Mixed Media Jungle Explorer
I wanted to just play around with mixed media. The first idea was to try crayons as a wax resist against murky green watercolor. So I started with mostly light and bright non-soluble crayons. Then I added in some color pencil… And I painted over it all (except an area left white for the dog) with dark, rather murky green watercolor.
I wasn’t sure how much the wax actually would “resist” the paint. Some of it was okay, but other parts didn’t stand out as much as I’d hoped. The color pencil in particular wasn’t easy to see through the paint.
After that, I painted the simple dog, then added some details over the whole page using acrylic markers.
It was fun to just play around and experiment, and I’ll probably try something similar again, sometime.
Ink & Wash Dishes
(I guess this counts as “ink and wash”… I’m assuming it’s just anything that combines ink and watercolor, which is most of what I do, lately… But maybe it’s a more specific type combination of the two media.)
I wanted something easy to doodle, so I decided to fill this page with a variety of “kitcheny things”. We have covered dishes, mixing bowls, mugs, cups, spoons… pots, jugs/pitchers, a couple of sugar bowls, and even a salt & pepper shaker set.
I doodled them all with the Lexington Gray ink in an EF nib fountain pen.
On a whim, I decided to use some granulating watercolor to color them in. I chose four colors from that set—a purple, a turquoise, a grey, and a dark green.
I don’t know what it is about this style of doodle/watercolor, but I just love doing it. I love the look of the granulating watercolor, too.
I’ll probably return to this subject, because it’s so simple yet satisfying to doodle.
River Stones
I had some paint left over from the previous page, so I decided to use it up on the next sketchbook page.
It’s not a new idea… Just fill the page with river stone shapes:
Then add some details, in paint, pen, marker, color pencil, or whatever else you like.
So far, I’ve only added a little more paint in the same color as each stone’s base color. I had thought I’d put some details in white gel pen, but now I’m not so sure… We’ll see!
That granulating (and color separating) purple is stealing the show!
Swing Upgrade
Did I mention when Donald built this swing for us? I don’t remember if it was late last year or early this year, but we put it down along the western edge of the backyard, facing the house. We’ve been enjoying it—especially now that the weather has cooled down again. However, the ground underneath was a little messy—slippery when either dry and dusty or wet and muddy—and mowing right next to a swing isn’t easy! So we added a small paved area under the swing to take care of all that. (Donald did most of the work; I helped a bit, mostly by bringing him the pavers from the stack as he needed them.)
(Please ignore the “stuff” in the background! We hadn’t put away everything we used during the project.)
It’s definitely an improvement!
