Looking forward to their ultimate transformation. 
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wonderful @sheralmyst and @TravelEcho
This sharing is getting contagious. 
Here is my latest.
I have been thinking for a long time of doing some urban sketching. This was painted from a photo ref from the internet. I wanted to try out this sketch book I was gifted. I was only going to use it for ink, but it takes watercolor all right and didn’t bleed through. I also wanted to try my travel setup. Which includes a small travel watercolor tray with brush, two small jars of water, a brush ink pen, rag and a pencil. I did end up using some white gouache for highlights, which I had not planned on needing. I am new to gouache, last piece I used it on took days to dry. So I’ll need a replacement or be better about negivitve space and leaving the paper as the whitest. I would like to be able to close the book or turn the page as soon as possible.
Now to the open air, maybe not just yet. 
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I like @Sir_oops ! It has a storybook feel and I want to visit. 
Storms have passed here and now it is blazing hot and so humid…I am spending some time varnishing what I have finished.
As for my paint pens, the ones I ordered were quickly out of stock. Rather than wait even longer, I cancelled them and went for the Posca pens. I ordered a small selection since their pens are only one size (other brands are double-ended with different sizes) So I ordered 2 small orders. One medium point and one broad. If I like them, I will likely order a fine point black and maybe a brown and white. Now I have to wait some more…
A lifetime ago, I worked just a smidge with watercolor. I remember using something to create negative space, which I removed afterwards. Was it a type of wax? It came off the paper very easily but I do not remember much about it.
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Oh, nice work on that sketch, @Sir_oops ! Glad you could join our little menagerie. 
I have found that the white PITT (especially the BIG Pitt) pens by Faber-Castell work very well with watercolour instead of guache, and dry almost instantly. It is very easy for the brush nib to pick up any watercolour
Looking forward to seeing more of your sketches. <3
pigments you stroke it over, so it needs wiping between strokes.
I think you mean masking fluid. Once the piece is completely dry you can roll it off or use a special gum eraser to push/pull it off.
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Yep. That’s it. Been a long time.
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I forgot to mention how cool that looks, Sir Oops. Was in the middle of eating or writing. Very European / British. The lands across the Pond from us yanks is so full of history and wonderful architecture, it’s why those who can afford it spend months-long vacations there, and snap bazillions of photos.
When I get this chapter posted, I really should try something, even if it’s just a sketch study! 
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No time to play but some of my posca pens came in. Interesting. I think I will be able to do something with them. They do kinda shred the paper but I am using 300gsm. However, it is not entirely a bad thing.
My stinky phone has an auto focus that drives me nuts…
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Got my hands on a few sheets of canvas paper. Does give the paint a different feel from both paper and actual canvas. (Upside down, lol)
I finished this mushroom group on paper
I am finding I have a strange quirk…my pics seem to pull to the right. Maybe because I am right handed? 
Gonna have to keep an eye on this.
These pics have pulled me back to my tiny brushes. I love them so much but, this time around I am holding them way back on the handle and standing back from the canvas which is helping me keep it loose. I am enjoying it.
So the Posca pens are a great way to do a quick color study. These shrooms need to ovelap me thinks…but I was able to lay out a color scheme quickly and without all the post cleanup of brushes and palettes
See how my phone focuses on the center but blurs the edges? I really hope I can turn that off somehow
Here is a close up of the pens in action if used while the previous layer is still wet. Trying out an idea for dewdrops
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Very nice! and fun, too!
4. What phone is it? I have to turn off the Macro mode on mine, then take a normal shot, and then edit/crop it. iPhone 13 Pro Max.
Some questions: 1. What size are your substrates? and
2. Are you unconsciously tilting your head while you work? I used to do that and then found my piece was way out of perspective. And
3. Is the canvas paper pre-gessoed?
I was thinking of trying some out myself, but I could find no information on the Posca website about the pigments/mediums they use… I had to go to Jerry’s Artarama to see that it was Acyrylics, and there was still no information about the paint itself. Do they use dryers, or solvents as part of the paint? Should you use them in a well ventilated room? What is their light-fastness rating? etc.
This makes me very grateful for Golden’s transparency regarding the contents of their paints and mediums. Golden also sells replacement caps for their more liquid paint lines so they can be used like brushes. I may try those out one of these years.
You’re doing some good stuff there, @sheralmyst ! 
Here’s my contribution:
(roughly 3.5 inches square, watercolour in wc sketchbook.)
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Nice! Bright and cheery🌞
The mushrooms are about 3x5"
The canvas paper is not gessoed nor anything else I have…I did gesso the few stretch canvases I have used but not the paper… 
which is what the mushrooms are on. A lot of what I have done was supposed to be practice…The canvas paper will likely just be used with the Posca. As for what they consist of well, I can’t read Japanese. I put my son to work on it. However, they have no odor. Seem to just be straight acrylic. As for practical value, I think I will enjoy them on-the-go which is what I was hoping for. They work wonderfully on the canvas paper but kind of shred actual paper. Still workable though. They dry quickly and will be great for a quick color study. Now I just need a bag to carry them in…thinking I have an old beach bag somewhere. Will work great!
As for tilting my head, I am wondering if it is one contact being more magnified than the other…I have a bit of a depth perception problem because of it…
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Sorry post has been in work for days:
Oh, I think I have heard of those, Masking Fluids and/or Liquid Friskets. Also the pitt pens. I’ll have to try it all, I have never used any before. The gouache was dry the next day. I think the first time I used it I globbed it on. I wonder if a kneaded eraser would work. I failed to mention that in my list.
My setup, as of right now.
First open air. Tryed the kneaded eraser for windows, it kind of works, got a little goopy.
From photos I took last year.
I need to figure out how to take pictures of my work. I have been moving the camera close and filling as much frame as possible. Maybe that is wrong and I should snap them at a viewers distance away, then crop. The paper curled a lot, so my black frames warped. To me in person they are more square than what’s shown. I am going to add a large paper clip and maybe a larger brush. I have read that wetting the back of the paper helps.
@sheralmyst I like the srooms, they remind me of graffiti a little. I went down a graffiti rabbit hole on youtube a while back. They have these drip pens, they look very satisfying to use.
Took a picture in the shadow outside at noon arms length away with a clip, also minor tweeks.
Wet the backside of the top, then clipped, worked okay. I was using up paint on the bottom one.
Cool! @TravelEcho The lighting and shadows on the center of the flower reads very well.
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I wouldn’t do it too far, since the resolution will become more coarse. When I do pics I get close myself, though it has been a while…
All of your guy’s n gal’s works in this thread are so inspiring that… I’m going to write like mad!
I do want to get a chapter in, as it’s coming up on the six month anniversary of the last one. And… it’s big, very big so far, and still being birthed. I dread trimming stuff out because it reveals so much character from my… characters, and I love unveiling them to the reader. Science-fantasy-drama-thriller-romance… am I creating my own sub-genre? Scifandrathro??
Well, back to the new baby.
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A quick sketch of an ‘exploding shroom’. When I get my broad tipped paint pens, I will do some colored background.
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I think that depends on what camera you are using. Mine is a pretty high resolution iPhone camera, so it works better for me to back off away from the piece and turn off the (stupid) Macro function, and then, as you say, crop to the image.
One other thing is that if the piece is shiny, or has shiny bits, then the piece should be positioned vertically and tilted forward toward the camera at the top edge until the camera can’t see the shine any more. Although I usually don’t worry about that unless the photo is for my (upcoming) website. For quick sketches, colour note studies, etc. I don’t worry too much unless I really like the results and want to sell the piece at some point.
@sheralmyst : You may find you have a better experience with your canvas paper if you gesso it before you paint on it.
I have a lovely gesso that is only made by Liquitex (as far as I can ascertain). It is called “Clear Gesso”. I have used it on unbleached cotton and on raw linen canvasses. It prevents SID (Substrate Induced Discoloration) without changing the colour of our substrate. So no bright white canvas or paper that can skew our values (since our eyes adjust and we mix the colours darker to make up for it) so that we end up with a much darker painting that we anticipate (acrylics always dry 20% darker even without that. It can be pretty frustrating). I also use it as a way of layering acrylic paintings that can give more depth to the piece without it turning so slippery from the acrylic paint itself.
Winsor Newton has one but it is more of an acrylic medium with very little tooth, I bought some a few years ago to try out, and it seemed to slippery compared to the Liquitex brand.
I hope this made sense.
As for myself, I am close to conquering the piece i am working on in oils.
I’m finding the Rublev oils to be a little too oily for my purposes. I think it would be better for thinner layered applications rather than the kind of a la prima approach that I prefer. I think I will stick with Gamblin for a while. At least it stays on my (slanted) glass palette, unlike the Rublev which slides right off. lol Both have a high pigment load though, and you can get single pigment colours which is really helpful for not making mud.
Anyway, just a few adjustments, and I will call this one “done”.
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Nice setup!
And I love the one with the lit windows! Is that the one you used the kneaded eraser on? Lovely effect!
I was wondering what pigments you have in you ‘kit’. Also i didn’t realise that Copic now makes brush markers! Are they refillable like the others?
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Idk, I should check? But I need to stop with the thick black frame or it will dry up to fast. 
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I find these very interesting. But I wonder about the bristles. Do you clean them? Are they really bristles? The marker tips stay wet and are fine when using them again but the brush markers make me curious.
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These are felt I believe, just brush shaped.
I am using the Copic Multiliner “Brush-M” for the studies I showed and reserved the “Brush-S” for my Desk. I wanted to make big shapes, trying not to get into detail too much. I may change my mind and start carrying both. I would like to do more brush and nib work at the desk.
They don’t say refillable, but maybe I could hack them when they start drying out. See how the felt holds up. I have a large bottle of ink. (When I use that up maybe I can call myself a student) . These brush pens are the first ones I have ever used, I think. I bet copic has a refillable version. These were in a pack of four, the other two were technical style pens.
Oh and you called that one @TravelEcho, I did use the eraser on the windows.
The pigments are Winsor & Newton. I don’t know the grade, probably student. Work for me, for now.
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I do have a set of brush markers whose tips are made with filaments, and as long as you keep the lid on tight when not in use they don’t dry out so no need to clean them. They are just like using a fine brush. There is a learning curve to using those to build up skill with them as they are very fine and soft. For me, who cannot see the edges of things (they overlap about ten times) I was always messing up my strokes because the tip is too fine for me to see.
However, like the Copics that @Sir_oops uses, for my ink sketches I use the PITT brush markers from Faber Castell, which are also felt tips. I will check out the Copics myself, soon, especially if I can find refillable ones. I try really hard to not use stuff that is going to end up in a landfill somewhere --to the extent that I have boxes of used ones waiting for me to find some crafty use for them, like maybe wind chimes or something! (The old ones also come in good for dry-brush shading, so I keep a few of those handy.)
I purchased two refillable brush markers and a bottle of their ink (can’t think of the brand name now), only to find that the ink was not as waterproof as I thought. :`(
Meh. A real Artist is always a student, don’t you think? 
For me it is a matter of commitment. This is what I do; this is what I am. Always learning from every piece I produce whether or not I like the result.
Oh how I despaired over the original technical pens! Always clogging up, and a nightmare to clean! I was overjoyed when someone produced a technical pen that just worked. I still have the one of those, an also one of the “original” original technical pens --the resizeable one you fill by putting a drop of ink into the opening of the jaws.
I use the Sakura Microns now for fine lines in illustration work (where you have to have the consistent linework).
I use Winsor Newton watercolours too. They seem to be the most reliable. I have tubes for larger works, but prefer my little pillbox sized kit with the half-pans for colour note sketching (scroll waaay up). And one of theese day I will rearrange my half pans into a more useful order. >.>
I read somewhere that the pan colours are designed to dry and be re-wetted, but the tube paints are not the same, though some artists squeeze tube paint into their half pans and let them harden there to save money.
But what I was asking was what pigments are you using? Which colours are in your palette? I tend to generally use a limited split-primary palette using single pigment colours as much as possible: Ultramarine blue (pb29), Cerulean blue (PB35) (or cobalt), Permanent Magenta (PR122) (usually quinacridone), Cadmium red (PR108), lemon (Winsor) yellow (PY35) --basically, a warm and cool of each primary. I also keep handy some earth colours: burnt sienna (PR101), yellow ochre (PY43) (or transparent yellow oxide), as well as a tube of quinacridone purple and Opera Rose (PR122). Same colours for my oils/acrylics except I also keep handy some Viridian (PG18) and Phthalo blue (PB 15) in tiny tubes, and of course Titanium white. I mix my own chromatic blacks for more diversity of warm/cools. I tend to kinda geek out on colour science, and go over-the-top trying to keep everything archival …
Ah! Nice! Now I’m wondering if one of those new-fangled white plastic erasers would work for that purpose as well.
I also got to finally try out my new Rosemary&Co brushes. I am in love! 
Beautifully balanced, hold tons of paint, and flexible/stiff enough to lay the stroke down easily. They clean up beautifully, too, using the method I linked to above from the R&Co website.
I finally tamed my current 8"x10" oil painting enough to call it “done”. I will put it in a temporary frame to double-check it once it is dry enough to move, and will post a pic.
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