One of my activities lately, between other projects, is to randomly select an art project from the book 200 Projects to Strengthen Your Art Skills: For Aspiring Art Students. The one I decided on, thinking it would be a quick project, was to paint rust. Little did I realize just how complex an undertaking that is. I managed to spend hours on this digital painting, fussing with it, over-working it, wrecking it, then layering more colour and texture on top until it looked reasonably finished. What this tells me is that I need to paint more rust! Or, at the very least, I need to not underestimate the complexity of textures I see. Another day, another lesson learned...

Time to geek it out a tiny bit...
While we were at the National Gallery gift shop in Edinburgh, I stumbled across a Winsor & Newton Cotman water colour travel bag which I'd seen online but was unable to find anywhere near where I live. Jim (sweetie that he is) bought it for me as an early birthday present, and I love it! The travel bag includes a Cotman compact water colour set with 14 colours and room for mixing, a pad of 140lb water colour paper, a tips and hints booklet, a removable accessory holder with two Cotman brushes, a water bottle, a folding water bucket, a pencil, a kneaded eraser, and more room for additional pencils, brushes, paper and paper towels. Everything fits neatly in the bag's pockets so that you can strap it on and head out for some plein air painting. I'm such a sucker for artist's materials, and this gives me a little thrill every time I use it!

Sometimes it's the fastest sketches or paintings that end up being the most successful. I wonder if the more time I spend labouring over a piece, the more likely I am to over-work it? On the other hand, setting out with the intention of creating a quick, brilliant piece never quite seems to work the same way. Perhaps it's all up to chance - sometimes art just works that way.
This was a quick (very quick, perhaps a four minute) sketch using an ink pen and watercolour pencils. I discovered that the ink pen was not waterproof, but the running ink and the watercolour ended up working well. A happy accident, as most artists are very familiar with!

Ah, drawing as catharsis... Chalk pencil on brown packing paper.

Ink pen in my Moleskine - a wee pattern drawing as an aside while I work on the mock-up for a commissioned painting...

It's hotter than Hades here today (no AC and no basement to retreat to), and my brain is working verrry slooowly. I managed to get some work done today, but sadly nothing worth posting here. In lieu of any new work, I'm posting a piece from my sketchbook.
This drawing was an exercise in shape and colour using my Faber-Castell pen brushes:

I had some time (but not enough!) during our vacation in Scotland to do a couple of short plein air drawings - one of Nelson Monument on Calton Hill, and one of a rocky outcropping near Inchcolm Abbey. I love plein air drawing, but I'm not crazy about strangers looking over my shoulder while I work - performance anxiety, I guess. My sketch of Nelson Monument isn't half-bad, but the ink pen study I'd done near Inchcolm Abbey was interrupted by the return of our boat home, so it's decidedly unfinished. Jim took a great shot of my subject matter, however, and I was able to do a more detailed colour study of the rocks once I got home. I was thinking of only posting the more successful Inchcolm drawing, but presumably we're all here to learn, so here is my work - the good and the not-so great:

We spent a day visiting the Surgeon's Hall (a fascinating look at early medical and surgical practices!), then on to The Elephant House cafe, famously frequented by the likes of Ian Rankin, author of the bestselling Rebus novels! Oh, and also someone named J.K Rowling, who apparently wrote some books about a boy wizard there...

On our last full day in Scotland we took a boat tour on the Firth of Forth to Inchcolm Island, where we visited the 12-century Inchcolm Abbey.

On the trip out we saw these seals sunning themsleves on a marker buoy:

The Abbey is quite an impressive sight to see upon docking:


We had enough time on the island to eat the lunch we'd brought with us, then go exploring in the old abbey:


In the evening we took in Taste of Edinburgh, and got lots of great ideas for our next trip to Scotland! Jim took this great shot at The Meadows, which captures the moody, ethereal beauty of this unforgettable place:

Mid-week we had a chance to walk through the graveyard of St. Cuthbert's, then took a while to relax and enjoy Princes Street Gardens before heading on to the National Gallery. I was fascinated to see graves that dated back to the 17th century, and the park-like graveyard in the middle of the city was surprisingly quiet and tranquil.

Princes Street Gardens were always busy, but on days when it wasn't raining the area teemed with people playing soccer, kids playing chase, and others just sitting and relaxing.

We trudged up Calton Hill twice during our stay in Edinburgh, and if you've done it, you know that it's a short but steep and relentless climb! The view at the top is worth the work, however, and we took some great shots:

On the hottest, sunniest day during our stay we spent a few hours at the Royal Botanic Garden. My sister assured me that the smell of the flowers and plants and soil was incredible, but alas, I had a cold and couldn't experience that aspect of it. However, the colours and textures were limitless, and I could have spent a week there with my field sketch book and watercolours!