Creating Idiosyncrasies While Creating

 

 

We are making a few changes in our lives.  It’s all good news and hopefully I will be able to share more very soon.  In the meantime, I came across these photos of WIP paintings I have not shared here before.  I was experimenting with photographing cropped views of paintings.  While I shared the finished paintings before, I rather like the WIPs too, and I hope you do as well.  

I will also share a few of my habits with these photos.

 

 

Old York street light with Sennelier watercolour | Whims And Fancies

 

Purchase Old York Pub

 

This one is a painting of the a street light in the old city of York.  You have probably guessed by now that I love painting weathered stone structures and walls.  On these kinds of paintings, I typically draw every single stone before I start painting.  It tends to give me a lot better overview of the perspective.

 

 

 

 

Remember the Steampunk Fleur de Lis?  I love the challenge of figuring out how a steampunk mechanism might work. This was my planning sketch.  I use old scrap pieces of paper for the planning phase.  I should really use a drawing sketchbook, but I like using paper that would otherwise end up in the recycling bin.

 

 

Sketchbook 2017 - Steampunk Fleur De Lis Painting Marker & Winsor Newton Ink | Whims And Fancies

 

 

Once I was satisfied with the steampunk mechanism, I drew and painted on my good sketchbook paper.

 

 

 

 

Ink and markers are my favourite quick painting tools.  The days I don’t feel like dragging out paint, brush, water, rag, etc., I fall back on markers.  Painting is quite therapeutic as is, but markers bring out the child in me.

 

I am a stickler for straight lines even when I am drawing rocks.  During my college years, I fell in love with my husband’s Rotring set-square and I promptly wanted one for my classes too. He obliged, and it is still my favourite tool.  Unfortunately it has since been discontinued by Rotring, so I better take care of mine!

 

 

Science Inspired Art - Sea Stacks And Star Trails | Whims And Fancies

 

Sea stacks and star trails

 

I love rain. I love to be outside when it rains, specially when it is a rain storm.  I love to hear the sound of rain on the hood of my rain jacket or on my umbrella.  If I am not outside and if I am not reading while it’s raining, I paint.  This was one of those paintings.

 

 

 

 

A lot of people draw out quick sketch with very little detail, and add those details while painting.  I really stink at that.  I like to draw in quite a lot of detail before I feel comfortable enough to add paint.  Sometimes I paint over some of the details, while other times I let the pencil marks show through the painting.

 

 

Crumbling Stone Castle Watercolour Painting | Whims And Fancies

 

 

Unlike the first painting, I didn’t paint it stone by stone from my drawing, but used them as a general guide. In retrospect, I didn’t need to draw that many stones.  Hopefully I will remember that next time.

 

I have never actively thought of developing creative idiosyncrasies, but now I realise I have formed quite a few.  Do you feel the same way too, while creating?

 

Until next time,
-Soma

 

I am linking up with the linky parties on my Events And Links page.  Please pay a visit to some of them.

 

 

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Dryburgh Abbey

 

Purchase Weatherd Scottish Abbey

 

During the break I took over the last few weeks, I learned that Stillman And Birn, makers of wonderful sketchbooks, had featured my watercolour paining of Dryburgh Abbey, not only on their website, but on their Facebook, Twitter and Instagram pages as well.  I am not an affiliate, so imagine my joy at the news!

 

I wanted to take a painting project with me to fill the long hours of travel time on the plane while travelling to England.  Of the places we visited in Scotland, Dryburgh Abbey is one of my favourites.  I enjoyed the tranquil moment standing alone in front of this aged and wet stone abbey chapter house ruin so much that it became the subject of my painting.

 

You can read about the artist statement I wrote for the feature on Stillman And Birns’ blog.

 

I am really very excited about it all.  So I thought I do a full review of the Stillman And Birn Beta Series paper and on why I love working with it.

 

 

 

 

At the time of my travel I didn’t have a travel-size sketchbook.  I am very heavy-handed with water when it comes to watercolour, so the new sketchbook had to be able to handle that. During my research, I came across Stillman and Birn.  Their Beta series sketchbook with 270 gsm weight paper seemed ideal to me.  I also like the white paper of the Beta series instead of the ivory of many others.

 

The Stillman And Birn paper stayed smooth despite my water usage. I didn’t see even the tiniest bit of the lint-like effect that other papers get when used with watercolour.  It also warped very little, which I was able to easily fix once the painting had dried. 

 

The Beta series is not rough like cold press watercolour paper, neither is it as smooth as the hot press ones.  It has an in-between texture.  I love to play with different painting media and the texture of the sketchbook handled them all beautifully.  I pulled out a few examples so you can get a good idea. 

 

 

 

 

The Dryburgh Abbey painting was done with watercolour pencils.  The picture above shows how much I had finished on the plane using a waterbrush.

 

 

Sketchbook 2017 - Canoe Prismacolour Marker And Copic Marker | Whims And Fancies

 

 

Markers typically work best on smooth paper, but this paper was smooth enough for me to blend and lift off paint with ease on this marker landscape and canoe painting.

Note – if you use markers, the pigment does seep into the back of the page.  Therefore, you won’t be able to use the back side.  I only use the right side of a sketchbook, so it was not a problem for me.

 

 

Sketchbook 2017 - Cat On The Wall Prismacolor Marker | Whims And Fancies

 

 

The sketchbook is great for quick, fun, comic-book style marker and ink sketches too.  I was able to layer different markers and blend them without hard edges showing.  I used a Micron pen to draw the black ink outlines.

 

 

Sketchbook 2017 - Lavender Field Painting Derwent Pastel Pencils | Whims And Fancies

 

 

The paper has enough grain for pastel pencils to work just as well.

 

 

Sketchbook 2017 - Vintage Tiles Winsor & Newton Watercolour Marker | Whims And Fancies

 

 

I used Winsor Newton watercolor markers to paint these rusted tiles.

 

 

Sketchbook 2017 - Dance Copic Marker | Whims And Fancies

 

 

I worked with mixed media on this one – markers, ink and pen.

 

 

Sketchbook 2017 - Steampunk Fleur De Lis Painting Marker & Winsor Newton Ink | Whims And Fancies

 

 

Water soluble Winsor Newton Ink gave me the vibrancy I needed for the steampunk Fleur-de-lis and the blue background.  I also used pens and pencils for the details and shading.

 

 

Sketchbook 2017 - Birch Trees In Snow Schmincke Horadam Watercolour | Whims And Fancies

 

 

Of course, it does superbly well with watercolour.  Once I painted the background, I went over with more saturated paint for the details on the trees, finishing the painting off with white paint for the snow. 

When I originally posted this painting, many of you chose this one as your favourite and wrote lovely words about it.  Since I prefer colder temperatures, I used this one as the watercolour example.

 

 

Sketchbook 2017 - Stillman & Birn Sketchbooks | Whims And Fancies

 

 

If you are looking into trying out sketching, painting, or journalling, I highly recommend the Stillman And Birn Beta Series sketchbooks.  You get 25-26 sheets per sketchbook.  It is thick paper, which makes it suitable for both dry and wet media.  As you see, I have used all kinds of painting media along with pens on this paper.  Currently I am working on a travel journal, hopefully I will be able to share more with you soon.

 

Update

 

Since I have written this review I have worked on very wet on wet paintings.  The paper does not handle that kind of the water at all.  It becomes too soft and starts to lint severely.   It was an exersize in frustration.  I suggest using 100% cotton Fabriano or Fluid paper.  Fluid is a cheaper option of the two and does very well with wet on wet paintings.

Other than that Stillmand & Birn is quite a versatile sketchbook.

 

Until then,
-Soma

 

I am linking up with the linky parties on my Events And Links page.  Please pay a visit to some of them.

 

 

 

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