paintings prints and stuff

Cardoon seedhead in Artbar, Gouache and Tinted Charcoal Pencil One of my students, Toni, had promised me some cardoon seedheads and this week brought a big bag of lovely toothy/fluffy/prickly specimens. This one had lost virtually all its scales.  They are so much fun to draw.  It ended up with nearly half the class deciding to have a go.  Cue much concentration and muttering. This was done in my Stillman and Birn Alpha sketchbook (A4), with a mix of Artbars , gouache and Tinted Charcoal penci ls. Mine never did much good in my garden and sadly died this year.  It had wonderful sky blue flowers but only managed one in its first year, two in its second and none this year.   It probably needed more sun and lighter soil.  I did manage to draw it though.  I think these have the purple flowers like the one below, perhaps I'll try planting some of the seeds. Old, more detailed sketches of similar seedheads in other drawing media: ...

Seedhead done with Artbars A5ish Another of the small pieces I did to show the different ways Artbars can be used, using some of the lovely subtle colours in the box along with the more vivid.  All work there was done on the new watercolour paper they devised to complement their water soluble media.   It's lovely, smooth and the colours glow against it. I do like the ability to use line and mass and switch constantly between with the same crayon. Had a great day yesterday catching up with old friends at an Open House full of great paintings, printmaking, felting, ceramics and glass.   Buzzing now :>) Will share some of the artists work later.

Demonstrating Artbars at the NEC (techniques: washes, scratching through, drawing through wet paper, splattering and scratching flecks in a wet wash using the spritzer) I had a fascinating time at the NEC, demonstrating Artbars for Derwent.  The idea was that I would sit at a table using them in small images, showing the different techniques that could be used with them - subtle washes, wet in wet, lifting colour from the crayons. layering and scratching through, splattering etc etc  etc.   They have a really rich and varied range of mark making potential. I combined them at times with a little Inktense pencil or scrapes of inktense to create flecks of colour that would stay in place while I washed more colour of Artbar over them. Scarily, at the last minute Derwent were offered a 30 minute slot each day in a 'theatre' where I did a demo to an audience, complete with cameras, big screens and a microphone.    Scary !!!  Luckily the cameram...

Evening Light, Winsor and Newton Gouache and Derwent Artbars in the A4 Stillman and Birn Alpha sketchbook. Further experimenting with gouache, Derwent Artbars and Stillman and Birn sketchbooks. This was a demo to students about the benefits of working on a dark background when painting moody scenes.   I scribbled various deep colours with the Artbars and then washed them into a streaky deep background.   Then with gouache I worked over it - thin glazes and thicker paint - then worked back in with the Artbars in places.  Leaving parts of that dark background as tree trunk, far trees, some of the field, scratching through to the darkness below for fine lines and marks.  The pale flowers in the foreground were done with white gouache, flicked from a bristle brush to keep the marks random and free.  The combination of media worked well with lots of  variation in marks possible.

Edge of Charnwood, Derwent Inktense and Artbars in the Stillman and Birn Gamma Sketchbook I do lots of quick demos of different mark making options with various media materials in my classes.   Some end up as finished pieces but others have elements I like though aren't complete in themselves.   This collage is made up from torn fragments with just a very little extra work - a few lines in copper oil pastel and artbar. The rocks were once a stormy evening sky in a quick Artbar demo. The Artbars and Inktense are lovely to use with their ability to create graphic marks as well as washes of colour and the S&B paper is thick enough to hold up to the collaged elements well.

  Summer's End,   Derwent Artbars and Studio pencils in a Stillman and Birn Alpha sketchbook This one was done with Derwent's new Artbars in an A4, natural white, Alpha series S&B sketchbook.   This one has 100lb paper, which took the washes very well, it seems to take all sorts of media without complaint - though I do admit a deeper love of the lusciousness of the heavy 180lb Beta and Delta series!   I have a 'thing' about nice paper :>) This was done from a digital image I showed some time back, moving on, not just copying but letting the language of marks of the media make changes.   I'm really liking the Artbars.   There is a little glazing and line from Derwent's Studio pencils in there too - but mostly Artbars used wet and dry. You can see a review of Artbars that I did here, with further work using them.

 detail from step by step Well ..... secret project is secret no more  : > ) Derwent Artbars Last summer I was asked to take part in testing Derwent's newest baby - Artbars , then in the lab under development.   They will be available in the next couple of weeks and are now on the Derwent website.   Rocks near Porthgwarra, Derwent Artbars, on A2 cartridge paper, Vivien Blackburn It was really interesting being involved in trying them out from the short-stumps-of-colour-and-varied-composition/shape etc at the beginning and following their progression.   I still have a little container of these stumps. In this one, that they commissioned after the initial testing, the only other medium used is a little white gouache for those areas where I didn't retain the white of the paper for the incoming waves.   In other places it is simply the white paper. In the one above,  I was wanting to build an intensity of col...