Tools For Sketching On The Go

 

Sketching on the go, whether it’s while vacationing in a foreign country or while sipping coffee in your local neighborhood cafe, is an exciting way to experience the world.

I’ve had a number of requests to share some info about what I take with me on these excursions. The answer varies depending on where I am, how long I’m planning to be out, and what I’m hoping to capture. But, that said, here’s the scoop on the basics and the extras.

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Artists’ Workshop: A Day In The Life

Monday (September 13th) was the first day of the 2021-22 painting season with my Artists’ Workshop friends and colleagues. It was great to all be together again. The Covid situation gave us quite a merry ride through last year’s season.

The fact that all nine members of our group are double vaccinated brings some level of comfort. Still, with Covid numbers through the roof in this province, we’re being cautious – working at a distance from each other and wearing masks when we are moving around the space….

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How Did You Do That?

‘How did you do that?’ is a question I was asked more than a few times after I presented the paintings in the December 2020 Glimmers Of Hope series. It just so happens that I took some photos of the process so that I could write about it and share the magic with you. Here’s how it went.

 

First, I cut watercolor paper into five inch squares.

I prepared a number of different colored ‘mats’ for the work by applying masking tape to the paper squares.

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Painting The Streets Of Philipsburg, St Maarten

On these cold wintry January days in Saskatchewan, I like to recall our travels to warmer climes.

When I work with a source photo from some place hot and sunny, it transports me back in time and space.

Such was the case last week, when I pulled out this photo taken a year ago on the streets of Phillipsburg, the capital of the Dutch side of Sint Maarten in the Caribbean.

 

My first step was to create a values sketch with sepia pen in my sketchbook.

It’s a great way to work out the darks and lights in a composition and make decisions about what to include and what to omit from the painting.

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Saturday Morning Adventures With Paint

I spent a few hours this morning as a student in a couple of on-line watercolor workshops. Although I might prefer to be face to face in a workshop setting, still it’s a treat to be able to learn from artists all over the world from the comfort of your very own studio.

Thanks to Dillman’s Art Workshop Retreat in Wisconsin for sponsoring a live one hour demo paint-along with Colorado watercolorist, Janet Nunn. 

Janet works with Dr. Martin’s Hydrus Liquid Watercolors, but I improvised with my own tube paints. She demonstrated techniques featuring crumpled wax paper and a credit card. 

  • Here’s my version of her winter scene. I love the energy in the sweep of the sky and the snowdrifts.

Dillman’s regularly sponsors online demonstrations with all kinds of artists. Follow their Facebook feed to be alerted to upcoming programs and enjoy replays of past sessions.

Immediately on the heels of that session, I spent two hours in another paint along workshop with UK urban sketcher, Ian Fennelly. Ian is known for his lively, detailed, colorful sketches created with Tombow markers, permanent ink liners, and watercolors. 

  • Even though I live in the middle of the prairies, it was fun to imagine myself seaside as I recreated this rickety beached boat and its sentinel seagulls.

Fennelly’s session was sponsored by EtchrLab, maker of fine sketchbooks. They offer an extensive range of online mini-lab workshops at extremely reasonable prices.

There’s lots of online learning to be had if you keep your eyes and ears open. Have fun!

Bird On A Wire – #5 In The Glimmer Of Hope Series

 

Bird On A Wire is #5 in my Glimmers of Hope Art Series. It was inspired by Leonard Cohen’s song by the same name – a tune that reflects on our longing to be free.

5″ x 5″ original watercolor on paper. Mounted on 6″ x 6″ mat board.

Price: $50 (plus $5 to cover tax & postage). The painting will go to the first person to express their interest in purchasing via email to: pat@patkatz.com.

 

 

Glimmer of Hope:  the belief that there is a slight chance that something positive will happen.

Backstory:  This pandemic of 2020 has put a huge dint in our lives – restricting our ability to gather, to travel, and to feel safe and at ease in the world.

I look forward to a time when once again we will feel free to roam and engage with confidence. Until then, it seems we’re destined to gaze longingly through our respective windows on the world, sustained by patience and hope.

To help us get through this final month of what seems like a very long year, I’ve created 31 original paintings in a series called, Glimmers of Hope.

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Making This Paris Lantern Glow

I’ve really been enjoying working with the members of the Artists’ Workshop group this year.

One of the best parts of our weekly sessions is learning more about how other artists approach their work.

I have long been intrigued by the way that colleague, Val Miles, incorporates foil work into her bird images.  You can see more of Val’s work by checking out ‘Val Miles Mixed Media’ on Facebook.

Val graciously offered to show me how she handles this process, and led me through the steps involved in adding foil to one of my watercolor lanterns.

Val uses a multi step process that involves: sketching your image, deciding where you would like to add foil, adding a background color in those areas, applying an adhesive, and then burnishing the foil into place.

Once the foil is adhered, you complete the rest of the painting in the normal way. In my case, this involved ink and watercolor.

Here are a few pics that show how the process unfolded on this Paris Lantern. You can have a first hand, up close and personal look at the end result at our Artists Workshop Spring Show & Sale, where this beauty will be putting in an appearance.

The show and sale takes place at Grace Westminster Church, 505-10thStreet East in Saskatoon. Friday, April 13 (7 – 9 pm). Saturday, April 14 (10 am – 5pm). Sunday, April 15 (Noon to 4 pm).

Thanks, again, Val for your patience and for sharing your how-to know-how with me!

  

DoodleWash Featured Artist

How cool it was to be invited to appear last week as the November 3, 2017 Featured Guest Artist on the Doodlewash website. Click here to see the feature for yourself.

You’ll be able to read about: my philosophy of art, my creative process, how art evolved in my life, how I market my work, and my favorite materials.

Doodlewash is a website coordinated by Charlie O’Shields. It and Charlie are dedicated to all things watercolor. One of the services that Charlie provides is profiles like these on various watercolor artists and their work.

So far, some 340 watercolor artists from around the world have been featured on World Watercolor website. This map shows you who has been featured in the past and where they live. It also offers live links to their feature articles.

I hope when you enjoy these peeks behind the scenes in the lives of artists around the world.

I’d be delighted if you’d share link to my Guest Artist Feature with the art appreciators in your circle of acquaintance.

  • PS – A special welcome to all the new PauseWorks Studio blog subscribers who have joined in to follow news from the studio as a result of the DoodleWash feature. I look forward to staying in touch and sharing more of my art and my world with you.

Colour Colour Everywhere!

The one thing you’re sure to find in any artist’s studio is colour and more colour. Tubes, pencils, powders, pens, bottles – it’s everywhere.

Like most artists, I have my favorite ‘go-to’ colours. I’ll share a bit more about those in a future post. Yet, sometimes a painting calls for something a little bit out of the ordinary, or I’m tempted by the promise of some intriguing new pigment.

It’s a constant challenge for me to narrow down the number of colours in order to amp up the possibility of harmony in the art.

These days, when I’m working in the studio, I find myself doing a bit more colour planning before I start putting paint to paper.

I’ll grab a scrap of watercolour paper, and create a sampler of intended colours and mixes – thinking about where and how I’d like to use the different pigments and which ones I could do without or create from two colours already in the mix.

The challenge is to see how I can create the widest range of options from the fewest colours.

The sampler you see perched on the palette above is some of the pre-work I did to work out colour choices for the painting of a Venetian canal.

The second image shows how those colors came together in the piece itself.

With Or Without? Survey Says…

One of the things I love about watercolor is the brilliance of the pure white paper. To preserve that freshness, I’m often inclined to leave a lot of the white paper showing. – especially in some of the vignettes that I create.

On a recent excursion with the Saskatoon Plein Air painting group, I sketched a sweet little daffodil blooming in the Mendel Conservatory. I initially left the background white, with the flower framed by a black line squiggle.

 

After scanning that image in its ‘natural state’, I decided to experiment by adding a contrasting blue background inside the frame.

I then posted the two images to Facebook along with the questions: “With or without? And why?”

53 Facebook followers weighed in with their opinions. A huge majority (a whopping 94% of the voters) preferred the image ‘with’ the blue background.

They gave these reasons: contrast highlights the flower, makes color more vibrant, makes it look warmer, gives it depth and dimension, makes it more positive, feels more finished and complete, makes the flowers pop, and gives context.

The two votes for ‘without’ chose the image with the white background because of its simplicity and understatement.

One of the ‘without’ supporters mocked up a couple of images with colored mats to show how the frame choice could make the image pop in different ways. This reinforces the point made by another respondent who was squarely on the fence, saying the preference for a white or color background ‘depends on the frame’.

One artist that I studied with (can’t remember who) noted that if you are wondering whether you should or whether you shouldn’t (change a line, add a color, tweak the background), the answer is always, ‘Yes, you should.”

His point was that the change just might be successful; and if it isn’t successful, at least you’ve learned something about what NOT to do next time. Grand experiments in the pursuit of learning!

PS – Are you wondering which version I prefer? That’s just like asking a parent to choose a favorite child. I demur. I love them both.

Copyright © 2016 - Pauseworks Studio - Patricia Katz, Optimus Consulting
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