Watercolor of Fishing Village

This is a simple study of a fishing village on the north east, It is done in water color on a sheet of practice paper.

I have been looking at the photograph for a while thinking I should do a drawing or something. I have been doing a lot of drawings and felt I needed to do a little watercolor before I got too rusty. It would not be my first choice for a watercolor project but it is good to stretch your horizons and work outside of your comfort zones.

Fishing Village in the North. Watercolor by Adron. 

Watercolor can continue to surprise you throughout your lifetime. It has a lot of different moods and voices.

I do a lot of drawing and feel my painting is more of an extension of my drawing. I think I have a hard time getting away from the concept of a picture being made up of lines and having more shape, and color.

I enjoyed painting this and hope you enjoy viewing it.

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If you are interested in watercolor painting you might consider: Watercolor Artists Bible by Sc (Google Affiliate Ad)

Barn Beyond The Meadow

This is a drawing I did in fine tipped marker.

Fine Tipped Marker Sketch of Barn Beyond The Meadow

I spent about four hours on it. I had a photo that I was working from and then embellished it. I wanted to get the texture of the woods behind and have contrast with the areas of the barn and the field. I wanted the barn to have a contrasting texture, and value.


The foreground needed to be darker I should have switched up to a broader point for it.

The composition is lacking. There is a focal point but there is nothing to invite the eye in. There is a sense where the flowers make a barrier to the picture. If I was to do a more serious project like an oil painting I would introduce a path meandering from the foreground and wrapping around behind the barn to draw the eye into the picture.

It was a fun study and great practice in texture technique- maybe I will use this as a study and do a painting of this.

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I used a fine tipped pin like the ones in the link: Prismacolor Premier Assorted Tip Illustration Markers, 6 Black Markers (Google Affiliate Ad)

Quick Sketch While At The Cafe

There is never enough time to do art. So I try to do art wherever or whenever I can force it out of a situation. We were listening to some jazz at a Cafe in Wild Lake MD. and not far from me was a young man who apparently was not into jazz and had fallen asleep.  I pulled out my sketchbook from my coat pocket and a trusty HB pencil and did a quick sketch of him.

I wanted to keep the white of his shirt as a focus feature so after lightly coloring the background I rubbed it smooth with my finger.  His straight black hair was tousled and was fun to sketch. The sketchbook is about 3x5 inches big. I recommend all artist carry one; there are more times I wished I had one on hand to do a quick sketch than I care to remember.

Not too much can be said about practicing the quick sketch.

Quick Sketch In My Pocket Sketchbook Of Boy at Cafe.

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To see a sketchbook similar to the one I carry follow this link: Small Sketchbook (Kivar, Black (Google Affiliate Ad) 

Drawing of Model With An Attitude

This is the wooden pose-able model of the human figure we use for sketching in class. I asked one of my students to give it a casual pose. I think it was more of a saucy attitude. This was a quick sketch and drawn in about 8 minutes. It helps loosen the students up a bit.

Pencil Sketch of Model With an Attitude. 

I drew this with an hb pencil and then finished it with a 4b just to deepen the shadows a bit.

You might thing drawing these models over and over is boring but so is practicing scales for a musician. You know you are getting better and so it is worth it.

Charcoal Sketch of Creamer and Dogwood Blossoms

I did this sketch for practice but ran out of time. It was of a creamer and a branch with some dogwood blossoms.

I am enjoying the beauty of simple projects these days, one can really get into a composition made of two or three items.

Charcoal Study of Creamer and Dogwood. 

I did a quick pencil sketch and then worked it over with a medium charcoal pencil. I use the blending stub to do the foreground, I liked the different contrast in technique. I tried to keep the creamer underdeveloped and the background solid.

I kept the dogwood white and used negative space to give the blossoms whiteness. The paper was a 50 lb soft surface. I don't really like working with it as much as the 400 series by Strathmore.

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If you are interested in learning to sketch or improving your skill you might consider: Sketch Book for the Artist by (Google Affiliate Ad)

The Last Grapes, a Watercolor Sketch

No one was eating the last grapes so I did a watercolor sketch of them.

The Last Grapes. A Watercolor Sketch 

I did it quickly. The pencil sketching of the grapes took longer than the painting. The background didn't turn out as I wanted it to. I was looking for something a little bit like the old Dutch with a dark almost black but I didn't want to switch mediums and with watercolor you can only get so dark and not use a lot of paint. The grapes were done one by one with an under painting of red and I dropped in blues and purples to give the coloring. It turned out OK.

Looking at it now I wonder if I should have done more, but I put my paint all away so I guess I am done. I feel that I must do more painting everyday.

Quick drawing of wooden manikin

This is a quick sketch I did while teaching a class of home school students. It was drawn in about six minutes. The purpose was to get loose and not worry about making every line perfect but to rough out a project quickly. Our medium was pen and ink or markers, I used a fine tipped maker  nothing fancy, and I drew this while standing in front of the class holding the sketchbook up for the kids to see.

The kids all did very well. We have been doing things like this all year and they are getting good at it.

Quick six minute sketch of wood model man

I asked one of the kids to pose the model as a casual pose. This is what she decided on.

Simple Marker Pen Drawing of Prairie Farm

This is a drawing I did of a farm surrounded by wheat fields on the prairie.

Pen Drawing of Prairie Farm

Fine tipped marker is a fun medium and offers a lot of opportunities for expression. You can master line and texture with a little effort. It frees you to discover basics of composition without the problems other techniques.

This is a very simple drawing- almost a doodle. The foreground was all wheat but I wanted to make the focus on the farm so I left it for the imagination, but I think the bottom left is too bare and it might have looked better with a fence or road leading to the farmhouse. The trees are just a texture with wiggly shaped dots. Instead of just drawing a line for the foreground hill I chose to use hash marks to give the feel of the wheat field.

It was drawn quickly. I used a sharp tipped marker from the grocery store, and it is drawn on printer paper, so we are not talking archival quality

I might redo it in another version with watercolor.

Candlestick and Box Sketch in Marker

I

Marker drawing of Candlestick and Box

I was trying to get the roundness of the candlestick and the grey tones of the box while using a simple ink drawing  technique. The top of the box is suppose to be whiter by contrast. 

It is a very simple composition, in fact too simple, I wish I had a few more elements added like a book or fruit or something. 

It is good to practice and I will bring this to the class I am teaching the home school kids as an example of what can be done in marker.

I was using a cheep marker from the grocery store and printer paper. I found the marker made blots when you first touched the page. This can be good or bad depending on what you are trying to do. If you held the marker at a sharp angle the line was very thin and skippy and if you held the marker more vertical the ink came out very thick.

I prefer the professionals markers, but knowing the effects of the cheep ones is useful for some projects, so I am always experimenting.   

Charcoal Sketch of Apples in Bowl

This is a sketch I did to demonstrate technique to a class of young artist.

Charcoal Drawing of Apples in Wooden Bowl

I was focusing on the light against the dark. The dark background brings the bowl forward. The dark area of the bowl sets off the light areas in the apples. I liked how the thick wooden bowl had a thick edge, it gives a deep line of contrast separating the bowl from the dark background on the right.  The placement of the apple outside the bowl is set off by the shadow of the bowl.

I used pencil, various charcoal pencils and blending stubs. It was drawn in my sketchbook and it took about 25 minutes.

Apples are not really that round they have a unique shape but my purpose was to show technique.

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When I draw I like to use several different pencils, you might consider the pencil set in the link: LYRA Graphite Art Pencils, Black, 12pk (Google Affiliate Ad)