The Snow Lamb

Well,...it’s been quite awhile since I last blogged. Years actually. Funny how when you leave something for awhile it gets harder and harder to jump back in. 

Since my last blog entry I’ve moved across Canada from Nova Scotia to British Columbia and, for about a year and a half now, I’ve been taking classes online toward a Master of Fine Art in Illustration. In a class last semester I began working on the pictures for a book that I wrote. Right now the story is called “The Snow Lamb” and I may or may not keep that title. I developed a few illustrations from the middle of the story and I’ll work on more of them to be part of my midpoint review portfolio this Spring. I’m doing a lot of experimenting right now so I’m not sure how I’ll rework these illustrations for my final project. One of the most exciting things about illustrating my own stories was how much the text automatically changed for me once I started working with the pictures.

I’ve used watercolour and ink on Strathmore multi-media paper. The roughs were done in a mixture of ink and watercolour as well. I was having a hard time working out my ideas with just pencil. Using watercolour and ink in blacks and browns helped me visualize the direction that I wanted to go. 

Miniature Silverpoint barn scene 3.5" X 5"

Well...I haven't found it that easy to keep up with drawing, blogging, or tweeting lately. I keep thinking it's about to get easier but there's a lot to organize moving from one coast to another. It's emotional too and sometimes I find myself just staring out the window when there are so many other things I can and should be doing. My current project is the top floor of the barn. Trying to decide what to keep and what to get rid of.

Doing some drawing too though. This is a small silverpoint piece that I completed recently. No title and for some reason I find myself reluctant to give it one.

For me, this piece has a sense of calm quiet expectation. It reminds me of much of what I enjoy about being in a barn and just having horses.

Rabbit in silverpoint

A lot has been happening lately and I'm afraid I've rather neglected my internet activities. My husband and I took a vacation and, since then, we've decided to list our home for sale and move back to the west coast of Canada.

I have mixed feelings about this and the decision was not an easy one. We've been very happy here and I love my home but most of our family live on the west coast. We moved here to Nova Scotia for my husband's work but his employment no longer ties us anywhere. I'm very glad that we've had the opportunity to live here these last three years and I will miss it.

So...I've been scrambling around trying to get things ready in a hurry. My home looks very tidy but nothing is where I usually keep it so I can't find a thing!

I hope to get back on track with my artwork now that most of the work is done.

4"X 4" miniature silverpoint "Mare & Foal"

2"X 3" miniature portrait in silverpoint on parchment.

2"X 3" miniature in silverpoint on parchment.

"At the Fair" 4"X 4" Silverpoint on 140lb Arches hot pressed coated in 8 layers of Golden Silverpoint Ground

Miniature portrait-silverpoint on parchment 2"X3"

"Beau" in silverpoint with added watercolour

This portrait of equine author Tena Bastian's stallion Beau (@TenaBastian or www.tenabastian.com) was completed from a photo that Tena sent me. I altered the background to improve lines in the composition but did my best to capture a likeness of Beau.  This is tough to do from one photo but Tena had other photos of Beau on her website and that helped as well. It's about 8" X  12" with 6 layers of silverpoint ground on stretched 140lb arches hot pressed paper. I've included a picture before and after adding colour to the silverpoint. I'd love to hear any opinions on the addition of colour to the picture.

Child with Rabbit 4"X 5"

This small piece is silverpoint on 8 coats of ground. I was pretty happy with the darks. Those extra coats of ground really made a difference in the values. (You can see this if you scroll down to my earlier post of my retriever in silverpoint.) For me, silverpoint is all about portraying surface texture. You can't smudge it so, like pen & ink, you vary the line to create tone. 

As requested, I'm posting a larger version of the pen & ink on my avatar. This is a drawing of my neighbour's foal "Marcus".  I used a crow quill nib and Winsor & Newton waterproof ink. I love the character of line I get from dip pens and never use anything else. The piece is 11 x 14 and it is drawn on Strathmore 100% cotton paper.

Adding ink and watercolour to silverpoint

I did this piece yesterday as an experiment in adding ink and watercolour to silverpoint.

 Having recently acquired silverpoint drawing materials, I'm enjoying discovering what I can do with them. I ordered my materials from www.silverpointweb.com. There are different options but I used the Golden silverpoint/drawing ground and I stretched 140 pound Arches hot press watercolour paper. The ground is applied to the stretched paper and allowed to dry in between coats for about eight hours (the instructions say overnight but I apply a coat in the morning and a coat at dinner). 

I like the silverpoint alone but I couldn't resist the temptation to see what adding other media would do. 

At the bottom, I show a photo of just the silverpoint and then a photo of silverpoint with india ink added to the darks. The last photo includes washes of burnt umber, burnt sienna and yellow ochre.  

My own conclusion, at the moment anyway, is that I think I'll stick to the silverpoint and work on what I can do with it on its own. It can create some very fine delicate lines and I'd like to work at getting more skilled at creating surface textures. To increase the darks I can add further layers of the silverpoint ground. I have some supports drying right now (on the fifth coat). I may try and go as high as eight coats. The silverpoint drawing here has three coats of ground and I haven't tried a drawing using less. 

 I find that drawing in ink really makes me think about what I'm trying to depict. You have to make choices with ink all the time because you have to use texture to create any kind of tone. I think this makes me concentrate more on the elements of the drawing and I feel I end up with a better understanding of my subject. If I wanted this to be a finished pen & ink I would redo it. There are things I would change and I would take more time with textures. But it's going to be a study for a painting.

I wanted my very first post to be a drawing I did today. Unfortunately, I blotched this one (hazards of ink). Usually, I'm more careful. But here it is: an 11"x 11" pen and ink from a photo of my youngest daughter. The paper's actually bright white so I think my photography needs work.

I will do a painting of this subject (and post it here) but I love working in pen and ink. Creating tone with lines is an exciting challenge. Lines carry so much personality and character.