Sketches 3-7-12

I've gotten back into the habit of sketching since I don't have as much time to work on other drawings while I'm at college (I can't very well haul around all my supplies from 9-5 everyday!). I've been experimenting with all sorts of new media and tools, andI feel like I've really branched out a bit but at the same time, returned to my roots where I used to just sketch from imagination and draw all sorts of critters.

I have 3 sketchbooks going right now: a Pentalic Nature Sketch, Aquabee Super Deluxe, and the good 'ol Artist's Hand Book I've been working on for a couple years now. I'm using the Pentalic as a watercolor sketchbook, the Aquabee as an all purpose one, and the Hand Book for a bit of everything as well.

Mostly, I've been playing with Derwent Graphitint pencils. They're excellent sketching pencils and make a lively alternative to a plain graphite pencil thanks to the calm, subd color... it's not full-blast like watercolor pencils or colored pencils, and it handles exactly like graphite. When you apply water, it turns into something very much like watercolor. Some of the colors are not very lightfast whatsoever, but they're too pretty to not use. I actually bought a pencil in one of the colors, Juniper, specifically because it's a really beautiful purple color and I wanted to do monochrome sketches with it... its lightfastness rating is a 1, meaning it'll fade in under a year if exposed to regular light.

A flying squid. Used an ocean blue and chestnut Graphitint pencil.

Another flying squid in ocean blue Graphitint.

A cuttlefish in steel blue Graphitint with an ocean blue background.

A grackle, drawn with a watersoluble sketching pencil.

Blue jay, in those two blue Graphitints.

One of the mocking birds I've watched grow up by my house this year. This one was drawn with colors from the Graphitint 12 pencil set, used dry.  The colors seem to be very well suited to nature.

A tufted titmouse, the first thing I drew with the Graphitint set.

3 mushrooms from imagination.

A wasp and a carpenter bee, drawn in the Aquabee sketchbook, no less. Top was with a Derwent onyx pencil, bottom was with one of my old Sanford Ebony pencils. They don't make 'em like those anymore... I've heard the quality is very poor these days. I'm glad that mom got me a few boxes of them years ago.

As you may notice, some of these are on small cards. I bought a few packs of pre-cut Artist trading cards and have been using them for small sketches. Friends seem to love having these little cards as collectables or for bookmarks and whatnot.

Nature journal

Ah, it's been almost a year since I updated this poor blog. Let's make this one a good one! I've done a lot of things in the past few months, mostly watercolor paintings since I can do those a bit quicker than drawings.

A while back, I found a cool watercolor sketchbook at Hobby Lobby for around $8... quite a deal, considering it claims to be handmade in India, 100% cotton, and archival. I can dig that.

Naturally, it sat around the house months until I actually picked it up and decided to do something with it.

I figured that the landscape orientation would work well for nature subjects, so I've been painting local birds that I see around the house. Usually I can snap a few shots of them with my camera while they're at the bird feeder but some of the common ones I could probably paint from memory.
All of these are probably a bit more work than simple sketches... more like small paintings, depending on how much time I spend on them.

This fellow is a tufted titmouse. It's painted with Payne's grey, burnt sienna, cobalt blue, and cadmium yellow, as well as black ink.

This is a nice female cardinal at the feeder. She's not quite as vibrant red as the male, but has a wider range of colors overall. I don't remember what colors I used for her, exactly, but a good bit of mixing was involved.

This is a proud, male cardinal! He was perched on top of the feeder and I've snapped many photos of him and his lady over the past few weeks. He's painted with cadmium red, burnt sienna, viridian, cobalt blue, and some black ink.

This is a juvenile brown-headed cowbird. This was the first one I did. I drew in the outline of the bird with an inkpen and painted over it... this one has more of an illustrative look to it.