Owner: Pen,Pencil & Paper URL:http://www.penpencilpaper.blogspot.com Join Date: Sat, 19 Aug 2006 07:41:41 -0500 Rating:1 Site Description: Sketches and drawings from life and other fun things in a Moleskine. Site statistics:Click here
New Sketches 2006-08-23 00:59:00
I have been so busy, teaching a drawing class for one thing and doing a lot of plein air painting and art shows for another that my drawing time has been severly limited :( I've also had some problems with my scanner:( But I do have some new sketches to share today! The soup, roll and white tea was lunch at Bruewiler's Bakery which is right downstairs from the art center where I teach and my daughter takes lessons. We stopping in fo lunch one Saturday after her animation class. My daughter is into a card game based on the Japanese anime show Yu-Gi-Oh! and every couple of months they have tournements and she likes to go and that's the room full of people you see here. After the tournement we went for an early supper and I drew the salt/pepper and sugarbowl. Hopefully there will be more sketches soon.
sketching
drawing
moleskine Read more:Sketches
Posting Again, Finally!! 2006-07-27 02:00:00
Busy, busy, busy!!! I bet you tought I wasn't posting because I wasn't drawing LOL
Not so! Actually I'm teaching a drawing class right now, also have an oil painting student, doing lots of plein air painting and continuing with the Flower-a-Day series. Oh yeah and then there's the rest of my life, husband, three teenagers, dog, rabbit and turtle and garden to take care of LOL I need sleep!! Here we have #8 black boot and 9 Oriental vase from the WetCanvas scavenger hunt which I am woefully behind in. Someone won the first hunt and they are well into the second now. I'm left in the dust! The others are in my large moleskine cinnaomn raisin bagel from Dunkin' Donuts, Cafe Allegra a restaurant down town which never got finished because it started to rain, and the prayer garden at the new school my daughter will be attending in the fall. I went for the bagel and sketched while she was taking entrance tests. I'm hoping to get back into the sketching groove again, I miss it w Read more:Posting
, Again
, Finally
My New Small Moleskine 2006-07-13 20:23:00
I have a new small size moleskine that I'm carrying around in my pocketbook in an effort to create more opportunities to sketch. I also carry the landscape set of Faber-Castell brush pens, and I'm thinking that I will need the "bright" set too. That should give me enough colors to tackle man-made and natural subjects. I am sooo hooked on these moleskins!
sketching
drawing
moleskine Read more:Small
, Moleskine
Squidoo 2006-07-13 02:02:00 First there were websites, then blogs and now lenses! Yes, you guessed it there's a new craze taking over cyberspace! Squidoo
.com allows you to build a free "lens", a single page on the internet that allows you to share, links, photos, music, videos, on any topic you choose. I've built a lens in conjunction with ArtByUs.com, a site that I sometimes use to auction paintings. This single page hosts my bio, links to and describes all my blogs, shows examples of my artwork, and (if I can ever get the link to work!) links over to my auctions/sales at Art By Us. Pretty cool! One really neat thing is that RSS feeds will update automatically, so snippets of my latest posts from my blogs will be timely and allow you to simply click on the headline to switch over to the blog and read the whole thing. The other enticing thing about lenses is that they automatically come with relevant advertising and you can earn money automatically if purchases are made from your lens. You may have noticed the
Sketching Scavenger Hunt 2006-07-11 00:53:00
The Artwork From Life Forum over at WetCanvas is hosting a sketching scavenger hunt! They have posted a list of 26 items, the first person to sketch them from life (no photo references) wins. These are my first 7 entries, the pitcher is done with a Derwent terracotta pencil, the hat with Aquamonolith pencils and some H2O, the broccoli, the vacuum cleaner, the geranium with Faber-Castell Pitt brush pens, the dog a 2H pencil, the boy at the computer a sepia Chinese brush pen. If you'd like to participate, it's not too late just get over to WetCanvas and sign up. If you'd just like to take a peek at what everyone is doing here's the thread.
sketching
drawing
art Read more:Sketching
, Scavenger
Lots of Blind Contours 2006-07-09 13:51:00
I was first introduced to "blind contour" drawing in high school and have loved it ever since. Just recently I learned about Niff and Sutter's Blind
Contour First Friday
. Niff and Sutter are the authors/illustrators over at Inkfinger, a fabulous blog. They choose a topic for the first Friday of every month for a blind contour drawing and people participate and share their results. I didn't get on the list for this month but I'll be participating from now on! Now, if you think I can't draw worth a hill of beans based on these sketches LOL let me tell you what a "blind contour" drawing is. A blind contour drawing is made by looking only at your subject, you're not allowed to look down at your paper and you're not allowed to lift you pen off the paper, the drawing must be made in one continuous line. You might be thinking at this point "what good is that? The results are terrible!!" This exercise is not about results it's about training your eye and your hand
The 4th of July!! 2006-07-05 00:27:00
Went down to the beach this afternoon before the thunderstorms began to roll through. The beach is less than 10 min. away and I usually don't go on holidays too crowded LOL but I thought it would be fun to sketch all the beach-goers. The building is the nature center.All in my new moleskine, with my favorite Faber-Castell brush pens!
sketching
drawing
art
moleskine
Hammonasset State Park 1970-01-01 00:59:59 I bet you thought I'd given up sketching!! NOT! It's just that we've had such rainy, dreary weather for so long I haven't been able to get out and I wasn't motivated to sketch indoors. Today we finally had sunshine and I made the most of it painting and sketching all afternoon. These are all done at a local state park, one of my favoriten places to go. All in the large moleskine, with uniball vision pen and Yarka watercolors. You can check out the painting I did today at Art & Life my plein air blog.sketchingdrawingmoleskinewatercolorplein air Read more:State
June 1st in the Garden 1970-01-01 00:59:59 It was perfect day for sketching in the garden! I took almost the whole day to look, draw,paint and just enjoy being in the garden on a perfect day. The peonies are in full bloom and are so frilly and voluptuous!! The iris come in a close second! The page with the color swatches was an exercise in color mixing. I sat in the shade and looked out into the garden and picked a color an then tried to match it as nearly as I could. So those are some of the colors I saw in the garden today. On the opposite page I wrote about the day..."An exqusite day! The fog and mist of the morning has burned off. The sun is glowing and warm, a slight breeze cools things. The peonies, iris, roses, salvia, geraniums are all in full bloom. The air is still and warm...bird song~ cardinal, mourning dove, wren, chickadee, even the crow sounds beautiful today. Inchworms swing in the breeze on their silky cords, the bees romance the flowers, butterflies linger onver nectar, the dog lies in the shade. There is a sw Read more:Garden
Gardening Day 1970-01-01 00:59:59 A perfect day....gardening and sketching!! Lots of fun! Uniball vision pen, w/ Yarka watercolors in the moleskine(large). I have a little trouble with the Yarkas sticking to the opposite page when I close the book. I've remedied that by spraying the pages lightly with Krylon clear matt acrylic spray. Only problem is when I'm out and about sketching. I don't want to drag along a can of spray. I'm thinking that I might be able to bring a small jar of acrylic varnish and brush that on.sketchingdrawingartmoleskinewatercolor
Lobster and American History 1970-01-01 00:59:59 Today was my daughter's birthday! I dragged the poor thing to an art sale I was participating in to raise funds for three historic homes that are now museums. I painted in the colonial revival garden it was BEAUTIFUL!!. You can see that painting and read all about the fascinating history of the homes on my painting blog Art & Life. The sketch with the buildings is the back of one of the homes, the Webb House and part of the gardens. Since it was my daughters birthday I took her to a nearby Red Lobster
restaurant for a birthday lunch of lobster tails!! The Webb House sketch was done with my new Faber-Castell India Ink brush pens, the landscape set, with the addition of a few Sarassa gel pens. Interestingly enough if I go over the gell pen with the Faber-Castell, the gel pen kind of liquifies and makes a wash of sorts. A very nice effect for blending and getting more colors. The Lobster and Pina Colada are uniball vision and Yarka watercolor. All in the large moleskine.sketchingdraw Read more:American
, History
, American History
Yarka Gouache 1970-01-01 00:59:59 Today I tried out my new set of Yarka Gouache (rhymes with squash!). Gouache are water based paints and can loosley be described as opaque watercolors. They have intense color, dry matt, dry quickly and have good coverage and blending ability. They also "take" on the moleskine paper better than watercolor. These were awefully fun as they are very creamy and feel nice as you push the piant around with your brush. I have some reservations with the lightfastness of the colors, but I'm not concerned about that aspect for sketchbook work. I'll be doing several more gouache sketches to really get a good feel for them, so check back soon!moleskinepaintinggouache
Gnome 1970-01-01 00:59:59 Classic American Kitsch! When I was a kid our neighbors had a meticulously manicured yard and garden that was populated by an entire clan of garden gnomes LOL! My imagination ran wild, it was like a fantasy, fairytale land where anything was possible. I guess I've never lost that, being a big Hobbit, Lord of the Rings, Narnia fan as an adult. However, I drew the line when it came to my garden...no gnomes! I do have lots of garden statuary, enough so that sometimes I wonder whether I have a garden with sculpture or a sculpture garden with flowers LOL! Anyway this year I decided what the heck....partly due to that ridiculously funny Travelocity commercial. So one of my kids got me garden gnome for Mother's Day! Well there goes the neighborhood LOL!!Derwent 2H graphite pencil, aquamonolith colored pencils in the moleskine.sketchingdrawingartmoleskine Read more:Gnome
gazebo, pansies and geraniums 1970-01-01 00:59:59 Been real busy of late....work around the house, in the garden, plein air painting...but always time for few sketches. I'm about 1/2 way through my new moleskine, so I bought another large and and I'm going to try out the small size. It was so cute I couldn't resist!! Ok...here are the details: the double spread of geraniums, the gazebo
and pansies, are uniball vision pen w/yarka watercolors. These are semi-moist pan watercolors and if you don't water them down too much they don't bead up on the moleskine paper. The geraniums at dusk are ebony design pencil and aquamonolith colored pencils.
Flowers and more Flowers 1970-01-01 00:59:59 All these flowers were used as part of my Flower-a-Day painting project. Since they were all still lovely and fresh I decided to put them in the moleskine too. The flowers in the glass were done with my wonderful set of Sarasa gel pens + a little colored pencil, and the lilacs were done with a sepia micron 05 pen + colored pencil. I really love this about sketching the many different materials available and how easy it is to combine them and switch back and forth.sketchingdrawingartmoleskineflowers Read more:Flowers
Oliver's Tavern 1970-01-01 00:59:59 Had a fun lunch with my daughter at Oliver
's Tavern
we were both sketching away and enjoying some huge burgers LOL.Uniball Vision pen in the moleskine.sketchingdrawingmoleskine
Dress Rehersal 1970-01-01 00:59:59 Tonight my daughter had a dress rehersal for her dance recital. It was very challenging trying to capture all those very excited little girls dancing and wiggling about. I quickly found out that I couldn't draw quick enough to get even gesture drawings of the girls doing tap or hip hop but the ballet classes weren't too bad especially the older girls who hold their poses longer. I didn't draw my daughter who had a solo performance I was too busy watching!Moleskine, uniball vision pen, yarka watercolors.sketchingdrawingmoleskineballetdance
Man at The Orthodontist and Iris 1970-01-01 00:59:59 Man at the Orthodontist, sounds like it could be the title of a Hitchcock movie LOL! I'm not very confident when it comes to sketching people, and though it's a bit nerve wracking I'm going to continue doing them IN PEN, so I don't get timid with the pencil and keep erasing over and over to get it right...just do lots and lots of people sketches in pen until I see improvement. The iris is the first one blooming in my garden this year. You can see an oil painting of this iris at Art&Life, click the link in the sidebar.Uniball Vision pen, Yarka watercolors in the moleskine.sketchingdrawingartmoleskinewatercoloriris
Playing with Gouache 1970-01-01 00:59:59 I took some time today to get better acquainted with my Yarka Gouache. The chimnea is handled more like an illustration, flat areas of bold color, with black accent lines. If I ever illustrate a book I think I would choose to do it in gouache. This one was done in the moleskine. The Begonias in the pot a are handled more lik a watercolor and were done in my Lama Li watercolor journal which has handmade 100% rag paper. The strawflowers were approached just like I would an oil painting and was done on multi-media board. The gouache is turning out to be very flexible and a lot of fun!gouache
Machu Picchu at the Natural History Museum 1970-01-01 00:59:59 It was pouring rain today so no plein air painting, but a fabulous day to go to the museum! Unfortunately, everyone else thought so too and it was a little crowded. The museum is the Peabody Museum
of NaturalHistory
in New Haven CT. I love going on weekends because you can park free in the parking lot of the Yale University Geology Lab which is right next door. The special summer exhibit this year is about Machu
Picchu the center of the Inca civilization, in Peru during the 15th century, approximatley the same time as the Aztec civilization in Mexico. When I first arrived I knew I'd have to go to the dinosaur hall and sketch one of those behemoths first LOL! Today I chose the stegosauraus. The hall was crowded especially with kids and more than a few little ones bawled in fright when they encountered the T-Rex head and the Dinonicus, making it hard for me to concentrate. So I left for Machu Picchu
. The exhibit began with a short 7 min. informative film. Machu Picchu was discovered by
The Elephant's Trunk 1970-01-01 00:59:59 On Sunday I went to a really, really big outdoor flea market called The Elephant's Trunk
. I take my son there every year for his birthday. He just turned 16. We're both flea market/antique show enthusiasts. This is such a festive and fun place we had a blast and bought some neat stuff too! These three sketches complete my first moleskine sketchbook!! I have another one ready to go, can't wait to begin it. I have to think of a really good place to got and sketch because I always like a new sketchbook to have a really nicely done sketch on the first page. That kind of sets the tone for the whole book. It's all in my head, I know it's just a sketchbook LOL Uniball vision pen, and Faber-Castell brush pens...love those things!~sketchingdrawingartThe Elephant's Trunk
Classical Bust 1970-01-01 00:59:59 I've never had instruction in drawing the human head or painting portraits. Well I'll revise that we did learn how to draw the human head in the first 2 weeks of drawing 101 in college, but that was it. Since I've never really had any interest in painting portraits it's a skill I've never developed. But I have this friend Marc who's a teriffic artist and works in the classical style and he says that an artist should be able to draw or paint anything. He's also a cracker jack sculptor and paints in several mediums. Humpf!! Now I have it in my head that I need to slay this dragon!! To that end I bought this faux classical bust at Homegoods for $10.00 a couple of months ago. She will be my uncomplaining model who can stay still for forever while I noodle away at getting eyes and nose and mouth drawn correctly. So this is the first attempt. It took a long time and was hard work! It doesn't really look all that much like the statue LOL I hope next time it's a little easier!! 2H pen
Waiting at the Orthodontist 1970-01-01 00:59:59 Making good use of time here. Did this while I was waiting for my daughter during her orthodontist appointment. All the poor parents bored and waiting, especially poor after putting braces on their kids teeth at an astronomical cost LOL. Large Moleskine, uniball vision pen and Faber-Castell Brush Pens.sketchingdrawingartmoleskine Read more:Waiting
The 10th Annual International Sketchcrawl 1970-01-01 00:59:59 Today was the 10th International
Sketchcrawl. People all over the world gathered in groups or went out individually and sketched their world!! That's exciting!! You can check out the whole thing at the Sketchcrawl Forum. I also had a paint out today so I painted first then sketched my painting set up. By then it was 1:00 and HOT so a lunch break and a yummy icy drink, then back for more sketching. All this took place at the Florence Griswold Museum of American Impressionism, Old Lyme, CT. Everything is in the large moleskine, uniball vision pen and my new set of 48 Faber-Castell brush pens...heavenly!! If you'd like to see my painting from today check it out at Art & Life.sketchingdrawingflorence griswold museumsketchcrawlmoleskine Read more:Annual
Formal Gardens at Eolia 1970-01-01 00:59:59 Today I went to Harkness State Park, which includes Eolia, the Harkness mansion and several formal gardens. What a treat!! The weather wasn't really great, it was overcast and sprinkled lightly now and then but this place was beautiful none the less. Edward and Mary Harkness inherited a huge fortune from Edward's father who was a silent partner of John D. Rockefeller in the Standard Oil Corporation. Eolia is a 42 room Italianate mansion over looking Long Island Sound. It was one of their seven homes, and named after the island home of the Greek god of the winds Aeolus. Eolia was also once a working farm that included a prize herd of Guernsey cows, and an orchard and greenhouses. The west (Italian) garden's layout and paths were designed by James Gamble Rogers' firm and between 1918 and 1929 Beatrix Farrand, niece of novelist Edith Wharton, and one of the original founders of the American Society of Landscape Architects, designed new plantings for the Italian garden. She also design Read more:Gardens
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