Watercolor Reference Wheels

We are finally getting some much needed rain. I watched our backyard turfgrass seemingly grow an inch yesterday afternoon after the rains came through.


This is giving me the chance to go through some photos I took last week. This one was very interesting to me while I was out in the forest.




watercolor sample wheel and Claytonia wildflower

A few weeks back, when we were still getting snow, I made these small wheels with my watercolor paints around the edges. I like this arrangement because it allows me to carry a reference of colors directly into the field without a lot of bulk. I made the wheels based on color groups. Although I (almost) never use watercolors straight from the tube, it makes it a lot easier to see which base to start from, and make some notes right there in front of the flower. Each wheel has space on the front and back.


The green paint that is right next to the Claytonia virginica, or Spring Beauty wildflower, is Daniel Smith's Green Apatite Genuine. I bought it on a whim a few weeks ago because I liked the color on the display. When I tried it out at home, I found that it has a very different look in pale washes and in heavier mass tones.


As you can see, the mass tone was very similar to the leaf color in this lighting.


The color also has an intriguing, sedimentary look on the paper.


So, will this mean I can take a shortcut and use this green? It would save me time in the field not to have to mix a color. I am not sure, yet- I need to become more familiar with it. I use (and like) many different brands of paint, and there are other ways to mix this green, using other paints on my palette. But this one intrigued me, because I had not purchased it with wildflower painting in mind.


This also reinforced how much I like using these wheels. You do have to be familiar with how the paints mix, though.


How do you carry your color references into the field for field sketching?

Moth sketches

I have been watering a bunch of seemingly dead iris, hoping they will come back. They were caught in a late freeze, and are mostly a bunch of dead leaves. The other day, though, I saw a few green shoots. They may not make it, but there is always hope if you are a gardener.


Anyhow, I startled this moth with the water from my hose. It flew into my nearby hosta plants and stayed put for a while, which allowed me to take a few pictures and sketch it. I am finding that photography is a very useful addition to my sketching method- it allows me to magnify some details of insects. In this case, I magnified the moth's head to add to my sketch.


I have not identified this to genera or species. The family, I think, is Noctuidae. Some of these are plant pests. Although I took entomology courses in college, I am not a moth expert. Butterflies and moths are becoming my new mind-stretching field of exploration, though. More on that in a future post! (If you are an expert, and know a definite id on this one, please let me know!).


This is a typical sketch page for me. I went back to my half-completed field sketchbook, rather than the mixed media paper one I used in the previous post. Some watercolor from a previous page is ghosting through on the left side, but this is more of a problem in the scan than in my book. I tend to work with a small book (5.5"x8.5"), and prefer the hardbound field books. I take a lot of notes with subjects like this. It can be very important to note where you find an insect, and what it is doing. If I am not using color, the color notes become very important. And with this moth, I noted the lighter underwings when it flew to the hosta.


The moth was gone this morning. I had a yard full of robins yesterday (I counted at least 8 at one point, fighting over the birdbath!), and they hopped right by it, so I suspect it flew away after dark.


I'll be announcing a new sketch series next week, so stay tuned!

Milkweed Progress

Yesterday, I decided to stop in and check on my favorite milkweed patch at a local park. There were a few flower buds trying to open, but for the most part, the buds were still tightly shut.

Next to a patch of crown vetch, I saw an Eastern Tailed-Blue butterfly, and got a picture. They are so small (almost as small as my thumbnail!), but I love the muted color of the upper wings and the bluer underside of the wings.

I am also trying out a new sketchbook. I thought I'd like the mixed media paper, but I'm finding it's not ideal for my pencil work. I think we artists hope we can ask one paper to do everything, but in reality, that is an impossible request! It is a very nice paper, but not ideal for what I am asking it to do. My Pilot Kakuno fountain pen is fine when writing on the paper, but I generally use that to take notes on the opposing page. I'm still a pencil gal. After trying to fiddle with the resolution and contrast of my scan, I can see why a lot of sketchbook artists have gone to ink with watercolor wash- it is harder to share pencil drawings.

But I sketch primarily for myself. I have always used my sketchbooks to inform my formal paintings. And I love pencil. I was the first thing I picked up almost 30 years ago, and I still love the way graphite glides on paper, and the feel of the wooden casing. This sketch was done with a 2B, which is a bit of a concession for me to share online. In the past, my primary pencil was HB, because I love the silvery tones.

Here is the page. The watercolors did not want to scan well, either. I didn't scan the opposing page with all my notes. There I recorded things like color notes, absence of milkweed bugs (at least that I could see!), and the smell of yellow clover nearby.

Pen, ink, and watercolor trials

The past couple of weeks have been a time to reevaluate my artwork, decide what is working, what is not, and, therefore, what I want to change. It's all part of a New Year's assessment, and a commitment to myself to draw more frequently.

A new sketchbook purchase didn't work out as well as I had hoped. The multimedia paper did not absorb enough of my fountain pen ink to prevent smudging (though it was great with Microns). I think I am going to end up back with my tried-and-true sketchpads that I've used since my college days.

Here are some images of the trial-and-error process. When you see pretty sketches in a book or online, you don't usually see all of the preliminary testing that allows an artist to draw in a certain style. Every component is a variable, and must be tested together in various combinations. For me, my variables are: sketch paper, type of ink or pencil, pen nib width, and watercolor.

In this picture, you can see my favorite way to test materials. I draw a little clover flower, which allows me to see how much tiny detail I am capable of getting, and then various lines and squiggles. I then wash over the lines with water or watercolors to see what happens. On the right hand page, I included some pens that I knew were not waterproof (like the Flair), as a reference. Sometimes I like the look that these pens produce.

In this picture, you can see some of my favorite fountain pens. From left to right is a Pilot Kakuno, a Lamy Safari, and a Pilot Metropolitan. I have other favorites, too. These are just the ones that found their way into the photo because they are so colorful. The Metropolitan pen is loaded with Herbin Orange ink that matches the barrel color almost exactly, and smells absolutely heavenly... it's scented like orange blossoms. This is my new favorite for notetaking.

I think I've settled on the Kakuno for when I need a lot of detail. The Fine nib does produce a very fine line, as you can see in all of the mosquito drawings on the page (click to enlarge). The mosquitoes are a bit of a joke. The Kakuno's packaging is entirely in Japanese. I took a photo of the instruction page, plugged it into a language translator, and was told that it was a fountain pen of mosquitoes! Pretty funny. There must be a subtle nuance of interpretation of one of the kanji. One of these days, I need to learn Japanese.

The Lamy is my favorite for general sketching. I seem to get a lot of line variety with it. On this paper, the Sailor Nano black ink doesn't smear too much.

That's an inside peek at the beginning of my New Year materials testing. I'm also testing different brands of acrylics, and water-soluble oils. More on those later!