White Ink

Here are a two pages from my black paper sketch book. I was very excited to learn about the possibility of using white ink in my rapidograph pen. I was very pleased with the effect, but it required a lot of patience since rapidograph pens can take several minutes to get the pen to release the ink. Then, I needed to learn to draw sloooowwwwlly, so that the lines don't break up into light, textured lines.

The drawing on the left is a portrait of my grandfather, Frank, or as I called him Pop Pop. Unknown to me at the time I created this drawing that he would pass away a few hours later. The drawing on the right has a portrait of my cat Pheobe. The short pen strokes of fur worked very well with the white ink/radiograph pen.

In Progress...

This week, I managed to refine the woman's face and neck. I still need to apply a few glazes to enhance some of the color and to darken her eyes and mouth.

Prepping for new works

In effort to participate in a group show in at the Philadelphia Sketch Club in celebration of The Philadelphia Flower show, I began these chalk studies of liles and cyclamen. I had high hopes for doing these in oil, but the deadline is too soon. So, watercolor it will be.

Let's play with color!

An oil painting I began recently. A lot of opposites are happening in this painting. Cool colors and lighting of the sky against the warm colors of the woman's face created by the candle. Is the windy exterior blowing out the candle or is the woman?

So far, this painting has one and a half coats of oil paint. After the first layer of paint has been blocked in and dried, I render the background as well as possible before I begin the second coat of paint onto the figure. Typical painting takes up to three and a half coats of paint to achieve the quality I desire.

The intitial sketch for the painting above.

An experiment in acrylic

Occasionally, I like to make a mess and try to incorporate a figure within the mess. Sometimes it works.

I started out with layering washes of acrylic trying to achieve unique brush strokes similar to illustrator, Sam Weber. It didn't happen. But, the portrait turned out OK. It was an experiment.