Planning to Paint

This is the plan for a watercolour I am hoping to enter in a local show:

Drawing: Low Tide

A value study from this evening. Charcoal and graphite.

Pen & Ink: Rural Scene

A little scene I worked on last night and today, which I plan to mail to a good friend in Europe. I added some hatching with a fountain pen after I was done with the dip pen and wash... the fountain pen work turned out a little too bright for my liking, a darker ink would have helped.

Drawing: Keem Bay, Ireland

A half-finished drawing from class this week. We focused on creating a tonally-correct value drawing from which we will paint from next week.

Artistic Pursuits

I like to think that I'm quite an artistic person, but since abandoning wheel-pottery a couple of years ago, all I've been left with is photography as my creative outlet. This wasn't enough for me, so for the last few months I have been attending drawing classes each Tuesday evening. I can draw... but not well enough, so the classes have been an excellent way to build my confidence and improve my weakest area - portraying light and texture accurately.

I've been working almost exclusively in graphite, creating realistic renderings of local buildings and architecture. I have used Derwent Graphitint Pencils to add small touches of subtle colour, and have been very pleased with the results. But only recently have I begun to work with more colour, and it's been quite an interesting experience! I thought I would have all I needed with my set of Derwent 72 Artists Pencils... how wrong I was. I was lacking key colours, and somehow, my pencils didn't seem as rich as they once were. These thoughts led me to Prismacolor, and I splurged on a set of 132 Prismacolor Premier Colored Pencils, and 36 Prismacolor Verithin Colored Pencils. I also couldn't resist adding a set of 24 Derwent Inktense Pencils as well. Who knew there was so much to coloured pencils?

By nature I'm a little bit of a perfectionist, and this is reflected in my drawing - I can take hours to draw simple things, not resting until they look perfect. This is very tiresome, and ultimately boring. While I am hoping to refine my skills, I also want to learn how to express more creativity and spontaneity in my work. I want to develop a meaningful style, and not just produce rigid technical renderings forever.