Twinrocker Handmade Paper, Part One

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Three 8”x10” ink and wash pieces on cold, rough, and hot press watercolor paper

I’m so glad I found Twinrocker papers. These amazing papers are made in Indiana by hand, and if you can decipher the names, weights, colors, and ingredients, you’ll be able to confidently order gorgeous paper, but if you’re like me, just order the samples and figure it out as you go.

I ordered the watercolor set of three papers which I used for the three drawings above, and I also ordered the sample pack that contains pretty much everything else, which I’ll review later.

I decided to do some studies of our porch, and I truly enjoyed creating these. Our porch is a happy, warm place filled with plants and light, and I loved how they turned out. I used ink pens, washes, masking fluid, tape, etc., to see how the papers preformed. They were amazing! I love all three and can’t find anything negative to comment on.

Nearly all Twinrocker papers can handle some water, so I’m not certain I need the watercolor paper for my technique. Part two of this review will be of the pack of smaller-sized samples. I’ll try graphite and pen and ink to do some quick sketches.

Categories: Art Ink

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Something Modern

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A few ink drawings, both about 8” x 8” on Canson multimedia paper

I took a class on Domestika to explore a little different style. These two pieces resulted from following Fujiko Rose’s modern botanical course. There are about four hours of instruction that covered some sketching, abstraction, planning, and creating a few works. Her style combines botanicals that lean toward realistic with abstracted elements. I really enjoyed it and got to spend some time using Indian ink with brushes and dip pens.

Categories: Art Ink

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Old Photo Inspiration

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My husband had this wonderful old photo and mentioned it would be an interesting graphite drawing. I gave it a try, taking over two weeks to complete it. It measures 9″ x 12″, and I used Canson Fluid multimedia paper. Maybe the bright leaves on the bottom right are too bright, but after hours of gray, gray, gray, I went a little overboard with the electric eraser.

And here’s the original photo, which measures 5″ x 7″. I just love it. A photo like this is awesome as is, and I wouldn’t normally try to copy something like this, but as I learn more about landscape drawing, it was a perfect exercise in foliage and also creating atmosphere. It was fascinating to take a photo of this and then zoom in. It revealed a white chicken way down the road, a detail I left out of my drawing.