A Sketch Becomes a Carved Stamp

My favorite book on stamp carving is still the first one I read:  Rubber Stamp Carving by Luann Udell.  I decided it was worth a re-read and it is still inspiring fifteen years later.

Working Up To It

6" x 6" drawing on collaged background

This is a drawing done in my journal of scrapbook paper.  I was a bit hesitant in my approach, beginning in pencil and then a fine Platinum Carbon Ink fountain pen.  Then I thought "oh what the heck, it's only paper", and added the Pentel brush pen shadows.  I like the way it turned out!

Using Up Paint

Art Nouveau lettering done in my Sketchbook

Watercolor applied with a 1/4" flat brush 

Watercolor on Gesso?

Watercolor and Gelato in 6 x 6 Junk Journal

Roz Stendahl does fabulous drawings in beautiful handmade books.  She also does exhaustive experiments and reviews of all kinds of papers and media.  One of her recommendations for mediocre paper is to apply a layer of gesso.  She will use this even for watercolor, so I thought I would try it.  (I'm finding that I'm attracted to a square format book lately, and the only one I have is this 6 x 6 journal made from scrapbook paper.)

I can't say that I'm convinced.  It dried OK, but the watercolor was very slippery going on.  The background of gelatos was very fun, though - fingerpainting!

Note To Self: Just Keep Drawing

It is easy to spend more time looking for just the right reference photo and just the right journal page than it is sketching.  I had the right idea here:  I pulled a journal off the shelf, flipped it to the first blank page and then pulled a magazine out of the cupboard.  I didn't even open the magazine; I just used the photo on the front cover as my reference.

I used a Pentel brush pen for the sketch.  After drawing most of the features I covered the red stencil on the face using white acrylic paint and then added back some colour with a gelato.     

Sketching Faces is Easy with Sue Kemnitz

Sue Kemnitz's Sketch class has got me sketching faces again.  This is a watercolor pencil crayon over acrylic paint.

You can check out a trailer for Sue's class here.

A Quick Collage

This collage came together quickly after I made the leafy thing.

Then I made a few more for later.  They're just simple line drawings on scrapbook paper.