Embroidery floss and colored pencil, together at last. Pencil and colored pencil, approx. 5" x 7". I love embroidery of all kinds, and the large color range and types of threads available are wonderful art inspiration. These colors were just randomly selected, I thought they harmonize nicely.
Using the same set up as yesterday, but with pink/magenta instead of the chartreuse green of the pear. Changing something like this uses a different part of your brain I think, it's almost like trying to write with your opposite hand. You see green, but draw pink.
This was completely executed in Inktense pencils, which are not so much water soluble as reactive to a wet surface. My review of the product: once the pencil marks dry, you can add more washes over them and they do not budge, dissolve, smear, etc. The deep intense colors created on the pear were great - made as the pencils were drawn (and they just glided) over the wet surface. The paper mostly dried by the time I got to the shadows on the cloth, the pencils acted like regular colored pencil in those spots, just not as exciting. I realized too late that I used my thinner watercolor sketch paper (5 1/2" x 8 1/2"), and the pencils were much harsher on its surface than my brushes. Between the wetness and the pencil tips my paper was worn through in spots, making me finish somewhere around the 17 minute mark for fear of ruining it. I like the product but it's not a love affair (yet).
A slightly more complicated still life in 20 minutes was my plan tonight. Watercolor, water soluble pencil and crayon, 5 1/2" x 8 1/2" (no pencil sketch - why bother?). I think cloth backgrounds add a lot of visual interest, and folds of fabric can be challenging to render, but I like that challenge. Through the two months so far of this experiment I have found (with frustration) that watercolor paint does not fully dry in 20 minutes time! I used that to my advantage with the wet-in-wet colors of the pear itself, and out of necessity blotted several wet edges before adding pencil details. The best thing about food as an art subject? Not only is it fun to paint, it's even better to eat.
Inspired by a lettering book, I wanted to do a decorative letter T in ink for tonight's 20 minute sketch, 5 1/2" x 8'. I like the way this looked before I added the colored ink, as the details are hard to see with the color. It was fun to do regardless, and surprisingly the 20 minutes flew by.
The flamboyant pediment represented here with this 20 minute pen sketch (5" x 7") is atop a Connecticut Valley desk and bookcase attributed to Silas Rice, circa 1799. I wish my sketch did it justice, but without taking time for an accurate pencil sketch I just have to go with my immediate pen lines whether they are correct or not.
According to the book in which I found its picture, it is privately owned, not in a museum (too bad for the rest of us). It appealed to me because its ornate decorations, especially those little pierced hearts and "fylfots" (swirly teardrop groups), are certainly reminiscent of the more primitive folk art style found in other northeast regions around the same time period.
