We went to North Carolina this weekend and while I was there I started work on a quick floral watercolor sketch. The background was done in Burnt Sienna and Ultramarine Blue, then washed with a very heavy coat of Rose Madder Genuine.
10×14 on Lana Watercolor Paper. Lots of very transparent yellow to make it glow 
Rob
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Posted by: Rob Burkhard in daily sketching, ink, sketching, techniques, wet-in-wet, tags: art, color, ink, pencil, sketch, watercolor, wet-in-wet
Along the lines of very loose watercolor sketches and then adding ink, here is the latest one I did yesterday afternoon. This is inspired from an alley photo taken in Middleberg VA.
I like to do a very loose and wet-in-wet sketch, really washing lots of color into the picture without strict regards to boundries. Then while it is still wet, I take an 8B pencil and work in some real hard lines. Blow dry and add ink into the hard lines created by the pencil. The ink pools nicely in the pencil marks.
Sometimes they don’t work and end up in the hall of shame. Sometimes they really work well. And sometimes, they are good enough to keep on a back shelf, and may warm up on you.
Rob
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We just did a full weekend of camping to top off the end of another busy week this summer. There is so many neat places to go right here in Northern Virginia that we decided to stay near home and go to the Bull Run Regional Park. It was a very hot and stormy weekend, but despite near 100% humidity and tempuratures in the 90’s, we had a blast as you can see from the pictures. I got one painting done, wet-in-wet, of course because there was no other way to paint with the air soaked with humidity! I have another I am finishing. The one decpicted here is of one of the cabins, (we stayed in our tent). I added ink after wards to animate it and bring out some contrast.
 Our Tent  Natalie Netting the Pond  Lili  Yes, he is barefoot! Yuck!  Waiting for a Minnow  Biking at Dusk  Toads  Toads
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Here is the third posting of Gina. I have added about 5 more thin washes (glazing) for the skin tone and added layers upon layers of Cadmium Red and French Ultramarine Blue into the hair. I also developed the shadows under her nose and neck, worked on her eyes (added yellow) and added depth to her teeth. I will let it sit for a bit while I contemplate where to go next. The model is still hostile so might be good to give her a break also.
Smile
Rob
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Last night I worked through some of the watercolor portrait of Gina. It is 11×14 on WN hot pressed 140lbs paper.Â
I masked off some areas of the hair where the sun is and also started adding some tonal highlights and darks. Before I started the painting I used my drafting eraser dust bag to remove all the excess graphite I had put down for a value drawing. I selected Burnt Sienna, Naples Yellow and Genuine Rose for the skin tones. The eyes (iris) are Winsor Violet and Cadmium Orange. The hair is Ultramarine Blue and Cadmium Red, and a bit of Sepia. the background is Cadmium Yellow Light and Genuine Rose. The shirt is French Ultramarine Blue. That’s it for colors.
Now the process of building up layers of watercolor on top of each other has begun. Each layer adds depth and more contrast. I am about half way done.
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Posted by: Rob Burkhard in drawing, people, tags: art, color, drawing, ink, middleburg, painting, paper, portrait, virginia, watercolor
I started on a 10 x 14 watercolor of Gina tonight. I got as far a getting a good reference drawing down on the hot pressed (smooth) watercolor paper. It gives me a real good idea of the values and lets me make sure I have all the proportions correct before I put paint down. After I sleep on it for awhile I will fix anything and then start painting
When she (Gina) see’s this she will kill me ’cause I do not think she is too keen on being painted, but oh well, I like working on attractive subjects
The picture is from the Middleburg Virginia trip the other weekend by the way.
Rob
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This is an 11 x 14 acrylic sketch from a Middleburg Virginia reference photo. I completed it the other day, along with a few other odd, less finished works. Not sure if I am done with this so it will sit on the easel till I am ready to move forward, take it off and sign it, or toss it in the hall of shame.
On a side note: it has been busy here. I have successfully crashed the website repeatedly over the last week trying to upgrade some of the .php files. I finally gave up today and went back to the baseline that came with WP 2.3.3. Maybe this weekend I will mess with it some more. I am also in process of learning Ruby and Rails (Ruby on rails), and other misc web programming books (any guess how I crashed things!)
Speaking of books, let me tell you about my Amazon Kindle I got last friday. I have been watching on the sideline the progression of ebooks for at least a year now. When I found out that the Kindle now:
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Works (with some manual effort) with .PDF files
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Will soon (this month) have access to the O’Reilly Books (computer geek books)
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on top of the other features like wireless, compatibility with other ebooks and document types,
 I went ahead and caved in. So far I am liking it. If you are an avid book reader (with $375 sitting around idle), or require a large amount of technical books which you read some times, this might be for you. Time will tell if I am completely sold (although I guess I am stuck with it for better or worse).
Rob
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The photos from the NOVAL paint-out in Middleburg Virginia are posted in my gallery. Please feel free to browse and use.
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The Clifton Art Show was last weekend (which pretty much got rained out) and I had very busy week full of getting used to my new 40 mile commute to work. I must confess that I have not done a lot of artwork in the last 5 or so days. Last night I jotted this 16×20 drawing down on 140lbs CP Arches and started adding some color (not shown). Tonight I may work on it a little more and post a shot tomorrow. This was drawn from a reference photo taken by Gina at a craft fair a few months back. She watched the nice lady in the wheel chair get parked next to the unsuspecting little girl in the stroller and snapped the picture. My intent is to make this look very Norman Rockwell -ish, only abit looser. Should be pretty cool.
This Saturday I am going to the Aldie Virgina Mill (or there-abouts) with the NOVAL group of en plein air painters. Should be fun. I am taking the twins to thier first official paint-out with other artists so wish me luck!
Rob
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