Sketchbook pages...

Inbetween printing and working on a commission I have been working away in my sketchbooks squirreling away ideas and inspiration for later projects. Sometimes pages are just recordings of little things that have caught my attention - like the daffodils flowering during the first week of January! I'm pretty sure that hasn't happened before but we have had a very mild winter so far. A walk on the beach at Southbourne was very fruitful for ideas. The light was very dramatic as heavy showers started to roll in and the energetic tides were throwing up all sorts of treasures like these mermaid purses (a much more romantic name than fish egg case) some were smooth as silk others furry like animal skin in colours ranging from black to pale olive. Anyway here are a couple of pages...

Mermaid Purses sketchbook page ©2016Lisa Le Quelenec

Daffodils for New Year!  sketchbook page ©2016Lisa Le Quelenec

Emerging spring

Emerging Spring   mixed media 18x24cm ©2013Lisa Le Quelenec

Hurrah! The first daffodil opened in my garden yesterday. Tucked in a dark corner under the apple tree. It's like a little sunny beacon and has inspired this mixed media study.

The paper I used was from my first batch of monoprints with the new ink I got recently. It was an attempt to get a ghost print that didn't really work. I'm feeling my way with printing at the moment and rather than waste all the failed prints I am using them for drawing on as some of the colours and textures are lovely even if the print didn't 'work'. One of the nice things about these inks is that they are still watersoluble once the ink is dried if they are remoistened. So with very wet watercolour washes you can get some rather nice effects - rather like watercolour and charcoal. To regain some of the brightness I used acrylic and some coloured pencil.

Daffodil study

ink and watercolour wash on board
8x10inch
©2013 Lisa Le Quelenec

Some cheery blooms in anticipation of sunshine.....it has to be coming soon....... right?

Going daffie!

From my daffodil sketchbook ©2009Lisa Le Quelenec

From my daffodil sketchbook ©2009Lisa Le Quelenec

Two pages from near the beginning of my daffodil book, these studies are from 2009. I remember at the time I had just got a copy of   Composition: Understanding Line, Notan and Color by Arthur Wesley Dow. I would really recommend this book for exploring composition and design, it's one I refer back to time and again. I was struck by the connections between yesterday's post and these studies.

Watercolour and pencil sketch ©2013Lisa Le Quelenec

 

Experimenting with monoprinting

monoprint

New toys! Don't you just love them? I've treated myself to some new printing inks. I have previously been using oil paint which works up to a point but I'm too impatient to wait for them to dry. These shiny new inks are Schmincke waterbased lino inks. I'm just starting with a few colours and I haven't got any transparency medium as I am hoping that some of the screen printing medium that I have already will suffice. Fingers crossed as I have a huge tub of it. The colours that I chose were titanium white, indian yellow, vermillion red (just a small tube as I don't use red too often), cyan, prussian blue and burnt sienna.

monoprint with added ink, coloured pencil and watercolour

I inked up some of the vermillion red and indian yellow and got stuck in. Firey hot colours for the grey day that we are having. A quick line drawing to loosen up. I love the soft diffused line of this technique. The inks are much, much more fluid than I was expecting, I thought they would be tackier so I think they will take a little time to get used to.


Once the ink was dry I thought I would work into the print with some other media. This experiment could well be a starting point for a painting in the future. Whilst I wouldn't say I was happy with all aspects, particularly the colours, there are elements that could be experimented with further. The soft fluid character of line that you get with monoprint and the diffused texture is interesting. It's also reminded me how I like to work with more graphic imagery sometimes. I'm starting to really enjoy this month on experimenting.

Sketchbook page - daffodils

 

                                     Daffodil sketchbook page A4 ©2013Lisa Le Quelenec                                      

I know that I am jumping the gun a bit as it will be a while until spring but I couldn't resist! His Nibbs added a surprise to my studio - a beautiful bunch of early daffodils.  They are my favourite, a splash of cheerful yellow to brighten up the grey of winter. A reminder of the warmer, brighter months to come.

Out came my daffodil project book which I didn't think I would be using so early in the year. Every year I add to the sketches and studies, a project that came about because I had a problem with painting yellow. Bit by bit I overcame the issue as I learnt to utilise the other colours in the palette to emphasize the yellow-ness of the blooms. To see a couple of pages from last years daffodil studies click here.

It is fitting to be using this sketchbook to develop the experimental theme I'm exploring this month. I've used fibre tipped pens, inktense, derwent watersoluble graphite and watercolour on this page after thoroughly dampening the paper before starting to draw. (except where the fibre tipped pen is, for that one I wet the paper after with a brush)

I really like the softened line that the watersoluble pencils give on damp paper, it makes me think of linear monoprints. Maybe I should 'play' with that technique next?

 

First daffodil sketch of the season

I keep a sketchbook that I add to every year just for daffodil studies. I started because I had an aversion to painting yellow - I used to either get muddy non yellows or they looked so 'out of the tube' unnatural. Daffodils are a favourite flower of mine and I look forward to seeing the first blooms appear at the end of winter/beginning of spring. I see them as a promise of the warmer months to come and they brighten the darker greyer days.

 These two sketches are where I left off last year in my daffodil sketchbook. More can be seen in my flickr album here .

Below is the first sketch of them for 2012, I am aiming to do some acrylic paintings this year.

First daffodil sketch of the season.
A4 acrylic on paper

Signs of Spring

Signs of Spring
29x50cm mixed media
©2011 Lisa Le Quelenec

I think I may need to do another version of this at some point. I really wanted to have more negative shapes behind the daffodils but I got a little too dark a little too quick. I think if I keep at it with the acrylic I'll lose some of the sparkle that I've got at the moment. Those drippy marks toward the bottom were fun to do though, the white is unpainted paper.

The Risk to Bloom

 My first completed daffodil painting of the year, I'm sure there will be more to come. I'm hoping I'm not tempting fate with this painting's title (thank you Willie for the quote). Yesterday was beautiful blue skies and sunshine. Walking at the river and the trees were showing buds and a few new leaves were tentively thinking about unfurling amongst the dead foliage.

I've looked back at some older paintings that I've done over the years and I'm pleased to see improvement in this subject. I see these paintings as a kind of bench mark to check my progress as painter. I've spent a lot of time over the last year working on my use of tone within a painting and this year I want to get more of a handle on colour. Next years daffodil paintings will show how far I'll have come along in that respect. Do you return to a subject to use as a benchmark in this respect? I've heard that some painter's do an annual self portrait for these ends.

The Risk to Bloom

acrylic on paper 17x18.5cm

©2011 Lisa Le Quelenec

Daffodils, a work in progress...

 

Bit by bit I think I might be getting there. There's still a lot more glazing and building up to do, some adjusting to the tones and colours but I am really enjoying this one.

A splash of yellow and sketching

 

Daffodils! I love them - but they are also my nemesis. I love the structure, colour, the thoughts that spring is just around the corner and the winter is coming to an end that they inspire. They are my nemesis because every year I try to paint them and every year it all goes horribly wrong! I have a dedicated sketchbook for daffodils that has been added to over a number of years, (here's a link to my flickr account showing a few of the pages). One of the problems I have is the conundrum of painting delicate yellows whilst still getting enough tonal variation to show the form. I've tried all sorts of colour combinations and mixes using blues and violets, oranges and hot pinks to make the shadow colours but I never seem to get it quite right. Every year I think this will be the year that I will crack it. 2011 is definitely the one.

Above is a photo of some daffodils I got yesterday - with my favourite little jug - behind is a piece of hand painted silk. I think this will be one of the colour combinations that I will try this year. Today has been spent drawing them and tomorrow I will start the a painting. It makes my heart glad to see these cheerful flowers I hope they brighten your day.