Keeping track of progress on creative projects
As summer began to slip away, I found myself in need of an easy victory. This model did the trick nicely. The instructions were clear and relatively free of fiddly bits. I managed to go from start to finish during the course of a lazy Sunday afternoon.
Koh-I-Noor Rapidograph tech pens this time, drawn with the assistance of a straight edge.
This one felt good to draw, because I used pens, inks and a triangle that had been gathering dust for years. I used to be a huge tech pen fan because of the tight control they provide for line thickness. But they’re such a pain to clean, particularly compared to how easy dip pens are to take apart and wipe off at the end of a drawing session.
Note that the lines slant differently than usual because of how I decided to get the triangle to work with the wire binding of the sketchbook. And the ink flowed irregularly out of the broader tip. In some ways it was a fun effect, providing some extra texture effects and remaining in keeping with the “analog” line spacing. But it was somewhat frustrating as well.
The straight edge also made drawing go significantly faster.
I left off the drop shadow because I don’t have a tech pen broad enough to draw one. In the future I’ll probably use a Speedball C nib for the shadows even when everything else is done with tech pens.
Back to using watercolor to paint a solid leaf color, something I tried for the first time back with #12. But this time I dampened the painting area thoroughly with water and then brushed on a thinned sienna.
This pushed the ink to the limit and beyond. The crosshatching on the leaf is Speedball Superblack India Ink. It has a reputation for serious water resistance, and even so it smeared a bit in some spots where the ink was thicker. And the Winsor & Newton green ran like crazy where the water hit it, which fortunately was only in some small spots here and there.
I should also note that I was bouncing back from COVID when I was working on this. You can see how shaky my hand was in spots, particularly in the drop shadow.
Overall I’m pleased with the result, though. The colors remind me of the old saying, “In the midst of life we are in death.”
Another monochromatic piece, this time using two different shades of red from the Winsor & Newton collection.
After the darker leaf tone blended so excessively with the black background in #13, I decided to switch things up and use the darker shades for the foreground and the light red for the background. This is consistent not only with my original sketches from back in my college days but also what one would expect from an object that’s closer to the viewer in the composition.
I did the drop shadow in the background color, which I will probably change up next time. Otherwise I'm pleased with how this one came out and will probably stick with darker foregrounds in the future.
[note that this one is mislabeled at the bottom]
One of the big issues I’ve had using paint for leaf ghosts is that my 56-year-old, caffeine-ravaged hands don’t produce the straightest of lines. That actually works in my favor when I’m cross hatching. But for nice, clean edges on painted shapes, I’m looking for something less shaky.
So this piece was my first experiment with art tape.
The edges aren’t perfect, but that’s at least in part on me for not being careful around the masked parts. And also for not going through and cleaning it up with paint or pen when I was done.
This is also my first time trying watercolors at full (or close to full) opacity. The results are okay, but I think I’ll go back to gouache for this look and feel in the future. The paint got pretty thick in spots, though it still dried quickly enough.
Deep Green was darker than I really wanted, so I’ll go with something lighter in the future. The trick here is that I was using paint straight out of the tube because I was applying each color in separate stages and didn’t want to get the mix wrong if the paint in the tray dried out between applications. Forgetting that I was using watercolors, so if it dried out all I had to do was add some water and get right back to work.
It feels like forever since I finished a Metal Earth model! I actually started this one back in May, but I folded a part the wrong way, snapped it when I tried to correct the problem, threw the kit out, ordered a replacement and then let it sit for quite awhile.
The build itself was mostly enjoyable. The dreaded top-half-to-bottom-half toward the end actually went smoothly. It was the little bits – the mirrors in particular – that twisted in odd angles and proved resistant to easy installation. And joining the front to the middle was one of those moments when I wondered if anyone actually tried assembling the kit they just designed. I also got a little frustrated with the long, thin parts that needed to bend right next to edges that needed to remain straight.
When I first started the build, I considered leaving the driver’s side door open. That way it would look more like an actual mail truck, and the fun details in the cab would be easier to see. Alas, the closed door held the front to the back, so it had to be assembled according to the directions.
This one was fun by its very nature. A mail truck is so normal and everyday, unlike the Lighthouse at Alexandria or the Starship Enterprise.
I’ve been using a sketchbook of mixed media paper for most of the leaf ghosts I’ve created so far. But this is the first time I’ve actually mixed more than one medium: ink and watercolor. I’d describe the results as, well, mixed.
I had some misgivings about painting an entire leaf all at once rather than creating it one part at a time. It made the subject less of an abstract “ghost” and more of an actual physical presence in the composition. But I figured it was at least worth a try, repeatable if it worked.
But it really didn’t. Even the light green I used was far too dark. It overpowered the ink under it. Though I’m not completely giving up on this approach, I wouldn’t consider this one a success.
Here’s what the image looked like before I applied the paint:
One thing that was a definite success was the ink’s resistance to the paint. On the advice of several sources – including this article from Art News – recommended Speedball Super Black India Ink. It worked quite well both for drying quickly so I could do multiple passes with the pen and setting overnight so the watercolor didn’t blur it at all.
This is the first monochrome ink entry in the series, and my first time using a Speedball C-2 calligraphy nib.
I used the nib to draw the drop shadows, and overall I’m pleased with the result. It’s sort of a middle ground between a pen and a brush, and it will definitely take some practice to get good with. But the job here was simple, and it performed as expected.
The ink, on the other hand, will require some further consideration. I love the beautiful, dark green color. But it caused some serious smearing problems on mixed media paper. As I was adding the second round of cross-hatching for the dark squares, I noticed that I was getting ink on my hand and leaving green smudges on the page. Giving it some time to dry dealt with most of the problems caused by light pressure. But even drying overnight still left it smeary when I used a heavier touch to erase the under-sketch.
So from here on out I will limit this particular ink to single-pass drawing (or try limiting it to more absorbent paper such as the sheet I used for testing prior to starting work on this ghost).
Comic book artist Tim Sale died recently. In his memory I’ve been reading some of his work. He did excellent things with watercolors, so in honor of his artistic style I decided to get some watercolors out and give them a try with the most recent leaf ghost.
This one’s a first in the series for watercolors, obviously. In the past – especially with gouache and markers – I’ve tried with varying degrees of success to get nice, even tones in the geometry of the pictures. Here I didn’t even try. Instead I had fun playing around with the paint and deliberately getting blotchy, uneven textures.
This is also the first composition with more than one leaf in it. I took the source photo in Northern Arkansas a couple of months ago, and it featured a small, newly-fallen leaf on top of an older, darker one. And the bigger leaf was so round that this became the first leaf ghost with empty top and bottom rows
