Etching: Lake Edge

A print from tonight's etching and print making class:

Gamblin ink on Fabriano, 15 x 15cm (6 x 6")

My Field Paintbox

In a recent forum post I showed my outdoor paintbox, so I thought I would add the same information here.  The metal paintbox is from Natural Pigments, and has been a favourite of mine for a couple of years:

These are the colours I've used above, from the back left. (All colours are M. Graham & Co unless otherwise noted.)

• Back: Payne's Gray, Raw Umber, Winsor & Newton Caput Mortuum Violet, Terra Rosa, Maimeri Avignon Orange, Quinacridone Rust, Trans Yellow Iron Oxide.
• Middle: Ultramarine Blue, Cobalt Blue, Prussian Blue, Holbein Cerulean Blue, Maimeri Turquoise Green, Cobalt Teal, Daniel Smith Undersea Green, Winsor & Newton Perm Sap Green.
• Front: Winsor & Newton Quin Magenta, Daniel Smith Quin Fuchsia, Daniel Smith Organic Vermilion, Indian Yellow, Naples Yellow, Daniel Smith Monte Amiata Natural Sienna, Nickel Azo Yellow, Azo Yellow.

Etching

I have recently added etching to my long list of current creative endeavors! :)

This week saw me preparing some stylized landscape drawings to use as the basis of my plate image. They were all drawn in tight detail using 1.8 and 2.0 technical pens. I picked two suitable drawings to be etched onto my plates, one can be seen below:

A closeup of my linework:

Watercolour: Police Creek

Today our painting group went to a local park to take advantage of the beautiful weather and paint en plein air.  I was rather pleased when I produced the following:

Bookbinding

A couple of weeks ago I attended a 2-hour bookbinding class. It was rushed, slightly stressful, and showed a very quick-n-dirty approach. No written instructions, no precise cutting or time to take care, just 18 people frantically trying to keep up with a harried instructor who had a plane to catch. At the end of it, though, I had an intriguing little book, and had learnt (more or less) how to do a multiple-needle coptic bookbinding stitch.

I went home with another bookbinding kit in my bag, and googled around for some instructions I could work along to (the multiple-needle coptic / chain stitch *is* complicated at first). This time I carefully cut everything with unerring accuracy, worked at my own pace, and found the whole process throughly enjoyable.

I made some mistakes, and will be re-stitching the book with different thread, but for my second attempt at making a book from scratch, I was very pleased. I had decided to make a fabric-covered book, as I have some taupe suede which makes very pretty fountain pen cases, so I figured a matching book would be nice. I also stitched on some little floral motifs using contrasting thread for some added interest.

The cover:

Detail of the spine, showing the braid formed by the coptic stitch:

In the class, we used a heavy black 5-ply Barbour waxed thread and darning needles. It is incredibly strong thread, but very thick and a bit unwieldy. I won't be using it again for any projects, as I have found nicer 3-ply and 4-ply threads in a bigger colour range that are better suited to the finer finish I like for my books. I have also invested in proper bookbinding needles.

Some helpful links:

• Steps for single and multiple needle coptic stitch.
• Steps for multiple needle coptic stitch.
• Threads and needles in Australia.

Instructions vary, but I prefer to start with the front cover first. This way, your final tie-off knots end up inside the back folio or section, rather than in the front.

Manganese Blue!

My paints from Blockx arrived yesterday! Two tubes and two full pans of their now-discontinued Manganese Blue watercolour paint... such a delightful colour!

The NOS pans look like delicious little gold foil wrapped chocolates, and the tubes have hand-written labels - too cute!

If you are after some PB33 for yourself, check out the 'Good Bargains' section of the Blockx online store. The Blockx personnel were super-friendly via email, and shipping to AU was only a few dollars.

Rublev Eighteenth Century Palette

Here is a scan of a watercolour set from Natural Pigments. This is the rather lovely "18th Century Palette": (Click to enlarge!)

I have tested almost every watercolour paint in the Rublev line, and all have delightful textural properties.  I use these paints mostly for small works or field sketches, as the paints are best applied and then left alone. Re-wetting them and brushing over them lifts them and destroys the texture.

(Update: 2013: Over time, some paints became unusable, and would no longer produce colour when re-wetted, even if soaked. Vivianite (Blue Ocher) was of much interest to me but is now just an inert lump which does not respond to water.)

Painterly Things

Well, I have been shopping for art supplies again! I have a nice assortment of watercolour paints enroute, and am looking forward to putting them to use. Here is the list:

From Daniel Smith:

- German Greenish Raw Umber

- Lunar Black · Lunar Blue · Lunar Earth· Lunar Red

- Moonglow

- Fired Gold Ochre.

I love textural paints, and since I love my Lunar Violet I figured all the other Lunar variants were worth a look.

From Natural Pigments:

- The gorgeous 12 pan 19th Century Watercolor Palette

- The cute 8 half-pan Watercolor Case

- Historic blues: Lazurite · Royal Smalt · Vivianite

- Earth reds: Indian Red · Violet Hematite

- Olive Green

I am a huge fan of earth paints, but also have many paintboxes with specific palettes such as bright earth, classical and Zorn.

Photo © 2005-2010 Natural Pigments, LLC.

From Blockx:

- Their discontinued Manganese Blue (PB33) in full pans and tubes.

Oh, happy, happy!

Need a laugh?

Feeling despondent about the direction a piece of art you are working on is taking?  Does it feel like you've lost your touch? Or maybe you're worried you never had it?

It could be much worse.

Check out this thread on WetCanvas:  Ghosts of Incompetence Past

You'll laugh until you cry!

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.

Painting: Dee River

Watercolour in progress:

Painting: Such a Windy Day

"Such a Windy Day"

One of the freshest watercolours I have painted.

Absent

Sorry for the lack of updates here... I maintain a few websites, and this one fell by the wayside for a bit.  Hopefully I'll get into a regular posting rhythm soon.

Pantone = Brilliant

I am a bit of a PANTONE^® fangirl. I have a few nice PANTONE Universe products already, but ones I want to add to my collection this year are:

• PANTONE Universe Mug Collection
  
• PANTONE Key Ring - Green Olive