British Isles: Scotland and Dunollie Castle!

I finally got to visit and paint a castle as I'd always wanted!

Dunollie Castle was about a mile walk from the port of Oban along the coastline.  

We climbed the hill to the castle ruins and enjoyed the views.  I took loads of photos like this one, and later painted this spread in my travel journal.

I began with a pencil sketch, then added fine ink lines with a Faber Castell India ink pen.

I added washes of stone colors once the ink was dry. The stone is made from mixtures of ultramarine blue and burnt sienna with touches of yellow Ochre and sap green to create the mossy bits.

The sky came next -- a wet wash of phthalo blue with ultramarine blue mixed in here and there.  While the paint was wet, I dabbed out areas of clouds with dry paper towel.

Next came the greenery -- mixtures of sap green with various yellows, and Hooker's green with ultramarine blue.  Also, phthalo blue mixed with burnt Sienna created the deep, foresty greens of the ivy-covered wall on the right.  The vivid, almost cartoon green grass was a mixture of phthalo blue and lemon yellow.

A few more details were added to the hedge on the left with various shadowy greens to give it depth.  Also, the grasses growing on the top of the castle keep walls were dabbed in with sap green and yellow Ochre.

Finally, the white grout between some of the stones was added in with a white Prismacolor colored pencil.

It was a joy to visit Dunollie Castle, and a joy to paint it!

 To learn more about Dunollie Castle, check out their website here: https://www.dunollie.org/

Happy Creating!

Strathmore 400 Series Watercolor Sketch Update

In an earlier post "Testing Another Travel Journal," I reviewed the Strathmore 400 Series Watercolor Sketch book as a potential travel journal for myself.  I didn't quite like the texture of the double page spread I first painted on (below).

I took this journal out for another hike, and discovered that only half of the pages were textured.  The double page spread that I worked on the second trial (top photo) was much smoother, and I loved the way the watercolors and inks worked on the paper.  

I wish the entire journal was as smooth as the pages above!

The textured pages still accepted watercolor & ink just fine.  It's my personal preference that makes me hesitant to adopt this sketchbook for a trip.  I'm hoping to find a sketchbook that's smooth on both sides.

Here are some photos from my most recent hike.  I hope you'll use them to create artwork from!

Happy Creating!

Copyright Betsy Bangley 2024. All rights reserved.

Testing Another Travel Journal

Sitting outside with my cat and a watercolor sketchbook to test out on a summer evening was a relaxing "assignment."  When you make art with the plan simply to experiment and test supplies, it takes away any expectation of perfection.  You're just playing.

I drew a series of circles (tracing the rim of my water cup) and rectangles (tracing my phone), and filled each in to tell the story of the scene before me.

I enjoyed this approach!  

These sketches were made in a Strathmore 400 series Watercolor Sketchbook.

What I liked:

• The sturdy, sewn binding allows the pages to lie flat.
• The thickness of the paper 
• Paper didn't buckle when wet.
• Pen and ink flowed smoothly over the paper.
• No bleed-through -- you can use both sides of the page.
• I was able to do some wet-in-wet, and use granulating pigments to good effect.  
• It handled the pen and ink well.

What I didn't like:

• The paper seemed thirsty. I wonder if I could do a full-page painting and keep it wet long enough for good wet-in-wet effects.  I'll have to try this out, too.
• Has textured paper on one side. It's not deeply textured, but I prefer a smoother surface to work on for travel journals.

Overall, my tests showed this journal is of good quality. I can recommend it for general watercolor sketch purposes. I think this journal would work fine as my travel journal.

 I used this 400 series Strathmore Watercolor Journal as my travel journal on my Transatlantic Voyage in 2022.  You can see that here: 

https://betsyblissart.blogspot.com/2022/09/transatlantic-crossing-travel-journal.html