Thursday, January 06, 2011

Great Aunt Lillian

I decided to draw my Great Aunt Lillian Passmore.

Great Aunt Lillian: Where I am at right now.

Step 8:



Step 6:



Step 5:


Step 1: The grid and drawing placement before starting charcoal. I had to do it dark enough to show on the photo but I will erase almost all the lines before I add any charcoal. (The paper is ivory white but the lines wouldn't show unless the image was darkened.)

She is in a white winter coat and standing on a wicker chair. There will be many shades of gray in this drawing as an example for tonal drawing.


Pam

P.S. If you want to keep up with Snowflake the cat's story, visit the Smooth Rock Falls Animal Rescue website.

Sunday, January 02, 2011

Lily & Hope's Live Den Cam

Last winter I watched Lily the wild Black Bear and her cub Hope in their winter den.

You can keep an eye on them this winter and the web cam is up and running!

Visit the Lily and Hope Den cam.


Pam

Saturday, January 01, 2011

New Paint

The weather outside is wild with wind and freezing rain so I've stayed inside and tried my new paint I received for xmas.

It's called Acryla Gouache by Holbein. Kind of a cross between watercolour and acrylic.

I'm NOT a watercolour artist because I like to change things as I go along. This paint allows me to paint in semi-transparent washes or use it straight like acrylic where it is opaque. What is really neat is it doesn't dry 30 percent darker like acrylic. On my own tests, it dries up to 10 % darker depending on the colour, and that isn't enough to worry about. Now I can pre-mix my colours without worrying about colour shifting.

Some people don't like the chalkiness of gouache but I haven't found that a problem. The colours are intense and clean. You can keep them wet on a wet palette made for acrylics. If you make a mistake while painting, you just add water and scrub off like watercolour. The colour will eventually set so it doesn't move once the layer is dry.


Cozy step 4:
Another neat thing about the paint is that I have added it over watercolour on the kitten painting and over acrylic on the kayak painting.

Kayaks: Step 4


It works well over both mediums and when making a mixed media, I don't want to worry about paint not taking to the paper.

For me, it seems that this is a great medium. Now I just have to find a regular supplier. :(

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Pam




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