Art Archives

We've decided to consolidate the blog into a single thread. The "separate blogs for separate subjects" turned out to be more complex and not so useful. From now on, everything will go straight into this stream! We'll be disconnecting the menu links to the other segments soon.

To make sure nothing is lost, we're putting all of the miscellaneous art posts into this one archive. These are the posts that didn't have their own "check this out" posting in the main blog to begin with.

"Emerging" (picture of the day)
Cartoons
Inktense Ink Block Travel Kit
Four Color Pen




Thanks! --Mark and Ping

"Emerging 1"
- 14x11"
See more Fantasy Art Sketches here.

This image started as a self-evolving portrait. I wasn't that happy with the original result, so I traced the outline and set the tracing paper behind another piece of 11x14 paper in my sketch pad and just started doodling landscape stuff with the general features of the face as guidelines. After awhile, I just removed the tracing paper and doodled. Pretty fun!

Cartoons

Frankenstein and the werewolf have this figured out.

"Keep moving...keep moving...keeeeeeep moving..."

What's in a name?

Mark's Inktense Travel Kit

Several folks have asked me to post a picture of the Inktense ink block "plein-aire travel kit" I put together. Here is a picture of it, taken on the first day of its maiden voyage in ShenYang, Liaoning, China.

For a description of the kit and some examples of its usage, including the completed version of this work-in-progress, go here.

A trip to LiaoNing Province 遼寧省 in northeastern China 中國 gave me the chance to try out the Derwent "Inktense" ink blocks on the road. After eight days of painting at least once every day, I'm pretty happy with the new kit! My [literally] Mickey Mouse pencil case with the 1/3 ink blocks embedded in clay worked like a charm. The Da-Han B5 (7x10"/176x250cm) watercolor was perfect for the amount of time I usually had to paint. Since we were traveling with a group, we had to stick to the schedule, so the process had to be very fast. This kit was very fast! When it was time to go, I simply stowed the brush, shut the ink box and the book, and stuffed them in my backpack. I didn't even rinse the brush or wait for the page to dry. The whole process took maybe 20 seconds!

Apartment Work, ShenYang, Liaoning, China

The picture above was my first plein-aire attempt with the new kit. I drew the scene first with a black ballpoint pen, painted it with the ink blocks, using them like watercolors, and then added more details with the ballpoint pen. Total time: 50 minutes.

ShenYang Imperial Tomb

I used one brush for everything, mixing colors directly on the blocks. It took some time to learn how much water to use. The ink blocks weren't good for big washes. I learned the hard way that the first swipe with a wet brush didn't lift much ink, but the second or third swipe could get a LOT more as the ink got a chance to dissolve a bit. (That's why some of the columns and shadows in the picture above are much darker than intended! Oh well.) Unlike watercolor, you can't lift off the ink with a tissue. The ink is truly permanent. The trick turned out to be to lighten up the ink load by deftly dabbing at a heavy shadow area before painting some other thing that required more subtlety. For example, I used the dark doorway (above) several times just to clear the brush a bit before painting tree shadows.

The two bits, above, were done on the same sheet of B5 paper, as shown. You can see that the bottom one took all of 11 minutes to do. The top one took probably 20-30 minutes, max. With pastels, there's not a lot of planning, but the water-based inks required different instincts. This particular paper could take only so much water, so I had to be careful not to paint over something too often. I also had to learn how to spread the ink across so it wouldn't just stain one small area. Once I got the hang of the best sequence and timing, I started getting better results. I discovered it was better to use the ballpoint pen after I'd laid down some color first.

KuanDian Dawn

Just as the sun hit the KuanDian 寬甸 hills, I drew the skyline and suggested the ridge lines and buildings with very light pencil lines. Next, I painted the highlights with the ink blocks. As the sunlight got stronger, I wet down the rest of the hills and then quickly loaded up the brush with indigo and green. Keeping the brush angle low, I let the tip ride along the hilltops and then rapidly pulled any excess ink down into the lower shadows before it saturated the paper. I didn't start using the pen until it was time to draw in the city below. I painted the foreground, and then added the rest of the ballpoint pen lines after all the color was done. Since the paper wasn't totally dry, the pen lines got a little bit heavy. This painting took about 45 minutes.

I stuck with that revised process--light pencil lines, ink blocks, then pen--and got good results on the last day. We had no idea what our view would be since we got to the hotel after dark, but I actually had to pick only one portion of the magnificent, rocky skyline that marks the northeastern edge of DanDong 丹東. The rocks were much more complicated, but since I had the process down better, I was able to capture them more quickly and accurately! By this time, I also knew how much detail to do (or not to do!) with the pen.

I'm completely jazzed about the kit! I had no idea I could have this much fun with such a compact setup--and be this happy with the results. I've been doing a lot of drawing over the last year, and the practice paid off on this trip.

I'll post the rest of the pictures on Facebook and at the Asian Landscape gallery. I'm interested to see how my process continues to improve!

Four Color Pen

I've rediscovered the old multi-color pen! Remember those? They usually have red, blue and black, or some combination like that. We found a very cheap one at a book/stationery store called "Stepping Stone." 墊腳石 It was less than one U.S. Dollar! I took it on the road and was very pleased with what I could get out of it. Here are some examples from my LiaoNing 遼寧 travel sketchbook--many of them done in only a few minutes while waiting for lunch or to get back on the bus.

Flight B7 0106
I thought it was a Boeing. Turned out to be an Airbus A330-200. I flew on it anyway.

This building was just down the street from our lunch spot. I started it before lunch and finished it while everyone else was taking a bathroom break. (Thank goodness for my strong bladder!)

A pagoda just over the top of a nearby hill across from the Benxi Water Cave 本溪水洞.

This awesome outcrop was just one of many. We had a long delay getting tickets into the national park 天橋溝國家公園. I spent it happily drawing. You can see a bit of sheen on the left side where the paper wrinkled a bit from too much shading.

I actually drew this one on the bus as it was moving. The front of the vehicle is a rototiller. The wagon in back is hitched to it. This guy and I made eye contact. We both waved. :)

People standing around me watching me actually laughed when they realized what I was drawing.

The sketchbook was a great icebreaker. Now I need to know more of the language so I can continue the conversation!






Up till now, most of my finished work has been done in the studio, from photo references I've taken as quick snapshots on various hikes. Ping and I travel pretty light, so dragging a pochade box out there isn't very likely.

I did bring a light tripod easel and some basic oil pastels with me on a couple of occasions, but I've not gotten good enough at the medium to really make it work out there. We also bought a nifty travel box kit for me with several trays which I filled with my favorite colors of soft pastels. I tried using them just outside our front door to see what it was like. I found it difficult to lay out all these little trays all over the place.

At the other extreme, I once climbed a third of the way up The Gunsight in Yosemite with a backpack
carrying a small Faber-Castell pastel set, a clipboard and some paper. When I got as far as I dared (after two points where I said to myself: "Hmm...that should be hard to down-climb") I found a comfortable ledge and tried to catch my breath and stop shaking long enough to do a rather mediocre painting of my view of the valley from that unusual vantage point.

To Plein-Aire Or Not To Plein-Aire

Recently, I've been focusing more on just drawing, and it's really been good. Not having to think about color while I'm trying to render a scene has allowed me to gain confidence in my ability to "get it right, quickly."

Still, I want to get color back into my work. Pastels are great, but they're not that easy to travel with. I've got a set of Derwent "Inktense" color blocks coming from the States soon. I think they may be the ticket to color en plein aire for me. Here's the video that sold me on trying them.
 He takes his time getting started, but about 4-5 minutes into the video, he starts showing how easy they are to use.

I'll let you know how it goes!.