December 25, 2014
Regardless of one’s religious affiliations today marks a special day for families and friends, a day to remember how important these relationships are in our lives. It is a day filled with rituals, and we usually celebrate it with gift giving and the sharing of a festive meal. And the crowning glory of the meals is dessert, of course! So I selected the cannolo to draw today. It is a traditional Italian dessert reserved for special occasions. Its crisp shell is filled with a ricotta cheese, sugar and candied fruit mixture. I enjoyed it with a cup of Ghirardelli hot chocolate topped with mallow bits and dashes of cinnamon and nutmeg.
Image #1: I started by measuring the main objects, so as to have a correct proportion of the cannolo, saucer and cup, marking the height and width of each. Then I used Derwent brown-ochre and blue-grey watercolor pencils to draw a gestural set-up of major shapes. I followed this with a Lamy Safari pen drawing in black ink of the main objects. Finally I added watercolor paint. When this was dry, I made some ink lines heavier to help define the edges.
This was my first attempt at using this paper and a 2-page spread. I found that the paper handled the ink and the watercolor paint well. The only part that needs improvement is my application of watercolor paint to larger areas of the paper. A larger paint brush would likely help. I thought of adding a design element to the fabric, which is present in the actual placemat, but decided it might be too much of a distraction from the main object. The salt and pepper shakers turned out well.
FYI: My scanner made the dark vertical line showing the page's crease--not sure how to minimize that other than using photo-editing software. I use a Canon MP970 scanner. I find that it takes a quality photo, which I then edit slightly for saturation and sharpness in iPhoto. The result is fairly close to the original. The size of the platen is a limiting factor in scanning a 2-page spread, as seen below.
FYI: My scanner made the dark vertical line showing the page's crease--not sure how to minimize that other than using photo-editing software. I use a Canon MP970 scanner. I find that it takes a quality photo, which I then edit slightly for saturation and sharpness in iPhoto. The result is fairly close to the original. The size of the platen is a limiting factor in scanning a 2-page spread, as seen below.
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| Week 7 Assignment: Image #1 Connolo Watercolor pencil gestural set-up and ink drawing. Daniel Smith watercolor in a Strathmore 500 series watercolor sketchbook-- a vellum-surfaced, 100% cotton paper. |
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