Special Guest Star JANE DAVENPORT!!!!

We are so lucky to have Jane Davenport as a Guest today...Be prepared to be dazzled!

I love working with alcohol markers to create soft, gently blended skin tones. They were the first tool that I really mastered when I trained to become a Fashion Illustrator. They are quick, predictable, come in a HUGE range of colours and fun to use!

The MEPXY Brush markers are one of my preferred brands and I recommend the boxed Pastel Set of 24 as a great basic kit for creating contemporary portraits.

One of the things I adore using most with alcohol markers is watercolour. The way they completely ignore each other is fascinating to me. I finally found a paper that could cope with both of these very different supplies and wanted to dedicate a journal just to the markers, my Schmincke watercolour set and favourite pen.

But the thing that makes alcohol markers so wonderful is the very thing that makes them a challenge for using in an Art Journal. It's the way that the ink bleeds-through to the back of the page! So rather than continue to lament the bleed-through,  I decided to use it as a kick start for another drawing.

In this image you can see the bleed-through from the girl in blue and where i used that to create a new drawing.

The gorgeous, highly pigmented Schmincke watercolours  don't bleed through, so I am safe to use them back to back on my pages. Look at the way Transparent Orange and Brilliant Red Purple and Magenta mix!

VIDEO:

https://youtu.be/ZEwfVTTcQNk

Here is another example showing the progression of my artwork:

1. i start with the skintones of the girl in MEPXY markers ( R00 Sun Kiss and W11 Nude and a touch of W02 Skinskin for the cheeks).
2. Details are added with the Jane Davenport Epic pen
3. Schmincke Indigo for the background
4. Neutral tint for more shadows
5. Alizarin Crimson for her dress, lips, freckles and emphasis lines.

On the reverse of the page i used the MEPXY bleed-through to start this loose little sketch of a bunny-girl.

• This  portrait started with a pen sketch and then I added my alcohol markers. I finished with liberal swathes of watercolour . I have included a shot of the bleed-through.

• And this is what I did with the bleed-through. The patchy colour really suits loose pencil sketches!

• This Titian girl turned quite blue:

• And my sweet niece turned into a fairy:

• This blue haired goddess, turned into Frida Kahlo:

• I find that using the bleed- through of the markers was a freeing way to start a new page! I used to paint the back of my journal pages with gesso to hide the bleed through, but I like this new method.

• I hope you are inspired to look at the Bleed-through of your alcohol markers and make something new from it too!

• Supplies Used:
• The Jane Davenport selection of Schmincke Watercolours is available here: click
• MEPXY Pastel Set is available here: click
• Neptune Watercolour Brushes are available here: click
• Jane Davenport Epic Pen available here: click
• Blender Journal available here: click
• xoxox

Jane /Danger

Jane “Danger” Davenport is an internationally recognized artist, best-selling author and popular workshop instructor. Through her online Art Schools, publications and Escape Artist Retreats, Danger has enabled tens of thousands of people from all around the world to embrace their innate artistic selves.

You can see more here: www.janedavenport.com/workshops

Jane Davenport

Keeping a Colour Bible - A swatch haven

We as artists are true collectors of art supplies, in all various forms and shades. I can honestly tell you Ive gone into a supply store picked several new pencils feeling really pleased with myself coming home and finding out that I already have most of these colours already. This has happened more than I want to admit publicly.

With a little inspiration from the lovely Jane Davenport, I decided it was time I created a common place where I had all my supplies with their corresponding colour codes so that when I skipped into an art supply store I knew exactly what I already had at home! and no doubles were bought unless needed.

I decided to pick a book that was easily transportable so that it would fit into most handbags I carry.

I tried my supplies on different papers till I found how they looked best then used that book. I ruled my pages in a grid format and sorted my supplies into a semi rainbow formation. I then started shading each square along with a colour code. Each brand has their own labeling system and I just used their codes to label my squares.

This has been such a useful thing to do, I haven't even really fully filled my book and I have already used it to help me purchase new colours I don't already have.

I have more markers than I know what to do with, from my vibrant and bright Mepxy markers, to my lush watercolour markers, so this book will become a haven for me and will be used for many years to come.

 

So if you are a complete supply junkie like myself, I highly suggest creating one of these hand little books for your supplies, not only as a colour reference but also to know what you have and what you don't have in way of colour palettes and shades.

I'll see you next week with a tutorial!

Courtney Diaz

Canson Paper and Schmincke Watercolour Sketches!

Schmincke, Canson, Princeton!

Hi all!

Unfortunately I was a bit hard-pressed for time in delivering this tutorial because I am under the pump with my final semester at University, so I will hopefully deliver another tutorial on drawing proportions very soon. However, in the meanwhile, I thought I could share with you some of the paintings and sketches I have created using Canson papers and Schmincke Horadam Aquarell Watercolour Paints.

I bought these gorgeous paints a while back and have fallen in love with watercolour all over again. I bought a set of 24 1/2 pans and have had so much fun with them.

The Schmincke watercolours have such a strong pigment and make painting and using the paints so much easier. You know those paints that you've had in the past where you have laden your brush with paint, only to find within a few strokes it's practically all gone? This is the exception, I remember when I first tried them and I touched my wet brush ever so lightly onto the paint and then used it and the colour was amazing! It also lasted so long and this works out in your favor, for not only does it save time and makes working more efficient, but you end up using much less paint because you don't need so much onto your brush.

Tip: Wet the paint brush, rather than wetting the pan, this way you can keep your paints much cleaner.

 Here are some examples of the more involved paintings I've done using these paints:

Truth

 

 Life

 Way

Tip: When building up a painting like this in layers, start with a wash that covers your whole background, so you aren't left with noticeable white spaces.

 The Glass Slipper

Tip: I built this painting up from the lightest colours to the darkest.

A Psychedelic Forrest

~

This is mainly what I use in conjunction with the Schmincke Paints:

Canson Watercolour Paper: This one is a Medium, 185 gsm. I use both the A3 and A4 sizes. I have been using this paper since I started painting when I was 14, I used to save up my pocket money for buying pads of paper!

Princeton brushes, I have a number of sets that I've used which work really well and are affordable too!

Now here is a bit more about the paints:

You receive this super cute colour testing page where you can use your colours and then refer back to it when selecting colours.

The box mine came in, I nursed it preciously home.

Inside the box!

This is what my paints look like now after the dozens of paintings I've used them for!

It appears I am fond of the green colour.

Tip: If you want to keep reusing the same colour mix that you've created, mix the colours on either a plastic or metal surface (like this one) so it doesn't dry so quickly and can very easily be re-hydrated. If you use paper, it just absorbs the paint and dries out super easily. Especially with the pan sets opposed to the tubes of paint.

Some more sketches:

This really shows off the vibrancy of the paints.

 You can see a bit of the bleed effect in the tulips where I overlapped the red onto the yellow.

 This really shows off the nature of the paint. I just wet a part of the paper and transferred paint into the patch and then nudged it with the brush.

 Using a slightly dry-brush technique to achieve this textures.

Tip: Using a brush with a flat/square tip can give you these beautiful marks shown above. Simply wet the brush but then only touch the very tip with the paint and drag it in short succession.

 This was actually the very first thing I painted with the watercolours as a test, was a lot of fun!

Mixing the paint with other mediums.

I hope you have learned a little and hopefully been inspired!

~

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Please send us your work or anything that you create! Thanks for watching!

 

Natalie Wyatt

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