Catalina Pacific Concrete Watercolor

"Catalina Pacific Concrete (Demolition 3)"
watercolor on paper, 2015
8.5" x 15" (21.59cm x 38.1cm)
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A slight pause from all the recent marker sketches just so you know I still paint.

Here is a recent watercolor from the ongoing Catalina Pacific Concrete series, the demolition sub-series. This sub-series focuses on the actual destruction of the neighborhood landmark. At least it had been a fixture in the neighborhood for years.

Many from the overall Catalina Pacific Concrete series are painted with a thought in mind first, with some level of realism, not rendered, but with a certain vagueness to communicate that thought.

I painted this one simply and in a stark more graphic manner reminiscent of its final demise, quietly disappearing with a final punch in the stomach. Sometimes simply stated communicates that idea better as I did with this earlier version of the plant. It is the subject being subdued.

This one is completely devoid of any real background which is lost in the mist of demolition.

If you've read my Skies post this sky too is not an afterthought. It has a similar but more subtle upheaval as this watercolor of another local neighborhood landmark succumbing to the fate of demolition. Its subtlety came from the decision to retain the stark white from the first of this sub-series "Catalina Pacific Concrete (Demolition 1)" while still showing some of the action of the de-construction.380

Marker Drawings 13

Sketchbook drawings

ballpoint pen, Sharpie markers bullet and fine point, Prismacolor Premier dual tip warm grey 40% marker, Letraset Promarker Twin Tip Neutral Tone markers (cool grey 1-5 plus black), 2015

sketchbook 6" x 8" (15.24cm x 20.32cm)

Real and imagined, abstract. Compositional value studies in black and white. In some I start by putting down darks without anything in mind, just going for shape. In the end they are suggestive, nothing literal. Good excercises to warm up otherwise I sometimes find myself working too tight. By that I mean too tight in the hand and the line that comes from it. Loose and relaxed is better in ink even when the finish is precise and tight or exact in its execution.375,376,377,378,379

Marker Drawings 12

Sketchbook drawings

ballpoint pen, Sharpie markers bullet and fine point, Prismacolor Premier dual tip warm grey 40% marker, Letraset Promarker Twin Tip Neutral Tone markers (cool grey 1-5 plus black), 2015

sketchbook 6" x 8" (15.24cm x 20.32cm)

October is INKtober. It was started by Jake Parker. 

I wasn't sure at first if it was meant only for liquid ink like india ink but have since seen some drawings in markers so I decided to post the #inktober2015 tag to any I do here in October.

Markers are ink but maybe not for the purist.

I think I will try some in india ink too. It has been a while since I have had it out and this would be a good excuse to do so.

All these here are dreamed up. Having done so many industrial paintings it wasn't a stretch for me.370,371,372,373,374

Marker Drawings 11

Sketchbook drawings

ballpoint pen, Sharpie markers bullet and fine point, Prismacolor Premier dual tip warm grey 40% marker, Letraset Promarker Twin Tip Neutral Tone markers (cool grey 1-5 plus black), 2015

sketchbook 6" x 8" (15.24cm x 20.32cm)

Still at it.
One reason I have gone to markers recently is its quick use, uncap and draw... great for carrying around with a small sketchbook. Value laid down quick.
The top page is a couple freeway overpasses near home currently being expanded/updated. The others are from my imagination, just sketching. Shape, value, composition.367,368,369

Marker Drawings 10

Sketchbook drawings

ballpoint pen, Sharpie markers bullet and fine point, Copic value markers, Prismacolor Premier dual tip warm grey 40% marker, Letraset Promarker Twin Tip Neutral Tone markers (cool grey 1-5 plus black), 2015

sketchbook 6" x 8" (15.24cm x 20.32cm)

The new markers.
I used up so many, the Copics especially, I had to buy new ones so I found a set of Letraset markers and the Prismacolor warm grey of which they only had the one.

In many of these I have represented the various times of day night and atmospheric effects. If you know my work I do a lot of nocturnes, rain, fog, haze etc.
It is always a matter of value control and the challenge is doing it so simply. I don't have the advantage of color and only some edge control (tonal approach) so I really have to use the 3, sometimes 4-5, values to best advantage.

I have been trying out various approaches, simple, carefully drawn, intuitive, while still keeping them sketchy and quick.

I'm using hatching, flat graphic tones, gradient tones and various combinations of these. Some are more illustrative and stylistic while others are as simple as possible, reduced to it lowest common denominator in shape and value or nearly so. The linear and hatching controls value as well as giving some visual texture to the drawings and helps define forms and perspective.
Anything goes when experimenting with technique.362,363,364,365,366