Camp Creative Day 1

Tests, tests and even more tests!

First day of Camp Creative in Bellingen was great fun - a wonderful class of 12. Some repeating students and some new, a good mix and all very nice people. I worked them hard and they said they enjoyed it! We spent the morning doing a variety of colour pencil test using wax based (standard) style of colour pencil. Lots of work on how to use primary colours, complimentary, blending, layering, etc. Then they put all those tests together and drew a marble - tricky subject but I was really happy with what they all did. Here is my quick 15-20 minute demo drawing along with some pencil tests I had done previously similar to what the class did today:

Then I asked the group to do a more difficult subject - one of the many silver spoons in my Op-shop collection that I have brought with me. They needed to observe the shape and sketch it first in graphite, once satisfied transfer the basic outline to a sheet of hot press paper. Then to look for different cool and warm colours in the spoon, noting how the reflections affected the various hues. They needed to create these hues with layers of colour pencil, blend the hues with a white pencil, then add any required tones with graphite. 

They did amazing work! Silver is a difficult subject and they created wonderful studies. Again, I was very pleased with what they did.

This was the very quick one hour demo I did to start them off.

We also discovered the joy of an electric eraser for adding highlights!

More tomorrow...

Camp Creative Prep

https://www.campcreative.com.au/

Camp Creative in Bellingen NSW starts next Monday and it looks like I have a full class! 

We will be working on colour pencils all week, layering, texture, reflections, form composition, colour theory, the difference between types of pencils - all the colour pencil questions answered!

We will be exploring the differences between 'standard' and aquarelle style pencils, focusing on the human portrait and on found objects. As prepartion I have done works for display and examination (powerpoint step by step) and will also demonstrate from scratch. Here is the example of a Macaw feather drawing done with wash techniques and dry aquarelle colour pencil on hot press paper.

It looks like it will be a fun week, beautiful weather and lots of drawing to be done! I hope to post a work everyday to show you our progress. 

Why not consider joining us next year in Beautiful Bello?

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!