I wanted to try a watercolor portrait a la Jean before returning her book to the library. 

I used a photo found on the net as inspiration and got to work on those washes. I liked the first few layers - all done in one sitting.

I returned to this few days later. Needless to say, I could not find the reference photo anymore. I kept glazing until all the transparency was gone. In retrospect, I should have done two things: 

• do not add texture on her face! Really - what was I thinking?! The example in the book was a man with a beard, it made sense to have some texture.
• stop after the second wash! All I needed to do is add a bit of definition for the eyes and maybe another wash on the background - the left part. 
  

Discouraged, I decided to throw some acrylic and collage at it and turn it into an abstract! I did not take pics of all the intermediate steps, but hopefully the images below give an idea. 

It was a great weekend - sunny and smelling like fall. Probably one of the last times when I will be out sketching this year. I packed super light - sketchbook and the Rotring Art Pen I just bought. I used the Rendr (useless for the kind of stuff I sketch, the paper is made for markers), Stillman & Birn (don't remember which one I have) and a hand made pamphlet with Acquarius paper. I am still not in love with the Acquarius in spite of its qualities. 

Saturday I spent few hours at the Technopole Angus at the EtsyMtl fair. Yesterday I was in the Old Port to cheer the marathon runners passing by. 

I might revisit some of these pages to add more color ... or maybe not. Very busy these days ...

As part of the ByDesign assignments, I wanted to design a page using columns. I grabbed some peppers and a pumpkin from the fridge and set a still life. 

I also wanted to use no more than 3 washes - to avoid turning everything into mud. And I also wanted to try to use loose washes a la Jean Haines. 

I have to be more careful with the margins, now that I have a new understanding of why they are important. 
I am pleased with the spread, I like the size of the paper here  too - 11 x 15. I think I will start working with spreads more - more freedom to play with the space.

Still working my way through the material in ByDesign and I did not have any subjects that I felt compelled to sketch. So what is one to do in such circumstances? Selfies, of course!

I had fun with these. The first one was done with Pentel pocket brush pen and then collage. For the second one I used acrylic ink, bamboo pen and then acrylic paint. I put the ipad in selfie mode and sketched from it!

How about you? Do you like selfies? 

Thanks for reading!

A while back (years), I bought a sheet of terraskin paper and never got around to try it. This is paper made of finely ground stone and should be suitable for all media. Given that It does not tear, it should work fine for collage,

For the first experiment, I started with washes of diluted acrylic paint and then I added more acrylic, collage, ink. I think the main difference I noticed is that it is hard to have opaque shapes, even when using opaque pigment.  In the end I decided to use collage to achieve the degree of opacity I was looking for. Other than this, the paint dries relatively fast and if does not lift. 

This paper has potential. once one becomes used to it. I don;t see it used in signatures though because it is hard to fold.

What do you think? Have you ever used it and did you like it? 

Thanks for reading!

Liz Steel launched this challenge few weeks ago. I don't have pretty tea cups, but I do have a Tibetan bowl. That will have to do for now.

I decided to use every day a different technique - as to not get bored of course!

So I used:

• left hand with dip pen and black ink
• pan pastels and eraser
• continuous line
• water soluble ink
• watercolor

I want to repeat the exercise. I think I will use the cup I made a couple of years back in a pottery workshop. Or maybe I will buy a cute cup from the antiques store :)

My favorite is the pastel and eraser one. Which one is yours?

Thanks for reading.

These are two loose watercolor studies done after Jean Haines's book "Atmospheric Watercolors".

I enjoyed the process, and I like the way the colors mixed as well as the role that the negative space plays in the composition. Painting for the bin can be fun!

​Thanks for reading!

Another exercise from Dean Nimmer's book "Creating abstract art" is the found objects collage.

​Instructions are simple: go for a walk, find stuff, make collage. Easier said than done, I might add.
A while back, I did just that. Found objects: a small branch, 2 pieces of rusted metal and a round doodah. Here is the collage:

Pretty boring - I think we all agree. 

So I threw some paint at it, turned it around multiple times - here are examples of the steps:

... and the final (I think) piece:

What do you think? 

Thanks for reading!