First Look at the Sketch Pad from the Artownlar 72-Piece Art Set

 

This is a follow-up on the blog post about unboxing the Artownlar 72 piece art set (here: https://allsortsartbyali.blogspot.com/2023/06/unboxing-artownlar-72-piece-art-supply.html ). This is a first look at the sketchbook that was included with the Artownlar art supply set. At the time, this sketch pad was shrink-wrapped, and so the only thing that I could tell you before opening it was what I could see from the outside.

It was labeled as a 60-sheet book, 8½ x 11 inches, with a paper weight of 80 pounds. I was pretty excited about that because most sketch pad paper is only 65 lbs, but 80 lbs is the same weight as my favorite drawing paper, Strathmore's 400 series. I could also see from indications on the cover and from looking at the side of the pad that the paper came in three colors: 10 pages of tan paper, 10 pages of black paper, and 40 pages of white paper. I've never seen a basic sketchbook with a variety of colors before, so that was fun.

 

Now I have unwrapped the sketch pad and have had a chance to examine it more closely. I have discovered something interesting: Not only do the pages come in different colors, they also come in different textures, according to color. The white pages are textured very much like drawing paper, with a fairly light “tooth” on each side. Good for pencil or colored pencil, and perfectly okay for media like pen or marker, too.

The tan sheets, however, are different: Unlike the white pages that are textured on both sides, the tan pages are extremely smooth on one side and have a texture on the other. 

The smooth side probably would not be good for the charcoal pencils that are included in the set and perhaps not for the softer drawing pencils; maybe the harder ones. I think these might be best suited for a medium like pen and ink or marker; possibly a somewhat dryer and thicker paint like gouache. As for the textured side of the tan pages, they have a lot more texture than the white pages, and so this might be ideal for a medium that gets built up in layers, like charcoal or colored pencil. Since the the set is very colored-pencil-heavy, then that might be a good thing to try.

Last but not least, the black pages are actually smooth on both sides and might not be receptive to any dry media. Again, these would kind of be like the smooth side of the tan sheets, but since they are black, perhaps they would be best used with gel pens in white or neon colors. I could possibly try white colored pencil and see if that goes anywhere, but with no tooth to the paper, I don't think trying to layer colored pencils as usual would work. I do have a silver Sharpie that might make some fun marks, but I would really prefer trying to stick to the supplies that are included in the set just for consistency sake and also it might be kind of fun to limit myself – it might force me to be more creative in figuring out what I can do.

I'm pretty sure that the black pages cannot be used with the watercolor pencils, but who knows? We'll see. I feel like the only possible page for the watercolor pencils might be the tan paper, because I think watercolor would probably just wrinkle up the white pages. Even though all the pages are supposed to be 80 lbs, the tan paper seems more sturdy, like maybe it would be okay to use watercolor pencils. Maybe I'll just try to use not very much water. I'm trying not to destroy things, here!

Anyway, I did end up using some supplies from the set, including one of the sketchbook pages, to make a picture, so I will write a more detailed review on that in the future.

For regular shenanigans, please follow my Facebook page, https://www.facebook.com/allsortsofart

Inktober 2024 Prompt List and Some Updates

 

I haven't written about Inktober in a while, and it's under way again, so first things first: There is the prompt list, above. Yes, I know they release it in September, and I know it's already the second week of Inktober, but...you know how I am. By the way, if you follow my Facebook page ( https://www.facebook.com/allsortsofart ), you will note that I shared the prompt list when it was released, so this is just kind of, let's say, reinforcement.

The last time I blogged about Inktober was in 2022, when I was writing about Inktober 2021 (again, completely on brand), right here https://allsortsartbyali.blogspot.com/2022/09/inktober-2021-thrilling-conclusion-kind.html . I'd actually had a cracking good year, producing well more of the prompts than usual, owing a lot to the fact that I ended up doing a few drawings later in the month that combined three prompts each.

Inktober 2021, Day 9, “Pressure” - I mentioned this one at the end of the last Inktober article as having been pencilled (believe it or not, prior to the start of Inktober that year) but not inked. Happily, I did manage to finish the inks on it – this year!!!

I wasn't very gung-ho about Inktober 2022 (still tired from the prior year? Anybody's guess), but I did produce work for the first two prompts, “Gargoyle” and “Scurry”, but, uh...not in that order. Really very much not. Not even in the same year, actually. I produced “Scurry”, a cute sketch of a stressed-out businessrodent, running (literally) late for an important meeting. Scurry, cute lil dude! You'll make it!

The Day 1 prompt, “Gargoyle”, was a classic example of my shooting myself in the foot by deciding that I was going to do a portrait (nooooo!) of one of Notre Dame's famous beasties, from photo reference. This is as far as I got that year:

Decent start, but whew, look – I shouldn't try that nonsense on Day 1. So when did I finish? I'll get back to that.

That was it for 2022, but I managed to do even less for 2023. This time I changed things up by mostly ignoring that it was happening at all, until I happened to notice that the Day 19 prompt was “Plump”, and I got inspired to scribble this cute gal:

And that was all of Inktober 2023 for me. I mean, so far, at least. I do have the idea that someday, I will actually go back and complete every single one of the prompts I missed. I mean, I have many months during which it is not actually Inktober, for corn's sake. At least I scored one, which is one more than the Australian women's Olympic breakdancer scored. I didn't even have to fly to Paris on anyone's dime.

Oh yeah – here's my drawing for “Gargoyle”, which I finished THIS YEAR. And upon posting it, I found out it's not even a gargoyle, dang it. It's a grotesque (they're to scare demons away – the gargoyles are downspouts, to drain the water away). So anyway, tune in next time or sometime to find out how I'm doing with this year's prompts. Spoiler: I am participating again, so there's that.

Here are the other Inktober articles, if you would like the full coverage:

https://allsortsartbyali.blogspot.com/2019/12/a-little-backstory-on-inktober.html

https://allsortsartbyali.blogspot.com/2020/10/inktober-2020-is-under-way.html

https://allsortsartbyali.blogspot.com/2020/11/more-fun-with-inktober.html

https://allsortsartbyali.blogspot.com/2021/03/another-shot-of-inktober-so-what-if-its.html

https://allsortsartbyali.blogspot.com/2022/04/inktober-restrospective-2020-part-two.html

https://allsortsartbyali.blogspot.com/2022/08/inktober-2021-starting-off-with-bang.html

https://allsortsartbyali.blogspot.com/2022/09/inktober-2021-did-i-start-unraveling.html

All images are my original art

Color Theory: What is Chroma?

In reading or hearing about color, you may hear the term "chroma" and wonder, what exactly, does chroma mean? It sounds kind of like chrome. Is it related? Something shiny? 

A simple explanation is that chroma=intensity, or how bright the color appears. Not bright as in "shiny", like chrome, but bright as in very highly pigmented, very highly concentrated color. In painter's terms, "straight out of the tube". 

Another term you may see for this is "saturation", which is used often in filmmaking - more saturated (bright) colors have a higher chroma, and less saturated (muted) colors a lower chroma. 

The three characteristics of color are: hue (what color it is), value (lightness/darkness), and chroma (intensity).

For example, the predominant color in my sketchbook drawing below is pink (hue), medium value (value is measured either on a 1-10 scale where 1 is equal to black and 10 is equal to white. I'd give this a 5 or 6) and a high chroma. It's a very intense color.

So the highest chroma is dazzling, intense color. As the color gets more muted, the chroma becomes lower, until the lowest chroma is just grey. And how light or dark the grey would be depends on the value of the original color.

Note that these three attributes - hue, value, and chroma - are all separate; you can have an intense light pink or an intense dark pink, a dull light pink or a dull dark pink, an intense dark blue, a dull medium purple, etc.

To read more about color and its practical applications: 

https://allsortsartbyali.blogspot.com/2014/12/want-to-use-color-in-your-home-learn_93.html

https://allsortsartbyali.blogspot.com/2014/12/using-color-in-your-home-getting.html

https://allsortsartbyali.blogspot.com/2014/12/vincent-van-goghs-irises-shows-how-to.html

For regular shenanigans, please follow my Facebook page, https://www.facebook.com/allsortsofart

Image credits (top) https://www.pexels.com/photo/color-shade-samples-276267/

second image is my much less professional photograph

HIMI Jelly Gouache Color Review #4: Jade Green, Grass Green, and Yellow Green

 

This is the fourth in a series of reviews of the individual colors from the HIMI brand 24-color “jelly” gouache paint set. This review will concentrate on the HIMI Jade Green, Grass Green, and Yellow Green jelly gouache paint colors and will also include updates on my Star Trek painting and how my swatch chart is coming along.

Setting aside the mint green grass debacle (see the review of HIMI Gouache color 005 – Pale Green for that https://allsortsartbyali.blogspot.com/2023/09/himi-jelly-gouache-color-review-3-pale.html) for a while, I turned back to working on the background of the painting. I needed a line of trees in the background, and so I was looking for a green that was darker but very cool, since cool colors recede.

HIMI Jelly Gouache color no 002 – Jade Green

There was a color in the collection called Jade Green - this is HIMI gouache color 002. It is a very dark color with a very cool cast, kind of like the green version of the Acid Blue that I discussed in a previous post (https://allsortsartbyali.blogspot.com/2023/07/himi-jelly-gouache-color-review-white.html). 

As with the other colors, it was very creamy in consistency once I had given it a good stir to get it well-blended. It was very dark, but gouache is easily lightened by diluting it with water or by mixing it with white or lighter colors. Since this was for the background and it's best to work thin-to-thick, I chose to simply dilute with water for the lighter bits. It made a good color for the background trees, so I went ahead and painted in the treeline and then added the Jade Green to my swatch charts.

HIMI Jelly Gouache color no 072 – Grass Green

Now that the trees were established in the background, I went back to working on the grass to complete the background of the picture. The obvious choice at this point was Grass Green, at which I had turned up my nose before. Not surprisingly, it ended up being an appropriate color for the grass, as you can see in this picture.

HIMI Jelly Gouache color no 018 – Yellow Green

I also added the color Yellow Green to highlight the areas where the sun would naturally be striking the grass, so that I could have a nice sunny meadow to compliment my bright blue sky. As you can see from the swatch chart at the top of the page, the Grass Green and the Yellow Green are extremely warm - that is, they have a lot of yellow in them - in contrast to the Jade Green and the Pale Green colors, which are extremely cool, meaning that they have a very blue undertone.

Now the background of the picture is pretty much complete, and I can move along to painting my characters!

For the original post describing the unboxing of the HIMI jelly gouache paint set, go here: https://allsortsartbyali.blogspot.com/2023/03/unboxing-himi-jelly-gouache-24-color-set.html

For the first review in the series, go here: https://allsortsartbyali.blogspot.com/2023/06/himi-jelly-gouache-color-review-1-sky.html

For regular shenanigans, please follow my Facebook page, https://www.facebook.com/allsortsofart

What Are the Different Grades of Drawing Pencils, and What Do they Mean?

If you are new to drawing, you may be looking at art supplies and notice that drawing pencils often come in sets that include a range of leads. Usually, these are labeled with H and B along with various numbers. Some brands have other letters, just to make things confusing - for whatever reason, Staedtler uses E. Most lines, however, use the grades you see in the sample chart, above, which can also include F. Don't worry, I will explain what the different grades mean – even the rare ones. 

Basic Info about Drawing Pencil Grades

First things first: a pencil "lead" is a stick of compressed graphite powder, so no worries about being in contact with actual lead. As you draw, you leave a trail of that graphite powder on the surface of the paper. The various pencil grades indicate exactly how much of the powder you will leave, which determines the quality of the mark you make. 

Let's start with the letters: H stands for H and B stands for soft (yeah, I know – maybe it would help to think of the softness of a baby or a bunny). HB is in the middle, and then you go up the numbers to the hardest and softest leads. The hard leads make a lighter mark that is more precise (because less graphite is being deposited) and the softer leads leave a darker, less-defined line, because more of the soft graphite particles are being shed onto the paper surface. The higher the number, the more of this characteristic there is: an 8B is loads darker and smeary that a 2B, and as expected, an 8H is harder and more precise than a 2H (you may notice that there's no 1H or 1B – those are just H and B). 

As for the one-offs, F stands for either Firm or Fine (as we've learned, a firm lead makes a fine line, so they are essentially interchangeable). As you can see from the above chart, F is in the middle with HB, but is put on the H side. E, in the Staedtler lines, stands for Extra Black (they will sometimes use EE or EB, as well), so it would occupy the spaces after the highest B numbers. 

Fun fact: the "number 2" pencils commonly used in schools are a 2B lead. The reason they are so common is that they are required for the standardized tests we took as kids where you have to darken in an oval for the correct answer. The 2B lead is dark enough to be easily read by the optical scanner that grades the tests, but firm enough so that it doesn't smear into other circles.

The Best Drawing Paper to Use with Drawing Pencils

Anyway, let's talk about that paper surface I mentioned, which is the other part of the equation. If you've ever tried to draw with a pencil on a piece of slick posterboard, you'll have learned you can't get very artistic with it - the slick surface doesn't have enough tooth (texture) to abrade the graphite particles off of the pencil. It's fine - posterboard is designed for ink, which likes a smooth surface to sit on. For pencil drawings, however, you will want a paper surface with some tooth. How much depends on what hardness of pencil. 

If you are using very soft pencils, use a paper with more texture, like pastel/charcoal paper, which is designed to grab those particles and hold them in their nooks and crannies, allowing you to build up layers of tone. For harder pencils, use a smoother surface, so your pencil won't catch or "skip" on the texture.

Tips about Using Different Drawing Pencil Grades

Be aware that the harder the lead, the more it tends to press into the paper. If you are trying to make a fine art drawing, you will be sad, because these teeny little furrows will mess up your flow. If you are making a technical drawing, however, you will be fine, because you will probably be using a hard surface - perhaps vellum - on which to draw, and you will be ruling precise lines that probably won't need to be shaded over or erased. 

Soft leads have their own challenges. The softer the lead, the more it tends to smear – great for blending and building up dark tones; bad for maintaining the cleanliness of you, your clothing, the work surface, etc. Be warned. 

A word of warning about these pencil sets: You might be tempted to mix the different leads in the same drawing, since you have a bunch. Yeah, don't do that. The hard leads have a noticeably "silver" cast, down to a much darker, charcoal-like black for the softest leads. They DON'T look good together. Don't go more than two grades away (say 4/5/6B, for example) if you want your tone to be consistent. Anyway, your really don't need all these different grades, in my opinion: If you want a lighter line, don't press down as much. For a darker line, press harder, thus depositing more graphite. That's how I get the full tonal range with just one grade of pencil. I personally use a regular old #2 mechanical pencil (Papermate Sharpwriter, if you're curious), and I can get a decent tonal range out of it (see my drawing of Tom Cruise below).

Enjoy your journey into the wonderful world of drawing! Drawing is a wonderful baseline skill to develop that will in turn improve your skills as a painter, a printmaker, and a designer or illustrator. I hope my tutorial helped. 

For regular shenanigans, please follow my Facebook page, https://www.facebook.com/allsortsofart 

Other articles about drawing you might like: 

https://allsortsartbyali.blogspot.com/2016/02/learning-to-draw-first-step-have-right.html

http://allsortsartbyali.blogspot.com/2015/03/i-have-been-professional-portrait.html

http://allsortsartbyali.blogspot.com/2015/03/figure-drawing-101-wacky-secrets-of.html

http://allsortsartbyali.blogspot.com/2015/05/figure-drawing-101-so-you-wanna-be.html 

Image credits: pencil grading chart - https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/fa/PencilGradingChart.png

portrait of Tom Cruise – my original art, see copyright notice 

Step-By-Step Tutorial: How to Draw the Houndstooth Pattern

A very classic and popular pattern for clothing, especially coats, jackets, and hats, is houndstooth. This pattern is usually seen in black and white, although any contrasting color scheme is possible. The name “houndstooth” is an attempt to describe the angular, intricate repeating pattern; it is called “pied de poule” (chicken foot) in French, but I like to think of it as “bunny in a bow tie” (more on that later).

Although the houndstooth pattern looks extremely intricate, it is formed of very basic geometric shapes – squares and stripes – and can be fun to doodle, once you get the hang of it. Many people find doodling relaxing and meditative, and some people find that doodling helps them concentrate. If you like to doodle or draw intricate or repetitive patterns, you may find learning to draw the houndstooth pattern to be very enjoyable. I have broken it down into very easy, illustrated steps so that you can easily learn to draw houndstooth right away!

1. Draw a light grid or use graph paper. Draw and fill in every other square in a row, skip a row, then repeat.

2. Draw diagonal lines that exactly bisect each orthoganally-adjacent square. So, everything to either side, and above or below, your black squares.

3. Draw smaller lines on each side, so that those squares are divided into four parts. The little squares that are left with no lines are your white squares (or whatever color the paper is). As you draw, you will see that they will follow the same type of pattern as the black squares – there will be a white block every other square, with a striped square on each of its four sides, on the alternating rows. This is what will create the houndstooth pattern.

PLEASE NOTE: you do NOT draw a border or outline around these striped squares. Part of the stripes will connect to your white areas, so you don't want to “cut through” them.

4. Here's the tricky part. These squares are going to be striped in alternating black and white. That's clear enough. But, when going across, the stripey squares between the solid black squares all "start" with black in the lower left corner, and the next row down - where the stripey ones alternate with the solid white squares, the pattern is reversed, and the lower left corner is white.

The easiest way for me to remember what goes where is to see this pattern as a "bunny in a bow tie". Both sides of his little bow tie need to be the same color.

5. Continue as desired

You may find it easier to draw the pattern larger, especially if you would like to keep the smaller stripes more uniform and precise. This could also be easier if you are just starting to learn how to draw the houndstooth pattern, or if it is difficult to see or to draw the pattern at a smaller size.

Beneath the smaller houndstooth pattern on the graph paper below is a reference for houndstooth using a 2x2 pattern (each block is 2 across and 2 down, for a total of four graph squares in each block of solid or stripe). I left it partially unfinished so you can see how it is easier to draw the smaller connecting lines of the stripe sections in the houndstooth pattern. 

I hope you have enjoyed this tutorial! Join me on my Facebook page for more shenanigans! 

Cover image: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Houndstooth#/media/File:Houndstooth.jpg

Step-by-step images, my originals (see copyright notice)

HIMI Jelly Gouache Color Review #3: Pale Green

 

This is the third in a series of reviews of the individual colors from the HIMI brand 24-color “jelly” gouache paint set. This review will concentrate on the Pale Green jelly gouache color and will also include updates on my Star Trek painting and how my swatch chart is coming along and how the gouache set is holding up.

In previous reviews, I described my swatch charts and how I would be reviewing the HIMI gouache colors as I opened each one up to use in a small painting with a mythology/Star Trek theme done on a birthday card for a friend. The painting is an outdoor scene, and I paint back-to-front, so the first order of business would be establishing the thing that is ultimately the most background-y thing in a landscape: the sky. After HIMI's Sky Blue color turned out not to be what seemed like a softball (here's that experience: https://allsortsartbyali.blogspot.com/2023/06/himi-jelly-gouache-color-review-1-sky.html), I was able to make a decent sky out of Acid Blue (who knew?) and, of course, white. Details here, if you haven't seen that one: https://allsortsartbyali.blogspot.com/2023/07/himi-jelly-gouache-color-review-white.html

Now, the search is on for an appropriate color for the grassy meadow. There is literally a color in the set called Grass Green, but I wasn't going to be fooled again. In my wisdom (or maybe just cynicism), I started with Pale Green, a much less intense color. What the heck, I figured – it's easy enough to paint over. The swatch chart is not gonna fill itself.

HIMI Jelly Gouache color number 005- Pale Green

So, Pale Green is EXACTLY AS ADVERTISED. It's pale green. It's actually pretty much – at least it appears on the brown kraft-paper card – a mint green. Lovely color; not very grassy. Anyway, I painted the whole meadow anyway, so that when I painted over it, the color would be consistent. This ain't my first rodeo, y'all.

I swatched out Pale Green on my black and white charts by itself and also mixed 50/50 with White, Sky Blue and Acid Blue. 

It makes a nice emerald color when mixed with the Acid Blue. The Sky Blue didn't affect it much other than cooling it a bit. The White, predictably, just made it very minty. The opacity of this color is very impressive, and the granularity is very low. It's a smooth color, just not very grassy. Oh, well! Live and learn.

Here are the first four colors as I have them arranged in my set (picture was taken before swatching).

The Acid Blue is still a bit creamy, but the Sky Blue and the White have dried out a bit. Never fear! These paints aren't like acrylics – they don't dry waterproof. All it takes to revive them is a bit of water. You can drip clean water off your paintbrush, or if you would like to revive several, or all, of them, a little spray bottle does the trick nicely. I got this one from the dollar store. It works well, and it's super cute!

Next up, we'll see if Grass Green wasn't lying to me like Sky Blue did. 

Here is the first article regarding the unboxing and the overall quality and appearance of the 24-color HIMI jelly gouache set:

https://allsortsartbyali.blogspot.com/2023/03/unboxing-himi-jelly-gouache-24-color-set.html

For regular shenanigans, please follow my Facebook page, https://www.facebook.com/allsortsofart