Sketchbook Practice Lesson 2

This week we worked on circles, circles and more circles! I had more fun this week and really just experimented as much as possible with colors and materials.Definitely out of my comfort zone but I did learn a lot and there are even aspects of some of the pieces I genuinely like.

Activity 1 — Circle Practice
I experimented with different combinations of circles using a variety of materials.

I experimented with thin Pilot Precise Point pen,
a bold chisel-tipped marker India ink, oil pastel
and Prisma color pencil.

Here I used black, white and yellow ochre acrylic paint. I particularly like all the texture. I used large and small bubble wrap (thanks Jane--I love this stuff), bottle lids, the bottom of bottles and a large cork stopper. I used a Pilot pen for the small circle of circles.

I started to use more color here and a little layering. There’s acrylic paint, the black circles are from the chisel-tipped marker some cut circles from paper I made awhile ago, some circles cut from some tissue paper I have and an eraser tip. I added elements with gold Sharpie and Pilot pen. I used some bubble wrap again, some smaller corks. One fun thing--I blotted up some of the purple bubble wrap circles to take some of the paint off and the blotting paper was so pretty that I just had to cut out a circle from it and stick it on.

These are a combination of  black acrylic paint, some pilot pen, oil pastels and watercolor pencils. I used some of the same techniques as in the other pages but in different combinations using different materials.

Activity 2 — More Circle Practice

Here we worked with layering circles using 2 or 3 different materials.

I really got into this activity and did several.
For this first exercise I used water color pencils
and then went in with Prisma color pencils.

Here I made a mask of cicles then painted a watercolor wash over them. I went back in after the wash dried with more watercolor. I love the depth created where it overlaps the pure white of the masked areas and creates the darker outlines. Then I went in with my fine point Pilot pen and doodled.

Then I did a couple using Jane’s technique of black/white/gray circles in acrylic with oil pastels over them. I love this combination of materials and enjoyed it so much I had to do two! I’ve never really worked with oil pastele before and I love them. Also, on this first example, I layed down a base wash of Hansa Yellow Medium and Iridescehnt Gold Deep (Fine) that I had left on my palette from something else. It gives the whole pieces such a warm rich glow.
This is something I know I will do again.

Lastly, I just had to try the “sgraffito” with doodles. 
Can’t wait to do more of this. Love the texture.
I added additional paint circles and I really like the
effect when it crosses the scratched areas. Also including
a couple detail shots of some of my favorite areas.

And this is one I didn't post on the class blog. It was a personal page with two quotes I came across that helped me along the way. I think this is my favorite of all because it was just for me.

Actvity 3 and 4

Some simple circle compositions and more contour drawing. The mostly blind contours were one-liners of moving subjects. I used Chubbles the cat who doesn't move that quickly but it was still challenging!

 Tomorrow it's on to Lesson 3.