I found out about Claudia’s weekly classes this weekend and asked to attend. It is a big drive for a weeknight (1 hour each way) but I really want to improve my pen and ink skills. The current session started last week so I need to play catch up which should be no problem since I don’t have to work until Wednesday night. I have a release that evening so to be able to attend this class I have to stay late in the studio and dial into work. I should be driving home around 11:30 pm.
Few selections from my sketchbook this month. I’m working on mixed media faces, pen & ink and illuminated decorations.
I want to watercolor journal or travel sketch or art journal or mixed media journal. Or what ever feels good at the moment. I practiced buttercups this morning. Drew on from Claudia Nice’s book then a couple from Internet photos. This one is from the wikipedia entry on buttercups.
Need to work on my penmanship.
Short trip to Pasadena for my first manager’s meeting. Did a tiny bit of travel sketching. Wished I could have stayed longer to do more. Cute little town. Weird to be back after so many years from my horrible Peoplesoft training experience. I was playing EQ back then and bought my first shuffle on my birthday.
Taking another go at the cactus to practice what I learned at the Claudia Nice workshop this weekend. Wish I had taken notes on the color mixing. I think I got more stickers this time around. Broke open a new set of Rapidograph pens I bought on eBay after the first class. Work much nicer than the ones I re-habed. Started with the 0 and will do the background cactus shading with 000 next.
Finished most of the pen work watching last week’s True Blood.
As you can tell, day two is a seaside landscape. Not as pleased as with the cactus yesterday but learned a lot of color mixing and watercolor technique. Claudia Nice is the BEST!
I had the same problem as most of the other students, we were up tight about putting the rock texture in. I am going to give both of the projects another try before moving on to my own photos.
This is my 3rd Class with Claudia Nice and I wish I could take more this year. I’m temped to find out what she charges for private lessons. I like detail and realism. I find the repetitive pen strokes very relaxing.
Blind contour drawing is a method of drawing, popularized in part by Kimon Nicolaïdes in his book The Natural Way to Draw (1941), which presents itself as an effective training aid or discipline. The student, fixing their eyes on the outline of the model or object, draws the contour very slowly in a steady, continuous line without lifting the pencil or looking at the paper. The student may look at the paper to place an internal feature, but once they begin to draw it, they do not glance down, but follow the same procedure as for the outline.
Blind Contour followed by a Contour drawing. I worked on the bear a third time in pencil while the other students did a value scale. Learned her that my quick fountain pen drawings are more pleasing to look at.
