No. 2 Pencil Portrait

I made an example of a No. 2 Pencil portrait in my sketchbook. I started by sketching someone with pencil then began filling it with pencils, conforming them to the shape of the face. Some pencils were really distorted and abstracted.

Next, I colored using watercolors followed by outlining with different micron pens.  I sealed the page with a thin coat of gloss acrylic.

Carla Warla, Big New Sketchbook, page 31, watercolor and pen. Steve Franklin, 2015.

Thanks for viewing and have a great day!

-Steve

Consumption?

Hi.

I don't know why, but I guess at the time I was thinking about consumption while I was doing this page. It seems I was using watercolor, ink pen, acrylic markers,  and a white Gelly Roll pen to complete this page. For some reason, this reminds me that the other day, while using pen and ink and decided to try this: I made different bold watercolor washes and dipped the pen nib into them to see if it works--and it does! I thought: "Now, why didn't I think of that before?"

Thanks for viewing, and have a wonderful day!

Steve

New Big Sketchbook, page 18. Steve Franklin, 2015.

Pure Contour and Color

Hi.
I'm resting from a long week of work.  Ugh!
Here are pages from my latest book.
These are pure contour drawings (single line; don't look at the paper). I added watercolor washes to add color. On page 7, I marbled the page by using the shaving cream and watercolor technique. What's that, you say? You spray cheap foamy shaving cream onto a table and smooth out the surface with a big piece of mat board or cardboard so it's flat, drip different colors of watercolor from a brush, twirl the colored drops around in the shaving cream with the handle of the brush, place the paper face down onto the image, lift it off the shaving cream then scrape it off with the cardboard then allow to dry (or use a hair dryer).
I used handmade stamps for the boarders of the pages. On the marbled page, I used brush strokes of watercolor.

Big New Sketchbook, pages 6 & 7. Steve Franklin, 2015.

Big New Sketchbook, pages 8 & 9. Steve Franklin, 2015.

Thanks for viewing.

Take care.

-Steve

Sleeping Dog Dreams

Here are some more old pages. I'm trying to catch up with myself. My goal is to show old sketchbook pages and get up to date where I will post pages as I make them.  The only problem is that I keep filling up journal pages.  I really want to share.

Below are sketches of my Great Pyrenees dog "Cleopatra" sleeping and an abstract design with letters and shapes.

Big Old Sketchbook, pages 135 &136, Steve Franklin, 2014.

Big Old Sketchbook page 150. Steve Franklin, 2014.

Above is a sort of landscape looking abstract design using a pen.  I love to scribble abstract designs. It's really therapeutic to do.

Thanks for viewing.

-Steve

Doodles and Watercolor Pages

Hey,

Here are four more sketchbook pages.  I sketched people at a table during a conference.  I used watercolors.

Big Old Sketchbook pages 131 & 132, Steve Franklin, 2014.

Big Old Sketchbook, pages 129 & 130. Steve Franklin, 2014

Here is a page of doodles using pen & ink, abstract designs for the sake of exploring color, a made up ancient alphabet and other doodles.

Thanks for viewing.

-Steve

So Tired

Hello, artistic person!
Here are pages 32 and 33 of my old Zeta sketchbook.

Zeta Sketchbook pages 32 & 33. Steve Franklin, 2015.

I've always enjoyed scribbling lines using ballpoint pen and sometimes I'm fortunate enough to discover an ink that slightly bleeds when adding a wet brush. Of course, basic shape and color can be important in a work. I initially started to do a portrait but when the subject left, I continued the drawing (page 32) using abstraction as the content.

Somedays, I'm so very tired that I let my subconscious mind take over a drawing.  It takes me inside the landscape of my mind where thoughts become bits and glimpses most likely taken from experience of observing things. Later, I can add color to transform my scribblings into something presentable.

Thanks,

-Steve

Unity, Rhythm, Simplicity.

Big Old Sketchbook pages 141 & 142. Mixed Media. Steve Franklin, 2014.

Hello, wonderful person!  Welcome.

Above are pages 141 and 142 of my Big Old Sketchbook. I combined ballpoint pen (the kind that bleeds some when you wet it with a brush), bleeding art tissue and watercolor. I really like the texture, sense of movement and vitality that comes from repeated strokes a ballpoint pen.  To provide a sense of unity and structure, I implied large, simple shapes across separate smaller ones with pen lines while at the same time, doing so with color on other large areas. At the same time, I'm interested in rhythmic movement. Some ideas for shapes come from the negative spaces left over from cut shapes, letters, rocks and natural things.  Have you noticed there are dog faces in the image on the right?  Well, those may be easy to find.  How about the one on the left?  It may take awhile to find.

Sometimes I like to just start scribbling on a page and wait for symbols and ideas to reveal themselves to me.  These things I develop, clarify, emphasize and sometimes repeat.

Well, I hope this inspires you to do your own page: try scribbling, or cut various shapes from paper.  Then take those shapes and cut shapes into them. Then analyze those shapes and divide them if necessary, arranging, grouping the shapes to create interesting shapes in the spaces between these shapes. Take a picture of these as a reference for an idea, or glue them down.  Try colored paper. Sketch these arrangements.  Draw these arrangements with pen then scribble and shade then color this. Then go back and unify your arrangements using scrubbed lines with a pen, or group areas with simplicity of color.  Am I getting too deep with this?

I like to look at Marc Chagall paintings and study them, trying to think of his sketching process.

Well, I guess sometimes I write too much.

Remember, when you're sketching in a sketchbook, the most important things to value is your own personal take on things.

Stay Creative!

Bye for now,

Steve

Abstract Compositions

Big Old Sketchbook Pages 67 & 68. Mixed Media. Steve Franklin, 2014

Here are pages 67 and 68 in my Big Old Sketchbook. I love doodling and layering shapes. I am using pens with ink that bleeds when I apply a wet brush.  On page 68, I added some light watercolor washes. 

When filling a sketchbook, I always make a habit of numbering pages and adding the date at the top of each page.

The pens that bleed are Uniball Signo 207. I got them at Walmart.

I glued down the cut newspaper shapes with regular Elmer's glue.

Colored tissue, rubber cement, watercolors and letter stamps.

9/6/13-10/20/14

Here's an earlier sketchbook I filled from cover to cover.  I will be posting some pages from it.  I will call it the Big Old Sketchbook. : )

Big Old Sketchbook, pages 33 & 34

Rubber Cement Resist

 On page 33, I painted rubber cement to make the bar shapes.  Next, I dipped extra rubber cement and allowed drips to form long, rubbery strings from the brush to the paper and wiggled it around as the strings contacted the surface of the paper.  Once the cement dried, I placed a sheet of blue staining colored tissue paper onto the page. I dipped a brush in water and touched it to the tissue until the water soaked through and stuck it to the page.  I kept patiently adding water until the whole tissue sheet was wet.  I allowed this to dry.  (Whenever I am in a hurry, I use a hair dryer to speed the drying process.) Next, I rubbed off the rubber cement with an big eraser and all that had rubber cement was left to show the white of the page! There were blue streaks on the bars showing the big brushstrokes used to apply the rubber cement. Finally, I scribbled different colors using Derwent Inktense water soluble ink pencils then brushed over that with a wet brush.

On page 34, I painted a light watercolor wash on the entire page loosely with a size 10 watercolor brush, loosely, leaving specks of white here and there.  While that dried, I cut out a a square of card stock  (manila folder), cutting five rectangles out of it with a craft knife to use as a stencil.  I held down the stencil and repeatedly (12 times, as you can see) painted over it with rubber cement using a big flat brush.  Once that dried, I dropped a square of colored tissue over each, brushing them down patiently with a water loaded brush. Are you still with me? Once dry, I stamped each letter using those cheap rubber letter stamps with a black stamp pad.

Notice:   For colored tissue, you must give the tissue enough time to allow the color to bleed and transfer to the page. Warning! If your sketchbook pages are thin, place a couple of sheets of regular copy paper behind the sketchbook page.  I have seen tissue bleed through several pages. Of course, that would add interest to these pages so long as you are not a perfectionist.

Sketchbook Pages 9 & 10: Phone & Road Trip

Phone & Road Trip. Pages 9 & 10. Steve Franklin, 2015.

Here are pages 9 and 10 of a current sketchbook. On the left, I did an abstract drawing using pencil, pen and watercolors.  For the page on the left, I just started doodling, repeating similar shapes, breaking up the page with rectangular sections and arches, repeating the phone shape, above center. I just started tracing then shading with pen (don't remember which pens I used),  Next, I completed the page by adding layers of watercolor washes.

On the right, I was in the back seat of a car, so I sketched with pencil while on the road then went over it with pen then watercolor once I got out of the car and found a place to work.