WDE 14 May 2010 - lighthouse + possible MI later

[kevinjbowman]

This tool about an hour. FC Pitt Artist Pens on 5x8 Moleskine sketch book.
Tried negative painting (without creating a black line drawing first). Not real happy with the background - it's the lightest blue I have and I've yet to figure out how to get a smoothly blended large area of color (or at least the impression) with this media - I guess the strokes are just going to show. If anybody has got any ideas or advice in this area, I would appreciate hearing it.

I may have time this weekend to do another (or two) ...

C&C welcome.

http://www.wetcanvas.com/Community/images/15-May-2010/194835-lighthouse.jpg

Regards,

[lisilk]

Hi kevin. I love the bold statement that lighthouse makes, esp. the bits of detail in the caretakers windows and the top. I'm afraid I can't help you with smoothing out the pen marks. Will it blend at all with a wet brush?

Li

[l Heather l]

Very nice Kevin, love the simplicity of it! :)

[eyepaint]

Nice job on the sky. Sorry I can't help you with the markers and smoothing it out.

[bchlvr]

Great job with the pens!

[crispur2005]

I love the lighthouse Kevin, you might consider cutting out the sky and pasting the lighthouse and foreground onto coloured card. Make a collage of it.

[Mary Y]

I like this very much, I wouldn't worry about the sky. The lighthouse is the focal point and your houses are very good.
Mary

[Valri Ary]

I like Mary's remark...the lighthouse is the COI so forget the sky.
Nice work!!

[RubyRedDog2]

Beautiful job on the lighthouse, love your colors.

Gail

[Signchick]

I can't help with the bg, but your lighthouse is terrific! Your negative painting is really cool on the details!! :)

[phoebecat]

I really like this! Great work with the pens.


Anne

[lady of colors]

love it ,great job

[Crowwoman]

Kevin, nice work on your lighthouse. ~!~Crowie

[oldrockchick]

Kevin good forming on the light house.

I'm not sure if it will work but when I use my oil based pencils I sometimes use a brush or a Q-tip and blend the lines with Sansodor low odr mineral spirits. I haven't tried it with pens though.

[Scotkatidid]

Kevin love your lighthouse! I don`t know what type of color pen you are using - Sharpies you can`t blend but if they are Tombows you just wet a brush and smooth out, just like watercolor paints.

[connievanwinssen]

Very nice!:)

[artastic]

great job, I can't seem to get anything with my Pitts, I think they may blend a bit with water, but it dries so fast

[skappy]

Nice and simple the strokes do not bother me it gives rytm and authenticity that is part of it
Robert

[Joan T]

Nice negative painting on the lighthouse!!

[slh399]

i've had the same problem with the pens so I do smaller pieces with simpler, smaller backgrounds that can be blended with other things like bldgs. or trees, or the like. I love your detailing of the lighthouse and cottage. It has a real seaside feel. Very good piece!

[robertsloan2]

Great lighthouse, Kevin! I love how you handled the sky, even if it is a bit darker than it should be for the reference. It's gorgeous. Your texture compensated for it beautifully and drops to background, especially toward the top of the sketch. Wonderful tower and foreground vegetation too.

I've had that same problem with Pitt pens and have come to the conclusion -- just let the marks show. Sometimes I can give an impression of a lighter blue by careful hatching, pick a direction and leave more or less space between the lines without overlapping them. That works easiest for skies if I put some clouds in and do the hatched areas between them to define their shapes, smaller clouds by the horizon.

If I go over an area multiple times I can get it all to the darkest hue of the overlaps sometimes. But that's the only way to get the transparent Pitt pens smooth. I used the Landscape six-pack for plein air a few times and had to wrestle that blue every time, it's much too dark for a sky.

How you handled it in this lighthouse sketch rocks, especially the top part of the sky. A smooth repetitive texture will vanish, just like crosshatching vanishes into tone in narrow-line pen drawing. Dotted pointillism can work too for shading with them but of course that takes a long, long time.

Blick has the Pitt pens in open stock too. I bought the 48 color studio set because I got frustrated with that blue in the Landscape six-pack, loved it and have used it a lot. They didn't have open stock then, now they do. I'm tempted to get the big brush ones sometime for filling large areas or sketching bigger with more dramatic line width changes.

If you really like these for landscapes as much as I do, color #146 is a very light blue and color #120 is pretty light. I think the one in the Landscape set is #247, a somewhat muted blue that's mid value. #154 is a very light aqua, good for tropical skies shaded up with #156 which is also fairly light, but darker -- so you can get two-tone skies light at the horizon with either 146 followed by 120, or 154 followed by 156.

[123harry]

I think the stroke marks are an integral part of this type of drawing, Kevin. Look at the late pen sketches of Van Gogh for example. The sky here might be a bit overemphasised (a few too MANY strokes perhaps?) or we might say it just provides a dramatic setting for the lighthouse. I like it.
You could perhaps experiment with a mixture of your pen strokes and a watercolour wash for larger, more solid areas of colour.

[Catherine1]

Those strokes give your piece charismatic punch. I think it is stunning.. When I first scrolled down I was struck buy the starkness of the lighthouse.. but the strokes you used.. (verticals) helped contain the viewers eye! It all works well together. Well done.

[ArtsyPatrice]

Nicely drawn. Lovely work...