A quick zentangle to break the creative block before embarking on another, more elaborate colour pencil drawing. Completed in a my Moleskine sketchbook with Faber Castell PITT artist pens and Faber Castell Polychromos colour pencils.
Hot Air Balloons at Schwäbisch Hall
This is an illustration I did from a photograph I snapped on my iPhone during the 2011 Catalina flying season. We’d flown in from another airshow in Switzerland and landed at Adolf Würth Airport in Schwäbisch Hall, a very pretty town about a two-hour train journey from Stüttgart (Germany). It was the late afternoon of a very hot summers day and the airshow had just come to an end. We were duly transported from the aeroplane to the beer tent per stretched Limousine (it was only a very, very short hop, but it’s the thought that counts!) and as we were sipping some well-deserved chilled weiss beer, they were inflating this huge Action Man hot air balloon. I love this photo as you can really see how big it is compared to a normal hot air balloon. As it was, it was still too hot for the Action Man balloon to take off – the difference in temperature between the normal air and the heated air was simply not enough to lift a balloon of that size.
This is the first time I used Derwent Inktense pencils and it’s been a bit of a steep learning curve! I chose to use Inktense as I thought they’d be perfect for such a lovely colourful subject. I like the intensity of the colours and way they handle on small, detailed areas of drawing – you can layer colours beautifully as it dries like an ink so the colours won’t mix with the next layer of pigment. I’m not to sure I liked using them on large areas, such as the sky. I had to have three goes at that, as the colour pulled away in a rather odd way as the drawing was drying causing it to look quite blotchy. I was able to correct it to some extent but my sky came out a lot darker than planned. I used a few of my old Karisma colour pencils at the final stage to crisp up some of the detail.
Derwent Inktense pencils, Karisma colour pencils (known as Prismacolor in the USA), A4 watercolour Moleskine .
Teardrop
I finally finished the illustration I started over Christmas for my 2012 Sketchbook Project. Unfortunately, it looks like I won’t have enough time to finish the project in time to send it (the deadline for pasting the booklet back to the States is 31 January). With my energy levels being so random throughout 2011, I simply didn’t have that many good weekends to compete enough drawings. I must admit that I also found it very hard to work to a set theme. I will complete the project in my own time though, just because I hate giving up on anything, and will probably enter again for next year’s Sketchbook Project. Although I will allow myself a little more freedom and stick with an unnamed theme!
Faber-Castell PITT pens and Faber-Castell pencil (2B)
Pilots Wanted!
As I’m preparing to do some new t-shirt designs for Plane Sailing, who own and operate a beautiful WWII PBY-5A Catalina flying boat, I thought I’d post an illustration & artwork I did for them some time ago. This advert was entirely done in Adobe Illustrator CS4 and donated free of charge as part of the voluntary work I do for them.
I think there may still be a share available so, if you are interested, please check out the Plane Sailing Catalina Operations website.
If you would just like more information on this Duxford-based Catalina, please check out the Catalina Society website for more information. If you are interested in helping to keep this wonderful aeroplane flying you can join the Catalina Society from just £15 per year.
I can’t post the existing t-shirt designs yet as they are still in use for several items of merchandising but you can see one of these (the black and white half-view of ‘PBY-5A Catalina’) in the Catalina Society gift shop.
A Little Slice of Death
This second drawing for my Art House Sketchbook 2012 project is all about my fear of Chronic Fatigue Syndrome/ME taking over my life, leaving me fast asleep like a certain fairytale character.
Still need to write some copy to accompany the drawing but hope to finish that next weekend.
The title of this piece is take from the quote: ‘Sleep… Oh! how I loathe those little slices of death.’ (Author unknown, various wordings commonly attributed to Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Edgar Allan Poe, and Journey to the Center of the Earth)
Faber-Castell pencils 2B, 4B, 6B and 8B
Zentangle Nr4
Another zentangle, which I started at a lunch time craft session a few weeks ago. The central pattern was created from a randomly drawn ‘string’, sectioned by lines crossing its centre. I tried out a few new patterns in this one and played around with shading to add some depth.
One of the first patterns I inked in was the curling ‘question mark’ in the top left hand section. This quickly started to dominate the illustration though, so I ‘suspended’ the whole tangle from a striped cord, which helped frame the composition, and added the spiral ends to both echo and counterbalance the ‘question mark’.
Copic Multiliner SP and Faber-Castell pencil in 13x21cm Molskine sketchbook
The Trouble with Summer…
Finally finished the first illustration for my 2012 Art House Sketchbook! This one took so much longer than planned (the day job keeps getting in the way!) but I’m happy with the result.
This is the first time I’ve broken out my new box of Faber-Castell Pitt Artist ink pens and I quite enjoyed using them. The brush tips allow for both quick and detailed work and keep their shape much better than the Copic Ciao markers I’ve used previously. The ink is water based, so is odourless. It stays wet just long enough to seamlessly blend shades of colour and, unlike the Ciao’s, barely bleeds through the paper.
The theme I picked for my sketchbook is ‘Fears and Tears’ – mainly because I’m looking forward to trying my hand at drawing some monsters 
Mandala Nr1
Experimenting with another celtic knot pattern and some silver and copper colouring. Turns out the Moleskine paper doesn’t like my Faber-Castell Polychromos colour pencils much – it doesn’t have sufficient ‘tooth’ to grab the oil based colour. The copper colour in particular was hard to apply as that particular pencil is quite hard and easily damaged the paper’s surface. Ended up switching to a wax-based Karisma copper pencil, which is a bit softer, to colour the semi circles on the outer ring. Unfortunately my little Canon Lite scanner doesn’t deal with these metalic colours all that well, so the copper is showing as a brown and the silver is more of a blue-ish grey. Ah well, I’ll know for next time.
Sakura Pigma Micron fine liners, Faber-Castll PITT Artist pens, Faber-Castell Polychromos silver and copper pencils, Sanford Karisma copper pencil in 13 x 21cm Moleskine sketchbook.
June Already
Another art material test. I bought a packet of white art card last week, wanting to try some different stock for creating cards and bookmarks. This is a high quality sealed card for encaustic art work (wax painting), rubber stamping etc, so I wasn’t quite sure if it would be suitable for tangling. Doing this little doodle, drawn from a random string, I learned the following:
1) This material is OK for pens using pigmented ink, such as Sakura Micron fineliners which Iused for all the black line work in this drawing. It isn’t particularly suitable for use of Indian ink, however, such as the Faber-Castell PITT artist pens. These are a little too wet for this sealed surface, so the ink tends to pool at the end of each stroke which results in a rather streaky finish.You can clearly see this in the brown patterns which were done with FC sanguine & sepia PITT artist pens, as well as in the drop shadows which were created using an FC Warm Grey Pitt artist pen.
2) Alcohol based markers do well on this surface, staying just wet enough to blend colours (as used on the little green leaves) but not wet enough to pool. I’ve used Copic Ciao markers to add colour to the patterns and the brushes, although a little too soft & spongy for accurate use, worked well with the ink of the Micron pens. They blended well but dried quickly enough to ensure a smooth finish.
3) Alcohol based markers and Indian ink pens do not mix! I tried to put a little bit of Copic Ciao Baby Skin pink (E21) over the sanguine & sepia stoke pattern to tone down the white showing through the marks a little but the alcohol, of course, pulled away the indian Ink pigment.
4) Any elaborate designs would have to be carefully planned and very carefully outlined if using pencil for this stage as this material does not take kindly to the use of an eraser. Any eraser marks show up horribly on this sealed surface & would be very hard to conceal in the finished drawing.
5) The sealed surface is also way too smooth for use of colour pencils.
6) The card itself marks quite easily and I haven’t yet found an effective way to remove any marks. I ended up resting my drawing hand on a piece of clean paper to protect the card. This, however, makes it much harder to draw accurate, fiddly patterns as said loose piece of paper has a tendency to shift at the most inopportune moments!
Verdict: This card has a great smooth white finish which allows for some nice crisp lines and really makes the colours pop. I may indeed use it at some point for cards & bookmarks (although the latter would have to be laminated before use to stop marking) but would only ever recommend using Micron and Copic pens on it.
Queen of Bugs
A quick study to test my new Staedtler colour fine liners and paper conditions of a Moleskine Cahier, in preparation for my Sketchbook 2012 project. The pens bleed a little on this paper, so you never get crisp results, but I have since found that the paper of the actual Sketchbook (which I have now received) is actually a little better, so I should be OK. I didn’t plan this one at all & didn’t spend too long on it either. Just wanted to have some fun.
Faber-Castell PITT Artist pens and Staedtler 0.3mm colour fine liners in 13x21cm Moleskine Cahier.
