Inktober Day 7 - Playing with Inktense

Today for Inktober, I'm using Inktense blocks instead of pens. Inktense come in two forms, pencils and block. I have the 24-count set of pencils and a full set of blocks. I love them! The colors are vibrant and they behave like watercolors when wet but once dry, they are permanent. That means you can layer colors without muddying them. They are made from India ink so you can make mist sprays with them or use it with your calligraphy dip pens.

For today's drawing, I chose my leaf bowl. It is great for entertaining! Fill it up with chips or other goodies and it becomes a part of your fall tablescape. I usually make my pumpkin dip this time of the year. My recipe is sweet with a little bit of kick to it. It's perfect with tortilla chips made from tortillas and a leaf cookie cutter.

For the last few years, I used Mission brand Carb Control tortillas and used the cookie cutter to make the chips. I toast them lightly until the edges are brown. I put the leaf tortillas in my leaf bowl and serve with the pumpkin dip. Now I'm hungry for some!

September Art Video and Inktober

Day 5 of Inktober is a drawing of my pumpkin tree. The tree branches are made from wires and the pumpkin cups are thin metal. I think you may be able to put tea lights in them but I've always been afraid. It's very pretty at night when the light hits. The pumpkins sparkle! I drew it with my favorite Playinum Carbon pen and colored with Windsor and Newton half pans watercolors and Koi watercolors (I was too lazy to mix my own black.) 

And here is my September art video! I used Beethoven's Sonata Pathetique. It is one of my favorite Beethoven sonatas. When I first took piano lessons as an adult in Michigan, this was one of the pieces I learned to play. My hands are small so some of this is difficult to play as I had to stretch my hands. I hope you enjoy the video!

Inktober Day 5

Continuing with the Halloween theme, my Inktober entry for today is another decoration I have. I drew this with my Platinum Carbon pen and since there are lots of carved markings on the actual piece, it was perfect for a loose sketch. I then used my Koi watercolors to color. 

Last night, we were invited to celebrate Sukkot with friends. They had built a beautiful sukkah with PVC pipes and decorated with lights, palm leaves, leaf garlands and lanterns.

It was actually not hot so it was very pleasant to eat outside. Our friend, Mary, always has delicious foods prepared. And her apple challah is so very good. I had to do a quick sketch of the sukkah..

For those of you reading who may not know about Sukkot, it is a Jewish holiday that reminds us of what it was like to live a nomadic life like Jews after escaping Egypt under the cruel Pharoh's rule. It's also one of the festival holidays so we celebrate the fall harvest. There is some evidence that the American holiday of Thanksgiving was fashioned after Sukkot.  We make a temporary dwelling outside, with four walls but the roof is only partially covered so that we can see the stars. Typically it is decorated with fruits and vegetables and  homemade decorations. During the seven days of Sukkot, you are supposed to dine inside the Sukkah and some will sleep in the sukkah. We had a great meal (we always do when Mary is cooking) and an even better conversation.

Inktober Day 4

This weekend we are putting some of our Halloween decorations out. As I've said before, Halloween is one of my favorite holidays. I love the costumes and treats. So for the next few days, my Inktober entries will be a drawing of some of my decorations I have, both indoors and out.

For the first one, I drew this wooden cat and his head holds candy or whatever you want to put in it. 

I usually like to use it to hold my monster and werewolf fingers. The fingers are made from pretzel rods and candy melts (for the monster finger) and chocolate forvthevwerewolf. The monster fingers have half a Dot for fingernails and the werewolf fingers have almond slices with red gel icing along the base of the "nails".  They are really easy to make and kids just love them!

Playing With Line Weight

For today's Inktober challenge, I decided to explore line weights, or how thick to thin lines are using various pens. If you have spent any time watching anime or tried to draw manga-style characters, you've seen the effect of line weights (though you may not continually be aware). Manga and anime artists use thick and thin lines to add depth and texture to their drawings. I have also seen urban sketchers like Marc Taro Holmes and Liz Steel use pens with different weights to draw gesture lines and add depth to their sketches. 

Usually when I draw, I use a single pen. I tend to use color and other media to add depth and texture. 

My favorite pen to use is the Platinum Carbon Pen. It is super fine and is very durable. It can also be used over gesso which is nice. And it is relatively cheap. The ink is waterproof so you can watercolor over it.

My next favorite are Preppy Pens in .02 and .03 widths. The ink that comes with these pens are NOT waterproof but the Platinum carbon ink cartridges will fit in them, Score! I love Microns too but I'm so rough with my pens that I tend to ruin then too quickly.

Recently I purchased the Pentel Pocket Brush Pen for hand lettering. Brush pens require lots of practice to get the thick and thins to work together, and I'm practicing! It is also waterproof so it works well with watercolor a too. 

For today's Inktober entry, I went with mandalas and tried to use different pens to create them. Mandalas and zentangle are wonderful to create complicated-looking patterns that are fairly easy to create. And I've always used a single pen to create them and added pencil shading to create depth. This was an interesting exercise for me to think about which pens to use. And though the differences in weight among my fountain pens are slight, the lines created by them give the drawing some depth.

Inktober, Day 2

Yesterday was National Homemade Cookie Day. I saw a post on Facebook but was not keen on celebrating it because we (my husband, son and I) are living a low carb lifestyle. But my girls, as soon as I had both in the car after school, not only reminded me that it was the National Homemade Cookies day but started the guilt trip.

"It's been so long since YOU made cookies for us." (They can now make the cookies themselves.)

"We would make them but I have a physics test and an English test (J)."

"The cookies are so much better when you make them."

Lol. Studying for tests means I get to help out so we just didn't have time to make them yesterday. So instead, I made them today. And just so that I can enjoy the homemade cookies too, I made some low carb mini pumpkin cookie balls. They are perfect with my coffee!

So I decided to make this today's Inktober entry. The picture you see above is in my Fauxbonichi which I inked first with my Platinum Carbon pen and colored with watercolor and diluted ink.

Now that I've taken Liz Steel's Edges class, I'm always looking at different types of edges. So I decided to try to color first and then ink.

This was done on 140-lb cold pressed watercolor paper. I do like this version better. What do you think? 

I wonder if my skin would start to turn orange as I've been eating a lot of pumpkin lately.. My girls will be thrilled when they get back from school later!

Playing with Water Soluble Ink

Happy October! I hope you are enjoying the crispy fall air.. Unless you are like me and live in the southwest. I recently discovered there is an art challenge dedicated to the month of October called Inktober. It was started by the artist, Jake Parker who started the challenge to help people improve their ink skills. 

Today, I played around with my water-soluble brush pen. I always looked for waterproof ink pens but there is so much you can do with a water-soluble pens. I drew this leaf using a water soluble pencil and then inked on top of it with my Japanese brush pen. I then used water to add a bit of shading. I'm going to try to do an ink drawing everyday.