it, but it may be a crabapple or similar prunus variety of tree. It is currently flowering on the grounds of St. Patrick's Cathederal in Melbourne.

Inktober 19

Indian Corn (blue maize)

Using Art Spectrum Black acrlyic ink, I created light and dark washes roughly in the positions of When each kernel of the blue/purple corn. When this dried, I worked over the image with a black 0.4 Fineliner Adel brand. These Adel pens come in a variety of colours - and as I have discovered they are not totally waterproof but will 'wash' slightly with water after putting down a line. The black pen washes to a lovely blue tone that suited this corn cob.  So I guess you could call this an Aqurelle pen? Not sure, I found it at Rossdale and it was only $1. I purchased a sepia toned one as well (you can see a previous cloud drawing Inktober 9 that uses this). Not sure what the light fastness of this pen is, but it rather fun to use. I guess it is a 'student' quality item, but the effect is nice.

Inktober 17 & 18

Contour Drawing #17

A quick 5 minute contour line drawing of my left hand. Pen did not leave the paper for the outline of the hand/page - you can see a few errors and 'backtrack' corrections.

Oak Tree #18

Continuous/contour line drawing using a scribble/scrumble technique. Pen was lifted occassionally. About 15/20 minutes.

Inktober 16

Teatime

A little short on ideas today.... 

Inktober 15

Studies in wash and line

While I am reasonably confident with using ink line and creating tonal variation with crosshatching technique, I struggle a bit with wash tone and value. So I have been practicing tonal gradations, diluting ink and adjusting values.

Then a quick study of a Japenese Glass fishing float in tonal values with ink line work.

Inktober 14

Flight of the Wingnuts

I've looked at clouds from both sides now....

Inktober 13

More Clouds

Inktober 12

Skull

Ink wash with diluted Art Spectrum Black acrylic ink and contour line in Copic pen.

Inktober 10 & 11

A couple of 'tangle' drawings

Opening at Tacit tonight - The Mechanical Pencil

'Hatchlings'

One of my new series of works from the exhibition 'The Mechanical Pencil'. Opening tonight, October 10 at  6.30pm. Tacit Gallery, 123a Gipps Street, Collingwood, Victoria. All welcome!

Inktober 8 & 9

Channeling Franklin Booth

Inktober 8 - cloud study. I really love Franklin Booth's pen work. This drawing is heavily influnced/copied from some of his works, especially his 'Hills of Holland' piece. I wanted to experiment with his use of line and hatching so created this drawing while looking at 'Hills' and several other of his works. If you do not know his work have a search, it is truely stunning.

Inktober 9 - cloud study. Using what I had learned from the study of Booth's works for Inktober 8, I did my own version using a sepia toned pen. I took this photo of thunderclouds building up over Oakleigh while we were waiting for the lights to change (I was the passenger, so no laws broken!) I am enjoying these cloud studies and I think I will do some more.

The Mechanical Pencil

Exhibition opening this Wednesday, October 10 at Tacit Gallery

Please join me this Wednesday night at Tacit to view my latest body of works. All welcome and would love to see you there!

'Humming Steam'

Inktober 7

Practice page

Experimenting with different ways of making a mark using felt tip art pens.

Inktober 6

A quick sketch of my garden magpie

Copic pen and ink wash

Inktober 5

California Poppies 

It's spring in my garden! California Poppy sketch - 10/15 minutes using Inktense pencil and Copic pen.

Inktober 3 and 4

Inktober 3

Black Bean Tree - seed pod case found on nature strip of neighbours house.

Inktober 4

Pandas sketched from life over the weekend at Adelaid zoo.