I have changed my old kolinsky sable brushes for a new synthetic roller. And I have also changed the medium and support, we might say acrylic on wood. I am painting a wardrobe. I was sanding the last week and now I am applying the primer. I will keep you all informed. By the bye the title is a reference to the documentary about Davis.
Today is the first day of autumn in the Northern hemisphere, it is the autumn equinox. And the first day of spring in the Southern hemisphere, of course. So, my best wishes to everyone for these new and fantastic seasons.
I will be posting my latest drawings and paintings in the next few days. Meanwhile, a different kind of photography. It is my right knee. There is something wrong there. I was not running over the past month. Today I ran 4.5 km but I had to stop because I felt some pain and I want to start progressively.
Supposedly I am in the photo. I am not able to find myself. My girlfriend, the photo’s author, says she knows where am I. By the bye, the blue balloons are the pacemakers: very experienced runners that set a pace. Usually to follow a pacemaker is the best way to ruin your race: if he fails in his pace, you will fail, too. Fortunately I chose not to follow my pacemaker today…
The organization did not publish the preliminary results yet so it is my own time (as my clock as myself are very experienced, we could miss a couple of seconds). When crossing the finish line my clock shown 3 hours 45 minutes and 31 seconds. I have met my goal! Yeah! I did it! Great!
I have improved my personal best by 4 minutes and 33 seconds. My previous personal best was on 2009 with the same course. I prefer to forget the 2010 and 2011 marathons. This result ensures a faster recovery.
I am happy. I am very happy indeed! But those 31 seconds…
Roque de los Muchachos Observatory is an astronomical observatory located in La Palma. The seeing statistics make it the second best location for astronomy in the Northern Hemisphere, after Mauna Kea Observatory, Hawaii. The site has some of the premier astronomical facilities in the Northern Hemisphere, including the 10.4 m Gran Telescopio Canarias which is the world’s largest single-aperture optical telescope as of July 2009.
My current technical skills for drawing do not allow to show the so-called sea of clouds. Roque de los Muchachos and many other places in the island are above the clouds, thus it is possible seeing the cloud top. At some periods during the day, the clouds show a bluish color and some people mistake them for the sea.
I was experimenting with my new dip pens. It was just a quick test for checking the result that can be achieved with each one. I have compared them to my usual tools for pen and ink: the Uni Pin fine liners and the Lamy Safari fountain pen. I have used conventional fountain pen ink, Parker Quink blue ink, and Winsor & Newton black Indian ink.
The three nibs are a copy of a Perry 1141, a Gillott 404 and a Gillott 1290 (from left to right in the picture below). The Perry 1141 is a fine point nib mainly for copperplate writing. It is low elastic. The Gillott 404 is a sharply pointed drawing nib for drawing and copperplate writing. It produces from wide to fine hair-like lines and it is low elastic. The Gillott 1290 is a needle-point drawing nib for drawing and copperplate writing, with a curved-up tip that produces from wide to fine hair-like lines. It is medium/high elastic.
The nibs work great with the fountain pen ink. It is not as thick as the Indian ink so it is slightly easier to draw lines. Although the Indian ink is thicker, it allows very smooth moves over the paper. The Perry 1141 and the Gillott 404 produce similar strokes to the Uni Pin 0.2 and the Lamy Safari F nib. It is difficult to me to make fine parallel lines with the Gillott 1290, I guess I will need more practice. Also, as it is very elastic, a slightly different hand pressure produces a wider line. That is the advantage of the flexible nibs.
I hope this brief review can be useful for someone. For more information about nibs visit the Jacqui Blackman’s Art Studio. I will be posting some drawings made with them in the next few days.
I knew I wanted to draw this door. And I also knew I wanted to draw the blue house. However, it was hard to decide if they should share the same drawing. Finally they do it. Probably the house makes a nice contrast with the environment —mainly greens and browns— but it would not be very interesting for drawing it alone. Maybe next time.
Meanwhile, a picture. The use of a high focal length generates this sort of flattened perspective effect: plants and house look closer each other than they actually are.
The Archbishop Ryan Park is situated in Merrion Square, the Georgian square on the south side of Dublin city center, very near to Baggot Street. The park was called so after Dermot Ryan, a Catholic archbishop who transferred ownership to the city in 1974. The square was leased to the Archdiocese of Dublin in 1930 to permit the building of a Cathedral on the site. In September 2010, it was renamed as Merrion Square Park.
The park contains a statue of Oscar Wilde, many other sculptures and a collection of old Dublin lamp standards. It is a nice place for walking and also for sketching: there are many subjects that can be chosen to draw.
As probably you did read on the sidebar, I made the following tweet a couple of days ago:
I got a couple of waterbrushes from my beloved girlfriend. Thank you! I'll be checking them out.
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Vinyl Eraser (@vinyleraser) January 06, 2012I was using the waterbrushes in a sketch, so I have decided to write a post with some initial comments about their usage. The waterbruses are a Pentel Aquash (top) and a Kuretake Zig BrusH2O (bottom). Both have synthetic brushes with a quality similar to my regular synthetic brushes.
The Pentel has a fine brush and it could be equivalent to a regular brush size #2. It is pretty good for filling small zones and details. I noticed that when you squeeze the barrel for cleaning the brush, this waterbrush keeps more water in the inner mechanism than the Kuretake. If you are applying washes, it is very convenient, but you could consider remove some water with some tissue paper if you are detailing.
The Kuretake is smoother than the Pentel. The synthetic fibers are different and the brush size is also larger, it size could be equivalent to a regular brush size #6. It seems the water flow is more constant in this waterbrush than the Pentel. It is perfect for washes and for painting shadows. I’d like to check out a Kuretake with a fine brush or a Pentel with a large brush in order to compare both systems and fibers but they seem quite similar.
And this is the drawing in which I was testing the new waterbrushes. I used the Kuretake with the crimson, the cadmium red, the violet (crimson and cobalt blue), the ultramarine, and also for the gray in the edges. The drawing is inspired by a zentagle pattern.
You can see more photos of these waterbrushes and my other art supplies on Flickr. I will be uploading more photos in the next few days.
