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revivingKensArt (1 Viewer)
- Thread starter solitaryVSong
- Start date
JTMB
Well-known member
The Ovenbird is great, Ken - watercolor is a good medium for you for sure! I also like the 'wild' turkey with the land markings and asphalt 'habitat' he's in. It's funny with the rapid expansion of the turkeys that they are behaving in new ways. In PA when I grew up, you hardly ever saw them and they were extremely wary and tough to hunt. Now when I'm back there, I see them all the time.
I think the Turkey and Cormorant were born to be a B&W lino-cut....:cat:
It may take a bit of 'sorting out'...re the geometry..but would definitely be worth it....!
As you know Ken...i love odd juxtapositions...:t:
solitaryVSong
Well-known member
Thanks all. User, I should have thought of you when I mentioned odd juxtapositions. Must not have been fully awake!
Ed, ever since I read a Michael Warren book in which he used some crayons I've tried to figure out what type he and others use. It is a regular children's crayon, something more like a Conte crayon or what? His work seemed to have a dry precise line that I couldn't imagine getting with a soft wax crayon. So to help out anyone like me who is trying to figure out exactly what is meant by 'crayon' I decided to use the full name. But you're right it is a mouthful! I keep trying to find the right medium to use to get color in field sketches. But it's a fool's errand: I never have time to put color in a field sketch!
Tim, John. Glad you like the ovenbird. I hope that one day I can do a complex environment like this and have it work as well as I'd like in watercolor. So I keep at work with it.
As far as linos they take more of a commitment than anything else. I almost always need to spend more money on printmaking paper since I generally print a small edition. And I don't like fumes of the oil-based ink and solvents. And I know it will take awhile. So I sort of hold off on them until something forces itself to the front of my consciousness and says Print this Lino Now! Still not there yet. By the time I finally do one I'm generally pretty excited by it.
RussB
Going for Gold
Nice work with the waders, Ken. To quote a Mike Warren in reply to my more or less the same question as you regarding the crayons he used.
''I have used Caran D'Ache crayons. Their 'Prismalo@ range is quite hard, the 'Supracolour' is soft. I suggest you try them and see which suits you. The best paper for crayons is a good cartridge, not too smooth, just enough texture for the crayon to 'bite'.''
I asked him a few years back and no, I never tried them. It's taken me till up to now to see what a lead pencil will do!
Hope this is of use.
Russ
Ps In 'Shorelines' he mentions the drawings were done using 'caran D'Ache crayons and Arches paper.
Cheers
''I have used Caran D'Ache crayons. Their 'Prismalo@ range is quite hard, the 'Supracolour' is soft. I suggest you try them and see which suits you. The best paper for crayons is a good cartridge, not too smooth, just enough texture for the crayon to 'bite'.''
I asked him a few years back and no, I never tried them. It's taken me till up to now to see what a lead pencil will do!
Hope this is of use.
Russ
Ps In 'Shorelines' he mentions the drawings were done using 'caran D'Ache crayons and Arches paper.
Cheers
solitaryVSong
Well-known member
Thanks Russ! I just picked up my 'Shorelines' and now remember seeing that line right at the start. But his crayon lines don't look like any I've seen before. Maybe it is the Prismalo that you mention. This gets me heading in the right direction now I think.
And thanks everyone else as well.
This is a small watercolor, about 7x10 I think of some Whimbrel. It's based mainly on the field sketch I did a few weeks ago where one raised it's wings for a split second and I did a sketch. The other birds are from some photos I took a year or two ago. I do like basing paintings on field sketches, even if I'm a real neophyte at it.. I'm including the original field sketch along with the watercolor.
Attachments
timwootton
Well-known member
. . . and you've kept all the charm of the original drawing here too. There's the link we're all striving for. Love it!
solitaryVSong
Well-known member
Thanks all. I've been a bit distracted recently thanks to UK Customs. My SWLA entries have been sitting in Customs for a week now. I'm almost certain that they'll never make it out in time for the competition. If I'd only known what a pain international shipping and customs can be.
Russ's comment on the Caran d'Ache Prismalo crayons got me investigating. I've been rereading Michael Warren's 'Shorebirds' and noticing how he used 'crayons' for those quick sketches. Then I discovered that the Prismalo are what I would call a pencil not a crayon. I think that explains my confusion with his crayon drawings.
To make a long story short though I pulled out my Derwent watercolor pencils and tried a Least Sandpiper. But I ignored everything I learned in looking at 'Shorelines' and turned it into a painting by adding water. I'm not really sure why I did that. Soon I'd like to try some more drawings that are more in his style. My idea isn't to imitate him at all but just to find a way to make quick color sketches in the field. We'll see.
The second painting is of another Least Sandpiper, this one a juvenile. I saw both of these late summer this year. This is on Arches 300# cold press paper. Every time I use this I'm shocked at how the water just jumps off the brush to form a blob. Distinct strokes seem impossible without using a fully loaded brush of almost pure pigment. As a result this turned into a very dark painting, almost like an oil. I keep forgetting the odd properties of this paper.
In any case it's keeping me distracted while I wait to see if a couple of prints make it to SWLA in time. I'm willing to bet that they won't.
Russ's comment on the Caran d'Ache Prismalo crayons got me investigating. I've been rereading Michael Warren's 'Shorebirds' and noticing how he used 'crayons' for those quick sketches. Then I discovered that the Prismalo are what I would call a pencil not a crayon. I think that explains my confusion with his crayon drawings.
To make a long story short though I pulled out my Derwent watercolor pencils and tried a Least Sandpiper. But I ignored everything I learned in looking at 'Shorelines' and turned it into a painting by adding water. I'm not really sure why I did that. Soon I'd like to try some more drawings that are more in his style. My idea isn't to imitate him at all but just to find a way to make quick color sketches in the field. We'll see.
The second painting is of another Least Sandpiper, this one a juvenile. I saw both of these late summer this year. This is on Arches 300# cold press paper. Every time I use this I'm shocked at how the water just jumps off the brush to form a blob. Distinct strokes seem impossible without using a fully loaded brush of almost pure pigment. As a result this turned into a very dark painting, almost like an oil. I keep forgetting the odd properties of this paper.
In any case it's keeping me distracted while I wait to see if a couple of prints make it to SWLA in time. I'm willing to bet that they won't.
Attachments
Strandman
Well-known member
great light on the Least- that little white trim on an otherwise not-white breast and belly
I noticed a gorgeous light on a Little Stint pic in the iD forum just t'other day, again minimal amount of pure white yet still gleaming
http://www.birdforum.net/attachment.php?attachmentid=346258&d=1315495920
I noticed a gorgeous light on a Little Stint pic in the iD forum just t'other day, again minimal amount of pure white yet still gleaming
http://www.birdforum.net/attachment.php?attachmentid=346258&d=1315495920
solitaryVSong
Well-known member
Thanks for that link Ed. I've never really looked closely at a Little Stint, which I ought to on the rare chance that one ends up here. It's amazing how brilliant a little bit of white can be at times. That is a gorgeous photo.
timwootton
Well-known member
Terrific pieces, both - excellent indeed. Hope the prints escape the clutches of the customs dept (you haven't been using unusual - erm - 'oil' in your pigments, have you Ken 
buzzard12
Well-known member
And for me too. Looking at these makes me want to be standing in a large expanse of mud...
solitaryVSong
Well-known member
Hope the prints escape the clutches of the customs dept (you haven't been using unusual - erm - 'oil' in your pigments, have you Ken
Aha! That 'unusual stuff' in the pigments must be why I so often feel a bit spacy after a bout of printmaking.........
There was once a huge barge of trash that left Philadelphia, and was then refused by the country that was going to take it. As I recollect it roamed the oceans for awhile. I picture something like that for my poor box of prints.
Thanks all for your comments. I had no intention of even showing that first one Mike, since it was just a test of color pencils. But then I found that there was something I liked about it, maybe the simplicity that you mention.
