Painting with Pencils

Marathon Painting Sessions

2011-11-16T09:36:00.000+05:30

Now that you've seen the easels I purchased, here's what I painted on them :-) These are the largest canvases I've painted on and led to marathon painting sessions (weekends, after-hours, late nights).

This is the largest canvas I've painted on - 72" x 60" - and it certainly didn't fit on the easel. Took about 15 hours from start to finish.

This was the first one I started. Not as big as the one above, just 34" x 48", but still large enough by my standards. Took me almost as much time as the large one since I used a lot more layers and it took longer to dry.

This one's 34" x 48" too but I fell sick before I could finish it :-/

It was difficult to take photos of these pieces since there was less space around and I was trying not to bump into the other paintings. I'll post better pics when I have them.

My First Easel

2011-11-02T08:52:00.000+05:30

Put together my first easel last week. It took about an hour to set up, mostly because I didn't read the instructions first and had to redo some of it :-)

It's pretty sturdy and is able to handle large canvases (this one's 32" x 48") even when I hadn't fitted in all the nuts and bolts (was testing it to see if it was set up right). Is fairly portable - I had to switch apartments twice and it didn't feel that heavy while moving.

It was too large to carry on the flight so I got a table top easel for back home. This one's supposed to handle canvases up to 34" too but I haven't tried that on it yet. Looks great for smaller pieces (my plein air piece fitted in real nicely) and has space to fit in the supplies. More of an indoor easel but folds up nicely if I want to take it out.

(Click on the post if you can't view all the pics)

Drawing/Sketching Apps for Android

2011-08-06T19:08:00.000+05:30

Between upgrading my Android tablet, checking out apps on my Xoom, and exploring Google+*, I completely forgot to post about my favorite sketching apps.

As with sketching supplies, paring down to the bare essentials really works. Over the period of a month and a half, I downloaded 50+ drawing and sketching apps. I tested them on my phone, a 7-inch tablet and my Xoom (10-inch tablet). In the end, I cut down my 'digital sketching kit' to these four apps based on the features they provide and how often I use them.

My most favorite app is sadly not available in the public Android market. It's the only one I've tested so far which feels closest to drawing on paper. The brush strokes are pressure sensitive and feel like you are sketching with a brush pen. The options seem limited at first - you have 4 brush sizes and a limited palette but once you start sketching on it, you won't need anything more. This is the first app I open whenever I'm in a mood to sketch :-)

Next up on my list is Sketchbook Pro. This is a full fledged drawing program with tons of features. You can choose between different brushes (15 in the free version and 45/60 in the paid versions), add layers, mix up your own colors, trace over photographs, draw mirrored strokes and much much more. There are separate free and paid versions of the app for the phone and the tablet. If you had space for only one app, this is the one you should choose. And yes, this is also available for the iPhone and the iPad.

If you have a Honeycomb tablet (Moto Xoom, Galaxy Tab, any tablet with Android 3.0 or more), you should check out Drawing Pad. The screenshots on the site are misleading and you might think it's more of a kid's app but not really. Check out this video to get the full feel of the app. What I like the most about this is the supplies drawer stocked with color pencils, crayons, brushes and stencils. It's much more fun to choose the media and colors compared to the other apps and the textures are just right. It also has more paper options right from plain, lined, graph paper, and colored backgrounds with different textures. It's a paid app and totally worth every bit they are charging for it!

The last one on my list is Paint Joy, a very simple app that's more for kids than serious(?) artists. What I like the most about it is it records your strokes and you can play back your sketch as a video. The paid version has a few more features like a gallery where you can access your sketches and videos. It lets you save the drawing in different stages and continue the sketch from where you ended it previously. The only downside is that you can't share the video yet but hopefully the future versions should fix this.

One app I've heard a lot about but haven't found that impressive is Auryn Ink. It's supposed to be a watercolorist's delight and the closest you could get to real watercolor sketches on the tablet. I tried it out, found it extremely frustrating, and returned it right away. It does simulate real life watercolor painting - you can choose between different textures of paper, decide how much water you want to load on the brush, and the paint dries on paper just as it would in real life. What felt frustrating was I couldn't get the colors to mix well so it looked like patches of color on other patches of color. I'm not a pro with watercolors so I'm probably doing it wrong. But the screenshots on the site do not look any impressive either. If any of you have this app installed and have figured out how to use it please let me know. I would love to figure out how to use it. But in the meantime, Sketchbook Pro and Drawing Pad have all the textures I need (even watercolors)!

That's it for now. If you know of any good apps I should try out, let me know :-)

*P.S. If you aren't on Google+ yet, here's your invite. Fair warning: Google+ is very addictive and will suck you in. No wonder my last post was before it's launch :-)

Sketching on my Xoom

2011-06-27T08:00:00.000+05:30

Here's my first attempt at using my Motorola Xoom for sketching. This piece was done on the Sketchbook Pro app using my Nomad Brush. The brush is pretty nice to work with for larger strokes but isn't as convenient to use for sketches since it doesn't hold the point.

I spent most of the last couple of weeks testing a ton of sketching apps (well 50+) and have finally narrowed down the list to 4 really cool apps. More about these in my next post :-)

Plein-air Painting in Central Park

2011-05-07T22:14:00.000+05:30

I had a fantastic time in Central Park yesterday. I signed up for a plein-air painting session with Danielle Hatherley and had fun meeting other artists and exploring a new medium.

This was my first time painting plein-air and I hadn't worked with oils for years. But Danielle walked us through each and every step and it didn't feel that difficult at all. The hardest part was getting used to people staring at you but they were mostly very nice and tried to stay out of the way (except for one guy who kept saying we were wasting our time since no one would buy these paintings - LOL).

The weather was just right - not too cold and thankfully it didn't rain. The scenery was breathtaking - I have another album with the rest of the Central Park photos if anyone is interested in them.

Here are the rest of the photos from the session:

If you are in New York (or visiting anytime soon), do check out Danielle's Plein Air Painting School. She posts updates about upcoming classes on her meetup page.

Nothing Negative About It!

2011-04-23T18:22:00.000+05:30

I read about negative painting in Linda Kemp's Painting Outside the Lines and tried out a few simple exercises. The hardest part is waiting for it to dry and getting the hues right for the different washes. As you can see in the first pic, there isn't much of a difference between the first and the second washes.

The colors didn't come out well in the photos. I'll be posting better pics soon.

In the meantime, if you are interested in this technique, you can check out Painting Outside the Lines and Luminous Watercolor.

I'm also checking out the Watercolors Made Easy course and will post a review of it soon.

Quick Sketches

2011-03-20T16:30:00.000+05:30

Working on some exercises from Kate's Quick Sketching mini-class:

Trying out some quick sketches with my waterbrush. For the silhouettes, taking the color from the watercolor pencils rather than sketch them in worked better.

Trying out one of the examples in Kate's mini-class. I need to add a few more layers of color to this but it's close enough.

Quick sketches at the waiting room at the eye doctor's. I was surprised some of them even resemble the subject or look like people!

And here I'm testing my new mechanical pencils. The first 6 are 2.0 mm pencils and the last one is the largest with a 5.6 mm lead (I used this one for the waiting room sketches).

Portrait Practice -Nosey Nosey

2011-02-06T13:15:00.000+05:30

Practicing some features for next week's portrait class. Which nose looks more realistic?

Graphite Sketching pencils (2B & 4B) on 60 gsm paper.

I'll be posting a list of resources for realistic looking portraits here.

I ♥ My Cintiq

2010-11-14T08:33:00.000+05:30

Here's my first sketch on my Cintiq 12WX. It was easy to set up and feels just like sketching on paper (once you get the hang of it). Best of all, I LOVE having an undo button when I'm sketching :-D

I'll start a wave to share some tips on setting up Cintiq and digital sketching (not just restricted to Cintiq, could work with any tablet or even just your mouse). If you know of any good tutorials, let me know.

Back from San Francisco

2010-11-10T09:15:00.000+05:30

Was in San Francisco last week and had a fantastic time there.

First, I got my package from Rollabind with 2 letter size journals, 3 junior journals, and a bunch of Rollabind discs. Enough for half a dozen sketchbooks! The junior size is my fav for now (5.5" x 8.5") but the letter size is good for larger indoor sketches.

If you haven't used Rollabind before, check out this video on why it's so cool.

Next, I bought my most expensive "art supply" so far - a Wacom Cintiq 12WX. It is really as cool as it looks :-D I'm still getting the hang of it and will post photos and reviews soon!

I also got some yummy stamps from my art friend Vicki Holdwick as part of her blog giveaway. Thanks, Vicki. I love the patterns you've chosen :-)

And for an awesome end to an awesome trip, I took a private lesson at Root Division from Robert Minervini. Rob is a fantastic teacher and I learnt a lot during the session. I wish I had found this site long time back. Absolutely recommend this if you are ever in SF!

Sketchbook Surgery

2010-10-11T07:58:00.000+05:30

Did some sketchbook surgery over the weekend - ripped apart a 6-ring binder and converted it into a Rollabind sketchbook.

5" x 7" Sketchbook holds 40 sheets of 200 gsm watercolor paper or 30 sheets of 300 gsm watercolor paper.

Digging Up Some Old Sketches

2010-09-25T10:15:00.000+05:30

I'm planning on taking a private caricature class when I'm in San Francisco next week. Digging up some of my old sketches so that the instructor can see what I've done until now. Will post an update once I'm back :-)

This is a quick sketch of my two-year old cousin (she was 6 months old at that time). Sketched from a photograph since she really didn't stay still (and still doesn't) for more than a few seconds :-D

Testing Watercolor Pencils

2010-09-19T09:21:00.000+05:30

Bought a set of Camlin King Watercolor Pencils for my cousin and created a color chart for it. These are student grade pencils and I used 200 gsm watercolor paper for the chart. There are 24 colors in the box and they didn't have any specific color names/codes.

And here's how Camlin King compares with my other watercolor pencils:

I'm comparing it with General's Kimberly Watercolor Pencils (student grade*) and Prismacolor Watercolor Pencils (artist grade).

You can check out more color charts and comparisons here (join ArtisticWaves group to view this wave).

*Kimberly is marked as artist grade pencils but as you can see the pigments don't have the same strength as the Prismas do. They are at best student grade but are still much better than most student grade pencils.

Glass Painting

2010-07-04T07:54:00.000+05:30

Technically not painting with pencils but I did use pencils for the initial sketch and for transferring the artwork to the mirror :-D

Glass painting on a 5 ft by 4 ft mirror.

Online Art Class on ArtisticWaves

2010-05-30T17:10:00.000+05:30

We are voting for our next online class on Artistic Waves. You can find more details about it in the ArtisticWaves Updates Blog.

Voting ends on June 5 and the classes begin on June 14.

Hope you can join us :-)

Getting Started with Colored Pencils

2010-04-27T09:51:00.001+05:30

Ever wanted to try painting with colored pencils but didn't know how to start? Here's a quick start guide for you.

If you would like to post your comments or ask questions on the wave, join the Artistic Waves group.

Mini Tutorial - Dew Drops in Colored Pencil

2010-04-19T08:09:00.000+05:30

Here's a real quick tutorial on creating dew drops in colored pencil (or watercolors or any medium of your choice).

The tutorial is on Google Wave since it allows me to annotate images. Mouseover the image for instructions on creating the dew drops.

If you would like to post your comments or ask questions on the wave, join the Artistic Waves group.

To access the same tutorial on wave, click on the Dew Drop Tutorial link.

Everyday Matters Weekly Challenges

2010-03-01T20:49:00.000+05:30

I had heard a lot about Everyday Matters but recently decided to start working on the weekly challenges. Here are some of my EDM sketches:

Challenge 2: Draw a desk lamp or other lamp

Challenge 41: Draw a landmark of your city

Challenge 81: Draw a streetlight

More info on these sketches and other EDM challenges on Google Wave. I'll be posting the rest of my sketches here: http://edm.poojasrinivas.com

If you don't have a Google Wave invite, post a comment with your Google Account alias and I'll try to get you an invite. Comments are moderated so your email alias won't be displayed on the blog. I'll delete the comment once you get the invite. If you aren't on Wave yet, check this section for more info on why you should be trying it out: http://googlewave.poojasrinivas.com

New Online Class - Landscapes

2010-01-24T09:52:00.000+05:30

I'll be participating in an online art class next week and the fun part of it is it's going to be on Google Wave! :-)

This will be a four-week class on Landscapes and I've chosen to work on colored pencils and watercolor pencils. Everyone in the class is going to work on their fav medium so it'll be fun and interesting to see the various techniques and interpretations.

I'll post updates and artwork as the class progresses, but you can learn more and join in if you are interested by going to my Google Wave blog or the ArtisticWaves Website.

P.S. This is a free class and anyone can join - all we ask for is active participation :-)

Calling All Artists on Google Wave

2010-01-14T18:58:00.000+05:30

Are you on Google Wave? Then join us for a free online art class - all you need to do is be part of the Artistic Waves Group and vote on the topic.

Voting ends on Jan 22 2010
Class starts on Feb 1 2010

ArtisticWaves is a meeting ground for artists on Google Wave. Once you are part of the group, you will be able to access waves on the following topics:

Watercolors
Colored Pencils
Watercolor Pencils
Pen and Ink
Graphite
Charcoal
Pastels
Oils
Acrylics
Sequential Art
Digital Art
And more...

If you have any questions on the class or ArtisticWaves, post a comment here or ping me on Google Wave :-)

Nothing Beats an Online Class

2009-06-19T09:51:00.000+05:30

You can have hundreds of books on various painting techniques but nothing beats the amount you can learn through a single online class. If you've been reading the last few posts, you know I'm taking about Kate's Watercolor Pencil Workshop where am having an awesome time :-D

If I were given a choice, I would pick an online class to a live class any day (No, it's not because I'm addicted to the Internet... will you please stop interrupting me and read on! geez!!) One thing you really miss in a live class is the interaction with the class mates. You are so focussed on your piece that you hardly get time to look around and learn from others. Plus, you miss out on the variety... the workshop has participants from all around the world, with a range of experience - right from beginners like me to experts in watercolors and other media.

I was surprised at the amount I've learnt myself... I dug out some of my old sketches that I had done before Kate's class and you can see the difference yourself...

All thanks to Kate and all the participants of the workshop :-)

Using Prismacolors on 200 gsm watercolor paper

Exploring Landscapes

2009-06-16T09:57:00.001+05:30

One of the assignments for Kate's class. It's a thumbie - a 2" x 2 1/2" thumbnail - that I use for practice. Good ones gets graduated to 5" x 7" or bigger versions.

Using Prismacolors on 300 gsm watercolor paper

Fun with Color Charts

2009-05-18T22:06:00.000+05:30

Started with color charts - had fun creating the color wheels, an inventory of all my pencils (90+ watercolor pencils and 120+ colored pencils!! :-D), and some color charts.

The color charts are a great way to learn how colors work with each other and how they change from dry to wet. It's amazing how some of the colors change when water is added and it's good to know that BEFORE you start working on your paintings.

With this color chart, we were trying to see how many colors we could get from a limited palette of 12 colors. It's really fun and will work for any medium - colored pencils, watercolors, oils, acrylics, etc.

If you are interested in trying this out, download the color chart template and have some fun with it.

Using Prismacolors on 100 gsm watercolor paper

One More Week ...

2009-05-08T12:01:00.000+05:30

One more week to go before the class starts... here's what I'm up to:

- Reading Kate's Watercolor Pencil Magic Book (actually it's on CD)

- Getting my supplies ready

- Working on some color swatches

Picking out your pencils is the hardest part. There are so many to choose from. I've got Prismacolor Watercolor Pencils, Derwent Inktense, and Graphitint to start with. Then, I've got some student grade pencils. Working on color swatches for all of these so that I can show you the difference.

Then you need good paper. The best artist grade pencils can give you horrible results if you haven't selected the right paper. You need watercolor paper preferably 140 lb or 300 gsm weight. You can use lighter papers too... the Moleskine Sketchbook comes with 200 gsm paper and I've used 100 gsm paper for rough sketches. Anything lower than this and the paper will buckle when you add water.

I'm still looking for a good electric sharpener. The ones I've found online are 120v ones which won't work in India :-( Let me know if you know where I can get a 220v one.

Watercolor Pencil Workshop

2009-05-02T10:15:00.000+05:30

I know I haven't posted anything for a while, but I'll try to make up for it. Hang in there :-)

So, what have I been up to? I've joined a watercolor pencil workshop online and having fun with the pre-class homework (fun and homework! Two words that never got along with each other when I was in school!!! :-D)

For those who don't know what watercolor pencils are, they are colored pencils where the lead has watersoluble pigment. You can draw with them as normal pencils and the moment you add water, the color bursts out making it a watercolor painting. Sounds interesting, huh?

I have bunches of watercolor pencils and no clue how to use them well, so I decided to go in for professional help. The workshop looks great for a beginner like me. The class starts in a few weeks and I'll have loads of stuff to post and write about.

Until then, back to my pre-class homework :-)

Strawberries

2009-04-04T11:50:00.000+05:30

Using Prismacolor colored pencils on Strathmore black paper

Instructions from Ann Kullberg's kit

Sketch of the Week

2009-03-19T20:02:00.000+05:30

Using Faber-Castell sketching pencils (2B and 4B) on white Sketch Pad (50lb) paper

Sketching with Preston Blair

2009-03-17T00:15:00.000+05:30

From the original Preston Blair book

Using Faber-Castell sketching pencils (2B) on printer paper

Sketch of the Week

2009-03-16T11:03:00.000+05:30

Using Faber-Castell sketching pencils (2B and 4B) on white Sketch Pad (50lb) paper

Sketching with Preston Blair

2009-03-15T20:30:00.000+05:30

From the original Preston Blair book

Using Faber-Castell sketching pencils (2B) on printer paper

Sketching... and Loving It :-)

2009-03-15T20:00:00.000+05:30

So what am I up to these days? Sketching... and loving it! :-)

But why Pencils, you ask? Didn't we use them way, way back in school. The very same pencil that you hated writing with and all you wanted to do back then was to get in to class VI so that you could start using pens like grown-ups did. (BTW, I know why I was interested in pens, fountain pens specifically - have you seen the amazing shapes the ink blots make? Too bad everyone have moved to ball points these days!)

Well, here's news for you. These are not the same pencils. In fact, there are so many varieties of them, you could spend days just deciding which ones to use (talking from experience, if you know what I mean). You can choose between sketching (graphite) pencils, charcoal pencils, colored pencils, watercolor pencils, tinted graphite pencils, tinted charcoal pencils... whew! Told you it could take days!

And once you choose your pencils and decide on what you want to sketch, you can get to the fun part!

Now that you know what to expect from this blog - sit back, check out my sketches, and post a comment or two. :-)