Coloring Books - Experimenting

Adult coloring books are all the rage right now, I hope it's not just a fad and will be around for a good long time. I'm even considering tossing my name in the hat of creating coloring books.

But for now, I'm just playing with what's out there. Of course I can't leave well enough alone, I must push the boundaries of what can be done. Most coloring books are not meant to be archival, meaning the paper isn't the best, in order to keep the price low enough for people to want to buy, the publishers are using the only slightly better paper for the adult coloring books vs the children's books. If you are just coloring with inexpensive colored pencils or even crayons, that works out OK, but if you want to use wet media, markers or watercolor (pencils or paint), then the average adult coloring book paper leaves a lot to be desired.

As a result, many colorist will scan the pages and print them out on better paper, from cardstock to higher end art papers such as Bristol board and watercolor paper. If you have a laser printer, you are pretty much set to go from there, but many of us use ink jet printers, and unless you have a printer that will use a higher end ink that doesn't smear once dry, you will have a problem the moment you add anything wet to the page, the ink will most likely smear. Of course using dry media is fine on ink jet printouts, but if you are going to use watercolor or something else that is wet, you are heading for disappointment.

I just happen to belong to several Bible art journaling groups, and one thing most Bibles have in common is thin thin thin pages, and nearly anything you put on them, especially the wetter mediums, will nearly always bleed through, so the resourceful artists tried using clear gesso and even matte gel mediums on the paper and discovered it works great, it strengthens the paper, it protects the paper, it helps prevent bleed through. Guess what? This works GREAT for coloring book pages and the pages you print out.

I began to experiment with ink jet printouts on inexpensive (cheap) printer paper, I have coated the pages with clear gesso and also tried matte gel medium, so far I prefer the matte gel medium. I discovered that the clear gesso can cause the ink to smear a bit, but the matte gel medium does not affect the ink jet ink in any way, and one coat is sufficient. Be sure you use a MATTE finish product, anything that is glossy or shiny will not take the color you are trying to apply very well.

Here is a page I painted using Derwent Inktense blocks and pencils, I was liberal with the moisture and had no bleed through, the paper didn't fall apart, the page took the Inktense very well, in fact, it allowed me to treat it more like a watercolor in that I was able to lift some of the color in places to create highlights. Derwent Inktense applies and works like watercolor, but it is in fact an ink that dries permanently so you can do multiple washes without affecting the layer below.

I have not tried painting or coloring on a page with the clear gesso yet, that will be an upcoming project. I have read from other artists that using colored pencils is better over the clear gesso vs the matte gel medium because of the "tooth" that is created by the gesso. I will tell you that with the matte gel medium, the brand doesn't seem to matter, I use Liquitex matte gel medium, but in the clear gesso, it does matter, most of them are too rough to use markers over, they will ruin your markers, Liquitex clear gesso seems to be the worst, the better brands (smoother finish) are Art Basics clear gesso by Prima, Dina Wakley clear gesso by Ranger, and Tri-Art clear gesso.

This picture is from The Amazing World of Horses, just to recap, this was printed out on cheap printer paper with an ink jet printer, I coated one layer of Liquitex matte gel medium, let that dry then painted with Derwent Inktense blocks and pencils, let me know what you think :)

Bible Art Journaling

I have been turned on to another art practice, it's called Bible Art Journaling, it's a way to combine art with the Bible. There are many groups on FaceBook, Pinterest, YouTube and the such with wonderful artists displaying their journaling Bibles. I finally jumped in and purchased 2 notetakers Bibles, these have wide blank margins on the side of each page where you can write notes, or create art to illustrate (or illuminate) a particular scripture or chapter.

This is the first one I have done, I bought 2 Bibles because I wanted to give one to a good friend of mine, who is also an artist and LOVES to write in her Bibles, I have seen some of her Bibles that have more ink that she added than the original text, and that is a good thing, that means she is really involved in her walk with the Lord.

I did this lion, it illuminates the scripture Proverbs 28:1b ...but the righteous are bold as a lion.

This is what I put in the front of the Bible, I searched for an appropriate quote to express my feelings to my friend, I am happy with this. The flowers I learned how to do from a very talented artist Michelle Hotchkiss, you can see the video tutorial she did below.

Wood Post Painting Finished

Here it is, my wooden fence post is complete, I did finish it the day I said I would, but haven't had the chance to post anything about it lately, been working some crazy hours, not complaining, I love my job (merchandising), I do get to drive all over some beautiful country and this spring, the wildflowers were gorgeous, I stopped more than once to grab a photo of a flower, fence post or sunset.

Here is the finished painting, I added the rusty wire and tweaked it here and there. This picture is now some 500 miles east of here in my mother-in-law's house, she plans on framing it and hanging it on the wall, quite a compliment, she is a wonderful artist in her own right.

Sorry for the copyright stuff, but unfortunately there are those few unscrupulous folk who take advantage....

I'm sure I'll be doing this painting again, it's turning into an old friend :) I will most likely omit the branches that hang down in the upper right, they are in the original photo, but I just don't like how they look in the painting. I am happier with how the wood post turned out, and the pine tree on the left, it looks more like the tree in the original photo.

Wretha

Wooden Post Landscape part deux WIP

I really enjoyed painting the first Wooden Post Landscape picture, but knew I wanted to do it again, I started last week, worked on it today (yesterday now) for about 2 hours each time, I am so happy with how this one is turning out, there is much more detail and more accuracy in this one, I love painting and drawing wood, the post is much more like the real post out in my yard, especially the old nail holes. One thing I did differently than the original photo is I made the mountains more prominent, they almost vanish in the background, so I made them stand up a bit higher.

Of course right now this is a WIP, not finished yet, I hope to get it done after church tomorrow, I need to work on the closer dark branches on the right, and I need to add the old, curled, rusty fence wire. I must study how the wire moves away on the right side to make the perspective look right.

I created this using Fluid Watercolor block paper, hot press finish, 9x12, so far I have painted with Derwent Inktense Blocks, I'll use Derwent Inktense Pencils to do the wire fence.

Another thing I've started, well actually I'm waiting for 2 note takers Bibles to arrive, I am going to start Bible art journaling, I am very excited to do this, I hope the Bibles show up this next week, though I doubt I'll have time to start anything because it's going to be a very busy week at work, perhaps by the following weekend I can start... I'll post more about this as things start to happen. :)

Wooden post landscape

My muse struck again, this time I decided to paint from one of my photos of the property.

This is the view looking toward the west, the wooden post came from a friend's house, the rusted wire came from a local ranch that was replacing their fencing, we got a few rolls of that wire. Lots of history in the post and wire.

I did this on Fluid Watercolor Blocks, 130 lb, 9x13, I used Derwent Inktense blocks and pencils to paint the picture, I started it about a week ago and put the finishing touches on it today. This is the first time I've used watercolor block paper, it's watercolor paper that is glued down on 2 (or more) sides so you can wet the paper without fear of buckling or warping, I really like it. This is the cold pressed paper, I just ordered the same brand and type but in a hot pressed form, I can't wait to try that.

I plan on painting from the reference photo again, maybe several times, I really like this view, and I need to polish up my trees, they look just fine here, but MY trees are more rounded (more cedar like-less fir like), I also want to improve the mountains in the background and the sky, basically everything, I'm very happy with the wooden post and the rusted wire.

I am giving this to a friend for her birthday, she saw it last week before it was fully completed, she liked it. I'm pretty happy with it too :) This is the first full page landscape painting I have done in quite a number of years, I'm thinking the last time I painted anything like this was over 30 years ago, I'm happy to get back into the swing of painting.

Western Scrub Jay in Derwent Inktense

I am following a wonderful artist Rebekah R Jones, she does art journaling in Bibles, this intrigues me very much, I added more links to Rebekah at the bottom of the page.

This is my second attempt at art journaling in a book, I will eventually start working in a Bible, but want to get better (and more confident) before I start working in my Bible.

Here is my first attempt, I had to find a book I was willing to practice in, fortunately we have a plethora of books around here :) I also went to our local library and local used bookstore recently and found a Bible and another book that lays flat quite nicely. This picture was done in watercolor and ink.

Here is the painting I did today, it was done using Derwent Inktense blocks and pencils, the idea was to make it transparent enough to still be able to read the text below, the picture above I got a bit heavy with the brown on the roof, I am a lot more satisfied with the picture from today, I worked in thin transparent layers, building up each layer until I was happy with the amount of color. You can tell I am happy with this one because I signed it :)

I joined a free site called Paint My Photo, it's a place where very fine photographers upload their photos specifically for artists to use as reference, I have been uploading pictures of my local area, landscapes, animals, flowers and such. This is my first painting done from a photo there.

Rebekah R Jones blog, FaceBook, YouTube, Pinterest.

CRE8365 day 30 - another Scrub Jay in Inktense

This wasn't what I had planned on doing today, certainly wasn't what I was going to do for my daily picture, but a couple of friends came for a visit today, one of them I hadn't seen since before Christmas and had meant to give him one of my bird Christmas cards. Unfortunately I had already given all of them away, I DID have enough, but once people saw them, they started asking for them, how could I say no to that? LOL

Anyhoo, I whipped out my watercolor paper and my  Derwent Inktense pencils and  Derwent Inktense blocks and did this image, I think it's about the 3rd time I've done this same bird, but that's OK, it's one I'm familiar with and I needed to get it done before he left.  

 I think he liked it, I considered doing an Acorn Woodpecker, but I was told he doesn't like them because they peck on his house :)

http://cre8365.com/

CRE8365 Day 13 - Western Scrub Jay in Derwent Inktense

Today's submission is another bird, the Western Scrub Jay, a common bird that lives around us, they are related to the Blue Jay with similar coloring, size and behavior. They are raucous birds, flashy, you often hear them then see a flash of blue as they zip through the air from one tree to the next.

I drew this for my mother in law, a fine artist in her own right, I am making a series of our local birds to send to her in Dallas, a bit of a late Christmas present, I know she will enjoy them.

I drew/painted this using Derwent Inktense pencils and Derwent Inktense blocks, I broke out my "good" paper, Canson XL Series watercolor, 140 lb, 9"x12" (cut in half). I have to say that I LOVE LOVE LOVE using this paper, the previous birds I created for Christmas was done on heavy cardstock, it worked just fine, but I feel like I have graduated to the big time with this watercolor paper, the pigment didn't immediately soak in, I was able to move it around without damaging the paper, I was even able to lift some of the pigment from the paper. I was also able to really wet the paper with water and do some subtle shading.

http://cre8365.com

CRE8365 Day 12 - Happy Kitty Derwent Inktense

I am technically posting this a day late, but I did start working on the image on the 12th, so it's really OK, and besides, there are no hard fast rules about HAVING to get something done each and everyday, though that is what I have set my goal to be.

The prompt for the day was "happy", I couldn't think of anything other than the obligatory yellow smiley face, nothing wrong with that, but I knew I could do more. So I went to Google and search for "happy", the first couple of dozen images were of that obligatory yellow smiley face in all its different forms, then I began to see animals, mostly dogs and cats with smiles, natural ones, not digitally forced into a smile, though there were a few of those, most were just owners snapping pix a happy animal.

I found this cat that reminded me of that lucky cat you often see at Chinese buffet restaurants, the cat has a big smile, closed eyes and a paw up in the air waving at you, there is usually money of some sort associated with this smiling cat.

Here is the painting I created from that image, I used Derwent Inktense blocks and pencils after I sketched it in regular pencil.

 

 http://cre8365.com/

Source image
http://bingeeatingtherapy.com/2014/04/30-easy-ways-happy/

CRE8365 day 8 - Acorn Woodpecker in Derwent Inktense

I slept in today, it was so nice to wake up then turn back over and go back to sleep, that's when I have the most interesting dreams, some of them are bookworthy :)

The dogs began to go nuts which told me someone was here so I got up, sure enough one of our friends had come by, we missed him on Christmas so he didn't get one of my Christmas cards, I wanted him to have one so I asked him to stay a little longer while I whipped out another card. I enjoyed drawing and painting this while he watched and chatted with PB.

As an artist, on occasion, someone will ask me "YOU did this?" or they might say "You DID this?" or "You did THIS?", and I say "Yes", well this time the recipient of the card watched it being created, so there was no doubt as to WHO did it :)

This went along with the theme for Christmas this year, well last year technically.... this is an acorn woodpecker.

 

I am using this as my daily CRE8365 picture.

I also created this image, it goes along with today's theme, "perspective".

http://cre8365.com/

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.