Tuesday, May 18, 2010

Sketchbook Tuesday - Sunny skies

 We had nothing but sunny skies and warm days at Edisto Beach last week. Along with our good friend's company and wonderful meals it was just perfect. Above is a page from my sketchbook and below is a photo of my sketching kit.
Before we left for our trip I picked up a few new supplies from Cheap Joe's. I had been wanting to try the new watercolor sticks thinking they would work in a similar fashion to Neocolor II water soluble crayons but behave more like traditional watercolors. I also found an empty metal tin at Cheap Joe's that worked perfectly to keep my selection of watercolor sticks in, and the lid acts as a palette.
 I am happy to report that the American Journey Watercolor Sticks do work for me much the same way as Neocolors with the addition of behaving more like traditional watercolor paints. You can draw directly onto the paper and then wet the drawing to get watercolor washes or my preferred method of touching a wet brush to the stick to pick up color and apply to the paper. I also would scribble some color onto the lid of the tin in order to mix colors for washes. Above is the color chart I made from my selection of colors. The only problem I now have is that I would like to pick up a couple of more colors, but of course then they won't all fit in that nicely compact tin! I did mention to the folks at Cheap Joe's that they should consider offering a metal case that could also act as a palette for storing these watercolor sticks.
And here is another page spread from my sketchbook. Both of these sketchbook page spreads were done mostly with the watercolor sticks, some watercolor pencil, and the occasional addition of gray colored pencil. I have many more sketches from our week at the beach to share - just as soon as I get them all scanned. I am still adjusting to being back to the day-to-day usual routine after a week spent where my main concern was what I might sketch and what will we cook up for dinner. Sigh. Vacations as so wonderful!

14 comments:

martinepittet said...

Excellent watercolour sticks and two gorgeous pages ! I love your tree and shells ! It looks as though you did have a good time at the beach !

Alex said...

Definitely looks like a lot of satisfaction with the productivity level there, especially by the beach.The tree and the feather are gorgeous!

Mari Brown and Colourblob said...

Lovely pictures from the beach and the apples, nicely done. The WC sticks look interesting, I might just have to try some out.

Teresa said...

Beautiful sketches and gorgeous colors! So glad you got to the beach after that long, cold winter. Thanks for the info on the watercolor sticks... always nice to know what else is out there.

Kate (Cathy Johnson) said...

Well, LOVELY, so glad you had a week at the beach, Ann! And thank you for the review, these look good...

Autumn Leaves said...

I'd wondered where you'd been, Ann. So glad to know that you, Gary, and your daughter got away for the week! Love your sketchbook pages, but then I always do. I also loved hearing about your tools because I so need to do this myself and I love how your pages always turn out!

Jennifer Edwards said...

I was just up your way visiting my family and I popped in to Joe's...saw the sticks and wondered how they would do. Thanks for the info on them! And lovely sketches btw!

Anna Wolf said...

Beautiful sketchbook pages! looks like you had a great time on the beach :)

Jennifer Rose said...

love the colours :) glad the weather was nice and sunny when you were there.
that feather looks really soft :)

Janene said...

I enjoyed your paintings--glad to hear you had a good time at the beach. Your info about the watercolor sticks is very interesting.

Revelle Taillon said...

Love these! I wanna go to the beach!!!!

debra morris said...

Great work Ann!

DALowe Artist said...

Yes, vacations! Ahh - no worries. And this year we are taking a friend for my daughter, now 14. So I will have much more time for sketching because as an only child usually I have to entertain Grace. Now that will be all taken care of.

Good information on the watercolor sticks! I'd wondered about those! I might have to invest!

Anonymous said...

Absolutely lovely sketches!! The watersticks sound like a lot of fun.

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