Watercolour

Remembrance Day… let us not forget.

Featuredby Jane HannahLeave a Comment on Remembrance Day… let us not forget.

:: Flanders Fields ::

In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.
We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie,
In Flanders fields.
Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.
— by John McCrae, May

Today we went to see the National Remembrance Day in Ottawa. It was bitterly cold, and I had my tuque on, good gloves and a good coat. It was a very moving ceremony, especially when the mounted cannons started firing and the bagpipes were playing. There is something about that musical instrument that really moves me. Standing outside, I was amazed at the crowd; so many people had come to attend this ceremony, many of them much younger than I. In some ways, it gave me hope in these troublesome times. Hope in mankind, that all of us gathered together and thank all of those wonderful veterans who gave their lives for many of them, for us.

Colours: Q. Gold, Transparent orange, Cadmium Red, Cobalt Blue, Carbazone Violet
Fountain Pen: Platinum Carbon Desk Fountain Pen EF, Black, Japan
Paper: hand•book field watercolor journal
Size: 8″ x 8″

Sketches / Drawings / Paintings

: Magnolia Haven :

Featuredby Jane Hannah3 Comments on : Magnolia Haven :

I have been living in Ottawa for one year, and this Spring is filled with magnolias everywhere. So many blooms, huge magnolia trees, it feels as if this city is a haven for these beautiful trees.

I was yearning to paint in colour, and perhaps I overdid it a bit, but it felt good for my eyes -)

I’m listening to Laufey’s music, and she is so good. If you love jazz, you will enjoy listening to her music. She is a young and talented Icelandic singer-songwriter and musician. She is only 26 years old.

Colours: Prussian Blue, Q. Rose, Carbazole Violet and Q. Gold
Brushes: Rosemary
Fountain Pen: Platinum Carbon Desk Fountain Pen EF, Black, Japan
Sketchbook: Hand•book field watercolor journal 8×8

Sketches / Drawings / Paintings

: Sever :

Featuredby Jane HannahLeave a Comment on : Sever :
Inktober52 #12

Sometimes, you need to sever all of the noise. What better way than to put on your headphones and listen to some nice music while looking at the stars? It works for me.

Not my best illustration today. I had trouble making different values…they almost all came out the same. Next time, I will use more water dilution to increase the value increments.

Ink: Dr. Ph. Martin’s Black Star & Pen-White
Pen: Platinum Carbon Desk Fountain Pen EF, Black, Japan
Brushes: 3 Kuratake water brushes & 2 Princeton “cheap” watercolour brushes
Sketchbook: Moleskine Art Collection, Japanese album
Location: my imagination

Sketches / Drawings / Paintings

:: Stunt ::

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Inktober52-11

Ah the wars they will
be fought again
The holy dove
She will be caught again
bought and sold
and bought again
the dove is never free.
Ring the bells that still can ring
Forget your perfect offering
There is a crack in everything
That’s how the light gets in.
— Leonard Cohen

I did my Masters in Higher Education, and my thesis was entitled Music, an Invitation to Creativity. I started playing the piano when I was very young, and it has been with me throughout my life. I always turn on music when I decide to draw or paint or try to stimulate my creativity. It sets the tone, it sets my mood, and it helps me to concentrate on my task. Today, while drawing, I listened to David St-Jacques’ “Avant l’espace” on Spotify. It always soothes me.

For the Inktober52 prompt “stunt”, I first thought of drawing a series of polluting chimneys and the flowers in front of them, dying off with stunted growth. Then I thought of the letters in S T U N T, and I thought of the hammer. Here it is.

Ink: Dr. Ph. Martin’s Black Star
Pen: Platinum Carbon Desk Fountain Pen EF, Black, Japan
Brushes: 3 Kuratake water brushes & 2 Princeton “cheap” watercolour brushes
Sketchbook: Moleskine Art Collection, Japanese album
Location: my imagination.

Sketches / Drawings / Paintings

:: Daisy ::

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The real truthfulness of all works of imagination; sculpture, painting, and written fiction, is so purely in the imagination, that the artist never seeks to represent positive truth, but the idealized image of a truth. (Edward Bulwer-Lytton).

I’m a bit late for my weekly Inktober52 prompt, but no matter, I’m catching up. The prompt was “daisy,” and it just felt good to draw daisies as Spring is at our doorstep here in Ottawa. Today is a balmy 11C, and people are walking in shorts and T-shirts in the streets. Well, young university students, I might add, as people my age are still wearing winter coats.

Ink: Dr. Ph. Martin’s Black Star & Pen-White
Pen: Platinum Carbon Desk Fountain Pen EF, Black, Japan
Brushes: 3 Kuratake water brushes & 2 Princeton “cheap” watercolour brushes
Sketchbook: Moleskine Art Collection, Japanese album
Location: daisies photograph from the internet.

Sketches / Drawings / Paintings

:: Lamp ::

Featuredby Jane Hannah8 Comments on :: Lamp ::
Inktober2025 #9

If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer. Let him step to the music which he hears, however measured or far away. (Henry David Thoreau).

My husband and I have been together so long that we often have the same thoughts at the same time! Today was one of those days. As I was planning the shopping, I thought of a cheese fondue with chipotle. As I started to write it down, my husband came into the kitchen and said we should have cheese fondue soon.

My Inktober52 challenge continues, and I am starting to miss painting in colour. So I guess I will have to find another day to do it. When I thought about drawing a lamp, so many ideas came to mind. First I thought of fireflies coming out of the moon, then an iguana with a lamp on its head! Then the saviour, the octopus, with his many hands, would guide the animals through the night, illuminating them with lamps. I was saved by an octopus, LOL -)

Ink: Dr. Ph. Martin’s Black Star & Pen-White
Pen: Platinum Carbon Desk Fountain Pen EF, Black, Japan
Brushes: 3 Kuratake water brushes & 2 Princeton “cheap” watercolour brushes
Sketchbook: Moleskine Art Collection, Japanese album
Location: My imagination -)

Sketches / Drawings / Paintings

:: Pisces ::

Featuredby Jane Hannah2 Comments on :: Pisces ::

Inktober52 #8

Artists report that an effective system is simply to give into “work-love.” The deposition of paint from a brush, or the laying of words on paper. There’s a realization that it’s all of value, and it is, after all, what we do. Painters paint. Writers write. Sculptors make dust. “Work is love made visible.”
— Kahlil Gibran

Sketches / Drawings / Paintings

:: Pyramid ::

Featuredby Jane HannahLeave a Comment on :: Pyramid ::

Inktober52, week 6

I have learned that what I have not drawn, I have never really seen, and that when I start drawing an ordinary thing, I realize how extraordinary it is, sheer miracle.
— Frederick Franck, The Zen of Seeing.

I had so much fun drawing and imagining this prompt. As Frederick Franck says, I have now “seen” the Chichen Itza pyramid in Mexico. I have seen it by drawing it, but I also did climb at the top of this majestic pyramid. Nowadays, no one can climb it, as it has become a World Heritage site, but when I went there with one of my girlfriends in the 80s, we could. It was quite arduous as the steps were high and steep as we climbed. When I got to the top of the pyramid, I turned around to look at the view, and I felt a hand pushing me! Vertigo had seized me! I turned to my girlfriend, crouched on my heels and started crying, asking her to call the firetrucks so they could come and rescue me. She tried soothing me, and I kept crying, terrified of the height.

Finally, after a few hours of crying and hoping that someone would come and rescue me, I started going down… When I reached the bottom of the pyramid, Mexican families were laughing so hard as they had watched my struggle in a very long descent.

Ink: Dr. Ph. Martin’s Black Star & Pen-White
Pen: Platinum Carbon Desk Fountain Pen EF, Black, Japan
Brushes: 3 Kuratake water brushes & 2 Princeton “cheap” watercolour brushes
Sketchbook: Moleskine Art Collection, Japanese album
Location: My imagination -)

Sketches / Drawings / Paintings

:: Swamp ::

Featuredby Jane Hannah2 Comments on :: Swamp ::
Inktober52, week 6

The mystery is the human faculty of perception, the act of knowing what our senses have discovered.
— Edmund Bolles, A Second Way of Knowing: The Riddle of Human Perception.

For this prompt, I needed to picture an imaginary parcel of land where water and trees intermingle. I used atmospheric perspective to recreate this environment. Elements that are near are darker and more detailed, whereas elements further away are lighter and less defined.

Definition: an area of low-lying, uncultivated ground where water collects; a bog or marsh. Comes from Norway and Sweden and is “swank”. Wet, spongy land, boggy ground.

Ink: Dr. Ph. Martin’s Black Star & Pen-White
Pen: Platinum Carbon Desk Fountain Pen EF, Black, Japan
Brushes: 3 Kuratake water brushes & 2 Princeton “cheap” watercolour brushes
Sketchbook: Moleskine Art Collection, Japanese album
Location: My imagination -)

Sketches / Drawings / Paintings

:: Zoo ::

Featuredby Jane HannahLeave a Comment on :: Zoo ::

Control of consciousness determines the quality of life.
— Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, from Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience

In these turbulent times, where the whole world seems stressed out, I started thinking of psychology lessons I learned long ago. We studied Olivia Remes, an anxiety researcher at Cambridge, who discovered that we can develop coping skills for anxiety through the things we do and practice.

It may sound obvious, but jumping into something — like drawing, painting, sculpting, or writing, in fact, any form of art — and doing it without worrying beforehand, and not worrying about the results. Gasp! Even daring to do it badly? This technique needs to be applied and practiced over an entire lifetime. And as the artist matures, the anxiety devil passes less and less often through the door.

Inktober52 #5 prompt is “zoo”, a facility where wild animals are housed for exhibition.

Ink: Dr. Ph. Martin’s Black Star & Pen-White
Pen: Platinum Carbon Desk Fountain Pen EF, Black, Japan
Brushes: 3 Kuratake water brushes & 2 Princeton “cheap” watercolour brushes
Sketchbook: Moleskine Art Collection, Japanese album
Location: my imagination -)

Sketches / Drawings / Paintings

:: Aquarius, take two ::

Featuredby Jane HannahLeave a Comment on :: Aquarius, take two ::

Along the river’s edge
a figure bends
to dip his earthen pots
into its vital flow
they sip the precious liquid
shimmering and crystalline
like diamonds floating
above the eclipse of the sun
they become transformed
from dormant vessels
wearing the dull
pallor of mud
to vibrant cisterns
radiating the glow
of polished jade
they breathe away
exhaustion
in frothy currents
rushing
past swollen lips
to join the constant stream.
— Jai Rho, poet

Finally, this “idea” for a drawing is much better than yesterday in my point of view. The Inktober52 prompt is Aquarius, which means, in astrological terms, the water carrier. There is also an insect named Aquarius remigis, known as the water strider. So, I combined these two ideas to create one concept. The water strider’s antennas reach out to the clouds, carrying the water. Haha! Got it?

For those interested in participating in the Inktober52 challenge, creating one drawing a week all year long, you can subscribe here. LINK.

Ink: Dr. Ph. Martin’s Black Star & Pen-White
Pen: Platinum Carbon Desk Fountain Pen EF, Black, Japan
Brushes: 3 Kuratake water brushes & 2 Princeton “cheap” watercolour brushes
Sketchbook: Moleskine Art Collection, Japanese album
Location: my imagination -)

Sketches / Drawings / Paintings

:: Aquarius , the water strider ::

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“When I die and go to heaven, I want to spend the first million years painting — so I can get to the bottom of the subject.” — Winston Churchill

Indeed! Winston Churchill’s prayer sounds just about right to me. Here is my Inktober52 Aquarius prompt drawing, representing a water strider, the Aquarius Remegis. These insects can be found worldwide, on the surface of ponds, lakes, slow-moving streams, and rivers, and they are quite fascinating to look at when up close. They are also harmless, I might add.

I first drew in the water strider, then used three brush pens that I diluted to 10%, 20% and 30% of the black ink strength to get my grey values.

I have become rusty from the lack of painting and drawing since my finger accident in October 2024… it is taking such a long time to heal. At least I have no tendons that were torn, which would have been much worse.

Ink: Dr. Ph. Martin’s Black Star & Pen-White
Pen: Platinum Carbon Desk Fountain Pen EF, Black, Japan
Brushes: 3 Kuratake water brushes & 2 Princeton “cheap” watercolour brushes
Sketchbook: Moleskine Art Collection, Japanese album
Location: my imagination -)

Drawing, Moleskine Art Collection Japanese Album

:: Tick Tock ::

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This thing all things devours:
Birds, beasts, trees, flowers;
Gnaws iron, bites steel;
Grinds hard stones to meal;
Slays king, ruins town,
And beats high mountain down.
— JRR Tolkien, The Hobbit

This prompt “tick tock” was a really hard prompt for me. I had so many ideas! An hourglass, a time watch, a Tik Tok logo swirling in space, an hourglass eating the Tik Tok logo, and vice versa, etc. For this drawing, the sand in the hourglass comes back from space in an endless loop, never stopping, never ending. But time keeps on ticking, even in a loop…

To think of time and its endless ticking… the passing of time, fleeting time, chronological time, historical time, psychological time, ordinary time of day, universal time, moments in time, ahead of time, all the time, at one time, at the same time, at times, behind time, behind the times, for the time being, from time to time, in no time, in good time, in time, many a time, on time, time after time.

In French, we have: A temps, au temps de, au temps jadis, au temps où, avec le temps, avoir fait son temps, avoir le temps, avoir du temps devant soi, bon temps, ans le bon vieux temps, de notre temps, de temps en temps, de temps à autre, de tout temps, en même temps, en temps et lieu, en tout temps, entre-temps, être de son temps, gagner du temps, la plupart du temps, n’avoir qu’un temps, perdre son temps, prendre son temps, quelque temps, se donner du bon temps, temps partiel, temps plein, en avant de son temps, en temps, faire du temps, sauver du temps, temps double, temps et demi, temps, simple, temps supplémentaire…

Ink: Dr. Ph. Martin’s Black Star & Pen-White
Pen: Platinum Carbon Desk Fountain Pen EF, Black, Japan
Brushes: 3 Kuratake water brushes & 2 Princeton “cheap” watercolour brushes
Sketchbook: Moleskine Art Collection, japanese album
Location: my imagination -)

#Inktober52 #Inktober52TICKTOCK

Drawing, Ink, Moleskine, Moleskine Art Collection Japanese Album

:: Shrimp :: Inktober52 :: Prompt #2

Featuredby Jane Hannah2 Comments on :: Shrimp :: Inktober52 :: Prompt #2
I sat staring, staring, staring – half lost,
learning a new language or rather the same language in a different dialect.
So still were the big woods where I sat,
sound might not yet have been born.
— Emily Carr, Canadian artist

I have been reading Emily Carr’s Growing Pains and I wish to share an excerpt from her book. “… Outdoor study was as different from studio study as eating is from drinking. Indoors we munched and chewed our subjects. Fingertips roamed objects, feeling for bumps and depressions. We tested textures, observed contours. Sketching outdoors was a fluid process, half looking, half dreaming, awaiting invitation from the spirit of the subject to “come, meet me half way”. Outdoor sketching was as much longing as labour. Atmosphere, space cannot be touched, bullied like the vegetables of still life or like the plaster casts. These space things asked to be felt not with fingertips but with one’s whole self.”

I love what she wrote. It is pretty much how I feel about “plein air” sketching as opposed to painting indoors, and the reason why plein air painting makes me so nervous… as I’m half looking at the subject, and half waiting for the connection to take place.

So to come back from my meanderings, or should I say rambling, this is my SHRIMP version of Inktober52, week 2. I drew/painted this indoors, in my office at home, and I love the safeness of drawing indoors! I have all of my equipment with me, I have my books for reference, I can put any music that my heart desires and I am warm with a hot cup of tea next to me. Plein air has its wonders and hurdles too. My feet freezing in the car, there’s rain or snow falling on me and my hands are frozen with the cold… oh the joys of living in a colder climate. But the fleeting light that disappears as a cloud passes over me, the call of a goldfinch singing near me, the rustle of leaves at my feet, that, does not happen indoors. So the moral of the story is this. I will continue painting/drawing outdoors and indoors. Easy huh?

Some of you may wonder why I have put some trees under the made-up moon, but to me they are algae… or leaves feeding off from the moon or whatever you like -)

Ink: Dr. Ph. Martin’s Black Star & Pen-White
Pen: Platinum Carbon Desk Fountain Pen EF, Black, Japan
Brushes: 3 Kuratake water brushes & 2 Princeton “cheap” watercolour brushes
Sketchbook: Moleskine Art Collection, japanese album
Location: my imagination -)

#Inktober52 #Inktober52SHRIMP

Sketches / Drawings / Paintings

:: Sunrise :: Inktober 52 :: Prompt #1

Featuredby Jane HannahLeave a Comment on :: Sunrise :: Inktober 52 :: Prompt #1

Mon père n’avait fille que moi,
Canot d’écorce qui va voler,
Et dessus la mer il m’envoie:
Canot d’écorce qui vole, qui vole,
Canot d’écorce que va voler!
— La Chasse-Galerie de Honoré Beaugrand

Here is my Inktober 52, prompt #1, sunrise. The Instober 52 prompts are one drawing a week for the entire year, thus 52 weeks.

My sunrise turned into a battlefield of rolling machines and flying aliens. I imagine that Ray Bradbury inspired me a tad. I was listening to Trump and Musk and this may have inspired or should I say “despaired” me? They were the source of my disarray?

As you may have noticed, I have been quite silent these past few months. In October we travelled to Italy, and in Rome I fell on my third finger and broke tendons in it… and it was my right hand! It hurt so much, and I was unable to bend it for quite a long time, and now, thankfully, I am almost fully recovered… not totally, but still better. I cannot bend it well, but at least I’m able to write and draw, which when it happened, it would have been impossible. My husband joked at the beginning of the fall that I wouldn’t be able to do the dishes anymore… and that was one good thing about all of this.

Ink: Dr. Ph. Martin’s Black Star & Pen-White
Pen: Platinum Carbon Desk Fountain Pen EF, Black, Japan
Brushes: 3 Kuratake water brushes & 2 Princeton “cheap” watercolour brushes
Sketchbook: Moleskine Art Collection, japanese album
Location: my imagination -)

#Inktober52 #Inktober52SUNRISE

Drawing, Ink

:: Wild Roses ::

Featuredby Jane HannahLeave a Comment on :: Wild Roses ::

On long, serene midsummer days
Of ripening fruit and yellow grain,
How sweetly, by dim woodland ways,
In tangled hedge or leafy lane,
Fair wild-rose thickets, you unfold
Those pale pink stars with hearts of gold!
— by Edgar Fawcett

The temperature in Ottawa has been very hot these past weeks with humidex temperatures in the mid-30s. We manage to go biking early in the mornings as it is less hot, and this morning there were hardly any bikers which was unusual, but there were many hikers. Did I ever tell you that Ottawa is a biker’s paradise, as well as a walker’s paradise? To me anyway.

One of my friends, Stan, posts photos of beautiful landscapes from his neck of the woods in Newfoundland and he posted several wild roses photos and this is one of them. I like painting from photographs even though many artists prefer plein-air. Plein-air makes me nervous and I don’t know why… I always wonder when someone will be peeping over my shoulder — hah-hah!

Paper: Moleskine Watercolour Sketchbook
Pen: Carbon Pen
Ink: DeAtramentis Document Black

Sketches / Drawings / Paintings

DreamLand

Featuredby Jane Hannah2 Comments on DreamLand

It’s a long, long way from Canada
A long way from snow chains
Donkey vendors slicing coconut
No parkas to their names
Black babies covered in baking flour
The cook’s got a carnival song
We’re going to lay down some place shady
With dreamland coming on
Dreamland, dreamland
Dreamland, dreamland
— Joni Mitchell

There’s this restaurant in Ottawa named DreamLand that seems to make very good pasta and I have never been. I wonder if they based their name on Joni’s song? When I checked this restaurant out, the photo drew me in, so I decided to paint it. It is in in the Italian sector of Ottawa on Preston Street.

As all novice painters, I overcharged and overdrew it. I should know better… and it is my goodwill and my earnestness that always seems to win, until with tried and true experience, I rein them in.

As you know, this experience comes at a cost. If you stop drawing and painting, well, the wheel has to start all over again… the wheel is smaller, but still, it has to start again -) I am a forever hopeful painter.

Watercolours: Q. Rose, Cobalt Blue, Q. Gold and some others in unobscure ways
Ink: DeAtramentis Document Black
Fountain Pen: Carbon Ink
Paper: Moleskine Watercolour Sketchbook

Ink, Moleskine, Watercolour

Day Lily

Featuredby Jane Hannah1 Comment on Day Lily

“I’ve looked at life from both sides now
From win and lose and still somehow
It’s life’s illusions I recall
I really don’t know life at all.”
— (Joni Mitchell, from “Both Sides Now”)

As some of you might know, my favourite singer/writer of all time is Joni Mitchell. When I was a young girl, I learned all of her lyrics and when a new album was created, oh boy! I would run to the record store. In those days the album artwork for the 33 LPs and lyrics were something to peruse for hours. I don’t know why exactly, but this day lily reminds me of those days gone by.

There is a really nice man in Newfoundland, Canada that takes beautiful pictures of his hometown and it is his photograph that inspired the painting. Thanks Stan!

Watercolours: Transparent Orange, Q. Gold, Hansa Yellow, Cerulean, Cobalt Blue
Ink: DeAtramentis Document Black
Fountain Pen: Carbon Ink
Paper: Moleskine Sketchbook

Ink, Moleskine, Watercolour

À La Margaret in colour

Featuredby Jane Hannah2 Comments on À La Margaret in colour

That which we do not bring to consciousness appears in our lives as fate.
— C. G. Jung

My colour combo is astonishing to say the least… my eyes are rusty from lost practice. However, it is a quirky and fun painting. Just hope that Margaret Atwood would appreciate it -! It is soothing to be painting again.

Moleskine

À la Margaret

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The child was already in the air, buoyed on his wings, which he did not flap to and fro as a bird does,
but which were elevated over his head, and seemed to bear him steadily aloft without effort of his own.
— Edward Bulwer-Lytton, The Coming Race

Being a fan of our very own Canadian Margaret Atwood, what first came to mind when I started drawing this? À la Margaret, of course! Her hair and her quirkiness and her intelligence are renowned and admired. If I had had the space, I would have put on more hair going up… this hairdo also reminds me of “Cosmo Kramer” in Seinfeld, he made me laugh so much!

Fountain Pen: Carbon Ink
Ink: DeAtramentis Document Black
Paper: Moleskine #25 Watercolour Notebook
Location: My brain…

Sketches / Drawings / Paintings

Fun & drawing

Featuredby Jane Hannah3 Comments on Fun & drawing

the right song
at the right time
is like a hug for
your soul.
— Topher Kearby

I have been having fun doodling characters that famous illustrators/artists have done over the years. The first one is from a beloved comic strip from A. Uderzo with his renowned Astérix character. Here you can see Panoramix, the local druid, who conjures up lotions to win their local wars against the Romans. The second illustrations are from Mattias Adolfsson, a swedish illustrator who is a creative genius in my point of view. Hey! You have to learn from the best -) Now I just have to invent my own…

By the way, my neighbourhood in Sandy Hill, Ottawa has just been voted one of the 10 best neighbourhoods to live in Canada. Proximity to major stores by foot, parks, bike trails, natural environment… we’re lucky!

Drawing

The Majestic White Pine & the Theory of Aging

Featuredby Jane Hannah1 Comment on The Majestic White Pine & the Theory of Aging

As the number of the year gets bigger
the year itself grows smaller
but heavier. It acquires gravity.
It will finally get so heavy
that it cannot continue as it is
but implodes to a black hole
into which sink all the years
becoming numberless
and utterly weightless.
— Theory of Aging poem by Ursula K. LeGuin

Oh! How I love this poem. It sounds dire, but it is not. It is beautiful.

After not having drawn nor painted in months, oh boy! Am I rusty? More than rusty I should say as I decided to try my hand today at a high view of where I live… did I muff that one up. So I realized that I had to start with baby steps, with a small sketchbook and with one of my beloved pens. The majestic white pine, and happily, there are tons here in Ottawa. So I sat down, breathed in, and drew this slowly and carefully. So the result is not half as bad as I thought that it would be.

So see you later then friends.

Sketchbook: Moleskine 3.5″ x 5.5″
Fountain Pan: Platinum Carbon Desk Fountain Pen EF, Black, Japan
Ink: DeAtramentis Document Ink Black

Sketches / Drawings / Paintings

A time for celebrations

Featuredby Jane Hannah3 Comments on A time for celebrations

Finally have internet high speed! Yeah! We are settling in nicely in our new condo in Sandy Hill, Ottawa. So happy with our choice and a new style of living begins. Our bikes are being tuned and ready for the great bike paths of Ottawa. I can hear birds chirping away all day long, so the Mrs. is happy -) This is a view from our balcony which overlooks many embassies… Australia, Brunei, Brazil, Germany, Kenya, Croatia, Serbia, Egypt and many more. You can see the Australian Embassy’s flag just to the right of the red brick house on the left… if you wish to take out your magnifying glasses…

Finalement nous avons l’internet! C’est comme manquer d’électricité, aussi pire à mon point de vue. On s’installe tranquillement et sûrement dans notre nouveau condo de Sandy Hill, Ottawa. On est très contents de cette nouvelle vie en ville… et j’ai des oiseaux qui chantent aussi -) Nos bicycles sont en train de se faire tuner pour rouler sur les pistes cyclables de cette belle ville. Contente la madame! Voici une vue de notre balcon qui donne sur de nombreuses ambassades… Australie, Brunei, Brésil, Allemagne, Kenya, Croatie, Serbie, Égypte et bien d’autres encore.

#inktober, #inktober2023, Drawing, Moleskine Art Collection Japanese Album, Sketchbook Molesine

:: Angel :: Inktober 16

Featuredby Jane Hannah4 Comments on :: Angel :: Inktober 16

I’ve looked at life from both sides now
From win and lose and still somehow
It’s life’s illusions I recall
I really don’t know life at all.
— Joni Mitchell

Had a lovely night with dear friends yesterday, and I am energized even though a tad tired as we went to bed quite late.

During our trip to Greece in Fall 2022, I bought a statue that celebrates Nike, the goddess Victory near the Acropolis in Athens. The real statue resides at the Louvre in Paris, and I think that it should be returned to Greece, which is her homeland after all.

The Winged Victory of Samothrace is one of the rare Greek statues whose exact original location is known. It was made as an offering to the gods for a sanctuary on the Greek island of Samothrace. Placed at a height, people could see her from afar. Nike, the winged goddess who heralds victory, is seen just as she is about to alight on a ship. — https://www.louvre.fr/en/explore/the-palace/a-stairway-to-victory

Ink: Dr. Ph. Martin’s Black Star & Pen-White
Pen: Pilot Falcon Soft EF Japan
Brushes: 3 Kuratake water brushes & 2 Princeton “cheap” watercolour brushes
Sketchbook: Moleskine Art Collection, japanese album
Location: my imagination -)

#inktober, #inktober2023, Drawing, Ink, Moleskine Art Collection Japanese Album, Sketchbook Molesine

:: Sword :: Inktober 15

Featuredby Jane Hannah4 Comments on :: Sword :: Inktober 15

History is herstory too.
— Author unknown

The Inktober prompt today was “sword” and I thought of my scottish Hannah family motto Per ardua ad alta which means Through straits to heights. I tweaked our family motto to fit the “sword” prompt, adding a sword on the left-hand side. It’s always nice to dabble with your surname.

Ink: Dr. Ph. Martin’s Black Star & Pen-White
Pen: Pilot Falcon Soft EF Japan
Brushes: 3 Kuratake water brushes & 2 Princeton “cheap” watercolour brushes
Sketchbook: Moleskine Art Collection, japanese album
Location: my imagination -)

#inktober, #inktober2023, Drawing, Handbook Travelogue, Moleskine Art Collection Japanese Album, Sketchbook Molesine

:: Castle :: Inktober 14

Featuredby Jane HannahLeave a Comment on :: Castle :: Inktober 14

There are worse crimes than burning books.
One of them is not reading them.
— Ray Bradbury

One of my best books that I read at about 14 years old was Dandelion Wine by Ray Bradbury. Read this at any age, it is so good.

Just wanted to mention something about the Pilot Falcon Soft Pen EF. It took me months and months to start enjoying this pen, which I paid a hefty sum in my view, for a pen that I didn’t really appreciate. But oh boy! Has it turned around? At the beginning it felt scratchy and didn’t fit my hand that well. But I have adapted and now it has become smooth and fits perfectly. Weird huh? Maybe that the scratchiness has disappeared because I have used it a lot? Also, I used to swear by other pens because of their fine line, but this one surpasses all of them. So you never know, until you use a tool enough and that you adapt to it.

Ink: Dr. Ph. Martin’s Black Star & Pen-White
Pen: Pilot Falcon Soft EF Japan
Brushes: 3 Kuratake water brushes & 2 Princeton “cheap” watercolour brushes
Sketchbook: Moleskine Art Collection, japanese album
Location: my imagination -)

#inktober, #inktober2023, Ink, Moleskine Art Collection Japanese Album, Sketchbook Molesine

:: Rise :: Inktober 13

Featuredby Jane HannahLeave a Comment on :: Rise :: Inktober 13

To learn is to broaden, to experience more, to snatch new aspects of life for yourself. To refuse to learn or to be relieved at not having to learn is to commit a form of suicide; in the long run, a more meaningful type of suicide than the mere ending of physical life… Knowledge is not only power; it is happiness, and being taught is the intellectual analog of being loved.
— Isaac Asimov

I must still be in Halloween mode as it is a bit scary. I’m scared of snakes but I love mushrooms and trees. So two to one. Snakes are so beautiful though, aren’t they? Mushrooms and snakes are so bloody nice to draw… and trees of course! So if you don’t know what to draw, just draw trees and the flow in their bark will inspire your hand to draw more.

Ink: Dr. Ph. Martin’s Black Star
Pen: Pilot Falcon Soft EF Japan
Brushes: 3 Kuratake water brushes
Sketchbook: Moleskine Art Collection, japanese album
Location: my brain -)

#inktober, #inktober2023, Ink, Moleskine Art Collection Japanese Album, Sketches / Drawings / Paintings

:: Spicey :: Inktober 12

Featuredby Jane HannahLeave a Comment on :: Spicey :: Inktober 12

Time is not a thing that passes…
it’s a sea on which you float.
— Margaret Atwood

My idea was good!…. at first. Then trying to make it happen, well.. not quite so good. My first thought for spicey was a dragon with fire coming out of his mouth. Not bad, huh? Then I told myself: “What if he was gripping a hot pepper?” Well, now the difficulties arose, as I muffed up the dragon’s face so he is barely recognizable and then the hot pepper is just too “soft”? Anyway, you get the gist of it all -))) Some days you have it, others less so…

Ink: Dr. Ph. Martin’s Black Star
Pens: Pilot Falcon Soft EF Japan
Brushes: 3 Kuratake water brushes & 2 Princeton “cheap” watercolour brushes
Sketchbook: Moleskine Art Collection, japanese album
Location: my brain -)

#inktober, #inktober2023, Drawing, Ink, Moleskine Art Collection Japanese Album, Sketchbook Molesine

:: Wander :: Inktober 11

Featuredby Jane Hannah1 Comment on :: Wander :: Inktober 11

There’s nothing like drawing a thing to make you really see it.
— Margaret Atwood

Never thought that drawing sand dunes would be so difficult.

Ink: Dr. Ph. Martin’s Black Star
Pens: Pilot Falcon Soft EF Japan
Brushes: 3 Kuratake water brushes & 2 Princeton “cheap” watercolour brushes
Sketchbook: Moleskine Art Collection, japanese album
Location: my brain -)

#inktober, #inktober2023, Drawing, Ink, Moleskine Art Collection Japanese Album, Sketchbook Molesine

:: Fortune :: Inktober 10

Featuredby Jane HannahLeave a Comment on :: Fortune :: Inktober 10

The flower’s pollen is the bee’s fortune,
but for humankind, the bee is our fortune.
— Jane Hannah

A busy bee this one… even though it looks like something that could be in Starwars –))) Had way too much fun drawing this “fortune” prompt and I think that I slightly overdid it.

Ink: Dr. Ph. Martin’s Black Star & Pen-White
Pens: Pilot Falcon Soft EF Japan
Brushes: Princeton “cheap” watercolour brushes
Sketchbook: Moleskine Art Collection, japanese album (last page).
Location: my mind -)

#inktober, #inktober2023, Drawing, Ink, Moleskine Art Collection Japanese Album, Sketchbook Molesine

:: Bounce :: Inktober 9

Featuredby Jane Hannah2 Comments on :: Bounce :: Inktober 9

I love fiction’s ability to allow me to inhabit a wholly different life.
— Rumaan Alam.

I am presently reading with my Book Nuts Club “The Librarian of Burned Books” by Brianna Labuskes and am enjoying it so much. It is a captivating WWII-era novel about the intertwined fates of three women who believe in the power of books to triumph over the very darkest moments of war. I actually dreamt about it last night and I woke up sweating. Hah-hah!

One of my two favourite wild animals in the world are whales and elephants. These giants are so intelligent and they amaze me with their curiosity. Still can’t believe that we are killing these gentle giants in 2023. However my favourite domesticated animal is surely the dog, especially Golden Retrievers, as I consider them to be gentle giants too. Do some of you remember The Gentle Giant TV show in the 60s? I am discovering the world of parrots at the moment and boy are they mischievous, intelligent and fun! If I had known I would have adopted one in my 20s and still have it. Aaahhh, things that we ignore when we are young even though we tend to think that we know everything.

Coming back to painting and drawing, I was reading Roslyn Stendahl’s “Patience in Watercolour” yesterday and she is so right. I become a very impatient painter with watercolours as when I am in the flow, I tend to think that if I stop painting to let it dry, that the flow will disappear… I won’t be able to get back into that state. But she talks about the type of watercolour paints that we should buy, which colours to pick and so on. She has years of experience in teaching also and is very generous with her knowledge.

Ink: Dr. Ph. Martin’s Black Star & Pen-White
Pens: Pilot Falcon Soft EF Japan
Brushes: Princeton “cheap” watercolour brushes
Sketchbook: Moleskine Art Collection, japanese album
Location: a photo from Unsplash -)

#inktober, Sketchbook Molesine

:: Toad :: Inktober 8

Featuredby Jane Hannah2 Comments on :: Toad :: Inktober 8

I would have artists be convinced that the supreme skill and art in painting consists in knowing how to use black and white…
because it is light and shade that make objects appear in relief.
— Leon Battista Alberti

Well I had a heck of a fun time drawing this. Don’t ask me what I tried drawing though, what kind of a world, but it fits just fine with my love of sci-fi books. I just went with the creative flow. Funny, I used to teach a Creative Workflow course at John Abbott… seems years ago to me even though it has only been two years since retirement. I do hope though that you can see the two toads here? At the rhythm that I am drawing with Inktober this year, I’ll probably have done my 30 drawings by the end of the year? Doesn’t matter, this is fun -)))

Ink: Dr. Ph. Martin’s Black Star & Pen-White
Pens: Tachikawa Nikko G Pointed Nib & Pilot Falcon Soft EF Japan
Brushes: 3 Kuratake water brushes & 2 Princeton “cheap” watercolour brushes
Sketchbook: Moleskine Art Collection, japanese album
Location: my imagination -)

#inktober, Drawing, Sketchbook Molesine

:: Drip :: Inktober 7

Featuredby Jane Hannah3 Comments on :: Drip :: Inktober 7

It is no longer sufficient to describe the world of nature.
The point is to defend it.
— Edward Abbey

Love this conversation between Ricky Gervais & Stephen Colbert. Here is the link if you want to listen to it on YouTube. I was thinking of nature and science at the same time… and war. And sometimes, our brains are wired in a funny way and it led me to this memory of a conversation that was quite interesting, to say the least. I had to start all over again for this drawing as the first one that I did, I really really muffed it up! LOL -))) This is is simple… and safe.

RG: I’m an agnostic-atheist technically. Agnosticism means that no one knows if there is a God so everyone is Agnostic. An atheist is someone who doesn’t know if there is a God or not, as no one does.

SC: So you’re not convinced of your atheism?

RG: Yes I am! Atheism is just rejecting the claim that there is a God. Atheism isn’t a belief system. This is Atheism in a nutshell. You say: “There is a God. I say: “Can you prove that?” You say: “No”. Then I say: “I don’t believe you then.” So you believe in one God I assume? There are about 3000 Gods to choose from. So basically you deny one less God than I do. You don’t believe in 2999 Gods and I don’t believe in just one more.

RG: We want to make sense of nature and science and it is unfathomable that everything in the Universe was once crushed into something smaller than an Atom.

SC: But you don’t know that! You just believe Stephen Hawkins and this is a matter of having faith in his abilities. You don’t know it yourself, you’re accepting it because someone told you.

RG: But science is constantly proved all the time. You see, if we take something like any fiction book, or holy book and we destroyed it, in a 1000 years time, these books would never come back. However, if we took every science book, and every fact, and destroyed them, in a 1000 years they would all be back, because all of the same tests would give the same results.

Pen: Pilot Falcon Soft EF Japan
Sketchbook: Moleskine Art Collection, japanese album
Location: my brain in Rigaud -)

#inktober, Drawing, Ink, Painting, Sketchbook Molesine

:: Golden :: Inktober 6 prompt

Featuredby Jane Hannah2 Comments on :: Golden :: Inktober 6 prompt

A box without hinges, key or lid
Yet golden treasure inside is hid.
— Bilbo The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien

Getting a tad late with my Inktober prompts, but oh boy! Am I still enjoying using my imagination? Love it! I should have put the egg much bigger and downsized the cockatiel, but still. Playing with proportions is part of the imaginative process… and you ask yourself: “What if…?”

Ink: Dr. Ph. Martin’s Black Star & Pen-White
Pens: Tachikawa Nikko G Pointed Nib & Pilot Falcon Soft EF Japan
Brushes: 3 Kuratake water brushes & 2 Princeton “cheap” watercolour brushes
Sketchbook: Moleskine Art Collection, japanese album
Location: my brain -)

#inktober, Drawing, Ink, Sketchbook Molesine

:: Map :: Inktober 5 prompt

Featuredby Jane HannahLeave a Comment on :: Map :: Inktober 5 prompt

To know that we know what we know, and to know that we do not know what we do not know, that is true knowledge.
— Nicolaus Copernicus.

The “map” prompt made my head swirl with ideas and being a neophyte in astronomy, what better chance than to map out the stars above my head in Rigaud? In order to do this I went to the exquisitely rendered Stellarium website, accepted to share my location, and voilà, the view from my house looking North. There was even a Starlink satellite passing by while I was looking (Elon Musk’s Starlink satellite company). You can see the URSA MAJOR & MINOR URSA constellations, which we call here the Great Bear & Little Bear and in French la Grande Ourse et la Petite Ourse. At the top left there the VEGA star which is 25 light years away from us which is part of the LYRA constellation. There is also the PLEIADES, an open cluster of stars commonly named the Seven Sisters or Subaru. Such an interesting topic by the way. Anyway, I had fun learning about all of this.

Ink: Dr. Ph. Martin’s Black Star & Pen-White
Pens: Tachikawa Nikko G Pointed Nib & Pilot Falcon Soft EF Japan
Brushes: 3 Kuratake water brushes & 2 Princeton “cheap” watercolour brushes
Sketchbook: Moleskine Art Collection, japanese album
Location: based on the Stellarium website.

#inktober, Drawing, Ink, Sketchbook Molesine

:: Dodge :: Inktober 4 prompt

Featuredby Jane Hannah2 Comments on :: Dodge :: Inktober 4 prompt

Definition of inertia: ‘The vis insita, or innate force of matter, is a power of resisting by which every body, as much as in it lies, endeavours to preserve its present state, whether it be of rest or of moving uniformly forward in a straight line.’
— Isaac Newton

Dodge Challenger for the 4th Inktober prompt. I really struggled with this car, but in the end, after erasing a few times, I got it mostly right. Now that I have drawn & painted this car, I know its characteristics by heart. It’s a mean looking dude and the sound of the engine is so nice. One of my teacher colleagues has one… needless to say, the students enjoyed watching her arrive in her Challenger. Have a good one Kellie-Rae -)

Ink: Dr. Ph. Martin’s Black Star & Pen-White
Pens: Tachikawa Nikko G Pointed Nib & Pilot Falcon Soft EF Japan
Brushes: 3 Kuratake water brushes & 2 Princeton “cheap” watercolour brushes
Sketchbook: Moleskine Art Collection, japanese album
Location: my imagination & drawn from a photo.

#inktober, Drawing, Ink, Sketchbook Molesine

:: Path :: Inktober prompt

Featuredby Jane HannahLeave a Comment on :: Path :: Inktober prompt

Ring the bells that still can ring
Forget your perfect offering
There is a crack in everything
That’s how the light gets in.
— Leonard Cohen

I had so many ideas for the path… and some of them really difficult to draw/paint. So here is Dorothy’s path in the Wizard of Oz going towards Emerald City. The cracks in the path show the hardships that they had to go through to make it. A bit of symbolism here.

Ink: Dr. Ph. Martin’s Black Star & Pen-White
Pens: Tachikawa Nikko G Pointed Nib & Pilot Falcon Soft EF Japan
Brushes: 3 Kuratake water brushes & 2 Princeton “cheap” watercolour brushes
Sketchbook: Moleskine Art Collection, japanese album
Location: my imagination.

Drawing, Ink, Painting, Sketchbook Molesine

:: Spider :: Inktober prompt

Featuredby Jane Hannah3 Comments on :: Spider :: Inktober prompt

Let judges secretly despair of justice: their verdicts will be more acute. Let generals secretly despair of triumph; killing will be defamed. Let priests secretly despair of faith: their compassion will be true.
— Leonard Cohen

My second day with Inktober 2023 and the prompt is spider, the ideas are here so all is good. It just feels so right to be drawing & painting again. I’m just a very messy painter… now the room is a mess, so guess what I’lll be doing next? LOL.

I have 3 Kuretake water brushes that I pre-filled with water. The first one received 1 drop of black ink, the 2nd one 3 drops of black ink, and the 3rd one 5 drops. This way I have immediate access to 3 different levels of grey. And if I find that the grey is not intense enough, I just go back in… the sky I went in twice, using the lowest value brush.

At the National Gallery in Ottawa ‘Maman’, the giant spider sculpture stands just outside the entrance… and what a scene it makes.

Ink: Dr. Ph. Martin’s Black Star & Pen-White
Pens: Tachikawa Nikko G Pointed Nib & Pilot Falcon Soft EF Japan
Brushes: 3 Kuratake water brushes & 2 Princeton “cheap” watercolour brushes
Sketchbook: Moleskine Art Collection, japanese album
Location: from my imagination.

Ink

:: Dream :: an Inktober prompt

Featuredby Jane Hannah2 Comments on :: Dream :: an Inktober prompt

Without dreams the artist would perish. Dreams are the initial catalysts which launch us into a position of faith that tells us we can accomplish that which is not already done.
— Roger Asselin

I’ve decided to jump into the Inktober prompt, even though I am 7 days late. Having retired, let’s say that procrastination rules the house, rules our habits, rules my painting habits. As I have not painted in a while, my eye coordination is not up to par, and my wetting ability either but even with mistakes we always learn, don’t we? At least I got the general idea of what I wanted to do, so that is a good start. Take care everyone, our world is changing…

I wanted to share this thoughtful philosophy that Margaret Mead said.

Years ago, anthropologist Margaret Mead was asked by a student what she considered to be the first sign of civilization in a culture. The student expected Mead to talk about fishhooks or clay pots or grinding stones. But no. Mead said that the first sign of civilization in an ancient culture was a femur (thighbone) that had been broken and then healed. Mead explained that in the animal kingdom, if you break your leg, you die. You cannot run from danger, get to the river for a drink or hunt for food. You are meat for prowling beasts. No animal survives a broken leg long enough for the bone to heal. A broken femur that has healed is evidence that someone has taken time to stay with the one who fell, has bound up the wound, has carried the person to safety and has tended the person through recovery. Helping someone else through difficulty is where civilization starts, Mead said.” We are at our best when we serve others. Be civilized.

Ink: Dr. Ph. Martin’s Black Star & Pen-White
Pens: Tachikawa Nikko G Pointed Nib & Pilot Falcon Soft EF Japan
Sketchbook: Moleskine Art Collection, japanese album
Location: from my imagination.

Drawing

Jinhao Fountain Pen with Zebra G Nib

Featuredby Jane Hannah3 Comments on Jinhao Fountain Pen with Zebra G Nib

Les coquillages, dans ses mains,
Je ne sais pourquoi,
Changeaient de destin.
Elle les caressait, les palpait
Elle en extirpait la poésie cachée.
Ils ont sûrement un langage
Eux qui subissent les marées et voyagent.
Les plus ondulés, quelle merveille!
Ils chuchotent tous à l’oreille…
— Marie Dionne, Peintre, poète, artisane. Sainte-Barbe 1993

I’ve been fiddling with the Jinhao X750 Fountain Pen in order to modify it to fit a Zebra G Nib instead of its regular nib. Why? Because the Zebra G Nib is a very flexible nib which is usually used with dip pens, not fountain pens, and I don’t really like dip pens as you constantly need to dip your pen in ink. So why not convert it?

The Zebra G Nib is very cheap (it comes in a box of 10 nibs on Amazon for about $19 CAD) and the Jinhao Fountain Pen is also a very cheap fountain pen (on Amazon about $15 CAD), so if I am to break or damage the fountain pen, it is not a great loss. But thankfully, nothing bad happened and the pen is working very well thank you!

As you can see below, just by pressing harder the line thickens and when you lessen the pressure, the line is very very thin. Nice -))) The only drawback is I could not really draw very fast as it seems as though the ink takes more time to flow… not a great deal, but I will still tweak it tomorrow.

Moleskine Sketchbook 3″ x 5″
Ink: DeAtramentis Document Ink Black
Fountain Pen: Jinhao with modified Zebra G Nib

Techniques, Watercolour

Greens

Featuredby Jane Hannah4 Comments on Greens

Do not try to do extraordinary things
but do ordinary things with intensity.
— Emily Carr.

Testing out different green swatches today for my next trip to Costa Rica this year. These look quite boring but they are quite difficult to do, well for me anyway. I could have chosen for each swatch more saturation or less, more intensity for one colour as opposed to the other, so I tried to do to get consistently equal washes in both colours. That was the main difficulty. Some of the colours that really stand out for me are the following. The spring green, olive, khaki, dark green, rich green, mahogany, grey, and moss green. Generally, Lemon Yellow and Cobalt Green gave the lightest greens and the Hansa Medium made the brightest greens. The Raw Sienna gave the dullest greens and the phthalo green gave the most intense, bright greens.

I have always bought the DS Ultramarine, but the last one has been granulating, which I do not like, so I did another Ultramarine by W&N, which I prefer. The Prussian DS makes gorgeous greens; I will add this colour to my palette for Costa Rica in April.

If you like learning, you could look at Shari’s online classes. This is one of the exercises in her new “trees” course. She is well organized and her classes are always fun, especially since they are online.

DS: Daniel Smith :: DV: Da Vinci :: H: Holbein :: W&N: Winsor & Newton

Paper: 12″x9″ Hahnemulhe CP

Drawing, Handbook Travelogue

Small dominical pleasures…

Featuredby Jane Hannah2 Comments on Small dominical pleasures…

It is wonderful to feel the grandness of Canada in the raw,
not because she is Canada but because she’s something sublime that you were born into,
some great rugged power that you are a part of.
— Emily Carr

Here is a small sketch of today’s small pleasures… with a small clip. We are leaving in April and I am preparing my painting paraphernalia. It grows and shrinks as I put in stuff and then take it out! Hah! The story of my life, I should say. The question of the day was: “How many clips should I bring? And what size clip should I bring?” It seems as if today, I do have time on my side. I had the time to ask myself these silly and mundane questions, but still necessary questions for a painter. Just imagine. When I think of people all over the world that are going through a rough patch, war, hunger, migration, poverty… Emily Carr’s quote feels so real to me, as I have been blessed living here.

Sketchbook Molesine, Techniques

Chill Mama

Featuredby Jane Hannah2 Comments on Chill Mama

For art and joy go together, with bold openness,
and high head, and ready hand — fearing nought and dreading no exposure.
— James Abbot McNeill Whistler

Forget everything I wrote about my scanner problems as I have resolved them. So here goes. Mac OS Ventura and Silverfast software 8.8 on my Epson Perfection V600 Scanner — which I love by the way. So I twiddled around with the settings and looked up info on Google. Hah! Who doesn’t do that nowadays? Anyway, I listened to one of the “specialists”. Argh! Everything that he mentioned was causing more problems than resolving them.

So yesterday I started tweaking the settings again and Eureka! Now everything is fine. Can’t believe it. Under “Preferences” –> CMS Input at Epson Perfection V600 –> Reflective –> Internal at EPSON sRGB. And that’s it. Everything is back to normal. So this is the image that I tested everything with.

This is my Chill Mama that started out as a tree and ended up as the Chill Mama. Sometimes I just let my brain and fingers do their own thing, without any guidance whatsoever. This can end in utter disaster, or just plain fun. For me, it was the latter.

Paper: Moleskine Sketchbook 5″x8″

Handbook Travelogue, Ink, Watercolour

Longing for Greece

Featuredby Jane Hannah5 Comments on Longing for Greece

It’s not what you look at that matters,
it’s what you see.
— Henry David Thoreau

What better way than to paint what you long for? This painting is vastly overdone in many places, but I am happy with it. I like the grunginess of it all. It is very characteristic of what I have seen throughout my travels in Greece. Some of my shadows are not the right colours and some are too intense. I could call myself an eager painter as I paint in haste.

Paper: Travelogue Handbook 8″x 8″
Colours: Yellow Ochre, Q. Gold, Q. Rose, Cobalt Blue, Prussian Blue, B. Sienna
Fountain Pen: Pilot Penmanship  Fountain Pen, Clear, EF Nib, Japan
Ink: Noodlers Lexington Grey (bulletproof), my favourite colour

Drawing, Ink, Sketchbook Molesine, Watercolour

Flowerets II

Featuredby Jane HannahLeave a Comment on Flowerets II

Creativity is merely a plus name for regular activity…
Any activity becomes creative
When the doer cares about doing it right, or better.
— Author unknown

My flowerets in colour. I tested out 2 new colours today, Lavender which is an opaque watercolour and Cobalt Green. Then I got going with all of the other colours that I felt like putting in… must be because of the weather outside, cold and snow with no sun. This is my way of enlightening my days -))) To note that Moleskine Sketchbooks are not really made for watercolours… but they are definitely made for drawing with a fountain pen or technical pen as the paper has a velvety finish that makes ink go so smoothly… it’s as if you are drawing with butter.

And I’m still having problems with the calibration of my scanner since I have updated to Ventura… humph! The background paper is turning dark grey once I post it on WordPress so I have to calibrate each channel (RGB) individually. A real pain! If ever some of you are having the same type of problem, let me know what your solutions are…

Drawing, Ink, Sketchbook Molesine

Flowerets

Featuredby Jane HannahLeave a Comment on Flowerets

We are not going to be able to operate our 
Spaceship Earth successfully nor for much longer
unless we see it as a whole spaceship
and our fate as common.
It has to be everybody or nobody.
— Buckminster Fuller, 1895-1983
American engineer, inventor, designer, architect

A bit of line drawing today as I think that this is what I love the most. Drawing lines. Then paint. That will be for later. Hope that you enjoy this very unusual flower… my mind got the better of my fingers and started playing around with them. And by the way, this ink is permanent and indelible, so it will not mix with the watercolours.

Paper: Moleskine Sketchbook 5″x8″
Fountain Pen: Carbon Pen
Ink: DeAtramentis Document Black Ink

Ink, Sketchbook Molesine, Watercolour

Paintbrushes for Valentine’s Day

Featuredby Jane Hannah2 Comments on Paintbrushes for Valentine’s Day

Oh boy! When I start on something, I don’t let go! Meaning that I am still testing my scanner today and I am pretty sure that now my colour calibration is on the dot. Yeah! What really helped my quest was that I did not sleep last night — not a wink — and after tossing and turning and wondering how come I could not sleep I started doing calibration tests in my head. Oh bo-boy! When I start doing that, I am so screwed. But, the results are good! Hah-hah! My mother always used to tell me not to worry as a good night’s rest heals everything… well, perhaps that no rest heals other stuff?

Oh! Posted the wrong painting… ah! No sleep, that’s exactly what happens -)))

Paper: Moleskine Sketchbook 5″x8″
Watercolours: M. Graham’s Payne’s Grey

Techniques

Scanner problems with MacOS Ventura

Featuredby Jane HannahLeave a Comment on Scanner problems with MacOS Ventura

I’ve been having problems with my Epson Perfection V600 since I updated my iMac to the latest MacOS Ventura and eureka! I have just figured everything out. You can disable the colour management completely in the preferences’ CMS tab and lo and behold, it worked.

I just wanted to let you know, if ever anyone is stuck with the same problem as I was having. Of course, you have to do the colour correction yourself, and I went to the histogram tab and readjusted my painting in no time. So here is the same painting as today, but with a new scan.

I had been using Apple’s default Image Capture application which is far below the Silverfast 8.8 application that I am currently using. The Silverfast is so much better. You can see for yourself right here. It is much closer to the real painting.

Sketchbook Molesine, Watercolour

Fooling Around…

Featuredby Jane HannahLeave a Comment on Fooling Around…

A smile is a curve that sets everything straight.
(Phyllis Diller)

Fooling around with non-permanent pens… and wow! I did not realize that it would make such a mess of the colours. On the bright side, if you want a grungy look this is the way to go as the ink from the pen washes away and mixes with the watercolours. On the other hand, I like my colours to be “clean” so this was the downside. It doesn’t matter as I am experimenting and enjoying my time doing so. Ahhhhhh… the joys of retirement.

Paper: Moleskine Sketchbook
Pen: Staedtler triplus fineliner
Watercolours: Hansa Med., Q. Rose, Prussian Blue

Techniques

Pretty colours palette

Featuredby Jane HannahLeave a Comment on Pretty colours palette

Quarrel
Ooh-ooh-ooh-ooh-ooh
Ooh-ooh-ooh-ooh-ooh
He who asks for much
Has much to give
I don’t ask for much
Just enough to live
Ooh, in the light
Morning will reveal the spoils of night
Through the walls of Jericho
Ooh-ooh, lies a heart of stone
With you, half the battle is proving that we’re at war
I would give my life just for the privilege to ignore
Don’t call it a lovers’ quarrel
Don’t call it a lovers’ quarrel
— Moses Sumney on Aromanticism Album

I’ve been working digitally on my watercolour palette’s next colour combos. I think that this one will work out fine -) This song, Quarrel, has a softness to it that feels so good in these troubled times.