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Don't use A Rubber
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Message
Posted
Even among the Brits the sense of humour varies - I'm sure even my family (which has a pretty good sense) think I'm eccentric but I just see humour everywhere including the most inappropriate situations - daren't say anything half the time for fear of causing offence to the politically correct brigade.
Posted
Here's one example of my dubious sense of humour - a headline in today's paper reads 'Body found after elderly man falls in river' This prompted me to say to my wife 'Good job he fell in then or it might not have been found' - From the look she gave me I don't think she approved.
Not sure what this has to do with rubbers but if you don't approve just rub it out....!
Posted
Here Dave Usher is using the technique (painting with kitchen towels), after seeing the above video.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t5fUZKq5WXo
Interestingly, he says that he returns to oil painting by doing this painting. The reason he abandoned oils was partly because of the fumes from the solvents. But one needn't use these anymore! /Mats
Posted
Well as a complete newcomer to the art of, erm, art, I must say that one of my tools is the putty eraser. Why should I, as a beginner, not retain the choice to remove a pencil line I have put in the wrong place? And if it works for a mere beginner, why not have it in the tool box of anyone? Sure, in a perfect world I wouldnt put the wrong line there in the first place, but Im not perfect! And if the fear of putting the wrong line in stops me putting ANY lines down at all, then I'm fighting a losing battle. And why would I let you see lines that even my untutored eye knows are wrong? I have in my time been an author, and I wouldnt let you read the words I wrote then changed! I use the backspace as a tool of my trade...and so the eraser!
Thats how I feel anyway...ask me again in 30 years (God willing...Im 53 now!)
Here is todays practice, nay, todays drawing! This is the view from my garden...almost. I am really trying to paint in watercolours so what I have done is take the view from my garden and remove the stuff that is visible but adds nothing. There you are, I am acting as God's eraser for you...if you want more, email me and I'll send you a photo!
I don't like the gate...it's reasonably scale but looks wrong. The silver willow tree in the foreground is right, as is the odd shaped tree in the middle distance. In fact that tree's a real beaut and would stand to be a solo study I think. The sun is strong from the right as the image is looking due south. I feel that from a composition point of view there needs to be something strong in the front right of the image. I'll accept comments!
David
Edited
by DavidG4YVM
Posted
It's oddly out-of-perspective.
Let me refer to the lines I made:
The foreground tree has its own plane of focus. Then there's the hedge (is the gate supposed to be attached to the hedge? If so, see the red horizontal lines - it doesn't fit)
The gate height works with the tree right next to it - the fence/gate being just under the height of the first layer of branches.
The hedge appears to be many metres in front of the gate.
Now the diagonal lines - the perspective of that path/road looks to be too angled, it "feels" like that path should be flatter.
Just as an aside - the "?"... is that a little one-eyed alien bush monster - it's cute!
Just to test the perspective, I stretched it sideways (that has the effect of lowering that path angle):
Notice that it also semi-realigns the gate and hedge.
The foreground tree has its own plane of focus. Then there's the hedge (is the gate supposed to be attached to the hedge? If so, see the red horizontal lines - it doesn't fit)
The gate height works with the tree right next to it - the fence/gate being just under the height of the first layer of branches.
The hedge appears to be many metres in front of the gate.
Now the diagonal lines - the perspective of that path/road looks to be too angled, it "feels" like that path should be flatter.
Just as an aside - the "?"... is that a little one-eyed alien bush monster - it's cute!
Just to test the perspective, I stretched it sideways (that has the effect of lowering that path angle):
Notice that it also semi-realigns the gate and hedge.
Posted
I find that you humans tend to err on one side of the perspective thing.
Note the second picture - all I did was resize it without "preserve aspect" so that it stretched the image sideways by about 200% and left the vertical untouched.
Just doing that has made the image seem more realistic. The picture went "the other side" of the perspective thing.
So it seems - do your imagination, but when you start think, "Hmm... lest drop that down, lets make it 12" x 7", not 12 x 9.", try to err on "that other side"...
With regard to the painting - that's why i love inking. I can ink and outline, maybe shade it, maybe wash it with water... and then re-add some of the washed out lines.
That and the fact that I'm a total knob-head when it comes to choosing and mixing colours.
Edited
by Fluffbutt
Posted
May I suggest - go onto Amazon, buy a cheapish fountain pen - I have 6 from china, around £2 each. They have nibs from medium to fine to ultra-fine.
You'll also need some ink, either bottled (they come with inserts that suck up the ink) or cartridges (to use in place of the ink tank thingy). - ink from about £3 - $7, cartridges (international short) for about £5 for 50 or £3 for 10 (better quality ink).
I absolutely recommend them - all of mine are beautiful to use, flow rate is lovely, the lines are exquisite. AND the ink washes beautifully with a water-tank brush. It's not archival ink though...
But for play and ideas, a from of change from the block, for around £10 you have it all - and the waiting time is about 2 weeks from China, not too bad - you can buy local but they are perhaps twice and more the price..
If you want dip pens then I also recommend the Curtisward pens - expensive, £5 for one nib and one (gorgeous) wooden holder - but WELL worth it, they are a sheer delight to use.
if you have a spare rigger or a small washy brush - large rigger size - then you can also brush the ink on, side for wider lines, tip for fine lines, just like a rigger and watercolour. The inks flow better than any watercolour I've seen.. If you don't wash it out then you end up with an almost photoshop vector black & white image; wash it and you have a shade-of-ink effect... and the cheaper ink also separate into component colours (I've had red, blue, and purple out of a "black" ink!... FUN!)
Edit - damn typoos!
Edited
by Fluffbutt
Posted
Those inks won't be waterproof of course - can get a bit messy if you're planning to paint over them. But still worth a play - and you can buy 'sketching pens', fountain pens, using fountain pen ink, from most art suppliers.
There is a difficulty with using waterproof inks - they're fine with dip pens, but the'll rot the rubber inserts in most fountain pens, and clog the nibs. I wonder if you could use them in one of those pens with an adapter, whose innards tend to be plastic, not rubber, if you religiously washed out the nib in water after use...... what do you think, Fluffy?
Don't use sables with inks by the way - even the gentlest, the Chinese ink, ruins expensive brushes: try the Chinese or Japanese brushes, or synthetics.
Posted
I've used the screw type adaptors - you turn the end and a little plunger sucks the ink up, rather like a syringe.
They work well, the plunger is a seal on the plastic body - and you can remove the thing like a cartridge, wash it out then refil it with warm water and use the turn-screw to force the water out through the nib, removing any cloggy bits.
You can also buy a "Platinum Carbon Pen DP-800S" - designed for high carbon ink, it has a wide throat-port leading into the nib, so it won't clog.
Yes - the water based ink will run and wash away with any other water-based product added. You can use Kuretake manga ink, Higgins black magic, one of thw Winsor blacks with shellac is also waterproof when dry, and the Platinum high carbon ik is supposed to be, I've yet to try it out, waiting for a pot to arrive)
But then - each type has a use:
Waterproof = line it, dry it, then wash some water colour or coloured ink (the W&N drawing range is nice) into the lined areas.
Non-Waterproff = line it, maybe let it dry, maybe not, then wash some WATER ofer the lined/hqtched areas and blend the colour out to white paper = instant 3D texturing.
You really shouldn't use waterproof ink in a fountain pen - even a dip pens should be cleaned with a tissue paper/water every 5-10 dips or so. But then, I also have a number of the cheapy China fountain pens, £2 inc postage (who the hell do they do them that price, they are very nice to use!?) - I have committed one of them to be a permanent-ink pen; if it clogs and fails then I've not lost a lot of ££.
Also to not - not being waterproof also, usually, 99% of the time, also means they are not archival or light-fast. Ive yet to try an experiment to see if matte spray varnish will make it better.
I suggested them a s alow-cost way into the field, see if you like it then commit more ££ to the thing. Some of these "super" inks are £20-£40 a 60 ml bottle!
EDIT:
jennyh13 - you can have a LOT of fun making your own "nibs" and pens - reeds, feathers, twigs, bamboo canes.
Just cut the tip of at an angle, slice the sides of the tip in each side to make the point, cut a little slot down the point - you can also harden most things by shoving them into a soup tin of sand that's been in the oven for a while (stick it in the corner when you do the dinner). Feather quills and bamboo, twigs, all work better with this, reeds tend to fall apart.
Edited
by Fluffbutt
Posted
You can make some awesome clouds, trees, and shadows on buildings - just paint a part of the thing with ink... for clouds, ink paint the base if the sun is high.
Then get a clean brush full of water and paint a blobby bit next to that ink, don't touch it yet.
When you have your shape the way you want it, get some more water (or just push what's already there) and join your water-blob-shape with the ink... WHOOOSH!, the ink b;looms into the water and spirals around in it (Brownian motion).
Now let it dry. Yes, this technique can take some time, but you can do all your clouds at once then let it dry overnight.
If you're not getting the desired bloom effect, tilt the paper A LITTLE in the direction you want it to bloom out.