watercolour – Page 10 – Communicating Creatively

Journal Lessons

25/03/202008/03/2020 by communicatingcreatively, posted in Stories From Life

It’s been well over 2 years since I started ‘formally’ journalling and it has been a thoroughly interesting journey.

I started off with a (writing) Poetry journal in the form of a Visual Arts ring-bound A5 book and an A5 Moleskine Watercolour journal then in my next journal, a Paper Mill A4 with Ivory sheets, I combined the two interests.

On the writing Poetry front, I noticed that my Lamy Safari Fountain Pen’s nib now writes a bit rough after using it on 110 gsm paper. I won’t make this mistake again.

The Paper Mill Journal seemed like a great option at the time as it would hold Watercolour but was smooth enough to write on with a Fountain Pen. The one thing that kept gnawing at me though was that the paper was too smooth for Watercolour.

I’ve also tried a Strathmore A5 190 gsm Watercolour Visual Journal which was ok though I think I prefer the Moleskine A5 200 gsm.

I now write my Poetry on normal paper that is contained within an A4 Journal that is approx. 3.0cm thick and it works rather well and have been utilising both the A5 and A4 Moleskine Watercolour Journals of late.

It would be so nice to find ‘a one Journal fits everything’ though so far I have not seen anything that will fit the bill, short of making my own Journal.

I’m sure that I will try a home-made one in time. I’ve seen examples where people have ripped out the pages of a book and repurposed the cover for their home-made journal. Being a book lover I would find this extremely hard to do so I would have to make the covers myself as well.

I have a few commitments that end on 30 June this year and plan to spend a little more time investigating in a home-made journal then, so till that time, I will keep experimenting.

Have you found a Journal that meets all your needs?

Written by David Johnson

March 2020

Nil Rocha Art – A Mentor

22/03/2020 by communicatingcreatively, posted in Painting

Within the past week, a change has come across my Watercolour Sketch a Day practice.

When I started the practice it was because I wanted to learn not only Watercolour but obtain practice in sketching and drawing with pencils and pigment liners.

Over time and sometimes due to time constraints (mainly during the week), I found myself dispensing with the pencils and pigment liners and just doing a quick ‘wash’ sketch with paint only. This is ok, I guess as I was still getting practice, but I wonder how much I was actually learning, leaving myself to my own devices…?

Just under a week ago, I decided that I wanted to go back to my ‘original why’ and I started looking at YouTube and in particular searching the phrase, ‘Line and Wash.’

I came across an Artist channel, ‘Nil Rocha Art’ whose sketches appealed a lot to me. “Nil Rocha Art’ is listed as ‘a Professional Artist in ‘Line and Wash’ drawing landscape and others.

Having now done five of the tutorials, I feel like I am learning so much more now about sketching, painting and the use of colours, mixes etc than I have in all the time previously. Yes, I wish I had done this earlier but I guess we all have our own journey. Previously, I would watch different shows, picking up the occasional tips and practicing them, reading books etc.

I feel that the tutorials are stretching me, exploding me out of my comfort zone and even after only five days, I feel that my confidence in sketching/Watercolour is growing each day. I’ve included the five Line and Wash sketches I’ve done so far, below.

If I was just starting now, I would definitely jump onto YouTube or similar and find an Artist/Mentor that you can follow.

Should you be interested in learning about how to do Line and Wash here is the link to ‘Nil Rocha Art’ YouTube channel. I hope you have as much fun as I’m having.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UChARxKHm9NvFsN52nnvpxRw

Thank you to ‘Nil Rocha Art!’

Written by David Johnson

22 March 2020

“Fishing Trip” Day 416 of a Watercolour Sketch a Day

“Country House” Day 417 of a Watercolour Sketch a Day

“Farmland” Day 418 of a Watercolour Sketch a Day

“House On The Hill” Day 419 of a Watercolour Sketch a Day

“Hillside Living” Day 420 of a Watercolour Sketch a Day

Stretching My Comfort-Zone…Flowers

18/03/202004/07/2021 by communicatingcreatively, posted in Books, Painting

Being still (what I would call) relatively new to Watercolour, I am still exploring the types of subject matter that I would like to paint. Predominantly, I have been painting landscapes, seascapes, sky-scapes with a few buildings thrown in here and there.

I hadn’t really thought of painting flowers. They always looked rather challenging (and still are) and I have so much still to learning about painting them.

Recently, I purchased the book, ’The Watercolour Flower Painter’s A – Z’ An Illustrated Directory of Techniques for Painting 50 Popular Flowers.

Thus far, I have attempted 3 of the exercises 1) Strelitzia (Bird of Paradise); 2) Freesia and 3) Petunia and found the exercises easy to follow, offering detailed instruction and a delight to read.

Under ‘Essentials’ in the front of the book it covers nearly 30 essential techniques to learn that will aid the aspiring Artist in artistically reproducing the subjects.

If you are looking for an easy to follow book that will take you out of your ‘painting comfort-zone’ then I would highly recommend you take a look at this book.

Written by David Johnson

March 2020

Observations on Day 406 – A Watercolour Sketch a Day!

07/03/2020 by communicatingcreatively, posted in Painting

Looking back, I haven’t written about my project, ‘a Watercolour Sketch a Day’ since the 127th day. I’m happy to report that today is Day 406 and I haven’t missed a day yet.

It’s been a fascinating journey and I’m making heaps of mistakes so I must be learning a lot!

So, why pick Day 406 to write about the experience, I mean why not write about it on Day 200, 300 or 400? I noticed that today signifies a slight change in direction…

To explain: When I first started, it was about a Watercolour Sketch a Day, meaning the goal was to create a daily watercolour sketching habit, quick sketches that I could do on say A5 (or smaller) pages.

This was how it was for a time, then I noticed I was attempting larger sketches on A4 and above paper which is fine, but they were taking longer and longer to complete and as I’m not a full-time artist, my time to commit to larger sketches during the week is not as great. Sometimes, I only get a limited time to do them, say 10 – 20 minutes. On the weekends it is longer, mostly.

I also noticed that after a very busy day I was prone to tackling easier subjects, abstract I suppose you could call them which is fine and fun though at times I felt I was doing ‘anything’ just to say that the sketch was done for that day. I don’t want this to be a production, it was meant to be and is fun.

Also, I had gone away from using pencils and pigment liners as well. I want to improve my drawing/sketching skills with the aforementioned tools as well Watercolour paints.

This morning I decided to go back to my original intentions. I started using a pencil again and am doing a smaller size sketch.

One of the challenges I have is that I don’t get out as much as I like to sketch, especially during the week as I run a business, though it is not tied to an office or shop predominantly, per se.

Perhaps I should tuck a Moleskine A5 Watercolour journal and a couple of pencils etc in my portable folder so that if the chance comes up, I could do a quick sketch whilst waiting for an appointment. That would be a great habit to start instead of pulling out the Smartphone and wasting time with that…

Doing a Watercolour Sketch a Day still motivates me and I can certainly say that I am enjoying the journey. Watercolour is such a fascinating medium. Drawing/sketching is fun and it still feels like a kind of meditation for me.

Here are a selection of my Watercolour Sketches since Day 128.

Written by David Johnson
7 March 2020

4EBB9D96-4409-420D-A830-6BFC9FF2FE53 — Day 128 of a Watercolour Sketch a Day “Farmhouse”

18F23325-8307-4F16-8845-1EAAA57D70F4 — Day 152 of a Watercolour Sketch a Day “Seafaring Fun”

91E3C8CB-6352-4406-89FC-9D397B7D92CC — Day 164 of a Watercolour Sketch a Day “Towards The Summit”

AE322ED2-6E4D-490D-B888-0BCE1A39B35D — Day 177 of a Watercolour Sketch a Day “The Rock”

94CE31FD-7045-4330-B447-5177D06C289A — Day 190 of a Watercolour Sketch a Day “Snow Gum Palette”

Day 196 of a Watercolour Sketch a Day “Out To Sea”

1A3BE892-385E-4776-990C-7BC53E4580EA — Day 197 of a Watercolour Sketch a Day “Sea Retreat”

756F2D89-F3A8-4395-9A50-6F1382B6DBE3 — Day 217 of a Watercolour Sketch a Day “Paperbark”

F8DD0DDF-D1AF-4185-AE67-C34424C71766 — Day 255 of a Watercolour Sketch a Day “Summer”

5480B883-26CF-4C28-888C-9D3A4F7959F8 — Day 267 of a Watercolour Sketch a Day “Pyramids Of Giza”

EE1A1B5A-4D04-486F-A36E-A1CE4CCA1E67 — Day 274 of a Watercolour Sketch a Day “Sunset”

39E32F48-0F88-4831-8CF7-391604109B38 — Day 283 of a Watercolour Sketch a Day “Ochre”

36E595E9-9B88-4DA7-8F8C-03CE5CC6C389 — Day 291 of a Watercolour Sketch a Day “Carcoar Architecture”

A8631BA8-DB73-4E6C-A0DA-968477AB2D59 — Day 294 of a Watercolour Sketch a Day “Posing Kookaburra”

Day 324 of a Watercolour Sketch a Day “Rock Face”

E3090E47-9F91-4F9B-A008-669BA7F1E6A1 — Day 333 of a Watercolour Sketch a Day “Sunset On The Bay”

Day 334 of a Watercolour Sketch a Day “Coastal Delight”

Day 339 of a Watercolour Sketch a Day “Coloured Sky”

Day 350 of a Watercolour Sketch a Day “Fresia”

Day 365 of a Watercolour Sketch a Day “Land Claim”

Day 372 of a Watercolour Sketch a Day “New Day”

9D55B397-2581-4316-8EEC-F18D917812CC — Day 375 of a Watercolour Sketch a Day “Tones”

Day 381 of a Watercolour Sketch a Day “The Shack”

Day 385 of a Watercolour Sketch a Day “Central Peak At Sunset”

Day 393 of a Watercolour Sketch a Day “Silos At Sunset”

Day 398 of a Watercolour Sketch a Day “Fireworks”

Day 406 of a Watercolour Sketch a Day “At Rest”

My ‘Daily Art Practice’

18/01/2020 by communicatingcreatively, posted in Poetry

My ‘Daily Art Practice'

Sketching The World

28/09/2019 by communicatingcreatively, posted in Poetry

Sketching the world 1

Can Your Hear The Echoes Call?

23/06/201923/06/2019 by communicatingcreatively, posted in Poetry

Can You Hear The Echoes Call_1

Sketchbook Revival 2019

08/06/201902/06/2019 by communicatingcreatively, posted in Painting

A couple of months ago, when visiting doodlewash.com (one of the blogs I follow on WordPress), I came upon an event called, “Sketchbook Revival 2019.” Sketchbook Revival (as I found out) was in its second year and was started by Karen Abend and her team.

It began in late April and the organisers invited 25 Artists to give an instruction via a 25 – 50 minute video which was recorded live then emailed (or accessed via the schedule page) to eager participants like myself.

A wide range of mediums were covered including pencil, pen, Watercolour, Acrylic, Mixed-Media, Charcoal, Digital and a host of others.

Each participant received 2 videos daily over 13 days and then we all had another 14 days to access the videos for free. Some of the topics included: “Portrait Party”, “Sidewalk Cracks”, “Whimsical Buildings”, “Sketching Like A Kid Again”, Sketching Our Intuition”, “Object Observation” and much, much more.

As the video played, you could ‘tag along’ and paint, sketch, draw etc with the Artist. It was a great chance, not only to use mediums that you are used to using but also try out some other mediums whilst being guided.

After each video we were invited to share our creations in the closed Facebook Group so that everyone could see and comment on them if they wished. The Artists gave feedback as well.

I’ve included some of my creations below.

Each Artist also gave participants a free gift to encourage them on their creative journey and there were also links to the Artists’ websites where there more free resources plus paid courses to investigate.

Overall, I found it to be a most rewarding experience. It has certainly changed the way I think about producing creative works, particularly in my sketchbook.

I am so looking forward to Sketchbook Revival 2020!

Written by David Johnson

3 June 2019

Here is the link to the Facebook Group.
https://www.facebook.com/groups/SketchbookRevival/

Pen & Wash

Intuitive watercolour

Mindful Inspirations

How To Draw A Dog

How To Start A Happy Journal

Whimsical Buildings

How To Draw A Bird

Create Daily

Drawing A Seahorse

Watercolour Sketch A Day Continues…

01/06/201901/06/2019 by communicatingcreatively, posted in Painting

Back on Australia Day, 26 January 2019, I decided to do a Watercolour Sketch a Day, mainly because I was inconsistent in getting to actually paint. I wanted to learn Watercolour and would do a small one, then life would intervene and before I knew it, another couple of weeks had passed and so on…

As of today (Day 127) I have done 127 Watercolour Sketches in a row. It continues to be fun and has become a kind of therapy and it helps me escape into my own little world and away from digital technology, as digital seems to have pervaded into most areas of our lives. I find it quite meditative and am thoroughly enjoying this journey of fun and learning!

Currently, I have about 3 sketchbooks going. One is a Paper Mill A4 heavier Ivory paper (that sadly the manufacturer has advised is now unavailable), a Moleskine Watercolour A5 Journal (200gsm) and an A4 (120gsm) hardcover Journal.

With the Paper Mill Journal being unavailable, I think that I will have a go at building my own. More on that in another post.

I use Cotman Watercolour Half-Pans, Aqua Wash (mainly) and some conventional brushes and Staedtler Pigment Liners and Derwent pencils.

For now, here is a selection of my Watercolour Sketches since Day 67.

Written by David Johnson
1 June 2019