Chore Day, Jan 18, 2020 -- Doodling

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Myy Saturday chores were exactly the same as last week: shopping, cooking, etc.

After I finished my chores, I spent some time doodling in an effort to draw some figures that are cuter than what I usually draw. One thing I consciously did not do was hatching. I love hatching. I hatch everything possible, but I see that hatching is not at all cute. It makes cute things look dark, heavy, and serious. Hatching is off the table. It looks like I’ll have to exercise a little restraint, if I have any in me.

doodles_jan182020_blog.png doodles, cuteness, cute, kawaii, sketches, pen and ink

Al Fresco Art Club Challenge, Dec. 15, 2019 -- Pen and Watercolor

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Today’s challenge was to do an ink drawing then color it one way or another. I inked with my Pentel brush pen and painted with my Cotman watercolors. The image was copied from the example of Swiss Design in the awesome Retro Graphics, by Raimes and Bhaskran. I’ve mentioned this book before — it’s been helpful and inspiring to me as I learn the basics of color and graphic design.

Al Fresco Art Club, Dec 1, 2019 -- Pen and Wash Day

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It’s been a dreary day, a SAD (Seasonal Affective Disorder) day. I’m located on the south side of a mountain. In the winter I get about 4 hours of sunlight a day. Today was a little different: I started having dreams of moving to Southern California.

I did feel a flicker of cheer as the sunlight entered the living room for a few minutes. Then it disappeared behind the mountains and I instantly began to feel blue.

At the Al Fresco Art club meeting I decided to paint another self-portrait with my trusty Pentel brush pen and my St Petersburg White Nights water colors on Canson Mix Media paper.

Smoofy the UPS Driver and Selfie

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Happy Friday. The last couple of days I’ve been sketching right after I get out of bed. These were drawn before sunrise (6 AM around here). I really like using a brush pen — you do everything in one shot, with no pencil work to get the shapes right. You just push the pedal to the metal and go for it. What you get is just what you’ve got to give. I used a brush pen that’s starting to run dry, which contributes to the grainy texture that I like.

Jimmy Jay holding his butterfly buddy

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Jimmy Jay, the protagonist of The Jay That Fell Down the Chimney, is holding his pal, Buddy Butterfly. I used a Pentel Pocket Ink brush for the inking. I have two of them, one comes to a nice point, and the other is a almost blunt — that’s the one I used for this drawing. I learned that it’s unwise to use a blunt brush when lots of fine lines are needed.

An hour before I started drawing I was looking through Albrecht Durer’s woodcuts. I really like his clouds and skies. I can say that I need to practice drawing parallel lines and practice keeping even pressure on the ink brush.