Tag: Moleskine

Sketches / Drawings / Paintings

Sleeping Beauties :: Les beautés somnolentes

by Jane HannahLeave a Comment on Sleeping Beauties :: Les beautés somnolentes

In the province of Québec, hockey is a passion. Every saturday night, when hockey season is ongoing, especially when the Montreal Canadians are playing, my husband and Pyper (our dog) get settled down to watch the game… and within a few minutes, I would say 10 at the most, they become sleeping beauties! And I must add that it is not only hockey that has this magical effect on them — football seems to work perfectly also. So this is my “time” to draw these two beauties while they are unaware of my intentions as drawing “live” people is very intimidating for me. Pyper sometimes seems to have a 7th sense to fidget the minute that I zoom in on him — humph!

Au Québec, le hockey est une institution et une passion. À tous les samedis soirs, quand les Canadiens jouent, mon chum et Pyper (notre chien) s’asseoient ensemble pour l’écouter… et je vous jure, en-dedans de 10 minutes, les deux sont partis au nirvana. Ils dorment! Cependant la minute que la voix des commentateurs s’élèvent, les yeux s’entre-ouvrent pour voir ce qui se passe — pourrait-on dire qu’ils somnolent? Et mieux encore la magie se fait aller aussi avec le football!!! Moi ça me permet de les dessiner à ma guise, au fil des semaines…

Moleskine Sketchbook 5″ x8″
Fountain Pen: Twisbi Classic EF
Ink: Noodlers’ #41 Brown

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Sketches / Drawings / Paintings

The majestic tree :: Arbre majestueux

by Jane HannahLeave a Comment on The majestic tree :: Arbre majestueux

I am the voice of wind
and wave and tree,
Of stern desires and blind,
Of strength to be…
— Charles G. D. Roberts “Autochthon”

Trees have longer lives than ours and were here before man. How strange to me that we do not see them, are blind to their majestic grace. So here is an ode to all of the trees of this planet, our lungs! I am grateful for their existence. Painting inspired by Arthur Rackham.

Les arbres vivent plus longtemps que nous et étaient présents sur cette Terre bien avant nous. Comment étrange que nous ne les voyons presque plus, leur grâce ignorée. Voici un ode à toutes les arbres sur cette planète, nos poumons! Sans eux, où serions-nous? Peinture inspirée par Arthur Rackham.

Paper: Moleskine Sketchbook
Pen: Sailor Desk
Ink: Carbon Ink

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Sketches / Drawings / Paintings

Destiny :: Destinée

by Jane HannahLeave a Comment on Destiny :: Destinée

“Each man had only one genuine vocation – to find the way to himself…. His task was to discover his own destiny – not an arbitrary one – and to live it out wholly and resolutely within himself. Everything else was only a would-be existence, an attempt at evasion, a flight back to the ideals of the masses, conformity and fear of one’s own inwardness.” 
― Hermann Hesse

As I was trying to draw this student, who thankfully had his back to me, it made me nervous… nervous that he would just walk away, nervous that he would find out that I was attempting to draw him and nervous that someone would be watching me drawing him. Why does drawing people make me so nervous? Perhaps because I am a private person that does not like prying into other people’s lives? My mind kept going back to the question that Herman Hesse is asking… what is this young man’s destiny? What lies on the road ahead of him? Will he be happy? Famous? Have a hard life? A good life? No one knows… does he?

 En dessinant cet élève, qui heureusement était de dos à moi, j’étais très nerveuse… nerveuse qu’il partirait tout d’un coup et que mon modèle ne serait plus là, peur qu’il s’aperçoive que j’étais en train de le dessiner, peur que quelqu’un d’autre me voit le dessiner… combien d’angoisses peuvent surgir en si peu de temps? Pourquoi est-ce que dessiner des personnes sur le vif m’angoisse tant? Un manque d’expérience peut-être? Étant une personne privée, je n’aime pas m’introduire dans la vie des gens. Mon esprit retournait aux mots de Herman Hesse… quelle est sa destinée à ce jeune homme? Quel sera le trajet de sa vie? Heureuse? Facile? Difficile? Personne le sait… le sait-il?

Paper: Moleskine Sketchbook
Fountain Pen: Pilot Prera F
Ink: Noodlers Lexington Gray
Colours: Prussian Blue, Raw Sienna and Burnt Sienna

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Sketches / Drawings / Paintings

Arthur Rackham

by Jane HannahLeave a Comment on Arthur Rackham

“Like the sundial, my paint box counts no hours but sunny ones.”  ― Arthur Rackham While I was drawing a section of my kitchen this morning, I started thinking about drawing with a fine ink pen and my mind automatically drifted to Arthur Rackham’s (1867-1939) amazing art. I think that many artists learn by looking, observing, learning to see the work of famous, and not so famous artists. One artist that I have loved since I was a little girl is Arthur Rackham. He was, and still is, an amazing artist and well worth your perusing. He has a way of bringing life to trees in a way that no other can do. I have included two of his paintings in this post so that you can see what I mean. Pendant que je dessinais une partie de ma cuisine ce matin, mes pensées se sont tournées vers Arthur Rackham, un artiste que je chérie depuis ma tendre enfance. La façon qu’il travaille la ligne, et ses arbres, est incroyable! Les artistes apprennent leur métier de façons bien différentes et une est d’observer les grands artistes de ce monde. Paper: Moleskine Sketchbook Fountain Pen: Pilot Prera F Ink: Noodlers’ Lexington Grey 20140218_Kitchen                           a028317208c92613227219ac933bd0f2 6e3b09c8978fa0f127b3fc153695ea2a

Sketches / Drawings / Paintings

Negative Shapes :: Espaces négatifs

by Jane HannahLeave a Comment on Negative Shapes :: Espaces négatifs

For this drawing I tried finding the negatives shapes by defining them with hatching and cross-hatching lines. I retraced at the end some of the forms and this is when I realized that I should not have… and as many painters will point you, “You need to know when to stop”. Sometimes I don’t…

Pour ce dessin j’ai regardé les espaces négatifs en utilisant des lignes hachurées. À la fin, j’ai décidé de contourner des formes et j’ai réalisé en le faisant que je n’aurais pas dû. Beaucoup de peintres disent: «On doit savoir quand s’arrêter…» et des fois je ne le fais pas…

Sketchbook: Moleskine Sketchbook
Fountain Pen: Sailor Desk Fountain Pen EF
Ink: Carbon Ink
Drawn from a reference picture

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Sketches / Drawings / Paintings

Grungy golden :: Chien grungy

by Jane HannahLeave a Comment on Grungy golden :: Chien grungy

Do not draw until you have a “vision”, then hold to that trying to recapture it always.
― Edgar A. Whitney

I have been revisiting Edgar Whitney’s book Complete Guide to Watercolor Painting and it is excellent — it goes through all of the required steps for achieving good watercolour paintings and more. I was lucky today to capture my grungy dog’s head as usually, when he notices that I am drawing him, he stops doing whatever he was doing ― usually sleeping ― and comes over to play with me.

Je suis en train de lire le livre de Edgar Whitney Complete Guide to Watercolor Painting et ce livre est très bon si l’on prend le temps de le lire. Finalement j’ai réussi à peindre la tête de mon grungy chien, que j’ai déjà essayé maintes fois, car lorsqu’il s’aperçoit que je le regarde il arrête de faire ce qu’il faisait ― qui est habituellement de dormir ― pour venir me voir pour jouer.

Paper: Moleskine Sketchbook
Colours: Raw Sienna, Burnt Sienna and Burnt Orange, Payne’s Gray
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Sketches / Drawings / Paintings

Vintage Opera Glasses :: Lunettes pour l’opéra

by Jane HannahLeave a Comment on Vintage Opera Glasses :: Lunettes pour l’opéra

When I was very young my mother, who has a fabulous alto voice, would go to the opera in Montreal with my father. She would put on beautiful dresses and bring these wonderful opera glasses… all clad in mother of pearl. Sometimes it seemed as though her dresses suited the glasses and I would be in a daze of exquisiteness.

Étant bien jeune ma mère, qui a une voix sublime d’alto, sortait avec mon père pour aller entendre et voir l’opéra à Montréal. Elle portait pour ces occasions des robes exquises et n’oubliait jamais ses lunettes d’opéra en nacre de perle. Des fois il semblait que ses robes étaient en nacre de perle. J’étais portée par cette beauté.

Paper: Moleskine Sketchbook
Colours: Raw Sienna & Payne’s Grey
Pen: TWISBI Classic EF
Ink: Noodlers’ Lexington Grey
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Sketches / Drawings / Paintings

The Bark :: Le tronc

by Jane HannahLeave a Comment on The Bark :: Le tronc

I have been exploring with my students the power of the line… the “crosshatched” line, the “straight” line, the “wavy” line, the “contour” line, the “shadow/highlight” line, the “look/hold/draw” type of lines, the working “blind” lines, the “restating” line… ooh maman! So many type of lines. I decided today to show one example. A mix of straight and curved lines… quite simple in fact.

Avec mes élèves nous explorons les différents types de lignes en dessin. Je ne connais pas les termes en français malheureusement mais si vous voulez connaître ceux que nous explorons, voir le texte en anglais ci-haut. Mais juste pour dire qu’il y en a tellement… que j’ai décidé d’en dessiner un, juste pour le fun -)

Paper: Moleskine Sketchbook
Fountain Pen: Pilot Flexi Grip EF
Ink: Noodlers’ Lexington Grey

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Sketches / Drawings / Paintings

Colours & my eyes :: Les yeux & couleurs

by Jane HannahLeave a Comment on Colours & my eyes :: Les yeux & couleurs

This past week was very intense at school and I spent most of my weekend preping and correcting students’ work. So I had very little time to even think about painting or sketching. So today I rushed out at 3:00 pm to try and sketch… and disaster was in the making. I have noticed that if I do not paint every 3 days, my eyes cannot see the colours anymore… my hand/eye coordination is still good, but the colours have disappeared from my eyes.

So here are feeble attempts at a beautiful landscape… I did not have the colours in my eyes! So the first landscape was done with Cerulean Blue, Yellow Ochre and Alizarin Crimson while the bottom attempt was with Cobalt Blue, New Gambodge and Alizarin Crimson. Both have muddy greens and I should have thought about Jeanne Dobie’s lessons -)

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Sketches / Drawings / Paintings

Roses

by Jane HannahLeave a Comment on Roses

Even though the temperature was beautiful and warm today, I could not go out and sketch on location or “plein air” as I did not have the time. So here is my take on a trio of beautiful red roses (you have to imagine the colour — LOL). I wanted to mention that the Moleskine Sketchbooks are wonderful with a fountain pen for drawing. Today I used my Sailor EF Fountain Pen with Lexington Gray Ink and it glides on the pages.  If you like drawing with fountain pens, this paper is fabulous for this.

Je n’ai pas eu le temps de sortir et peindre en plein air aujourd’hui… donc je vous offre trois roses… vous devez vous imaginer leur couleur… rouge profond! Par contre, je voulais spécifier que si vous aimez dessiner avec des plumes fontaines, les carnets  sont incroyables car l’encre glisse comme du beurre sur ce paper. 

Paper: Moleskine Sketchbook
Ink: Noodlers Lexington Grey
Pen: Sailor EF

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