Watercolor Pencil/Computer Interpretive Sign

Sometimes I do illustration jobs, and at the moment I have two in the hopper, both interpretive signage for nature trails. I just finished a really interesting one which took a great deal of time ~ a section of Jeffrey pine trunk with three lichens on it. It was the third in a series, the first two being a distant view of the entire tree and a composite of bark, branch/needles, and cone.

In case you've never met a Jeffrey, it's a western pine similar to the prickly ponderosa pine, but the cones generally won't make holes in you if you play catch with them. DON'T try catching a tossed ponderosa cone!

The trunk of both is very similar: reddish, with a bark composed of layered jigsaw-shaped pieces. The bark has a sweet scent. Some say it smells like pineapple, others say it's a vanilla odor. I smelled one once and couldn't quite place the scent ~ but it was very pleasant.

At any rate, it took ages to work around all the jigsaw pieces then color them appropriately. I had a good photograph provided by the people who wanted the sign, and in order to meet the deadline I followed the shapes of the bark pieces closely (after some judicious artistic rearrangement) using my Wacom tablet and a stylus. To envision and create the shapes from scratch would have taken forever. Click on an image to see a larger version.

The first image (above) is the first run at the flaky bark, the original photo I was working from, the selection of watercolor pencils I chose to color it, and my waterbrush with the water in the barrel. My drawing is on the left and that's the photo on the right.

When I had the outline finished, I printed out the b/w image to paint. I needed to work large since it's a large sign, so I separated the original illustration into two sections and printed them on two sheets of heavy, slightly toothed paper that I knew would take the moisture required by the watercolor pencils.

I was working out on the deck to enjoy the warm spring sunshine, so I taped a plastic dish to my masonite drawing board to hold the pencils so they wouldn't slide when I tilted the board on my lap. In the second image, with the photo on the left, I've started applying the color to the b/w image on the right. It looks a bit faded in the bright sunshine. I'm leaving unpainted the areas where the lichens will go.

The third image (above) shows the drawing taking shape and color. The photo is still on the left here, and while I'm using the reference fairly closely, I am taking some artistic license with the color and details.

In the next image you can see all the parts and pieces. The two-part illustration is on the left. The lichen illustrations will be layered into place after I blend the two parts together in Photoshop.

There is a slight overlap of the two bark sections, but since they're hand-painted, the two aren't exactly the same. The solution to join them seamlessly is to layer them into perfect place then use the eraser on 1% to remove the top layer until they blend. It works amazingly well, the joining being invisible when finished.

The photo is on the right in this composite. Down at lower left is a printout of my original drawing, showing a red outline where I planned to put the lichens ~ I didn't want to waste time and energy drawing or painting the area behind them.

At this point, I scanned the painted bark illustrations back into Photoshop to blend the two pieces together, add the lichens, and tweak the shading.

And the final image is a detail of the finished illustration. I darkened the fissures between the bark slabs to visually deepen them, using the "burn" tool in Photoshop CS2. I also used the burn tool to darken the right side, to make the bark appear to recede as it goes around the cylinder of the trunk. I also darkened a shadow below each lichen.

I'm pretty happy with this combination of design, handwork, watercolor pencil coloring, and computer blending. It took a long time, but the results were well worthwhile.

The more practice I get with the watercolor pencils and waterbrush, the more I like them. It also gives me a better handle on presenting watercolor pencil painting to my workshop students.

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BTW, I taught my new Wildlife Sketching class last weekend. It was quite a ride. I'll try to get at that before this next weekend because I have another journaling workshop on the 9th and I'm trying to keep my ducks in a row! Wish me luck!

Brand New Watercolor Pencil Workshop!

Last week's workshop was exciting for me. It was a new, expanded version of the introductions to watercolor pencils which I've been doing as part of the basic and intermediate nature sketching workshops for quite some time.

I'll still continue to introduce watercolor pencils in those classes, but if the students want detailed instruction, they'll be able to attend this new Watercolor Pencil Workshop for LOTS more good stuff.

In the past, the color session has only been a one-day thing, but this workshop extends the color instruction to two days, with time for many new and exciting projects. I took a chance and just barely touched on drawing basics ~ I figured that anyone brave enough to take watercolor pencil instruction would have at least the rudiments of drawing, and I was right (this time!). I had five students, two who listed themselves as beginners and three intermediates. The lovely thing was that they were all returning students who had taken nature journaling or basic sketching with me. Loved that!

One of my projects was to get my students sketching with ballpoint pens. If you are painting with watercolor pencils, an underdrawing done in pencil tends to fuzz and fade, but waterproof ink stays crisp and clear. In my new workbook for the first day, I included a page for them to try pencil, ballpoint, and waterproof fiber-tip ink.

Sketching in ink is pretty intimidating, but they gritted their teeth and bent to the task, finding it surprising rewarding.

The subject was a boringly brown eucalyptus seedpod. The assignment was to try the different underdrawings, then experiment with peculiar, "unnatural" colors to make it look good. The results were fascinating. Here are some photos I took of the process.

This got the students comfortable first with ink drawing, then with mixing colors from opposite sides of the color wheel (with which we started the class) plus thinking out of the box with regard to how to achieve natural colors. It's not intuitive to get brown from purple and yellow, red and green, or blue and orange.

At the same time, I was introducing the students to the many ways to pull color from the pencils: drawing into a wet spot, laying down color with the pencil then wetting it, and lifting color off the end of the pencil with the brush, as shown here.

You'd think a single assignment would elicit similar results, but this class produced the entire spectrum. Here are seedpods from all five students. There is one actual seedpod in the picture. Can you tell which one it is? (click for a bigger image).

We touched on a number of concepts over the course of the two days. One was how to depict a white subject so that it's not blah or just shades of gray. A good way to demonstrate what we actually see (and don't realize) was to place a white object on a brightly colored surface, then look at the color bounced back up onto its underside.

This sea shell set on a chartreuse band of color was definitely greenish underneath, and if you slid it across the bands of color, the effect of the changing colors was even more dramatic.

Here are some of the results the students achieved by shading white subjects with color/s.

I also thought my students would also enjoy learning how to make waterdrops. Susie Short has a wonderful tutorial on her website here. With her very generous permission, I included her page of instructions in my workbook (along with credits and her URL so my students can look up her website at home ~ there are LOTS of neat things there) and we produced some pretty juicy dewdrops, which can really liven up a flower or foliage picture. While it's intended as a watercolor technique, it adapts to watercolor pencils perfectly.

On the second day we were one student short (it was the first gloriously springish day we'd had, and she couldn't resist an invitation to go painting plein air). But the remaining four arrived raring to go. We tried out the dewdrops again, in order to confirm the technique, then got seriously into how to render fur and to realistically color trees, landscapes and foliage.

[BTW, in this shot of my classroom, you can see how I arrange tables for a small class. I can enter between the two tables for close-up one-on-one instruction from directly in front of each student].

We worked on brush technique and quality with my standby orchid project, then got down to business after lunch with our piece de resistance ~ watercolor pencil paintings of gorgeous red and yellow apples.

Each student had a different style and method of working, and it was fun to see how each approached her apple project. Here's an apple in three steps:

Watercolor pencils are notorious for not allowing white highlights to be added after you are finished, so we also experimented with resists, applied before coloring. I felt the "resist masks" used by serious watercolorists (the liquid kind you daub or paint on, then rub off later) seemed a bit daunting for beginning students, although I've used them for years, so we experimented with white china markers with a certain amount of success.

I'd never taught the technique of applying china marker resists before, and I still have some improvement to make on that. I think next time I will have the students do some tests with the china markers and watercolor pencils before applying highlights to their subjects. It's two different things to a) be able to do something proficiently and b) teach someone else the same technique. I learned a lot about teaching resists last weekend!

It never ceases to amaze me that most students will jump right in, applying colors, techniques, or things like the resist without making a test patch off to the side. I really encouraged color-testing this time, and I think the students got more predictable results. Here a student has done some color tests before starting, and is referring to them as she adds green to her apple. Good!

And here are their final apple results. These definitely look good enough to eat, don't you think? The third one from the left is the one underway in the photo above. And actually, those white resist highlights look pretty darned good for a first try!

As always, I ended the class with evaluations. I was delighted with the answer one student gave to the question "What is your favorite medium?" She said "It was pencil... but I'm becoming a convert to ballpoint and also really enjoyed the waterproof fiber-tip pen."

I was also pleased with one response to a question asking them to tell me about their experience of the class: "I loved this class. It was great fun to learn how to use the pencils, waterbrush, china white, etc. I felt more confident after all working together on the same structured project instead of being told to just pick something and paint it without a clue at how to proceed."

This encourages my opinion that people learn best and most confidently when given specific goals to accomplish and specific instructions on how to achieve them. Once you have the technique under your belt, you can go any direction you want with it.

My next workshop is another new one: Sketching Wildlife. It will be May 2-3, starting at the Siskiyou Field Institute's Deer Creek Center (in Selma, OR) with a day mastering sketching techniques for drawing animals ~ fur, feathers, birds and mammals, and moving subjects, etc. The second day will be spent at Wildlife Images Rehab Center, at Merlin, OR, putting that new knowledge to work drawing raptors (hawks, eagles, owls), bears, wolves, foxes, and whatever strikes the students' fancy. This workshop should be a real kick! I've been creating the workbooks for it all month, and finished them last week, ready for printing.

Check it out here. Then come join us. It should be great fun!

Gotta go. There's a Pacific Treefrog pair croaking amorously by the pond outside my studio door, and it's almost 7pm and I'm starving. Ciao!

Sketching at the Black Sheep

I was supposed to have a workshop this last weekend, but only 3 signed up, so I reluctantly canceled. I'll be teaching the same workshop, Basic Nature Drawing, again in July, so perhaps they'll sign up again, with a lot more company.

Since I had this unexpected bonus of time, I used it to catch up on things -- like reassembling my kitchen from its construction orgy last week. I finally have most of the stuff into the new cupboards.

It still isn't done, as I have a huge cedar "plank," 6'x3'x3" sitting in my yard on sawhorses, wrapt in a tarp against rain and snow, awaiting my ministrations as sander. A huge task. It's still too wet and cold to deal with. Maybe next week! The plank is destined to be a counter/bar, and since my house is pretty rustic, it should fit right in.

And on Sunday, I went to The Black Sheep Pub again to sketch the Celtic Jam Irish musicians. I've been experimenting with design elements, and I really like how this major sketch came out (I did a couple of small ones I didn't scan in). The musician on the left, one of my favorites, turned his chair, left and came back then switched to playing the "bones" while I was trying to draw him, so he ended up just holding his guitar in the sketch. I love how he dresses the part, in the old-fashioned pin-striped shirt with its simple buttoned collar, the green vest, and that hat. I could only see the girl's head, with that wonderful hat and hair, and I THINK, in retrospect, that she was playing a different instrument. I only got a glimpse of it, and I think it was tear-shaped instead of a violin shape. Ah well...... There were ten of them playing yesterday, seven men and three women. This is just the ones that were closest (and somewhat visible).

When I visit one of my groups, EverydayMatters, I'm always entranced with the heavily designed pages/drawings people do in their journals. Up to this point I've been fairly simple in my renderings, mostly without backgrounds. So maybe I'll give this concept a ride in future entries. The box/line around it really does hold it together!

My Intermediate Nature Drawing workshop is weekend after next, the 21st, so I'll post that next time.

Journaling & Nature Sketching ~ February 7-8, 2009

I gave a journaling workshop on Feb 7 & 8. I was a little nervous because we had two different meeting places for the weekend. I'd never given a workshop in the Senior Center lunchroom, our Saturday venue, and I was afraid it would be clackety. But the big windows and cheery atmosphere proved to be a big plus (and with no echoes) so it worked out great. Here are my students in a composite photo. Remember you can click on photos to get a larger view.

Day 1
In the journaling workshop, we focus on "sketching in your journal" on the first day, and "journaling in your sketchbook" on the second day. So the first day incorporates Beginning Drawing. But because time is limited, it can only be taught in an abbreviated form.

This may take students up only a step or two if they're real beginners. But at least they can learn the principles, and if they practice they'll improve greatly.

This first day helps students learn to plan pages that will look good, using free-form templates to draw areas into which to write. Matching the shape with the item they have drawn (in the photo above you can see a free-form template's faint outline), this shape allows them to either make an interestingly-shaped paragraph or lovely curving lines of text.

I provided a selection of beautiful but fairly simple seashells, and I think some of the students surprised themselves with both their drawings and their writing. The writing on this first day was unguided, because we were just feeling out the process of creating and combining journaling and sketches.

Some of the writing results were very evocative, and I realized I had a talented bunch of writers in the class. The drawings were quite good, too, especially for mostly-inexperienced beginning artists.

Take a look at some of the results here. I wanted to post more, but they take a lot of time to prepare, (as I demonstrated in a previous blog) and I only had time to ready a few of them.

I was very pleased when one of the students pulled out a digital camera to photograph her shell so that she could work on the pattern and color later. This is an excellent habit, one I use all the time, and it can really enhance your capability for adding details to or painting your sketches later on at home.
I provided a sample "fun font" for the students to use to create a title for their page.

Our ending critique for the day gave everyone new ideas about ways to tackle a journal sketch and entry, and they were vocal with praise and admiration for the page designs the others had produced ~ and the wildly varied approaches to the writing. It was definitely a successful first day.

Day 2
The second day is sometimes met with nervous palpitations by students who have never written a poem, haiku, or a guided creative paragraph.

Since I don't provide journals for this class, students have to bring their own ~ and every journal on Day 2 was different. There were large ones, small ones, spiral bound and book-bound journals. I provide heavy pages in the back of the workbook for students to use if they decide they don't like the journal they brought. I always request that students bring unlined journals, but a few lined ones generally show up anyway. If students want to use them, they may. However, I discourage this because the lines seriously compromise a sketch.

The first assignment, after an introduction and demonstration of the way to approach the project, was to create an evocative paragraph from their choice of four simple sentences-and-photos provided in the workbook. They drew from the photos, designed their pages with the free-form templates, then created their paragraphs. When they had finished, I asked them to read them aloud, and the entire class was entranced by the readings ~ wow! Some of us were in tears by the end. Here are some of their creative pages.









We added other things to the pages later: haikus,





experimental borders, etc. I showed them how to cut and paste to mask booboos and attach ephemera. I provided colored sand and a foolproof technique to add a sample.

I worked alongside them, creating a whimsical page about a worm. I demonstrated details of using rubber stamps, simple spot illustrations, attaching sand, using watercolor pencils for quick touches of color, and creating colorful borders and dividers to enliven a page (check out the example).

The students also tried their hand at illuminating initial caps, a cool way to give an average-looking page a real boost. Two of the students had calligraphy backgrounds, and one of them showed us the beautiful and exceedingly easy way to outline words, shown here.

I always enjoy having advanced artists and journalist in my classes. They often are happy to share with the rest of the students the techniques they use, and I encourage this if it fits within the time frame and other limitations of the workshop.

By the end of the day, most of the students had tried most of the techniques, and several had added circular patches of sand to their pages. There's one by my earthworm, above, in case you wondered what that round thing is. And here's a close-up of one produced by a student.

Very soon, now, I'll be posting my new workshops for summer ~ some of them are still in the scheduling phase ~ and I'll try to remember to put up a notice here when I get them posted. Keep in touch!