On a background of tiny type

I started with a stamped background in a Moleskine sketchbook, then added a scene around a drawing of my left hand. Breaking the surface with the stamp seemed to help the w/c flow more easily.

A bow that grew

In a Moleskine with the thin blank paper, I idly doodled a bow and did something like a visual cluster technique of drawing something bow-attached. A shoe and cobblestones emerged, to my surprise. Don't know who picked these colors!

random media

I've drawn and painted lots of pages since I last posted, but had to finally stop to upload something. This is pencil on "scrapbooking" paper that doesn't take the w/c well--but then I kind of like the strange soaking effect, after all.

EDM #33, eyes

Remember how scary it was to first see that huge eye of your friend looking at you through a telescope? The squinted eye has problems, but for once I got a challenge done near the announcement!

Tech pen, Micron .03 and .05, on Super Aquabee sketch paper.

Leftover paint

What do you do with the last bit of paint from a painting session? Trying a new triad of Sennelier quinacridone gold and quin red, plus W/N indigo, I finished up with freehand spirals. It's a rather strange but intriguing palette.

Faster loading, space-saving files

Welcome to the new faster-loading InkTracks! I'm redoing the whole blog with rescaled images, much smaller than before.

I'm learning the software side of art blogging, and have learned how color and larger drawings increase the size of the jpegs, compared to small b/w pieces. I've also finally learned the difference between resolution, dpi, and compression.

After redoing all the images with compression (making them 200kb or less), I learned it would be better if they were rescaled instead (making them 50kb or less). It's been a lo-ong day, but much progress has been made.

Fantasy flowers

Playing with w/c pencils on little squares of 90# paper. Here's one where the table is apparently going down with the Titanic.

EDM #32, metal

I was delaying this challenge until I had time to do my shiny multi-part Saladmaster grating machine, then I saw the pencil sharpener and clips on my desk at work and decided to get it over with!

HB pencil on Aquabee SuperDeluxe paper. I'm resisting adding color!

Personalizing new Moleskines

Plain black covers beg to be decorated (I hear these tiny voices pleading). So I sponged an abstract on w/c paper and cut it up to glue on two new sketchbooks. Now I know they're mine (and the Moleskines are purring).

Color Blocks

Just playing, trying out mixes of three primaries.

W/c on 140# paper. And this image has been rescaled so it's a
36kb jpeg file. Quite a difference in storage size!

A Line to Remember

I found this quote by Beth Johnson and loved it so much, especially in view of our nation trying to cope with the Katrina disaster. May we all "be peace" to help calm the chaos.

Process: Zig pens and w/c wash on 120# paper. The scan needs to be at higher resolution to show the sharp pen line outside the filler color, but the jpeg file is already huge. This will have to do.

Gouache bottle

More experimenting with gouache and mixing from a 3-color triad. Attempting glass here, I can really see the opaqueness of the medium instead of w/c's transparency.

W/N tube gouache on 120# paper.