April 14, 2011
(if viewing this in an email subscription, please go to the website to see the video clip and pictures better)
Clouds Over Fox Lane
Above, this is the first view Ginger and I got when we started out on our walk; clouds, gorgeous clouds stretching as far as the eye could see! I love the way the old pasture fence looks here along “Fox Lane”.
“Wind in the Willows”
I’ll show you right away what I ended up sketching after we walked all the way out on the property. (At the end of my post I have links to note cards and gifts using this image!) I had a page in my journal with the first verse of the song from “The Wind in the Willows”, the popular children’s tv show, written in permanent ink. I knew eventually I’d do some kind of painting over it of trees. I just love the song from this show, I posted a link below so you could have a listen too!
Theme Song from “Wind in the Willows”
My Watercolor Crayons + Waterbrush
To explain a little how I did the sketch, as I stood in about 8″ of water on a particularly wet path, I held my sketch journal and balanced the little box of crayons on it. I have taken all my water soluble crayons and cut them in half so I could carry more in a smaller space and less weight! I put it on a peice of paper towel to protect a little watercolor I’ve got on that page, and I put a piece of paper towel (Viva) next to the box for wiping my brush on. I used one flat water brush, a favorite of mine when I want to do very quick washes and scrubbing. This particular brand releases water quite fast, at first I didn’t like that but now it’s also why I DO use it!
First thing I did was to scribble with white crayola wax crayon where I wanted to show white clouds. It doesn’t really show up until you color around it, but if you tip your paper a tiny bit you can see it. Then I colored very quickly with two different blue water soluble crayons all around; I found that I could shade right over the white wax and it didn’t really disturb it, cool! Then very quick scrubbing with the waterbrush to wet and move the color around. I grabbed the paper towel and sometimes blotted off the white cloud and it helped soften the look. Using the grey crayon ‘under’ each cloud really helped to pull them out and make them look real.
The trees were drawn on with a brown wc crayon from Derwent, using the hard edge to make branches. It works really great on damp paper, the lines are very vivid. I must say, it’s the scribbley look of the painting that I like so much! I could go back and soften the bottom of the moon, but it was a field sketch and I think I’ll just leave it as is. It was hard to get the look in such a tiny thing while hand holding my journal.
View I painted from while standing in water!
This is a photo from the spot I was standing, can you see the tiny moon in the middle?
A close up of the moon
Sometimes when you’re outside in the middle of the day, if you look for it you’ll see the moon amongst the clouds. I always think it’s a nice surprise.
Ginger all wet!
Yes, Miss Ginger is wet but doesn’t mind. This is the lane I stood in to do my sketch.
An old nest left from last year
I spotted some old nests as I walked, this one was out near “The North Pole”, the furthest part of my land. It’s amazing how many nests are at our eye level but we don’t see them when the bushes are in full leaf.
Clouds in Spring Over the Lane
I’ll leave you with one more pretty picture. I just love the colors in this, the blues contrasting with the golden colors of the dried grasses, the reds in the tips of the bushes and trees and the purpley colors under the clouds.
I hope you enjoyed our walk again out on “Long Lane Farm” at Springtime. Please enjoy the pictures links shown below, they go to prints, note cards, tee shirts and a magnet using my “Wind in the Willows” field sketch painting, in my shop. I can’t wait to order a tee shirt for myself!
Visit my SHOP to see many beautiful note cards with photos of the new Spring flowers, bees, landscapes etc!
Love the way you did the cloud sketch. It’s very hard (for me, anyway) to sketch standing up and I don’t think I’d have been willing to stand in water, LOL. I also love catching glimpses of the moon during the day.
Hi Mary,
This is so pretty, I love the scribbly look as well, it gives the impression of wind. I have used water soluble crayons but the color was so much more intense than I wanted. I still find it hard to control that. Did you apply most of the color at the top and work it down the wet paper to soften? Or did you apply the color all over the paper?
I’ve got to go try again now! 🙂
Kelly
You have a great blog here with some good tips. Interesting to see how you use the watercolour crayons when you’re out sketching, I haven’t tried them yet but I’m inspired to do so now!
Welcome to everyday matters! I’ve enjoyed travelling around your blog so much! Your sketches and photos are wonderful. I look forward to seeing more. 🙂
This is very beautiful – love the freeness and softness of it. I especially like the loops at the top right. Thanks for describing your method.
Hi Melisa, glad you stopped by! I’m happy with this sketch because it’s loose and spontaneous, I had to balance the box of crayons on my sketchbook while I drew. But I’m used to working while standing, moving about with my dog while we walk, if I sit I don’t get very far! 😉 The water you get used to, it wasn’t cold with my high wellies on and wool socks, it’s wet all over around here in spring. Sign up in my subscription box if you like, or just come back for visits. I saw your sketches and watercolors, very nice work!
Hi Kelly! Well I know what you mean about the intensity of color, did you do a color chart first to see how much color it takes or how bright it will be? I tore a lot of the paper off mine and used the side when I could to be quicker and lay down a more even layer. Definitely darker at top, darker blue too, but color all over first, then I wet it quickly scrubbing it to blend, and found it handy to use the paper towel too to lift some areas quickly. This paper soaks it up fast, hard to blend. THEN I go back with my wet brush tip and pick color up from the crayon and add it like you do when you watercolor and add layers. Thats how I added the greys under the clouds and some blues around the clouds. Hope this helps, just keep playing with them, I’m not totally used to them either!
Keep at it,
Mary
Hi Cathy, nice to meet you. The watercolor crayons are very new to me but I’m liking them more and more. I feel I can be freer with them than the watercolor pencils, I love that it’s like drawing but you can soften it with the (wet) brush. I do try to give tips or teach as I post, I like teaching classes when I can so it comes naturally. I checked out your blog and website and love your color pencil work, great job! Hope you come back more, let me know how you get on with the crayons.
Mary
Hi Sharon, thanks for the welcome! It’s a huge group with so much email I’ll find it hard to keep up, but I’ll try as I can. I’m glad you like my blog, I hope you sign up so you can see what I do in future. I see you live on a farm, or at least have lots of animals! I used to have animals here on my farm but not now, it’s so very quiet! I’ll be headed to England soon so watch for more sketches and adventures from there!
Mary
Hi Dan, thanks so much and glad you liked it. Fresh is a good way to describe it I guess, it was breezy and such a nice day, though cold. Seem like the cold is hanging around a long time this spring. I’m glad you liked my describing how I did it, it’s the teacher in me that loves to explain and most find it helpful. I visited your blog and added my link on the side, that’s pretty cool!!