Category: pen & ink

White Clematis

I’m in the middle of completely redoing my “studio”  (2 small bedrooms) and have totally neglected my daily sketching!   Can’t have that!  So, here is this afternoon’s effort done on the usual 3 X 5 sketchpad in my lap.

I do have exciting news (for me, at least), and that is that on August 31st, I entered two digital submissions to a national competition being held by The Pastel Journal!   Boy, did that take a lot of anxiety calories….I must have lost maybe a half pound…………..

Anyway, although I have entered three shows sponsored by my local Lakewood Artists Guild, this is the first national competition that I’ve entered (could you tell?  Am I repeating myself?)  However, since I had years of entering quilts back in the days when that was my artistic endeavor of choice, I know from experience that the next one will be so much easier.  It’s always that first hurdle, right?

I don’t think they will be letting anyone know if they are even being considered until January.  These national competitions attract thousands of entries and the staff has to first make sure that what you are submitting meets the technical criteria, and then there’s the first go-round to whittle the final judging down to a reasonable number.

So, I’m now preparing to enter some others that still  have 2010 deadlines to take my mind off this one.

Oh, I think I didn’t say that I submitted the last pastel I finished “Coast Sentinels” and one done earlier titled “Birches”.  Both are in the landscape category, so I’m competing against myself along with the hordes of others.   Believe me, I’ll keep you posted when I hear anything!

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Flower Sketch

Just a quick sketch in my 3X5 pad to keep things going.   I think it’s going to be an busy year…..doesn’t that sound good?

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More 3X5 Drawings

Here’s another group of small drawings done on a 3X5 spiral pad of Canson with a Stylist ink pen.  I keep dreaming about color pastel paintings, but I’m still having fun with these.   I hope you enjoy them!

This is an oriental poppy called “Coral Sea”.  Guess the color?

Drawing-poppy-1-5-10

Boots of Flowers

I saw this done somewhere, turning old boots into vase holders.  I love people with a sense of humor!

Drawing-Boots of flowers 1-6-10

Poodle Doodle

I just thought he was cute.  It’s probably a poodle mix since that’s the thing these days.

Drawing-Poodle Doodle-1-7-10

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Well, it’s finally over!

Well, it’s finally over, and worth every minute.  We had an exceptional number of paintings and crafts entered and the quality just keeps getting better and better.   I entered 2 pastels and 1 ink drawing.  The ink drawing was chosen as an Honorable Mention in the “Other Media” category.  I was so happy just win anything, but a drawing is really unusual.  The biggest group, of course, is the large-size oil paintings, actually oil and acrylic are judged together…I don’t agree with that, but I didn’t have a say in the rules..  Interestingly, the judge is a very well-known watercolor artist and teacher and, strangely enough, we had fewer water colors than usual.

Below you will see me with my entries.  I had one of our Guild members take the pictures and so I can’t take responsibility for the shots.  It is a difficult room to get good pictures in, but I promise I didn’t have my eyes closed very long.

Aside from 1st, 2nd and 3rd place winners  (I won a blue ribbon at the spring show!!!), and the Honorable Mentions, we had a special Mayor’s award, a Best of Show Award and several awards from art materials companies.  The mayor chose an oil self-portrait for his award and was there to present it.  We all had a great time and are looking forward to the Spring Show for 2010!

Fall art show Medocino2Mendocino House – Ink Drawing  – approx. 10 X 12   As you can see, this won an Honorable Mention.

Fall art show mountains2Bad reflections in this room…maybe I was pretending they weren’t there.   This is a pastel   approx. 7 X 9.  I used the mountains in this painting on my business card.

Fall art show-mountains

Even worse reflections here.  The second pastel.  7 X 9.  I especially liked the mats on this one.  You can see the mountain better if you want to check out the older posts. I don’t think it’s too far back.

Thanks for looking.   Jan

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Country Home New Photo

Country House Redo

Well, since this is a process blog, I decided to leave the last post with the weak picture of this house so you can compare it to a better photo.  I also placed it in a wide maroon mat because I am going to frame and hang it here in the house.  The proof is here.  Outdoor light is the best.

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Country Home

Country Home 2

This is an India Ink drawing done from a photo I took several years ago along the Central California coast.  I was born in Iowa and raised outside of a small town in Oregon.  There was something about this house that stirred childhood memories even though we didn’t live in any house that looked like this.  I think it was just the aura that did it.   Size is 8-1/2 X 11-1/2.   I’m not sure why the photo faded out like that,  the entire drawing should be as dark as the trees.  Perhaps I can replace it with a properly lit photo.

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Pink Azaleas

Lillies_1-_3BWell, I thought I’d give those colored flairs another try.  I’m not as happy with them as I am just the black flair, but it’s fun trying to blend and smear the ink.

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Bishi with a bow

Bishi_9_12_09

This is my female Shih Tzu, Bishi.  Earlier in this blog, I have a line drawing of Bishi and Pango (male).  They are such gentle, loving dogs, I don’t know why I haven’t painted them more.  They are gold and white, so the next painting will have to be in color.   This is 4-1/2 X 6 in my sketchbook, using my usual flair with water wash.

Photo of Bishi

This is the photo I used for the sketch.  I see in the photo that her head was tilted more and I like that.  I learn a lot from my rushing the drawings and making mistakes….or rather not making the best choices!  Now, I’ll definitely mark the tilt before drawing next time.

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When Life Gives You Lemons

Dark_sunflowers1

There’s a saying…..”when life gives you lemons, make lemonade”. I’m posting my lemonade today.

As you saw in my coastal village sketch a couple of days ago (and I have lots of other

examples in my blog), I love sketching with a flair pen and then moving the ink around with water. Obviously non-permanent ink! In fact, you can’t always know in advance what color the wash will be….I suppose depending on how they mixed their black. I’ve had everything from pink to blue show up.

The other day I found a package of 12 flairs in 12 colors…….I imagined the fun I was going to have washing all those colors around. BUT, what I found was that only the black worked. The rest just sat there….and I expected to have a really bright sunflower scene again.

So, using the black flair here and there and mushing as much as I could, I came up with the drawing above. I’ll have to find another use for the other 11 flairs, but for today, they made lemonade!

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Fishing Village

village2

Well, I decided yesterday that I was letting too many things keep me from getting the important stuff done…..art.   So, I’m going to try again to join the daily painters on Wet Canvas.  Today, I posted this sketch done in my favorite sketching style using a flair pen (non-permanent ink) and then brushing water to push the ink around.  This was done on my 5-1/2 X 8-/1/2 sketch pad.  Just a lot of fun….which is my preferred way to start the day as well as end it.

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