Teatime Musings

© Chromeheart

I'll let you in on a little secret... half the time when I glue art paper into my sketchbook, it's covering up a drawing or something that I didn't like so much.  Some Italian blackletter that came out wrong is hiding under this one, and nobody would ever know just by looking at it.  Books are for secrets.

Flipping back through this sketchbook, which I started about eighteen months ago, I realize that I haven't been using it right.  After all this time, I'm still trying too hard to be "good."  I still want to go back and cover up everything that didn't come out so well; glue my pages together so nobody can see what's inside and paint over old mistakes until you can't tell what they were.

You can hide your mistakes, but there isn't enough paint in the world to make them go away.

Maddy Rose

© Chromeheart

I haven't done a messy pen sketch (as opposed to a not-messy pen that has the ink inside of it) outside in a public space since Italy.  When I started using fountain pens, I decided that carrying ink bottles and dip pens and a cleanup kit around is too much hassle and the potential for an ink accident is too high.  Once upon a time I accidentally dumped a bottle of acrylic ink across my hands, my pants, and my watercolor block while sketching outside in this manner.  

This is hands down my favorite drawing pen.  If there is a non-messy pen that handles anything like this, I haven't found it yet.  It's a D. Leonardt mapping nib, purchased in Italy while I was studying abroad.  It's possible to find them in the states, but a bit difficult.  

Today's supplies: HB pencil, my favorite pen, F.W. Artist's Acrylic in Red Earth, a cappuccino, my Travelogue Handbook, and a small bottle of water for cleanup.  Cappuccino is totally an art supply.

(seriously, though, don't use an open ink bottle as a paperweight ESPECIALLY if it's windy)

Ca d'Oro in Ink and Watercolor

Finished sketch

The Ca d'Oro is a famous Venetian palazzo on the Grand Canal, so named because its entire front facade was radiant gold in its heyday.  Of course, most of the gold has come off over the past few centuries, but the Ca d'Oro remains a prime example of Venetian-Gothic splendor, regally presiding over the inevitable traffic jams between gondolas, vaporetti, and assorted motor boats below.

In progress

I began this sketch with a loose layer of liquid watercolor, added detail in waterproof acrylic ink with one of my favorite D. Leonardt nibs, and finished it off with an overlay of pink to hint at the sunset.  Original photo sourced from Pinterest; I do not know who the photographer is to credit them.  No copyright infringement is intended.  This work is solely a personal enrichment exercise from which I receive no monetary benefit.  

You've probably noticed that I've been inactive for quite some time-- well, here's the story.  After a lot of stressful job-and-apartment-hunting, I have moved back to the North Shore and and am just beginning to get settled, quite happily.  I can smell the ocean in my living room, when the wind blows the right way.  It doesn't get any better than that.  

And God said: Let There Be Coffee... so I started unpacking in order of importance.

It might have been the place...

©Chromeheart (images only)

Since I've begun experimenting with fountain pen inks (which are very water-soluble once dry), I thought I might try revisiting the one wet media that I could never learn to like.  These sketches are both done in a mixture of fountain pen ink and pan watercolor, and I'm surprisingly pleased with the results.

Quotes are sourced from an ebook called Carnival for the Dead, and I am merely scribbling passages I enjoyed in my personal sketchbook for no reason other than personal enrichment.  No copyright infringement is intended and I do not stand to profit from this work.

Dispossession

© Chromeheart

Inks: J.H. Poussiere d' Lune, R&K Scabiosa
Yes, I know I spelled dispossession wrong on the page.  Whoopsie.

© Chromeheart

I have so many interests that I must rotate them due to a lack of hours in the day; which is to say that if I'm focusing on writing, I'm not drawing much.  If I'm drawing, I'm not really writing.  If I'm crocheting or taking photos, I'm probably not writing or drawing.  To be able to write a poem every day, post a drawing every week, make a blanket to keep me warm, and continue developing my photography all at the same time, I'd have to quit my day job!

Maybe in a perfect world... but in the words of a fictional character, "Nothing's perfect.  The world's not perfect... and that's what makes it so damned beautiful."

My Shadows #5: Terminus

© Chromeheart

Inks: J.H. Terre de Feu, Diamine Brown, R&K Scabiosa

Quotes:

"Take a lesson..." --Gemini Syndrome, Pay For This

"I remember..." --Nonpoint, That Day

(Yeah, I use vintage wine glasses for my paintbrush water.  Old jam jars, yogurt cups, or whatever people normally use are just plain ugly.)

I took my sketchbook to the last round of the CrossFit Open intending to draw people doing burpees and thrusters, and dropped it after the second heat to make myself useful as a cheerleader.  The unfinished page eventually became this.  

CrossFit's about realizing with every step forward that you're a stronger person than you were yesterday.  

Shadows 4: Yours, Not Mine

© Chromeheart

Inks used: J. Herbin Terre de Feu,  F.W. Sepia

While spring cleaning, I came across a box of pretty collage papers that I'd acquired for another project.  The other project didn't pan out and I've always liked the look of altered books and scrappy art journals held together by little more than glue and string.

© Chromeheart

Since I'm not trying to impress anyone, any more, it might be nice to try mixed media collage myself rather than idly admiring other artists' work.  In the world of art college, it was an unspoken rule that Professional Artists didn't do amateurish hobby crafts if they wanted to be taken seriously.  I don't think visual journals should be so easily filed in the same category as paint by humber kits or stringing beads on wire according to a pattern someone else made.

Maybe that's just me.