Plein Air Sketching Today in Gouache

“Near Blackman’s Lake,” gouache 7” x 7”

I decided to give gouache a try today, as I’ve only used it a few times. I found a nice shady spot a few blocks from home and did a sketch, just to try things out. I like gouache, but I think I like casein better. Next time I’ll have to take my casein paints out for a spin. Or, just return to watercolor, as that has been going well.

Sketching supplies (and no, that's not a bottle of beer!)

Spring Shopping Spree

Yes, I went shopping today. It was such a beautiful day I just couldn’t resist taking a trip to Bellevue and doing a little shopping at Daniel Smith’s.

I came home with a new pencil case to use for my urban sketching and several new watercolor paints.

The pencil case is pretty cool, it has two sides and holds 48 pencils, although less if you’ve got brushes in there and other things. I’ve put all I need in it to get some quick sketching in, even the paints!

Here’s what I’ve got in there: two water brushes, two sawed off flat brushes (yes I did that today by myself!), a micron ink pen, a white Sakura jelly roll pen, several graphite pencils, a whole lot of watercolor pencils, a small spray bottle, eraser, paper towels, and even a tiny tin of watercolors. It all fits! :-)

The tin has the three primaries in it and either Black or Payne’s Gray, I forget which.

The paints I came home with were the following: Mars Yellow, Goethite – Brown Ochre, German Green Raw Umber, Perylene Maroon (a fabulous color, I’m already in love with it), and Black Tourmaline Genuine. I’ll make color swatch cards of all of them soon and once I do, I’ll show off the colors here. The majority of these new colors are earth tones. I suppose I’m still looking for the perfect ochre, maybe I’ll find it amongst these new ones. ;-)

To make the day even better, I edited another chapter AND my copy of the "Grey Fairy Book," by Andrew Lang arrived in the mail today. This completes my set of the colored fairy books! Yeah! I now have a TON of H.J. Ford artwork to reference. What could be better?

Which are my favorite sketching tools right now?

Hands on hips, this was the question I asked myself the other day as I took stock of the many types of pencils, paints, markers, etc. that I saw lined up before me. For outdoor sketching adventures, I’ve created several small kits that I rotate through depending on what I’m feeling like that day. My three favorite sketch kits are 1. a small pen & ink and watercolor kit, 2. a small fast-sketch kit with various stumps and graphite pencils, and 3. a watercolor pencil/Neocolor II kit (my most recent favorite.)

I thought I might further refine my sketch kits further based on what tools I’m having fun using right now. But how best to check on the fun level for each tool? I decided to create a test of sorts for myself. I started by drawing a new coloring book page that I would then color with different tools. That would show me which tools would best fit my current needs. This also would also help me organize a new palette of colors for the kinds of outdoor places where I tend to sketch (horse farms, local NW scenes.)

It was a fun exercise.

Here is the line drawing I used. I photocopied the image several times onto heavy, white cover stock pages for my test.

A new pen & ink image to color.

Coloring page #1 - Tombow Dual Brush Pens and Pitt Design Pens (magic markers). I liked the look of this colored image. I thought it was very cute. I think that markers might give my sketching scenes something of an illustrative quality.

This image was colored with Tombow Dual Brush Pens and Pitt Design Pens.

Coloring page #2 - Neocolor II watersoluble crayons. I liked the look of this page too but there’s a problem with using crayons in the Summer…they melt in hot cars! Frequently, my sketch kit sits in the trunk of the car for hours until I get a moment to sketch.

This image was colored with Neocolor II crayons.

Coloring page #3 - Inktense watersoluble pencils. Inktense pencils are really cool for several reasons. The first is that their pencil leads are made of watersoluble ink. After the ink has been wet once it will never be watersoluble again. So you can build up your image without moving or changing the underlying layers. I find that the transparency of the Inktense colors also works especially well with pen & ink drawings. As another fun feature, the colors are extra bright.

This image was colored with Inktense watersoluble pencils.

Coloring page #4 - watercolor pencils (Cretacolor and Supracolor). These are the pencils that I have been using in one of current sketch kits. They are very user friendly, travel well, and lay down good color either dry or when wet with a waterbrush. Although the look isn’t as bright as with the Inktense pencils they are more versatile for many subjects.

This image was colored with Cretacolor and Supracolor watercolor pencils.

So which ones where the most FUN to use?

The results were an essential tie! I have to give the nod to both the Tombow/Pitt markers and the Cretacolor/Supracolor watercolor pencils. I think both will serve my needs very well and are very fun to use.

Evening update!

I have since created two new sketch kits – one with the markers and one with the colored pencils and I’ve bundled them together into the same little carry bag. Now I feel ready for all sorts of new adventures! Tally ho!