Category Archives: Watercolor Pencils

Video – April Was Fake Journal Month

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2020 was my ninth consecutive year of Fake Journaling ever since being tuned on to the process by artist, Roz Stendahl in 2012. She has since stopped her own participation but all the pertinent information is still available on her Official International Fake Journal Blog.

I have all nine years of my fake journals on my dedicated Fake Journal blog…
Skylark Karma.
( skylark karma(dot)wordpress(dot)com ) Each is written by a distinct character, some bearing similarities to me while others couldn’t be more different. This year my character is female. She’s married to Hank and they have two children. The daughter, Lise, is a college freshman and their son, Silas, or Sy for short, is a high school senior. The journal chronicles their daily activity during April 2020 as they adapt to various challenges presented by the coronavirus pandemic.

I chose to draw and paint primarily food packaging and produce using Caran d’Ache Aquarelle watercolor pencils with journaling on the opposing pages.

Although I enjoy the daily process I confess my favorite part is making a short video slideshow to share. It’s nearly as good as letting you page through it yourself. You can always stop the video below to read the entries but it definitely would be easier to visit my fake journal blog and start here with April 1st.

Hope you enjoy this three minute escape into another life!

Remember, this is FAKE… no wrists were broken in the making of this journal.

Witness Protection Program

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I have more pages from my new favorite pocket sketchbook to share today.

It’s the Daler-Rowney Simply Pocket Sketchbook. I found it for $5 at Walmart and decided to give it a go. I consider it “Moleskine – Lite” since it looks and has all the elements of a Moleskine but with much thinner pages. The label shows all the particulars.

I don’t need the thicker pages… this is my pen n’ ink, people sketching, note taking, every day carry book. It’s great with all my black ink pens, but what if I felt like adding color?

Not an issue with standard colored pencils.

What about a scribble of watercolor pencils dissolved with the touch of a waterbrush?


No problem. The paper buckled a tiny bit but there was no bleedthrough. Granted, I didn’t flood the page.

I know this woman, we used to work for the same company years ago! I wonder if mutual friends will recognize her from my sketch.

… so much for the witness protection program.

Stillman & Birn

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For the last year or so I’ve been following the Stillman & Birn blog and entering each giveaway as they are posted but no luck until earlier this month! I’m so excited… I was one of the winners of the February giveaway! I was given a set of 12 Caran d’Ache Museum Aquarelle watercolor pencils and a choice of either a Beta or Zeta 8.5″ x 11″ sketchbook.

I’ve been using a Stillman & Birn Alpha sketchbook for the the majority of the pages seen on the blog lately and I love the white vellum pages. After searching the blog for other artists’ images, I decided to opt for the Beta.  Same white pages but thicker and slightly more texture… it’s billed as cold pressed.

Stillman & Birn Contest 1

Stillman & Birn Contest 2

I hate to have more than one sketchbook going at a time… it’s one of my many quirks… so the Beta will just have to wait it’s turn, but it’ll definitely be next.

I’m also going to have fun playing with the watercolor pencils. This  set of 12 has both a warm and cool of the three primaries, two greens, two earth colors, a gray and a black… it seems to be a perfect basic combination!

 

Thanks Stillman & Birn!