Three digital comps

Digital Sketch-hill

Digital Sketch-city1

Digital Sketch-city2

Digital Sketch-hill
Digital Sketch-city1
Digital Sketch-city2
digital, iPad Brushes app

Here are 3 more digital value comps. I am frustrated with the resolution of the these. I am not sure if it is the Brushes app, which is the second version, or my old iPad. What has happened is the resolution just went kaput! I noticed it while doing these and became annoyed that they now have those jagged edges especially noticeable in the diagonals and smaller details. So disappointed!
It only shows up in the second Brushes version and not the first version which I still have.
Yep, I need new tools.

Other than that I enjoyed doing these three. They seemed to just fall out of me onto the digital 'canvas'.
The hill is based on a local hill here in San Pedro but done from memory and modified. The two cityscapes were done from my imagination.507,508,509

Industrial Marker Sketch Watercolor 2

Industrial Plain 2
watercolor on paper
5½" x 8" (13.97cm x 20.32cm)

This one like the previous post is from this post.
I mentioned I generally do the watercolor the same value or light/dark pattern as the marker sketch which is generally true. But this one I wanted a little more separation between the fore-middle-backgrounds so I did not darken the middle ground, the two fences, as dark as the foreground to distance them from the foreground and let the building fall back into the background by keeping it lighter. The middle ground has more terrain to it than it does in the marker version due to the taller format.

This is one reason for the marker sketch which serves as a way of trying out a composition and not just the notan. With that in mind I don't mind these kinds of changes. The decision I had to make was where to put the extra space. Do I add to each F-M-B ground, two of them or one? I chose the middle ground. I like the squeeze of the sky and the relative size of the foreground so it all went to the mid-ground. It opened up the composition and put a little more distance between the fore and mid-ground.506

Industrial Marker Sketch Watercolor 1

Industrial Plain 1
watercolor on paper
5½" x 8" (13.97cm x 20.32cm)

Here is another small watercolor from one of my marker sketches from this post.
I have had a lot of fun painting these in watercolor from the marker sketches. You can see some slight differences from the sketch with part of that resulting from a different size proportion but I generally maintain the original light and dark value pattern or notan.505

Digital Palm Studies

Palm Studies
digital, iPad Brushes app

Here are some quick studies I did a while ago from life. These things are everywhere!
I didn't need color for these since I was recording the infinite variety of shapes you can find in what would seem a simple singular form.
From fully bearded to spruced up and downright willowy.504

Digital Value Sketch Nocturne

Digital Value Sketch Nocturne
digital, iPad Brushes app

One benefit of the digital medium is the ability to duplicate an image and do other versions from it. I turned this one into a nocturne. See previous post for the day version.

Still really simple without much embellishment, details or textures.503

Digital Value Sketch

Digital value sketch
digital, iPad Brushes app

With the approaching rain storm it was turning cloudy here today in Southern California so I thought I would post a digital value thumb for a change. This is in the same spirit as the marker sketches. It was done on my iPad in the brushes app. I still find it a bit clumsy because the stylus is not very good.
Simple. Black/white with (roughly) two gray values. Four values total.502

Demo at South Bay Watercolor Society

"Industrial Terrain 2" work in progress
watercolor on paper
9" x 15" (22.86cm x 38.1cm)

Sketchbook Drawings

Sharpie markers, Magnum, king size, fine point, ultra fine point, 2017-18

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

Here are a couple pics from a recent watercolor demo at the South Bay Watercolor Society in Torrance California.
I was invited by another National Watercolor Society member and gallery director Louisa McHugh who also provided the demo photos. Thank you Louisa!

I decided to do the demo from one of my marker sketches. If you are familiar with pasts posts on these marker sketches you know that most are from my imagination. I draw in marker because it is immediate and it forces me to use the design skills I know instead of interpretive skills you use while drawing from life or a 2d source. It also helps that I have done so many industrial paintings so I am familiar with how they look.

Since my watercolor process is relatively slow and demos are short I came in with the lay-in and first few washes painted. I knew I would not necessarily end with a finished painting so I spent the time talking about my process, my influences, how I arrive at a finished watercolor and answering questions while I painted.
I also had some examples of other watercolors done from these marker sketches, finished and in progress and several of the marker sketch books on hand.

The posted painting here is the state of finish I had at the end of the demo. I managed to get it past the really 'ugly stage' that all my watercolors go through. You know how some watercolorists have beautiful paintings at every step? Not mine!
I have never like my watercolors early in the painting. The first two-thirds is so awful to look at and if I didn't know better I would never finish one! I just know to stay with it to the end.

When I finish this one I will post it.

Marker Drawings 38

                                                                                 



















Sketchbook Drawings

Sharpie markers, Magnum, king size, fine point, ultra fine point, 2017-18

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

More marker sketches.498,499,500,501

Marker Drawings 37

Sketchbook Drawings

Sharpie markers, Magnum, king size, fine point, ultra fine point, 2017-18

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

Here are a few more of the marker drawings. I haven't posted as much recently and have gotten behind but these were mostly done while sitting down at Laguna Art-A-Fair last year.494,495,496,497

Industrial Watercolor and Marker Sketch

"Industrial Terrain"

watercolor on paper, 2017

9" x 15" (22.86cm x 38.1cm)

Sketchbook Drawings

Sharpie markers, Magnum, fine point, ultra fine point, 2016

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

Long time since a post!

Here is a watercolor painting I did from one of my marker sketches. I originally started it as a demo for the National Watercolor Society show at the Muckenthaler Cultural Center worked on it a bit down at Laguna Art-A-Fair and later put some final touches on it in my studio.
My work in that Muckenthaler show here and here.493