Christmas cards 2014

Here they are, my Christmas cards for 2014, I chose to do our local birds, I chose not to write anything on the face of the card so that the card could be framed if the recipient wishes. I might do a few more, if I do, I'll post those as well.

I used Derwent Inktense Blocks and Derwent Inktense Pencils to draw and paint these images, I am drawing/painting on heavy card stock. Enjoy!

Continuing the Christmas Cards-with a video

I have most of the Christmas cards done, just a few more to go. Today I tried something new, I have been wanting to record myself painting but didn't have a tripod or other setup to do so, I mentioned to PB that I wanted to do this and made a suggestion about one method, mounting the camera to the board I'm painting upon.

PB stopped working on his project and immediately began working on mine, in less than an hour, I had the first prototype, I created this first video using that. It worked pretty well, though the video was upside down, I used Microsoft Movie Maker to fix that, I also sped up the video to 2X, otherwise it would just be way too long.

Another fun feature of MMM is the ability to do a voiceover, add text, intros and such, it's fun and easy to use.

This video is one of the Christmas cards I'm making, this bird is a Dark Eyed Junco, also known as a Gray Headed Junco. This is one of our local birds.

I am using Derwent Inktense Blocks and Derwent Inktense Pencils to draw and paint this image, I am drawing/painting on heavy card stock. Sorry for the strange sound about 3:10, my dog barked in the original video and I wasn't able to edit it out before I uploaded the video.... since the video is sped up, the bark sounds strange.

Starting my Christmas cards 2014

I've been working on Christmas cards, I have just under half of them done, may do even more than I did last year, not sure yet.... anyhoo, this year I decided on a theme, our local birds, my criteria is they need to be colorful and easy for me to do, I would love to do crazy quail or a roadrunner, but those birds have a speckled pattern, mostly with white speckles, something I don't feel comfortable tackling now.

So far the birds I have painted are tufted titmouse, scarlet tanager, acorn woodpecker, Scott's oriole, and white breasted nuthatch.

I am using the Derwent Inktense pencils and blocks, I lightly sketch out the bird in pencil, then painted in the color. The paper is just plain old white 8.5x11 cardstock. I'll add the name of the bird and my signature on the front of the card, I'll write the sentiment on the inside and give them out, this way if the receiver wishes to, they can frame it.

I am having a really good time doing it. Here are the ones I have so far:

acorn woodpecker

scarlet tanager

scarlet tanager

white breasted nuthatch

tufted titmouse

scarlet tanager

Scott's oriole

Scott's oriole

white breasted nuthatch

Inktense blocks

Hey y'all, it's been a while, I've been working a new job that has been taking up all my time and energy, but that is a good thing, I love working in merchandising and I get to drive all over west Texas, so I am getting some great snapshots for reference material to do some drawings and paintings.

One quick thing I wanted to let you know about, after getting and using my Inktense pencils, I fell in love with the medium, I wanted to try out the Inktense blocks, turns out they are an even better bargain than the pencils, you get more for your money.

I planned on getting the smaller pack Inktense blocks (24 count) and the price was pretty good on Amazon, then I saw the bigger pack Inktense blocks (36 count) for just $5.00 more! I snapped them up pronto, they were out of stock at the time but sent them as soon as they got them in stock, this is the best price I've seen on the Inktense blocks, so if you have been wanting to try them out, get them here so you can get the best price too :)

Derwent Inktense pencils, I love them!

I'm back and in color! My birthday was last week, I was going to buy this as a gift to myself when I found out my friend ordered it for me, yeah! Derwent Inktense Pencils

I have been fascinated with them for a LONG time, they work like a colored pencil, watercolor pencil and ink all at the same time. You can lay down color then go over it with water like watercolor, then once it's dry, the pigment is permanent like ink.

I played around a bit with them as soon as I got them home, here are the two things I did, both are flowers, you can click the image to view full size:

The yellow flower above, I did that on Pen Sketcher's paper, 11"x8.5", it says it's a heavyweight paper made for pencil, pen and ink & pens, recommended for Prismacolor markers, I will say the paper is smooth, very smooth, but I wouldn't call it heavy, you can't go over something multiple times if the medium is wet otherwise the paper rolls up and buckles. I'll use that paper for strictly ink work, but nothing wet, I would question how well markers would work on this.

The next flower below, a nightshade that resides in my front yard, that was done on Strathmore Mixed Media 300 series paper, 9"x12", vellum surface, now THAT is some paper to use in this method, it IS thick, smooth, takes the colored pencil well and more importantly, it takes the moisture well without buckling or falling apart when you go over it multiple times.

 This is the Derwent Inktense Pencils, I got the 24 pack.

I used a waterbrush to activate the pencil to ink, you can see my waterbrushes 2 pictures above, they are on the left of the computer, one has a blue band and the other has a red band, there is a third in the set. An idea I had and it works is to use a Koi colorless blender brush pen to do some of the fine work, it blends the pencil/ink without causing it to bleed, I was very impressed with how that worked. Hopefully with my new camera, and if I can find my tripod, I'll make an attempt at doing a video

I am quite happy with them, I'll go over to my friend's house tomorrow and we can both play with these pencils, I can't wait to see what we create.

Doodle # 35

I did this doodle while sitting in jury duty, not actually IN jury duty, but waiting with the rest of the potential selectees, it is a monotangle of Paradox, I just started making triangle shapes, then filling them with Paradox, I left one triangle blank. It's funny, now that it's finished, I can't find the original triangle shapes, the tangle Paradox has an interesting way of blurring the original space-shape that is being filled. After drawing it in with ink, I used a graphite pencil to shade it.

I chose this tangle because I didn't have to think too much, I could just do it over and over and still pay attention to what was going on in the room. I ended up being there all day, I made it through the first 2 thinning where they cut people loose, it was at the final selection that I was cut loose, I am glad I didn't have to sit on that jury, I understand it took another 3 days, I wouldn't have minded being on a jury that only lasts a day.

I believe I was the only person who brought anything to jury duty, you couldn't take anything electronic, no cell phones, no tablets, not even a MP3 player, most of the other potential jurors were very antsy with nothing to do, they couldn't even tell what time it was without their electronic gadgets to tell them. I have one more month to be on call for jury duty, it's not a bad thing.

I used a Strathmore Visual Journal with watercolor paper in it, 5.5"X8". I used a Sakura Micron Pen in 01,  Ticonderoga pencil to shade it.

Imaginary Animals #1

I finally dug out my book on Drawing and Painting Imaginary Animals by Carla Sonheim, this book is about seeing creatures in ordinary everyday things, like faces in wood-grain, critters in the clouds and such. Today I was sitting at my desk and saw this little thing sitting on the floor, even though it looks like a bug, it's really a piece of dry dead grass with some roots attached, one of the dogs must have brought it in on their fur. In this little piece of grass I could see a flea, a moth, and a bird, the only artist's prerogative I took with it was the size and the colors on it. The shape of it is pretty much as it looks.

I used a journal I just got, a Strathmore Visual Journal with watercolor paper in it, 5.5"X8". I used a Ticonderoga pencil to sketch it, then I used Sakura Koi Coloring Brush Pen and a waterbrush to give it a watercolor look and blend it. I finished it with Sakura Micron Pen in 005. I might add some highlights with a white gel pen, but for now I'm enjoying it as it is.

Got (creative) juice? Need juice?

This is a GREAT way to get your creative juices flowing

direct link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dd0pM3ZZV8w