We’ve been seeing a lot of wildlife this past week! One day, looking out the window first thing in the morning, I saw a box turtle out in the backyard. We didn’t want to risk Frodo getting too interested, so Donald scooped up the turtle and put it on the other side of the fence.
That same morning, I heard something tapping outside the kitchen window. It was a woodpecker attacking a board in what remains of our patio cover. We haven’t gotten around to repairing it after taking down some rotten boards, but I guess this board is a goner, too. Whatever was in it must have been appealing, because the woodpecker returned several times that day—and at one point I realized that there was a second one (its mate, I guess) hanging around in the loropetalum just behind the trellis.
I didn’t get any great photos, and videos are just a pain to share on here, but I’ll share a few of the not-great photos, anyway:
Over the past week, we’ve also been seeing rabbits, the usual squirrels, lizards, and skinks, and quite a few snakes, either in our yard or on the easement and other areas nearby. There have been probably two different black racer snakes, a brown water snake, and yet another cottonmouth.
For something a bit tamer, let’s finish with a photo of Luna. What’s a dog to do when she’s sleepy but needs to guard her chew-toy? Use it as a pillow, of course!
Experimenting with Tempera Paint Sticks
I decided to try another experiment with my tempera paint sticks, to see what would layer over them and what wouldn’t. I already knew from last time that they don’t play well with any type of ball-point pen layered over them. (They clog the pens.)
This time, I put down some rough areas of paint stick, then went over parts of the page with a little watercolor and water-soluble crayon.
After that was all dry, I added dip pen and India ink. That seemed to go well… I did have a few issues with the pen nib picking up some waxy substance in a few places. Not sure if that was the tempera stick or the crayon. (I need to try a page of swatches of each and do some more experimenting.)
After that had plenty of time to dry (I thought), I went back over parts of the page with color pencil—and that’s when I realized that some of the India ink hadn’t dried, so it smudged in a few places. Most of it was dry, though, so I’m wondering if the crayon was the problem. (More experimentation needed!)
To finish up the page, I added a little acrylic paint pen, which seemed to work well.
If it hadn’t been for the smudging ink, I’d have thought this was a fun result and a process worth trying again. But I’d leave out the crayons next time, if it turns out they’re the problem—or leave them until after the dip-pen is done and dried.
When I get around to trying some more tests, I’ll try to remember to take notes and share them here for future reference.
Collage Over Tempera Stick
After the frustration with the ink not drying on the previous page, I decided to try another use for the tempera paint sticks—background for collage.
I started by choosing a few blue and aqua colors and just scribbling them down on the page. I thought it needed a little more help, so I used a brush to add in a bright blue watercolor over it all. The tempera sticks seem to be at least slightly water-soluble, so some of them soften and melt into the paint. I like the effect.
After that was dry, I cut some coral and fish shapes out of small scraps of paper I’d saved, as well as one or two gel prints.
After gluing them into place, I gave the fish black dots for eyes.
The whole thing is a bit busy, but it was fun to make. I do think the tempera sticks could be useful for collage backgrounds—as well as for papers to use in other parts of a collage.
At the same time that I made the blue background, I tried a different type of background on the facing page of the sketchbook. This one is less uniform. I started with green and two shades of yellow in tempera stick, with a wash of yellow watercolor to unify it all into a single blob of color.
I had no idea what to do with this one… The background is really too busy, but I decided to just do something, so I tried to find some doodle-paint pages with sufficient contrast, and I used them to create flower and berry/dot shapes. The dashed outlines in black help boost the contrast, too.
It’s not my favorite collage, but it was something to do—and it was a learning experience. Now I know to avoid such busy backgrounds.
Inspiration Cards Again
Today, I decided to see what the inspiration deck would suggest:
- Astrology
- Moody Colors
- Make it a Poster or Art Print
Well, it’s certainly nothing I would have ever come up with on my own! I’m not big on astrology (to put it mildly), so I googled it for inspiration. That gave me the idea to do my own sign, pisces.
I sketched something based on the images in my search results. I could have done a better job with the lettering, but eh, this was just supposed to be for fun.
I tried to stay with the colors suggested in the prompt. Are these “moody” enough? I think the indigo is. The orange or vermilion feels less moody than vibrant, but it worked well for the fish, so I went with it.
And I added some metallic or pearlescent watercolor for the lettering, because that felt right… Finishing with ink pen to bring out the details more easily.
Kind of fun. Not my usual type of thing, so I guess that makes it more interesting. I could be better, but as something done quickly just for fun, not bad.
Watercolor Mixing
I watched a video recently where someone was trying to come up with her own versions of granulating or color-separating watercolor, and it made me want to try, too. It’s not a new concept, and I’ve noticed before that certain color mixes yield interesting results, but I haven’t spent much time lately just playing with color mixing.
So I sat down and did some this weekend! I just used a large pad of cellulose paper and filled it up with mixes:
The “lunar black” (PBk11) I used in most of these mixes isn’t the best, or at least I haven’t had as spectacular granulation from it as I might have hoped. It’s the Arteza brand, and I had a bit left on a ceramic palette, so thought I’d try it first. However, when I switched over to Daniel Smith brand, I found the results much more impressive. Daniel Smith’s Hematite Genuine gives beautiful granulation, too, and it’s such a soft color that it’s easy to use in mixes without overpowering the other color(s).
Anyway, this is really just scratching the surface, so I’d like to try again with more colors—and maybe try on different paper, too, to see if it makes much difference. Just playing with color this way can be really fun, and maybe I’ll discover some mixes that will become my favorites!
