Tuesday 2 February 2010




Course work: Three hasty sketches of one of the dogs, who, contrary to his usual behavior, would not stay still.

Reading:



Carol Strickland The Annotated Mona Lisa

Andrews and McMeel, Kansas City, Missouri, USA, 1992

Pp 110-125



Personal Sketchbook work: Some experimentation with Caran D’Ache Neocolor 2 water-soluble crayons: a group of three bananas. The colors are fairly light until water is applied, then they become much stronger: this striking difference would take a good bit of work to master. There is some tendency for the wet pigment to penetrate lightweight sketchbook paper, though this is much less pronounced than with markers or full-strength ink. As a quick sketching medium in the field, these may have merit, but I fear they might have a tendency to melt in the heat of our Georgia summers: this will require some testing in a few months.

I then did a quick sketch of a single banana, using Staedtler Karat Aquarell watercolor pencils. Again, color was quite light until water was applied, then it became moderately stronger. Here again, learning to adequately plan for this substantial change in appearance between dry and wet would take a good bit of practice and experience. These pencils would be unlikely to melt when exposed to the sun, but they cannot be applied nearly as quickly as can the water-soluble crayons, and there is a slightly greater tendency for persistence of the original marks even after water application.

Other activity: My painting group met today (time not included).



Total time: 1 hour 13 min