Showing posts with label Botanical Art Journaling. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Botanical Art Journaling. Show all posts

Tuesday, June 24, 2014

Betty's Ficus

 Had a drawing date with Alice and Betty a week after we met to draw in Alice's garden. I had
a page in my art journal that I had sprayed with acrylic ink spray and stencils.  I had made
acrylic ink spray by adding water and droppers of FW acrylic ink to an empty spray bottle.
The colors are subtler than water soluble spray inks like Dylusions but the real attraction for me
is that they are permanent and won't bleed when you layer over them.  I decided to do a drawing
based on the large Ficus tree that Betty had near her drawing table.  I did the drawing with
Derwent InkTense watersoluble pencils and used a brush to move the color around.  I love
patterned backgrounds, like Matisse uses in his paintings so really like this drawing on top of
a patterned background.  Since the ink spray is permanent I could have also used gesso to
white out the areas inside the sketch so that the background pattern would read like the
fabric drapes in Matisse's work.  I think I like the way the pattern looks on the trunk and
branches in this drawing.   I last added watercolor to the pot to give it dimension and washi
tape to bound the page.  I will later post the adjoining pages that also have this washi tape
border.  I last scanned and printed out a copy of this page to make a thank you card for
Betty for her hospitality.  I added more color and detail to the card. Using Gelly Roll Pens.



Drawing in Alice's Garden

Peony Thank You card for Alice

Peonies in Alice's Garden
Pencil sketch with Koi Watercolor and Sharpie Pen



My friend Alice and her husband have a back yard that is entirely given to a vegetable garden and flowers. I was lucky
enough to be invited to paint in her garden. Her peonies were glorious!! Ended up scanning and printing out this piece
to make a card to send to Alice. 

Thursday, March 7, 2013

Urban Sketching

inked pencil sketch with watercolor

I think I've figured out what I want to do for the rest of my life: illustrate the world through travel, Urban Sketching, Botanical Art Journaling and just observing the beauty and fascinating details of the world in general.  

Really excited about taking an Urban Sketching class from Frederick Pichon later this month through Colorado Free University  and I'm also having great fun teaching a Botanical Art Journaling class that started last Sunday.

You know that great feeling you get when the details of life all seem to sort of magnetically align and point to a fork in the road you hadn't really noticed before?  I love observing the world and recording what I see.  I've been wanting to travel to see all the places I teach my students about in my Art History and Humanities classes.  Universe, am I asking too much?  How about if I draw everything I love and am curious about and teach others to do this too?  Deal?