Who knew?

Pen&Ink, watercolor and color pencil on Pentalic watercolor sketchbook 7" x 10"

My friend and I went to Ottawa, IL last weekend. We were in search of new places we have not visited before where to have lunch. My friend found a restaurant at Heritage Harbor. We were in awe when we arrived. The marina resort community looked like any coastal town in the state of Maine (although I never been there ha!). The colorful cottages near the marina with access to the Illinois River makes the place very attractive. Vacation rentals are also available. This project started 8 years ago with still plans to expand. It was a pleasant surprise. I would never guess something this beautiful was this close to Chicago until I saw it! There, now I know, if you didn't either, now you know too. 

Handmade hardbound sketchbooks.

I'm sooo happy with my newest creations. I finally learned how to hand bookbinding properly. I made this sketchbooks with watercolor paper of different makers. For so long I've heard so many reviews of papers that for me it is hard to remember the features of each paper, there are so many! So I decided to invest in a project to test them myself. 

I don't like having tested paper in lose sheets of paper, so a book seemed like a good idea to keep them all together and also I can practice my bookbinding, a recently learn skill. I will test the paper as I make sketches the way I do sketch, I think that would work well. 

36 sheets, 72 pages  Cold Press 140 lb 7.5" x 7.25"

The first sketchbook I made is a combo of seven makers of watercolor paper, all cold press 140 lb. I bought a sample package of half sheets. The challenge was to square the paper and to find the dimensions that would use most paper. I had to consider the grain of the paper, they were all different! I ended up doing a 7 x 7 (nominal), a very convenient size that fits in my purse and I think I will be very comfortable with.

 24 sheets, 48 pages Hot Press 140 lb 11" x 7.5"

The other one is made with three hot press watercolor paper makers, 140 lb. It's been a while since I used hot press paper. I used it in studio years ago but never on location, so although I've use it before, using it on location will be new experience. I also included some non-watercolor paper in order to write, like a journal. Sometimes I want to write thoughts about the location or the process. I like to have my drawings with nothing written on them, not even the date, so I'll see how this work out. 

I had to come out with a non invasive system to identify the paper I'm working at a time. I colored the edges of the paper, one color per maker and wrote the reference in the back of the sketchbook. I hope this works, everything is a test about this project.

I can't wait to try these custom made books! They are destined to travel with me to Mexico this winter. Woo hoo!

Egon Schiele in UMMA

Pencil and watercolor on Laloran sketchbook 5.25" x 5.25"

1. Standing Female Nude in Black Stockings 1912, watercolor and pencil on paper.
2. Reclining Black-haired Female Nude, Right Arm Covering Face 1908, watercolor on brown paper.
3. Female Half Draped, Reclining ca. 1908-12, pencil on paper.
4. Tightrope Walker 1912, watercolor and pencil on paper.

I was hoping to see some work of Gustav Klimt during my visit to UMMA, University of Michigan Museum of Art. Unfortunately his art was down. However I was lucky to see four recent acquisitions of Egon Schiele. Sketching was allowed but not watercolor. I could use pencil or ink, so I honored the choice of the artist and used pencil and added watercolor later. I first drew some frames in pencil hoping to draw each one of the paintings in them, but my failure resulted on a unintended design of the page rather artistic, which I ended up liking it. When I was adding watercolor I realized that although his drawings were similar, the watercolors were different. One had what looks like gouache and blended colors, another one had defined edges and  bold solid colors. It was the one numbered as 4, that made me notice how some parts of the body painted in subtle pink were strategically located and made a huge difference between a cold and a warm painting, I realized of it as I was adding the pink areas. It was a nice visit. Sketching others' art forces me to slow down and makes me wonder what went through the artist's mind that made him make those decisions. It was an interesting exercise.

Incidentally, I included this photo as a footnote.

  

Cool inside, hot outside.

Pen&Ink and watercolor on Laloran Sketchbook 5.5” x 5.5”

Kerrytown is a colorful neighborhood in Ann Arbor, Michigan. When I saw that view while I was sipping a spicy maya chocolate, I immediately took my little sketchbook to put that turquoise and orange-ish walls on paper. I sketched that person outside before he moved. He left few minutes later. It rained hard and it was hot and humid. I was indoors and although the interior was well illuminated, the exterior was brighter. So I went all in with shadowing the interior with purple, one of my favorite mix of ultramarine and alizarin crimson. I painted first the colors of the interior and finishing with a glaze of purple. I have done this the opposite way, first the shadow glaze and then colors, but in this last way, the colors in the sketch don’t look unified. I had plenty of wash and used a big brush size 10 to cover uniformly the shadowed areas and carefully leave alone the areas I intended to let brighter. My chocolate was delicious, so the company, so my sketch! Ha!

Postal services

Pen& Ink and watercolor on Pentalic watercolor sketchbook 10” x 7”

The US Postal Service is as good as other courier delivery services. Some may disagree. I think it is a reliable and affordable public service. A good example of coexistence among companies, something politicians should take a good look at.