For today’s sketch, I wanted to try to draw a photograph of a sunset that Bill took during our trip to Italy several years ago.
This is the view from Medieval Assisi, which sits on a hill well above the surrounding landscape. He had shared it with me during our joint “100 Day Project,” back in 2023. I had never quite finished making 100 pieces of art out of Bill’s photos. This one I had wanted to turn into an art quilt. I had even done a fabric pull in anticipation.
It seems like an impossible task when I think about it now. But the first step is always to get a good drawing, from which to make a pattern. For this drawing I used graphite and colored pencils.
There’s no way for pencil to get the lustrous glow of a sunset the way a photograph can. But I did manage to render the shapes reasonably well.
I’ve decided to do some sketching every Sunday this year. It helps me understand my subjects better and gives me an opportunity to work on values and composition.
Today I pulled up a photograph of AshLynn, my great niece. Her mother is a children’s librarian. Last July we were at story hour. I was snapping away with my cell phone and was charmed by Ashlynn doing an exercise called Flitter Flutter.
Waving her chiffon scarves while looking back at her beloved Grandma.
Ever since I have been wanting to render the scene in watercolor. My first step toward that goal is this quick sketch.
A fellow yoga student has asked me to paint portraits of her dogs. It’s to be a Christmas gift for her husband. This week I worked out the preliminary drawings. I haven’t had the privilege of meeting my subjects, so I am working exclusively from some photographs.
Here is Daisy:
Daisy’s canine sibling, Reggie:
It was pretty fun making the sketches and I’m almost happy with the results. There will be a few tweaks when I do the final line drawings that will get transferred to the watercolor paper.
Today I have two – six by six canvases – that will be submitted for sale in October to benefit my local art association. I had fun coming up with ideas.
Last week I did two sketches. One was intended to be a traditional watercolor work. The second will start out with watercolor, but will finish out with some threadwork.
I call this work In Our Hands.
Reference photo:
Sketch:
Finished painting:
To utilize the 6 by 6 stretched canvas, I cut my watercolor paper into a 9 by 9 square. My initial wash was worked over the whole piece. After it dried, I cut it at the corners, wrapped it around the canvas, folding over flaps, which were stapled in place. I used double-face tape to press down the sides onto the canvas edges and cut off the excess. Then I proceeded with the rest of the painting.
Pigments used: Winsor lemon, quinacridone gold, raw sienna, transparent orange, Payne’s gray, Prussian blue and Winsor green, blue shade. Some silver metallic gouache suggests the pale iridescent scales of the butterfly.
For the second piece, I prepared the canvas with a product new to me: QOR Watercolor Ground. This base is supposed to transform the fabric canvas into a watercolor paper-like surface. Reviews were good, so I will give it a try.
My reference is photograph of baby birds taken by Bill.
He discovered this nest outside a busy title office inside a fake plant. What was that mother bird thinking! I call this work Tight Quarters.
Original sketch
Partially completed painting with photograph in background.
Finished painting, ready for the next step.
Painting on the watercolor ground, IMHO, was nothing like painting on paper. These sparrows look like they have a serious case of bed-head feathers. I found it almost impossible to layer my paints in a normal way. When I tried to add a glaze, the underlayers would liquify. So, I just pushed the paint this way and that to suggest the texture of the feathers. Despite the struggle, I find that these little birds have a lively character which is appealing to me.
Pigments used were Winsor lemon, quinacridone gold, raw sienna, transparent orange, quinacridone red, ultramarine blue, Prussian blue and Winsor green, blue shade.
My local art association is having an art sale in October. The members are asked to use 6×6 canvases to make artwork, choosing whatever media they prefer. At the event, each canvas will be sold for $66.
This is something I can do. This week I picked up three of these canvases. I came up with six ideas for subject matter. To get started, I made some sketches today (really, just contour drawings.) These will be painted with watercolors.
Butterfly perched on my hand. Butterflies have landed on me in real life. Often it’s the little hackberry butterflies, drawn to warm or sweaty clothing. I wanted something with more drama. I chose to sketch a spicebush swallowtail.
My hand was drawn from life. For the butterfly, I referenced a photo from the Audobon Guide to Butterflies of North America, published in 1980.
There were no photo credits in the book.
2. Baby sparrows in a nest: This drawing was made based on a photograph by Bill.
At times, parent birds choose unfortunate locations for building their nests. This nest was located in a door wreath at a downtown business. Here is my contour sketch.
I have something special in mind for this work. Fiber art will be involved, giving this painting more of a 3D object.
3. Two of my other ideas will be worked with fabric paint on cotton. I will recreate some early experiments of mine using the sun printing technique.
I’m excited to get started. Perhaps I will work on color selection later today.
Daily Fiber 