Mixed-Media Experiments: Museum

6/18/14 Caran d'Ache Museum water-soluble colored pencils, Canson XL
140 lb. paper

The whole week has been a fun and busy stay-cation of mostly lightning sketches while we toured our own city with a visitor. My bag of mixed media came in especially handy when time constraints and other circumstances made watercolor difficult or impossible.

The Seattle Asian Art Museum’s fabulous exhibit Deco Japan: Shaping Art and Culture, 1920 –1945 was both a necessary and fun opportunity to use water-soluble colored pencils. I don’t have much experience with sketching only with colored pencils, so I didn’t give the values as much contrast as I would have liked, but I have to say I’m in love with the Caran d’Ache Museum Aquarelle pencils I’ve been using lately. They are so soft and rich that it was fast and easy to fill in the contours of these elegant bronze objects. (A docent stopped to look at my sketch of the mandarin duck and mentioned that this exhibit has inspired more sketchers than most exhibits do. In fact, she said this duck was an especially popular choice among people with sketchbooks.) I tried sketching the rabbit with my favorite Sailor fountain pen, but it was more difficult to capture the clean, economic lines of the Art Deco object with a pen. I seem to find it easier to use the Sailor with organic subject matter.

6/18/14 Caran d'Ache Museum water-soluble colored pencils

6/18/14 Diamine Chocolate Brown ink, Sailor fountain pen