Rainbow Pencils Make Me Happy

1/7/19 Koh-i-Noor Tri-Tone pencils in Stillman & Birn Alpha sketchbook

On these wet, dreary January days, the view out the window can be entirely colorless. Sometimes the fastest way to happiness is a rainbow pencil. I’m prepared – I have lots of them. Although all of them make me happy just to scribble with, some are better than others for sketching. These are my favorites:

Many rainbow pencils have cores with multiple colors that are marbled rather than striated. The Koh-i-Noor Tri-Tones are a good example. (I first reviewed them back in 2014.) The marbling can give you an overall multi-colored pencil stroke, but it’s impossible to isolate a single hue. They are excellent, however, if you want to use a range of similar tones in one convenient pencil. In this sketch of a satsuma, tomato and banana, I used one pencil with varying shades of yellow and orange for the satsuma (and a blue range for its shadow). If I were using traditional colored pencils, I would have chosen several pencils to achieve the same blend, but I did it all with one pencil. Similarly, I used one pencil with shades of red and orange for the tomato.

Koh-i-Noor Tri-Tone pencils have marbled cores.

12/28/18 Marco Tri-Jumbo pencil in S & B Epsilon sketchbook

The Marco Tri-Jumbo pencil has striated hues.

Last week I showed you my sketch of a swan gourd that I made with a Marco Tri-Jumbo rainbow pencil. Its large core and overall hefty girth make it easy to use and hold (for kids as well as myself). An added benefit is that its core is made of the three primaries plus green lying parallel to each other, which makes it easier to isolate hues if you want to. I used the warm red and yellow side of the pencil to bring the swan’s “head” forward, and I used the cool green and blue side to make the “body” recede in shadow behind the head.

Pencil strokes made by the three rainbow pencils reviewed here.

1/9/19 Camel pencil in S & B Alpha sketchbook

My favorite rainbow pencil is the Camel, which can be found on Amazon with a black body or a natural finish (the core seems to be the same in both). The standard-size pencil contains seven striated hues arranged in color wheel order! Although it’s difficult to isolate a single hue on that soft, skinny core, the arrangement means that you can easily use the warm side of the pencil (red, orange, yellow) for the lighted or foreground element in a sketch and achieve a nice analogous blend. Then twirl the core to the cool side (green, light blue, dark blue, violet) for shading and receding elements. Once I figured out how to do this, I had so much fun sketching the pear. The result looks like I spent a lot of time blending multiple pencils, but I did it all with one – and fairly quickly.

Camel pencil has 7 hues in rainbow order!

I hope your day is as colorful as mine is, and if it’s not, go get yourself a rainbow pencil. I guarantee instant happiness!

A bouquet of happiness!

Springtime at Swanson’s

3/25/16 ink, colored pencils

Swanson’s Nursery has become an annual holiday tradition for the Friday sketchers because this garden store always brings in a couple of reindeer, a camel and Santa for kids, and the Christmas decorations are beautiful. I think springtime at Swanson’s might become a new tradition – the flowers were plentiful and colorful today.

3/25/16 ink, colored pencils

Unfortunately, I was too cold this morning to sketch outdoors where the flowers were. Wimp that I am, I sketched inside the café, which is a jungle of oversized tropical plants. I even made a hatched study of one of the pillars, while Natalie sketched me!

A few minutes before the sharing time, the sun came out, so I ventured out and spotted St. Francis of Assisi.

Natalie Taylor sketched me!

3/25/16 ink, colored pencil

Rosie

2/8/16 Tri-tone colored pencil, Canson all-media book (20-min. pose)

Gage brings in many good models for life-drawing sessions – people of all sizes and shapes and proportions that don’t necessarily fit the standard drawing book “rules” (the number of heads high for an average adult male, etc.). That diversity is good training for drawing people in the real world, with or without clothes.

Some figures are harder for me to draw than others, and I’m not sure why. If I’m looking at all models as abstract shapes and shadows as I should be, then no particular body should be more challenging than any other. In any case, I had to get through the first couple hours of one-to-10-minute poses before I felt like I was finally getting Rosie’s proportions right.

During the last half-hour when we finally worked up to a 20-minute pose (at right), I had a little time leftover, so I put in some facial features. Within those couple of minutes, I had captured enough resemblance that I think her mother or Facebook friends might recognize her. Since I rarely tackle the face during life drawing, I was happy to get Rosie’s fairly accurately, especially after struggling with her proportions. 

2/8/16 Sailor Nagomi brush pen (10-min. poses)

2/8/16 Tri-tone colored pencil (10-min. pose)

2/8/16 Nagomi brush pen (5-min. pose)

Making No Bones About It

10-12-15 inks, colored pencils

Two years ago I had so much fun sketching a house in our neighborhood that used to go all out on Halloween – an excess of ghouls, corpses, skeletons, ghosts and gravestones covering the yard. Every year beginning on the first day of October, I looked forward to seeing what new horrors would appear. Last year I was disappointed that the decorations seemed lackluster, but I sketched them anyway. Sadly, this year the house is not decorated at all. I don’t really know the owner, but I met him that day I sketched his house in 2013, and that’s how I learned he had been doing it annually for 20 years. (I hope he’s all right.)

Anyway, on my walks around the neighborhood, I’ve seen a few carved pumpkins and spider-webby trees, but nothing too exciting. Then Greg told me about the scene he saw on one of his walks: Two skeletal kids and their skeletal dog and kitty! (All those dinosaurs I’ve sketched turned out to be great training for this!)

What Pens Have Taught Me

10/10/15 ink, colored pencil

Yesterday I complained that Inktober was making me crave color. Nothing in Inktober’s rules says that color can’t be added to an ink drawing, but using only ink in drawings I tag with #inktober is a self-imposed rule to keep myself from doing the same ol’ thing of making a line drawing and then adding color. (Actually, I’ve already broken that rule by adding colored pencils a couple of times. No point in having self-imposed rules if I’m not going to break them! 😀)

I have to say, though, that despite the color complaint, I am genuinely enjoying the challenge of focusing on ink this month. Although ink can be applied with a brush (and I’ve done that, too, a couple of times), the easiest way to use it is with a pen, and a pen by its very nature emphasizes line work over shape or color. I’ve known for a long time that drawing and line work are the elements that interest and engage me most when I’m sketching. I’m a draw-er more than a painter, so even when I miss color, I’m not necessarily missing paint.

10/9/15 ink

It will come to no surprise to you when I say I have plenty of pens to choose from, and I’ve inked up an entire arsenal of fountain pens for Inktober. My favorite Sailor fude pens are working as hard as ever, and now so are the Pilot Parallels. I’m also trying a pen with a new-to-me nib (no spoilers here – review coming soon!) that is quickly becoming a favorite.

I’m dusting off some techniques this month, too. For example, after my ink-drawing class ended in June, outdoor sketching weather began, and I couldn’t see myself hatching on location, so I haven’t done any since. But hatching is ideal for a rainy day like today, so I gave it a shot with the red-eyed tree frogs, above (from a calendar photo). My technique is rusty, but I haven’t forgotten how much I enjoy that kind of seemingly tedious work.

10/9/15 ink

During my first couple years of sketching, I thought that making a line drawing was only the preliminary step to ultimately painting or adding some other color medium. Yet many times I felt that I had ruined a relatively good drawing by adding mediocre watercolors; I should have left well enough alone!

The past year or two I’ve gradually come to realize that a drawing isn’t always a preliminary to something; if it’s strong, it can and possibly should stand alone. (In fact, a weak drawing will not be improved by the addition of color.) Of course, all I have to do is look at the drawings of Frank Ching, Paul Heaston, Don Colley, Van Gogh, Raphael and many, many other masters to know this, but somehow this plain truth hasn’t always been apparent to me, especially about my own work.

10/9/15 ink

While sketching pine and fir trees with paint has been an ongoing struggle for me, with a pen (especially those funky Parallels), it’s much easier to express the graceful (even if asymmetrical!) delicacy of their branches. For me, a pen is the right tool for that job.

When sketching people, I’ve long avoided adding more than spots of token color to hats or other clothing. That’s because early on I discovered that the more time I spend trying to get accurate skin tones with watercolor, the less I pay attention to drawing well and getting delicate facial and other contours right. And it didn’t take me long to realize that I wanted to focus on drawing people well, not painting them. Again, a pen is simply a better tool for what I want to express when I sketch a person.

10/8/15 inks, colored pencil

None of this is to say that I can live by pen alone (didn’t I start this blog post with a complaint about craving color?). It’s just my homage to a tool I’ve come to understand, use and respect more over time as it has helped me to express certain things I can’t express with other media. It’s not the only tool, but for me, it’s often exactly the right tool.

10/9/15 ink

10/9/15 ink

10/9/15 ink

10/3/15 ink

10/9/15 ink

Urban Couches (Plus Inktober)

10/1/15 inks, colored pencils

A couple of weeks ago when an abandoned couch happened to appear in a sketch, I jokingly commented on Facebook that I see discarded furniture on the street so often that I should start a series. A few days later, I drove by a couch on the sidewalk just a few blocks from my house. When I went by yesterday, other random trash had been piled onto it – a piece of plywood and barbecue tongs. The owner didn’t even bother to put a “free” sign on it.

While I was standing on the sidewalk across the street, not yet sketching but just studying my subject, a neighbor walked by and said, “Are you selling or buying?”

“Neither – just sketching,” I replied.

Two sketches – I now have the beginning of a series. My local Facebook friends are on point to let me know when they spot a couch.

10/1/15 #inktober

P.S. Yesterday I impulsively decided to take part in Inktober, the challenge to make one drawing in ink per day during the 31 days of October. By default, it would be easy for me to fulfill this challenge, since I sketch daily anyway, and ink is almost always at least one of the media used. So I’m giving myself an added challenge of making these Inktober sketches in ink only – any subject, any size. And I also thought it would be fun to photograph each sketch with the pen used (if I can remember to do that). I probably won’t blog about all of them, but if you follow me on Instagram, you’ll see them there.

P.P.S. Go to illustrator Jake Parker’s Inktober page – he shows nine of his favorite inking tools, almost all of which I own, too! Inky minds think alike.

Museum of Flight Celebrates 50 Years

9/19/15 inks, colored pencils, Zig marker

The last time I visited the Museum of Flight in March (and all the times prior to that, even on a Saturday), people were everywhere, but the facility is so huge that I never felt overwhelmed by the crowds.

Not so today.

Several hours after opening time, a long line of people still flowed
steadily into the museum.

To celebrate its 50^th birthday, the museum rolled its usual $20 admission price back to its 1965 ticket price: 50 cents! That – not to mention the fact that the Astronauts on the Town Instagram contest winner would be announced – brought in an astounding number of visitors. A huge line of people was waiting at the door when I arrived about 10 minutes before opening, and a line was still flowing down the walkway when I left a few hours later.

Needless to say, the already-substantial challenge of sketching in the museum was compounded by crowds everywhere. I went up to the third floor to sketch the Great Gallery, where all 25 Astronauts on the Town surrounded a couple of the aircraft on the floor.

Dressed in '60s garb, Kate poses with her fave astronaut!

Speaking of the Astronauts on the Town, while I got around to sketching only three of them (at Fran’s Chocolates, Salty’s on Alki and Third Place Books), Kate Buike sketched all 25! The Museum of Flight, where Kate is a volunteer, was so impressed that her sketches were used in the promotional placards about each astronaut. 

A Kid With a New Box of Crayons

9/18/15 rainbow pencil

There’s no doubt about it – fall is here. Yesterday we had a good, solid rainfall, the trees are all turning, and I’m wearing socks again. I decided to give the change in seasons my personal initiation ritual, which was to sketch at Zoka Coffee.

It had been months since I’d sketched there, and even longer since I’d been to life drawing at Gage. To quickly get past that feeling of creakiness when I start drawing people again, I pulled out my new favorite toy: multi-colored pencils! You already know about the Koh-i-Noor Tri-tone colored pencils that I recently rediscovered. They are so much fun that when I saw some rainbow pencils on Amazon, I had to get a bunch of those, too. Seven colors are together in a single lead! I’m sure they’re intended for kids (the marketing information recommends them for party favors, Easter baskets and stocking stuffers), and I’m obviously the target audience – whenever I use them, I feel like a kid with a new box of crayons!

9/18/15 rainbow pencil

I’ve never been a fan of sketching with graphite, but colored pencils are something else entirely. I wish the leads in these multi-colored pencils were a bit softer (I’m used to the delightful softness of my favorite water-soluble Caran d’Ache Museum pencils), which would make shading easier. But they more than make up for softness with the fun factor. After a few sketches with these, I’d gotten over my creakiness, and I was ready for rainy-weather coffee shop sketching again (maybe I’ll even take these pencils to a life drawing session). 

9/18/15 Tri-tone pencil

9/18/15 Tri-tone pencil

Penciling in Fall

9/10/15 colored pencils, inks

Despite my reluctance to see summer end, I always welcome one thing about autumn: all the colors in the trees. When I see a pair of maples going red (below) or an aspen turning gold (at left), it’s natural to pull out my watercolors, and the past couple years, that’s usually what I did.

This season, though, I’ve been experimenting more with colored pencils – both my favorite water-soluble Caran d’Ache Museum pencils as well as the crazy, variegated Koh-i-Noor Tri-Tone pencils that I’ve lately been hooked on. With pencils, it takes a bit longer to build up rich color compared to watercolors. But one thing I like about pencils is that I can get more texture in trees. Another thing is the physical ease and simplicity: When I’m walking through my neighborhood and stop for a sketch, I have to stand, so pulling out a few pencils is much easier than painting. (If you’re wondering about the sky behind the aspen, that’s not watercolor, either – it’s ink applied with a waterbrush! My middle name is “shortcut”). Overall, these sketches took the same amount of time as when I use watercolor.

By the way, the aspen above is one you’ve seen me sketch in previous years (in September almost exactly a year ago and October 2013). I love the way it adds a brilliant spark of yellow to that intersection.

9/8/15 colored pencils, ink

Retail Trees

9/4/15 inks, watercolor, colored pencil

Fall is in the air – the cold morning air heats up by noon but cools off again by early evening – and it’s also in the trees. I’d been noticing hints of red and orange all last month, but when I returned home from San Francisco last week, the trees seemed to have starting turning all at once. At Northgate Mall and my neighborhood Safeway and Metropolitan Market stores, the maples are definitely showing their colors.

Unlike many people who use Labor Day weekend for a last-chance-of-summer getaway, with all the travel I’ve been doing, I was happy to stay at home all weekend. The most ambitious thing I did was to drive out to a retail parking lot each day and sketch trees.

(Technical note: Koh-i-NoorTri-Tone colored pencils sure are fun for giving a little color and texture to trees!)

9/5/15 inks, colored pencils

9/6/15 inks, colored pencils

Pugnacious

8/25/15 Koh-i-Noor Tri-Tone colored pencils,
Cretacolor Nero pencil, ink
(sketched from calendar photo)

With all my travel this month, I’m busier than usual with work this week, trying to catch up (or keep ahead). The smoky air from the wildfires has finally cleared, so it was very tempting to sneak out for a sketch, but I resisted.

Instead, I took a 15-minute break to sketch another hummingbird from my World Wildlife Fund calendar. Its tiny wings and tail are beating so fast in the photo that they are a mere blur. The chestnut-breasted coronet, says the calendar, “defends its feeding territory pugnaciously.” I’ve seen nature programs confirming that hummers, sweet and delicate as they may appear, are vicious fighters. In fact, I’ve seen evidence of that myself among the few hummers we occasionally see from our backyard.

Sketching it was a good break. I felt invigorated by its pugnacious energy. 

Ready

8/24/15 ink, watercolor, colored pencil

Around this time of year each year, I start seeing signs of the season of Denial. That’s when I’m not ready to see summer come to an end, but the trees keep reminding me that fall is closer than I want to believe it is.

This year, however, I’m OK with letting summer go, if only because it was one of the longest on record. Since June we’ve enjoyed week after week of sunshine, clear skies, and record-breaking heat and consecutive rainless days. This isn’t as good as it sounds – drought and treacherous wildfires continue to devastate the region. Even as I feel terrible for the loss of life and damage this weather has caused, I’m also grateful for and joyful about the best outdoor-sketching season ever.

I’ve been seeing trees tinged with yellow and orange for several weeks now. Instead of turning, some look downright scorched. These maples in my neighborhood near Lake City Way are still mostly green, but the tips of the branches have that tired, faded look. Weary of all the heat and sun, they’re ready for some good ol’ Pacific Northwest rain. So am I. 

A Hummer of a Sunday Afternoon

8/23/15 Koh-i-Noor Tri-Tone colored pencils, Cretacolor Nero pencil, ink
(sketched from calendar photo)

It’s a lazy Sunday afternoon (it’s been so long since I’ve had one, I almost didn’t recognize it) – my favorite time to experiment with different media or tools. The other day I was digging through my supplies looking for something else when I stumbled upon my Koh-i-Noor Tri-Tone colored pencils. I experimented with them for a while last year but eventually took them out of my everyday-carry bag. They’re so much fun – it’s time to put a few back in.

Today I used them in my studio to draw from a calendar photo. Only two colored pencils were used: one with green/yellow hues and one with red/pink/yellow hues (the black lines were made with a Cretacolor Nero pencil, with a dot of ink for the eye). Since the tri-tone colors are mixed up within the single pencil lead, you can’t control which color you’ll get on any particular line. They all blend into an interesting mix.

Ominous

3/24/15 various inks, watercolor, colored pencils

Rain is in the forecast for the next two days. It was showering when I left for a meeting, but that had subsided to a sprinkle on my way home. Before I arrived, the sun broke through, so I stopped for a sketch of this tree silhouetted against an ominous sky.

Expressive Models = Expressive Drawings

12/4/14 Diamine Chocolate Brown and Twilight inks, Zig
marker, Canson All-Media paper (20-min. pose)

I finally made it to a short-pose life-drawing session at Gage, which I much prefer to a single long pose. The shorter poses are better training for sketching people in real life, and the variety keeps me from getting bored. Today’s model, Michael, in particular, was excellent at giving us a wide range of expressive poses that I was amazed he was able to hold. When the model is especially expressive, I feel more motivated to make my drawings more expressive, too – to make as much of an effort as the model did in being expressive.

As for media, this morning I was in the mood to try various combinations of dry and wet: colored pencils and ink in a waterbrush. For the last 20-minute pose, I used my trusty Sailor fountain pen and ink in a waterbrush for shading.

Speaking of Gage, this Saturday is the 15^th annual Drawing Jam, and I can’t wait! I’ve been looking forward to it ever since last year’s Jam!

12/4/14 Pilot Iroshizuku Ku-jaku ink
(2-min. pose)

12/4/14 Pilot Iroshizuku Ku-jaku ink (2-min. pose)

12/4/14 Caran d'Ache Museum water-soluble colored pencil (1-min. pose)

12/4/14 Koh-I-Noor Tri-Tone pencil, Pilot
Iroshizuku Ku-jaku ink (5-min. pose)