On PITT Big Brush Pens - a wonderful new discovery

Barb Hartsook (http://paintedgenerations.com/blog/) asked about the PITT Big Brush pens. They are wonderful additions to Faber-Castells line of PITT pens. They are available from my favorite art supplier at http://www.dickblick.com/products/faber-castell-pitt-big-brush-artist-pens/

I only have purchased the black ones, but Laura Frankstone (http://laurelines.typepad.com) uses other colors in her amazing sketches! See her post Cooking with Gas! at http://laurelines.typepad.com/my_weblog/2009/02/cooking-with-gas.html

I think I've decided how I want to spend the afternoon - sketching and watercoloring, what else! Maybe I'll have some postings after a bit.

Wishing you all a wonderful Sunday afternoon...

Faber-Castell Pitt Big Brush Pen sketches

Fun sketching one evening after work.

Pitt Big Brush pen and watercolor.

This pitcher sits on the top of my cabinets in my kitchen/studio. I drew this in the studio with my PITT Big Brush Pen - I was holding my sketchbook and so the lines are a little wobbly, but I like how it turned out. See photograph of pitcher below. I used gouache for the blue and then the white flowers are done with white Prismacolor pencil. The gouache gave a nice ground that held the pencil well. The watercolor background and table are done with Prismacolor watercolor (which is now Grumbacher) in Naples Yellow (table) and Sap Green mixed with Naples Yellow for the green. I love these colors - they're two I've never used before in this combination. The flowers on the table are done with, I think, a Nectar Prismacolor pencil.

A stamp --- Celery of all things!

A friend at work brought me the end of a celery bunch with all the individual stalks cut away, and suggested I use it as a stamp with fingerpaint for my students at work. I had seen this just recently on a Quilting Arts episode - an artist used all kinds of fruits and vegetables as stamps in her quilts. They were beautiful! These pages were some that I had already started by glueing the words from a devotion. It needed texture and lots of color, so I used acrylic paint and stamped with the celery with no particular pattern in mind - just to see what it would do.

The yellow is acrylic paint mixed with Liquitex Gloss Medium and Varnish for a beautiful transparent glaze. I had never tried this and I couldn't believe how it made cadmium yellow light so completely transparent!

The page on the right was very plain and needed something. So I used oil pastels to draw the seagull, which I think truly illustrates freedom.

I realized after doing these pages that the shape of the stamp was very clearly a flower or rose. So next I stamped out these pages, which again already had the text in place.

I used the acrylic mixed with gloss medium and varnish again on this page. I love both the gloss and the transparency of this! The flowers are quinacridone magenta. I adore this color!

I stamped the left page at the same time, but didn't do anything else to it. I was really just using leftover color on the celery so as not to waste it. I did these in my office at lunch so I was running out of time. Later that night in my studio at home I finished the left side with watercolor. SO MUCH FUN!!

I am so honored that Clare http://www.mummaclare.blogspot.com/ chose my blog to receive a reward! Thank you Clare!!!
Proximidade is described as follows:This blog invests and believes in PROXIMITY - nearness in space, time and relationships. These blogs are exceedingly charming. These kind bloggers aim to find and be friends. They are not interested in prizes for self-aggrandizement!Our hope is that when the ribbons of these prizes are cut, even more friendships are propagated. Please give more attention to these writers!'

The rules are: This blog award should be sent to your favorite eight bloggers and they, in turn should forward to eight of their favorites. You should include the text for Proximidade (above) in your announcement blog. I wish to forward this honour to eight of my favorites.

http://laurelines.typepad.com/
http://jenniferlawson.blogspot.com/
http://www.michellechappellphotography.blogspot.com/ (my awesome friend, an awesome photographer, and an awesome mom)
http://ninajohansson.blogspot.com/
http://kathrynestelle.blogspot.com/
http://winnasworld.blogspot.com/
http://artbyanita.blogspot.com/
http://andreajoseph24.blogspot.com/

I love this inspiring blog world of ours!!

thanking you again Clare...

Extreme Art Makeover

This is the same journal page that appeared in the previous post http://daloweartist.blogspot.com/2009/01/my-friend-kim-gave-me-gift-certificate.html

and I added acrylic paint to it. It literally came to LIFE! The page jumps and dances now. So much fun!

Finished acrylic paintings

These paintings are the finished product from a previous blog entry http://daloweartist.blogspot.com/2008/11/saturday-after-thanksgiving.html. I finished them this weekend. I am so pleased with how these turned out!

They are a gift and I sure hope she enjoys them!