Remembering Alamo

Here are some of last week's sketchbook pages. The paint sketch below was done in 3 sittings over the past month. I painted a brown base and sketched over it with a pen in the first sitting but soggy weather forced me to come back a couple weeks later to fill in the darks with sumi ink and lay down some basic colors. I finally polished it off last week. I stopped myself from taking it further because it was supposed to be a paint sketch, not a painting.

Above: Evening in Alamo Square. Pilot Hi-Tec pen, Sumi ink, gouache, watercolor.

Below: Sunday at Arlequin in that gorgeous garden they have out back. Triplus Fineliner pen, Tombow markers.

Above: The paper in the sketchbook is really water resistant and doesn't favor washes at all. Occasionally I'm able to get some cool effects from it though. I almost didn't throw a wash over the motorcycle but it actually came out alright. Thanks, fountain pen! On the left page, you can see the bleed through from the car on the page below.

Below: I painted the highlights on the car with gouache and then scratched most of it off with my house key and left only the brightest highlights full white.

It seems like only last month that I abandoned my reliable old brown sketchbook and started this book and here it is, almost filled already! It's definitely been an exercise in patience. I've had to fight the paper this entire way and while it yielded interesting results, I'm going to have to opt for something more textured and water-friendly next time. Something that doesn't discriminate against mixed media. I'm thinking watercolor Moleskin.