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So, I solved my dilemma with this rendition of the photograph. I decided that this time this "painting" will be ONLY with pen & ink. As you can see, I use the ink as a value wash. That is, I use the ink to wash in the shading within the "painting". It's just a pen & ink drawing, but it feel as if it's more of a painting than just a "drawing".

Awesome beautiful John.

JohnBFisher wrote:So, I solved my dilemma with this rendition of the photograph. I decided that this time this "painting" will be ONLY with pen & ink. As you can see, I use the ink as a value wash. That is, I use the ink to wash in the shading within the "painting". It's just a pen & ink drawing, but it feel as if it's more of a painting than just a "drawing".

You shouldn't say "ONLY". Years ago when I had a small printing business I did b/w photography in connection with printing. What I determined is that quite often the b/w photo was much more artistic and conveyed more feeling than it would have if in color. Sometimes the color becomes the focus of the piece and the subject loses its import. With b/w the subject is the subject of attention and in order for it to be worth looking at you have to have definite shades of gray and contrast. Don't sell the value of b/w, in this case pen and ink, short. In my book it often is the superior medium.

I'm astounded and amazed at how many beautiful pieces of art you have been able to produce in such a short time.

idamtnboy wrote:... You shouldn't say "ONLY". Years ago when I had a small printing business I did b/w photography in connection with printing. What I determined is that quite often the b/w photo was much more artistic and conveyed more feeling than it would have if in color. ...

Point taken. In fact, I remember the discussion that the color photography during the Vietnam war failed to capture the horror that previous war photography can captured .. due to the color. And it was the black and white photography of the civil war that so dramatically brings home the impact of those bloody campaigns.

idamtnboy wrote:... I'm astounded and amazed at how many beautiful pieces of art you have been able to produce in such a short time.

You and me, both! I sometimes feel absolutely driven to capture what's in my "mind's eye". I would happily paint two or three paintings per day if I had the chance. The amazing thing is that it sometimes comes out exactly how I want it to appear.

PERFECT!

John,

I do like this pen and ink very much. I am so enjoying this journey with you. Keep them coming. They are so inspiring.

Thank you for taking the time away from painting and drawing to share. I love your feelings in your paintings.

Karen

Our project last Friday was to do a fall foliage scene with a barn in the distance. Landscape paintings continue to be a struggle for me. But the trees are improving. ... Here's hoping you enjoy this watercolor sketch.

Today's project in my watercolor class was to create a misty type forest scene with a setting sun. Of course, I could not leave well enough alone and ended up going for a stylized scene. ... Perhaps it's fantastical, but I had a lot of fun bringing the colors and approach of this painting together. Hopefully you will enjoy it as well.

JohnBFisher wrote:Our project last Friday was to do a fall foliage scene with a barn in the distance. Landscape paintings continue to be a struggle for me. But the trees are improving. ... Here's hoping you enjoy this watercolor sketch.

Are you finding brown colors to be a challenge? The reason I ask is because years ago when I had my printing business I discovered that brown is a very narrow portion of the color spectrum even though we see it everywhere around us, and getting just the right tone can be frustrating. I've seen this with selecting colors on the computer. Blues and reds are wide in the spectrum, but not brown. Fascinating in a sense, to me anyway. In our first house after college the painter tried to match the brownish color of the hair of our little dog. He failed, and we ended up with a kind of salmon color kitchen!

idamtnboy wrote:... Are you finding brown colors to be a challenge? ...

Me, personally? Nope. However, I have VERY acute color vision and ability to remember and reproduce it. That's the key. The ability to hold a color in your mind's eye and then be able to reproduce it. Since childhood I've been able to do that.

So, why do I tend to eschew browns in my paintings? I just don't happen to desire to use a lot of browns. Instead, I shift colors into blues and reds. My watercolor teacher noted that I have the heart of a graphics designer in me .. I tend to create very stylized paintings, tending toward very vibrant color schemes that she would never attempt. But the almost always work (I've had the normal few disasters) when I put them together.

JohnBFisher wrote:So, why do I tend to eschew browns in my paintings? I just don't happen to desire to use a lot of browns.

Actually, it was the presence of some brown tones that prompted to think about asking! I thought about asking a couple of weeks ago but when I scanned back over some of your posts I saw that you do use brown! So, if you do eschew brown, it's not obvious!

Remembering colors is a real gift. I once was asked to describe a Navy person I had talked to about for 2 minutes so he could be located so I could talk to him again. I described him as white, tall, wearing a white uniform. When they found him it turned out he was black, short, and wearing a blue uniform!

idamtnboy wrote:... Actually, it was the presence of some brown tones that prompted to think about asking! I thought about asking a couple of weeks ago but when I scanned back over some of your posts I saw that you do use brown! So, if you do eschew brown, it's not obvious! ...

Funny you should say that. I actually use far less brown than most people realize. Instead I often will mix my colors, such that they appear as if they had brown. For example, the trees in the "Fantasy" picture used brown only at the base. Then I added Red, Blue, Green in that order for each of the trees. The leaves contain no browns, though the green with the red next to it appears brownish. It's just a trick of color on the eyes. We EXPECT to see brown and thus see the brown.

idamtnboy wrote:... Remembering colors is a real gift. I once was asked to describe a Navy person I had talked to about for 2 minutes so he could be located so I could talk to him again. I described him as white, tall, wearing a white uniform. When they found him it turned out he was black, short, and wearing a blue uniform! ...

When going through numerous tests early when my doctors were trying to diagnose what was happening, I had a neuro-phsychologist be rather amazed that with a memory test that I took. I actually got more accurate and detailed as time passed. I replay events in my mind's eye and am pretty accurate about those replays. He said that before me in all his years giving that particular test he had never had a patient get more detailed and accurate in the repeated replays. Most people loose detail as time progresses.

But you are right. That's pretty unusual. Your experience is why it's so dangerous to rely on just eye witness testimony. It's just not all that reliable.

Yesterday, I decided to pick up the challenge of not just drawing, but painting the Thistle with Bee. You may remember that I had done a pen & ink only drawing of the Thistle with Bee. This time, I decided to make it a bit larger (11x14 inches) and paint it. I hope you enjoy it!

Wow John, you've got some great work here.

John, I'd love to see this in person, really beautiful!