Book: Urban Watercolor Sketching

Always looking for a way to capture the moment with sketching, I was happy to find Felix Scheinberger's Urban Watercolor Sketching book this week at Blick Art Materials.

My doggie Becah is enjoying the book with me, too!

I'm loving the simplicity and excitement with which Felix writes, and EVERY page is filled with his loose and beautiful pen and pencil sketches enhanced with watercolor.

(c) 2011 Felix Scheinberger in Urban Watercolor Sketching 

Learning tons, and my favorite tidbit so far is, "The easiest way to learn it is simply to try it again and again." I also like his discussion of drawing vs painting, "...drawing mainly explains. Color is demanding and enriches our pictures with a sensual aspect. A drawing of a cake merely describes its shape, but a painting of a cake makes it mouthwatering."

Do you sketch with watercolor? What's your favorite urban travel kit? Leave comments below, can't see what you have to share! :D

HAPPY SKETCHING!  Tristina Dietz Elmes

View Into The Creative Process

I find I like to take the familiar, exaggerate it, and throw in bunches of color to come up with new ideas for painting series'. My latest series obsession is a Fantasy Tree idea born out of my art journal sketch books. Read on to check out my Creative Process...

Doodling with charcoal in one of my many sketchbooks.

Refining the Fantasy Tree concept with graphite on Bristol paper.

Experimenting with the concept using Pebeo Cerne Relief dimensional paint and Pebeo Fantasy paints in my Moleskin mixed media painting ideas book. 

Working out the Pebeo paints over gessoed watercolor paper for a test run.

Luvin' it!!!

"Purple Snow", 14in x 17in, fine art painting on paper, 

Pebeo cerne relief dimensional and liquid alkyd Fantasy paints over acrylic. 

And...must remember the GLITTER!

Hope this inspires you to grab a sketchbook (or 2 or 3 - I have MANY) and get to messing around. The lovely thing about a personal sketchbook is it is a place to get loose and BE YOUR AUTHENTIC SELF, letting crazy ideas percolate and surface for surprising results.

Now, grab a sketch pad and pencil, and get CREATING! 

Happy Arting! :D Tristina

Fun With Charcoal Drawing

Thank goodness for Holiday Weekends! I have started and stopped Dynamic Charcoal Drawing with Chris Wynter on my computer several times in days gone by. Today I went for it, got out all my charcoal drawing supplies (fat charcoal, skinny charcoal, charcoal pencils, white 'charcoal', blending stump and charcoal/pastel paper) and sat down to spend 2 hours following along with Chris on the video. I'd be lying if I said I enjoyed an uninterrupted 2 hours of bliss, but stayed with it until I was done!

I enjoyed Chris's relaxed style, and he kept talking about what he was doing even when you could not see his hand on the paper. His insights were very helpful. I recognize after having watched the video that it would be even more helpful the next time I sit down to draw a charcoal still life to set up a table with real objects in front of me so I can better see the light and texture in the objects. Here's my finished drawing...

Here is the link to the preview for Chris' video by Interweave: http://youtu.be/uZled4lnSR4

And, I always have to take the investigation of my projects to the next level, so here is a link to an artist who uses charcoal, white gesso and black gesso to make her abstract paintings. Stunning, and looks like a blast to do too! Will definitely try one of these. Enjoy... http://youtu.be/b3xqQ3bZjC0

Hope you have had the opportunity this holiday weekend to create something! Happy Arting,

Tristina  :)