Artwork: Zebra Pen Technical Pen and Finetec Watercolor in Sketching Stuff Activity book.
If you are looking for the Life Imitates Doodles Weekly Wednesday Giveaway #17 , you can find it here.
The prompt at Doodlewash today is Golden Opportunity. You may be thinking ‘Where’s the Gold?’
Well, this seemed like a golden opportunity for me to show you another of the exercises from Charlie O’Shields The Sketching Stuff Activity book and for me to try out the Finetec Transparent watercolor set that I got for my birthday.
The watercolors are a student grade. You get 24 colors for about $26 dollars. For the price, they are good. The colors are bright – I suspect a dye rather than actual watercolor pigment. It would be a great set for art journaling, or a beginner on a budget that wants something decent, but doesn’t expect professional results.
This exercise was in looking for detail. Charlie drew part of the bird, and your challenge is to add the important detail.
Once again, I drew the shapes in my Hahnemühle black book. In fact, I drew them twice to create two birds. You can’t practice finding shapes enough!
I think I added more detail than I needed too, but that’s okay. Finding them was the point of the exercise.
Coloring the page wasn’t part of the planned exercise, but it’s fun! This paper is NOT formatted for watercolor and I knew I was taking a chance, but I wanted to try out my new watercolors! I was very careful to use just enough water to make the colors spread and it worked fairly well.
The paper did wrinkle a bit and the paper is absorbent so it soaked up fast, limiting how far you can spread it. There was no bleed-through or show-through on the back.
I don’t actually recommend using watercolor on these pages unless you are good at controlling your water flow and making sure none of the colors are too dark (or you don’t mind having the color bleed through to the back of the page).
It was fun, though and I like the results.
You can find my review of the Sketching Stuff Activity book here.
Did you know that there is a Sketching Stuff Facebook Group for people to share their work from the book?
Wanna buy some of these cool toys?
The Sketching Stuff Activity book by Charlie O’Shields
Hahnemühle Black book – Rochester Art Supply FineArtStore
Zebra Zensations Technical pens (review)
Zebra Zensations Fineliner Pen 0.8mm Assorted 24Pk
Charlie O’Shields is the founder and admin of Facebook’s ‘World Watercolor Group’, World Watercolor Month, and the Doodlewash Community. For more then 1400 consecutive days, he’s delighted his readers by sharing his watercolor art and a rambling essay about life, his interests, and the importance of staying young at heart.
Life Imitates Doodles 
Great exercise in shape finding and using different watercolors!
It’s a great book with some basic exercises. You can never have too many of those!
I like your results, too! what a pretty bird!
Thank you, Alice! Kingfishers are so stately. I love drawing them.
Sandra, this is a great interpretation of “gold.” Too many people go in search of gold when it’s right in front of them. I guess it depends on what kind of nugget you want. You’re very playful and adventurous – I admire that quality in anyone, but in art it’s essential. It’s interesting how much ink you lay down and yet it takes a back seat to the finished painting.
Thank you, Sharon! I do think too many people look for something valuable without really deciding what it is that they actually value.
Wow! I really adore this Sandra! You have such a great eye for detail!! 😍 And thank so much for the shout out my friend!
Thank you and my pleasure!
You are such inspirations, Sandra Strait and Charlie O’Shields. Thanks for always bringing a bit of brightness, art and happiness into my life!