Searching for superblooms and finding.....

[Bartc]

Not so easy in the SF Bay Area, despite all the lovely pictures posted of flowers. My group went out to Coyote Hills Regional Park in Fremont, CA, yesterday in hopes of spotting a big varied colored bloom. Nope, but there were instances of floral highlights.

It was cold as the Arctic with a stiff wind blowing, plus long straight uphill walks to the supposed best spots, and already ill with a cold, instead of lugging my heavier pastel or acrylic gear I opted to keep experimenting with Caran D'Ache Neocolor II crayons. Got two, one landscape from life and one take off on blooming Ceanothus bushes, both 12x9" on Bockingford hot-pressed paper. (Excuse the hastily done photos.) B. Charlow 2023

 

[Donna T]

Those are both very nice, Bart! Seems like you and the Neocolors are a good fit. I hope the cold doesn’t hang around long.

 

[Terri]

These are both really nice, Bart! I know I recently asked you how you and the Neocolor II were getting along - I can see plainly that you're getting along quite well!

Love the brightness in your landscape. So, you're going to take a brush to your tree (I guess they're actually bushes)? This should be very interesting. I like it as is, but the addition of the water brush is supposedly what makes these crayons shine.

 

[Bartc]

These are both really nice, Bart! I know I recently asked you how you and the Neocolor II were getting along - I can see plainly that you're getting along quite well!

Love the brightness in your landscape. So, you're going to take a brush to your tree (I guess they're actually bushes)? This should be very interesting. I like it as is, but the addition of the water brush is supposedly what makes these crayons shine.

Terri, actually, the bushes were painted almost exclusively with a water brush, with only a few lines crayoned in afterwards. I used a DIY palette (just a sanded piece of poly) to mix the colors as they instruct in the videos. And it does work. So I do feel that I have done what can be done for my painting style pretty much with this medium. There is no water nor brushing in the landscape, just a sketch.

The only thing I haven't tried with it is mixing in other media - ink or watercolor underneath (or on top) nor pastel over it.

I can't say that it's any different than any other watercolor crayon or stick. But it does work fine as such. For a lightweight kit to take into the field it works well, especially for a colorful quick sketch.

 

[MurrayG]

Hi Bart. Seems to me you managed some really nice paintings even if the blooms were elusive. I agree, the crayons work for you. Nice.

 

[MurrayG]

Hi Bart. Seems to me you managed some really nice paintings even if the blooms were elusive. I agree, the crayons work for you. Nice.
Edit... Sorry about the double post, i got a server error message, so some techno glitch?

 

[Terri]

Hi Bart. Seems to me you managed some really nice paintings even if the blooms were elusive. I agree, the crayons work for you. Nice.
Edit... Sorry about the double post, i got a server error message, so some techno glitch?

We might be a tad buggy at the moment. Hannah announced a server update earlier today.

 

[Terri]

Terri, actually, the bushes were painted almost exclusively with a water brush, with only a few lines crayoned in afterwards. I used a DIY palette (just a sanded piece of poly) to mix the colors as they instruct in the videos. And it does work. So I do feel that I have done what can be done for my painting style pretty much with this medium. There is no water nor brushing in the landscape, just a sketch.

The only thing I haven't tried with it is mixing in other media - ink or watercolor underneath (or on top) nor pastel over it.

I can't say that it's any different than any other watercolor crayon or stick. But it does work fine as such. For a lightweight kit to take into the field it works well, especially for a colorful quick sketch.

Ah, I misunderstood! Sorry. I thought you had sketched the bushes with the Neocolors dry, and then planned to brush over them with a water brush. I can discern the soft lines now - that's what I get for looking from my phone!

 

[Jo Castillo]

These are both great. Hard to be creative if you don't feel well. These turned out just swell.

 

[Artyczar]

I commented on this in the other thread but wanted to say again how much I love that second piece. Both are lovely!

 

[Bartc]

Thanks, Donna, Terri, Murray, Jo, and Ayin!