Over the 4th of July holiday we went camping at Indian Lake and it was HOT! I want to call this a watercolor sketch that was done en plein air (outdoors), but truth be told I was sitting in the air conditioned camper looking out of the window. I cannot get the colors quite right, the blue in my actual painting is not so bright. Oh if I only knew how to use my computer a little better, it is an old mac and I have always had Windows in the past so there is a learning curve. There is a group of artist here in Findlay that meet every Wednesday morning for an hour to paint en plein air at a different park in the area. I went twice and it was nice to meet everyone and talk about painting. So long story short that is the reason I was interested in trying to paint en plein air. This is done with my Yarka watercolor set with a water brush in an 8X5 Moleskine watercolor sketchbook. This sketchbook has not had enough use, the first pages are from the Arizona state fair in 2006 and I am only 5 pages in.

Mandy and I were outside at dusk when she saw the first star in the sky and she said "I wish I would have a dog that would turn into a lightning bug and I could ride it up to that rainbow". The rainbow she was talking about was the sun set. So I thought I would attempt to make this into a drawing. I am never happy with the way my people come out but I am overall happy with the drawing. It is in gouache with the writing in black pen in my big sketchbook. I was having a bit of trouble figuring out how to use my scanner, the quality will improve after a few images and I get past the learning curve. I have such a hard time filling a sketchbook because I can never just work on one at a time.

I  have decided to try to keep a sketchbook blog again since I have been focusing on drawing and painting a lot more recently. Here is a page that changed everything. I decided to test my cheap MBGI-WAP gouache in the sketchbook I have been working in and it worked out very well. It wrinkled the paper a bit but that is ok, it goes on smooth and is easy to use. Then I started obsessing over gouache and watching youtube videos and digging through pintrest for examples and then I ordered some Holbein gouache. Well you will see, this is just the first step.

Drawing The Medary School

About a week ago I went for a short walk looking for something to draw. I sat on the steps of a church and drew part of The Medary School. It is a huge old school that is still being used. It has a lot of interesting architectural details and was pretty fun and challenging to draw. It was very windy that day so it was also a challenge to hold the paper down and keep my hair out of my face while I was drawing. While I was sitting on the steps a mocking bird was sitting up on a wire entertaining me with its songs. One of the sounds it made was a hawk, which was funny. I wonder if the other birds can tell that it is not a real hawk sound. I didn't draw anything all last week, I need to get back into the habit. 

Drawing Shells

I picked a couple of shells out of my collection to draw. I set up some rules in my head about these drawings. No black lines and try to just lay the color where it is. Easier said than done. I did these drawings with my Crayola Markers. Do you ever set up rules for a drawing before you start?

Cowboy Doodle

This is another doodle drawing from Friday night when I was drinking Woodchuck Hard Cider and the guys were working on amplifiers. Pandora Radio was on and a song about a cowboy came on and sparked this drawing. I colored it the next day with my new Crayola Markers.

doodles

I drew this silly page Friday night while I was drinking some Woodchuck Hard Cider. I am not a big drinker but that stuff is good! The bird is in the likeness of my old pet Quaker Parrot, Olive. There is a weird water dinosaur creature, a flying woolly worm, a clarinet, so many weird things in this doodle! I drew it with my trusty PITT Artist Superfine Pen. The next day I decided I needed some Crayola Markers so I went and picked some up at Target then came home and colored this page. Some people out there may not take Crayola Markers seriously as a drawing medium but I have used all kinds of fancy markers and haven't found any so vibrant! Also they are now really environmental as a company and use recycled plastic for the marker barrels. I have drawings I did with Crayolas from over 10 years ago and the color has held up great! I just bought the bold colors but I really should have went for the 64 pack! I can't believe they have 64 different colored markers! The only trouble with the big pack is that they are short, made for little kid hands. I didn't draw anything for about a week but in the past couple of days I have done quite a few drawings so I think my little dry spell is over. Sometimes life just gets too hectic!