All this and Bats too – Inktense in a Watercolour Moleskine
A late evening sketch, looking northwards from the local woods over some recently harvested cereal fields. Thursday has been a nice day but the weather is set to turn stormy. I’m enjoying playing around with a few Inktense pencils but don’t know how this drawing will turn out. I’m thinking that the local farmer must be giving thanks in getting his crops cut and the hay bailed (That’s what these cylinders, in the fields, are meant to be – one wee boy said they were Polo Mints for cows). I finally return home and sit outside in the darkness unwilling to give up and go inside. Suddenly I’m surrounded by small bats flitting around the house. We have had bats roosting under the eaves of our house for many years but recent building work, in the woods behind us, seemed to have disturbed them and we haven’t seen them at all this year. Its such a joy to realise they have not gone.
PS A few inches of rain fell on Friday and Saturday.
Boulgakow 1:27 pm on August 15, 2009 | #
Super great, Bob. I really like the two-colors way of painting.
Pink and black. That works very well.
Nikira 2:11 pm on August 15, 2009 | #
Really cool. Combination of soft and blurry with thin and sharp. Plus I am enjoing your story.
Nikira 2:12 pm on August 15, 2009 | #
enjoying
trebor61 3:14 pm on August 15, 2009 | #
Thanks Pascal. The pink was actually the colour of the sky and the reason I chose black was to emphasise the coming darkness. Glad you like this.
Nikira also glad you have given me such positive comments and you like the way I “Blether”. (Scots word for chattering away). I’ve tried to draw how the bats are at my house and just posted a picture.
KirbysArt 9:28 am on August 16, 2009 | #
Nicely done trebor. I like your jellies, lol. What size moleskine is this?
~Kirby
trebor61 10:10 am on August 16, 2009 | #
Hi Kirby. Thanks for the kind words.
Many folk have asked me the same question and I’m at a loss, when advising folk, as to what size of Moleskine to use. I suppose it depends upon the method of getting your image into the computer be it scanning or photographing. For this scene I used the 5″ x 8″ size but I only used the right hand page. If I want to use two pages, like your recent “Early Morning” post on a 3.5” x 5.5”; but using the 5” x 8” my scanner limits what I draw and I would end up cropping the scene, sometimes with unwanted results. (See my post 18th October 2008). My scanner can take an A4 page so this even larger A4 Moleskine fits using one page. I did buy an A3 Moleskine recently but, of course, cannot scan stuff from it. When producing stuff for sale/presents etc I prefer to work with even larger sizes and my full-sized paintings are all usually around 10” x 15”, sometime larger, giving a final painting of around 14” x 18” when mounted and framed. This is a digital photo of a final scene of a recent effort.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/28475994@N00/3305356989/in/set-72157614372478902/
When using this size I don’t, of course, use Moleskine sketchbooks but prefer to work with heavy smooth watercolour paper – my favourite is 300/400gm Fabriano Hot Pressed. I stretch this on a board before use – I know its not necessary at this weight but I work a lot with wet into wet and have had too many disasters with the surface cockling.
As for sketching stuff for this website, I reckon, from much experience, I would use one page of the 5” x 8” size for most sketches/small paintings – watercolour version of course. If I wanted to draw/paint something with lots of detail I would go to the A4 Watercolour size. If I was sketching only, I might try the plain sketchbooks again keeping my scanner in mind. The smallest sizes are, however, great and, of course, that wee bit cheaper. Whatever size you use have lots of fun and success. Regards – Bob
Sophie Brown 5:10 pm on August 16, 2009 | #
I think I would like the A3 and A4 watercolor books as well though at that expense I might be inclined to buy watercolor paper from another brand. But maybe it would be expensive generally, watercolor paper. I have been doing some sketching and I have to say I’m not big on what everyone does making a painting with line going right through it. I kind of want one page to stand on it’s own. The watercolor paper is much longer and thinner with reporter-style shape. But I have noticed that SOME of the pages open up to full size inside of either kind of book and so if I want the drawing on two pages I can set those aside for that. Also I think it’s normal to be a little afraid of watercolors at first, I certainly am. You just have to relax and mess around, then hopefully it’s much easier than it looks at first.