Category: art

Goldfish triptych

The exercise consisted in using masking fluid to paint the blue backgrounds and save the white for the goldfish:
Three postcard sized watercolour sheets where I drew the shapes of goldfish and painted the background in light blue. The watercolour pans, brush and water glass are visible.

The masking fluid was painstakingly slow to peel off, left some residue and I ended up scraping paper a bit in places:

Scrapped paper and residue of the green masking fluid that would not be removed

I filled the first goldfish with black ink from a Pentel Brushpen (which is awesome for very thin lines as well as large areas) after painting the fins, tail, eyes and mouth in bright orange watercolor:

The second and third goldfish were a mix of bright orange watercolor, black on some fins, eye and mouth, and to cover the masking fluid residue I applied a layer of white watercolor paint:

I framed those and painted the frame bright orange as well before adding a layer of varnish:

Demain dès l’aube

Branch of a blooming tree, done using grey Brushmarkers and alizarin crimson watercolor:
Branch of a blooming tree, done using grey Brushmarkers and alizarin crimson watercolor. The artwork is on a wide drawing book on a table, next to the pens and paint.

Adding details in black, using a Pentel Brushpen:
Branch of a blooming tree, to which I added a few black spots. The artwork is on a wide drawing book on a table, next to pens and paint.

To fill the (future) white space under the blossoms I adding soft patches of that same pink, pale blue and a bit of green. In retrospect, I wish I hadn’t.

Then I wrote a Victor Hugo poem on tracing paper using India ink and nib, and glued the side of it vertically at the left of my watercolor:
Wide drawing book where I wrote a peom in black on tracing paper underneath which are visible spots of pink, blue and green, and the branch and blossoms.

Here is the poem from 1856:

Demain dès l’aube

Demain, dès l’aube, à l’heure où blanchit la campagne,
Je partirai. Vois-tu, je sais que tu m’attends.
J’irai par la forêt, j’irai par la montagne.
Je ne puis demeurer loin de toi plus longtemps.

Je marcherai les yeux fixés sur mes pensées,
Sans rien voir au dehors, sans entendre aucun bruit,
Seul, inconnu, le dos courbé, les mains croisées,
Triste, et le jour pour moi sera comme la nuit.

Je ne regarderai ni l’or du soir qui tombe,
Ni les voiles au loin descendant vers Harfleur,
Et, quand j’arriverai, je mettrai sur ta tombe
Un bouquet de houx vert et de bruyère en fleur.

Dragon to test {Brush|Pro}markers (alcoholic ink markers)

As an early Christmas treat I got myself a series of Brushmarkers and Promarkers in cold and warm greys, and in colors. The pens come with a blender.

Wooden storage box with a handle full of thick pens

In theory the blender helps blend colors together by wetting the surface of paper. In practice, colors will blend in any case (except with black) but will do so more smoothly on a reasonably wet layer of color. I have probably not mastered it as I find it’s more of a smudger than it is a blender, giving edges fuzziness, even on non-bleed paper.

To test the grey series I went for a dragon that adorned an Alfons Mucha poster of 1896 for the Lorenzaccio play:

Tall narrow rectangle filled with a green dragon that adorns an Alfons Mucha poster of 1896 for the Lorenzaccio play. The dragon has its mouth open and is surrounded by geometric motifs.

I sketched the outline:

Rough pencil sketch of the dragon within a tall and narrow rectangle

I marked the outline using Uni-ball pin pens (0.05, 0.1, 0.2 and 0.5 mm):

Black ink outline of various width

Black ink outline of various width now covering the entire sketch. Pencil erased.

Then I applied layers of grey. I had to use a white ink Posca pen to cover some overlapping black lines in the moustache. Here is the finished version:

Layers of grey ink of various intensity

⚠️I learned that the alcohol ink smears pencil lines and even the Uni-ball pin pens ink, so it’s better to go easy on the outline and add those or add finishing lines afterwards.

I got a silver and black Decopatch sheet that I applied with glue/varnish to the square wooden frame and tada! The frame is now on a shelf in the room of my little boy who loves dragons.

The finished piece: the dragon occupies the left half of a square white sheet of paper. The square frame is adorned with silver and black metallic paper.

#inktober 2017 days 26-31

[Inktober: 31 days 31 drawings, following a prompt list.]

Voilà, Inktober 2017 is over. I really enjoyed doing it this year again and will probably do it next year. I was not inspired every day but most days I was. I’m quite proud of most the drawings I made and I hope you liked them as well. (Interestingly some of those I didn’t particularly like were liked/favourited more than I anticipated, and by the same token, a few of those I found outstanding didn’t garner a lot of popularity.)

Day 26: ‘Squeak’. Black and white ink drawing of a cat playing with a mouse, against a circular background of red watercolour.

Day 27: ‘Climb’. Black and grey ink drawing of the silhouette of a woman rock-climbing.

Day 28: ‘Fall’. Grey India ink soft brush pen, black ink pin pen and black ink brush pen drawing of a man falling from a skyscraper. For this one, I had to hold a soft brush pen in each hand so that the dark and light greys would blend better. I don’t know how others do it.

Day 29: ‘United’. Grey India ink soft brush pen, black ink pin pen and black ink brush pen drawing of two carps, forming a circle.

Day 30: ‘Found’. Grey India ink soft brush pens and black ink pin pen drawing of a foundry and tiny people. I made a typo in the theme on the drawing, oh well.

Day 31: ‘Mask’. Black ink pin pen and white Posca pen drawing of a man holding a mask.

Inktober prompt list:
Inktober prompt list