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.

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

Marker Demo Drawings

Here are some marker sketches I did for the demo at Blick Art Materials in Fullerton.The purpose of this demo was to show how to layer bright colors over a value marker sketch.
I used the Blick Studio Markers set of twelve which are mostly bright colors over the warm grays set of twelve (9 values + 3 black markers in the set) for a 10 value scale as well as the Blick Studio Brush Markers set of 24 which has the same colors as the bright set plus some non-bright colors.
I had several papers to demo. These here were done on the Canson Pro-Marker Layout Paper.

Markers are similar to watercolor in their transparency so are easily layered. The benefit with starting with the value sketch first is you focus on the design then add color.
The sketches with color are all value underneath. I started with a page of the value sketches then added color for the demo leaving some to show the difference.
It is fairly easy to knock down the saturation of most colors by coming back in and adding more of the value marker on top. If you compare the yellow in the bottom page middle sketch to the untouched bright yellow of the top page bottom sketch you can see what I mean.

I like working with markers for preliminary sketches and thumbnails for their immediacy to get right into it with any mixing of paint colors and sometimes you need to strike while the iron is hot.
Another aspect I like is as you really wet the paper with the marker over and over it will take on the look of watercolor somewhat with that characteristic blotty puddle we associate with watercolor.
See bottom page middle sketch.

Markers are not just for tight advertising and design renderings. They can also be used in a more painterly organic manner.429,430

Marker Demo at Blick Art Materials Fullerton

I am excited to announce I will be down at the Blick Art Materials in Fullerton tomorrow, Thursday February 11th from 2:00-4:00 pm doing a marker demonstration with Blick Studio Markers on Canson Pro-Layout Marker Paper and Canson Artist Series Illustration Pad.
If you are in the area stop in, say hello and take advantage of the big sale too.

Thanks to Jan Godachy of NWS for her support and recommending me for the demo.
Additional thanks to Ed of HAMELIN Brands, Blick Art Materials Retail Events Co-ordinator Todd and Fullerton store manager Buffy for their help and support in arranging the demo and supplying the materials.