Pen and Ink with Oils

Hi, and welcome to my blog,

I hope everyone had a great summer - I did!  I spent a lot of time at my cottage, had quite a bit of company, ate and drank too much, and now I am ready to settle down and work on some art projects.  Over the summer I did manage to get a few painting projects done - I was quite interested in silhouettes, so that is what I worked on.

This project is called Waters Edge and was designed by Wendy Fahey.  Wendy's instructions call for acrylic paint - but, as usual, I converted the instructions and used some acrylic, some oil and some pen and ink.  This piece is done on 8x10 woood...I basecoated in acrylics, did most of the background colors in acrylics, used my pen to add some of the detail (some branches, outline of chairs, divisions on the dock, birds), then used oils to add all the highlights and shadows.  This project was a lot of fun to do.

This is also a pattern by Wendy Fahey - it is called Small Fry.  It is done on a wood surface approx. 6x8.  It was quite a bit easier and faster than the one above.  I used a lot of acrylics in this one - I just used my pen for the divisions on the dock and the birds.  I used oil paint for all the highlights and shadows in the sky and the lake.  I love this pattern - easy and quick!

This silhouette was designed by Roberta Hall and is in her book Silhouettes Maple Sugar 11.  I used acrylic paint to basecoat the background, oils to add all the highlights and shadows, then finished it off by doing all the actual silhouettes with my pen.  Another easy and fast project.

This pattern is also by Roberta Hall and can be found in her Silhouettes book.  Unlike the projects above, I did not find this one easy or fast.  I basecoated the background in acrylics, but, this time, in order to get the right colors in the sky, I decided to do all the detail in the sky and lake with acrylics...won't do that again!  Next time I will add all the detail with oil (acrylics dry too fast for me - I like to have time to work with my colors).  Anyway, after I did get the sky and lake finished, I moved on and used oils to complete most of the rest of the detail.  I used my pen to do the trees and canoe.

Well, the silhouettes were fun, but I have had enough for now...I have started a new colored pencil project, and I am going to tackle a large multi media that uses texture, stencils and acrylics.   I definitely plan to use some acrylics, but I will also be using some pen and ink and oils too.  It will be a challenge, and I am looking forward to it.

Our fall art sessions start the week of September 17 and run until the end of November.  I am looking forward to seeing all the girls again and seeing what they painted over the summer.  So, in a few weeks I will be posting some new work done by them.

Thanks for visiting my blog - happy painting!

Joan