Oh boy! Watercolour papers are a diverse bunch of papers! When I started painting a few years back, I used to love the Moleskine Watercolour Notebook and then a couple of years later while experimenting with other papers the Moleskine was put aside as I preferred most of the other ones. This morning when I picked it up again, I decided to paint with watercolours (not India Ink) and wow! I love it again! Such a strange relationship that we have with these beautiful papers. In the same way, some of the colours that I have used in the past have been put aside to be replaced by other ones and sometimes they come back in – they are sneaky like that – wouldn’t you say?

On Sundays, while I am working or painting I always listen to music and today was an Ani DiFranco type of day. One of the softest songs is You had time…

Paper: #27 Moleskine Watercolour Notebook
Fountain Pen: Platinum 3776 EF (the 3776 is the height in meters of Mount Fuji)
Ink: DeAtramentis Document Black
Watercolours: DS Q. Gold, DS Pyrrol Crimson, DS Cerulean Chromium, W&N Burnt Sienna

Here is my present palette colours which I am really enjoying as they contain the colours that I love. The next one that I will exchange is the MC Azo Yello as I find it too opaque…

All the fine winds gone
And this sweet world is so much older
Animals pull the night around their shoulders
Flowers fall to their naked knees
Here I come now, here I come
I hear you been out there looking for something to love
The dark force that shifts at the edge of the tree
It’s alright, it’s alright
When you turn so long and lovely, it’s hard to believe
That we’re falling now in the name of the Anthrocene
— Anthrocene by Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds

Sometimes when you enter a building and you look around you and assess the place and wham! You love it? Well, this is definitely my kind of place. This beautiful grand desk filled with books, papers and of course fountain pens is just in my style. I took out my Bombay Black India Ink bottle to create the washes and am quite satisfied with the different values that it gave me, going from a soft light gray to quite dark values.

On another note, the semester is in full swing, a whole lot of correcting and prepping to do and just being present for the students is quite engaging, to say the least.

Paper: #27 Moleskine Watercolour Sketchbook
Ink: Dr. Ph. Martin’s Bombay Black India Ink
Fountain Pen: Pilot Namiki Falcon SEF

As we advance in life it becomes more and more difficult,
but in fighting the difficulties the inmost strength of the heart is developed.
— Vincent van Gogh

Why do you think that someone like me would draw doughnuts? Well, because they are spherical thus difficult to draw and paint, at least for me. So after many months of not having touched a paintbrush, these small subjects made me realize that I am sooo rusty and my eyes are having trouble judging foreshortening. For those of you in the know, you probably understand this, and these were my 5th and 6th attempts… the other ones were just good for the recycling bin. No matter, I had fun doing these. The colours that I used for the doughnut were mainly Raw Sienna & Burnt Sienna as a first wash. Did you know that there are actually poems that have been written on doughnuts? Hah-hah! Funny!

Paper: Handbook field watercolour journal
Colours: Lemon Yellow, Q. Rose, French Ultramarine Raw Sienna, Burnt Sienna

Different watercolour papers take paint differently and the new Moleskine Sketchbook which is identified as Art Plus is made for drawing, even though it takes some washes and you do not have to scrub them in as much as with the older versions of the Moleskine Sketchbooks.  It is an improved paper for watercolours, and I feel a bit nostalgic about losing the scrubby texture the older paper used to give me… hah! Things change…

Fountain Pen: Pilot Falcon SEF
Watercolours: New Gamboge DS, Q. Rose DS, Antwerp Blue W&N
Sketchbook: Moleskine Art+ Sketchbook, Large

“I must study politics and war so that my sons
may have the liberty to study mathematics and philosophy.
My sons ought to study mathematics and philosophy,
geography, natural history, naval architecture, navigation,
commerce, and agriculture, in order to give their children
a right to study painting, poetry, music,
architecture, statuary, tapestry, and porcelain.”
— John Adams, founder, 1735

A soft, warm and dry day in Rigaud today and as I have not dabbled in watercolours for quite a while, I painted one of my iris drawings after having totally ruined another drawing that I had just done of a beautiful Ostrya virginiana leave, trunk & flower… also commonly known as a Hophornbeam or Ironwood and Bois de fer in french in Québec.

Watercolours: DS New Gamboge, DS Q. Rose, and W&N Antwerp Blue
Sketchbook: Stillman & Birn Gamma Series

Each day has its own individuality of colour.
— Hawthorne on Painting

Flowers are in bloom here in Quebec, just in time to cooperate with my slowly recovering energy levels and the urge to draw. For those of you who did not know, I had an operation and now all is well — finally. I am starting to live again and it feels so good. Here in Rigaud the bugs are alive and feisty as we had a cold spring and I think that all of the mosquitoes waited to emerge at the same time in my backyard… real little pests they are, but the birds are singing galore and they are feasting and feeding their hatchlings.

I had never realized this before, but drawing and painting need high concentration levels and energy. You have to be in the moment and you have to stay in the moment, for quite a while I might add… so could we call drawing or painting a “meditation in observation”? Well I guess that it depends if you draw/paint directly from observation as plein-air artists do, or if you draw from your imagination with references? Or if you draw from your imagination without references? Have you ever tried without references? It is really hard but it is essential in developing your visual memory.

So no matter which way that you draw, and I do recommend that you rotate your habitual way of drawing to accommodate all three ways, drawing is good for you!

Fountain Pen: Pilot Falcon SEF
Ink: De Atramentis Document Black Ink
Paper: Stillman & Birn, Gamma Series 9″x6″

In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.
     We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie,
In Flanders fields.
     Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.
— by John McCrae, May 1915

For Remembrance Day I decided of course to paint poppies and I used a wet-in-wet technique… which means to totally immerse your paper in water and then sponge off the excess. The paper that I used did not soak up that much water to my surprise! But hey! I am no aficionado!!! This poem to me would make a wonderful song… has it been done? Does anyone know?

Paper: The Langton from Daler Rowley (which I bought in London — hahah)
Watercolours: DS Pyrrol Scarlet, MG Ultramarine & some DS New Gamboge

Next Saturday is our annual Square Foot Exhibition and I hope that you will be able to come and say hello if you live somewhat close to this property.

Drawing people is difficult for me… and as you can see today I drew a man that turned out to be a woman! So hard to get the exact likeness…

— SOLD —

A canvas may be measured with inches,
but the speed with which you travel over it is regulated by the artist.
— The Art Spirit by Robert Henri

I have been swamped with correcting student projects as this week alone I corrected 175 of them on top of department meetings so my Inktober resolve has disintegrated into work-related activities… oh well… it was to be expected…

I am preparing for the Square Foot Art Exhibition taking place on Saturday November 10th in Senneville and this is one of the drawings that I will be displaying. If you feel like it, you can drop by and say hello or even buy one of the 100 paintings that will be displayed on that day by 25 artists. All for a very good cause as some of the funds are going to the Montreal Old Brewery Mission.

Paper: Fluid 100 12″ x 12″
Fountain Pen: Platinum Century 3776
Ink: De Atramantis Document Black

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Writing… is an act of faith: I believe it’s also an act of hope, the hope that things can get better than they are.
— Margaret Atwood

In the province of Quebec there are 43 lighthouses and are enjoying a second life as they are being converted into museums, inns or cottages. As I have been on the Inktober 2018 prompt trail for 13 days in a row, I needed a bit of colour in my life, so I think that I did overdo it a tad… but no matter, it was fun!

An active line on a walk, moving freely, without goal.
A walk for a walk’s sake.
— Paul Klee

Still listening to Thom Yorke and his mesmerizing voice, words and music. Catching up with Inktober prompts today and this is my last one of the day. I love dogs and here is a sheepdog guarding his flock of sheep.

Paper: Moleskine Japanese Album
Ink: Dr. Ph. Martin’s Black Star Matte
Fountain Pen: Pilot Namiki SEF

Dogs can never speak the language of humans, and humans can never speak the language of dogs. But many dogs can understand almost every word humans say, while humans seldom learn to recognize more than half a dozen barks, if that. And barks are only a small part of the dog language. A wagging tail can mean so many things. Humans know that it means a dog is pleased, but not what a dog is saying about his pleasedness.
— Dodie Smith from The 101 Dalmatians

After a day at work, my imagination is low so I just painted a favourite cartoon character of mine, Cruella Deville from The 101 Dalmatians! Her name comes from combining the words “cruel” and “evil”.

Fountain pen: Pilot Namiki SEF
Ink: DeAtramentis Document Black Ink and then I painted with DeAtramentis DocumentFog Grey Ink .

#inktober2018 #inktober #Cruella #Drawing #Painting