Putting the paints to the test & Gel pen love

With my Sunday being taken over by formats, file copying, and too many computers on my desk, I decided to try and do a little Sunday sketch at least. To be honest, my new cheap paints, and the newly begun second sketchbook were just too irresistible, and so much more attractive than just watching files being copied. And so I ended up painting my new paints.

Which on top of it being quite a good exercise in perspective (I challenged myself not to do the simple view straight from above this time) also serves as a reference for how the colours look on paper.

I first put some water down in the black area of the box to get an even layer of paint, but I didn't use that much, so I wasn't that surprised when no paint bled through (and I checked about every 5 seconds!). But rather pleased, nevertheless. But I wanted to put them to a test. A real test. I soaked the page with lots of water, and then added several layers of black, to get a really dark background. And guess what: no bleeding through, at all!

I was also very pleased about how beautifully opaque the black became after three or four layers. A perfect background for what I had in mind. Which was trying out my new funky gel pens. I already couldn't live with my white gel pen(s), and I only discovered more colours at the local stationer's the day before.

I spent both my train journeys on Monday, morning and evening, with adding all the flowery details, first white, then with a range of metallic pink, red, purple and green. It was a bit of a challenge for me, as I like the safety of the pencil to start a sketch with. But I really like the result. And I've alreay got a new background prepared. I wonder how many colours they have in their gel pen range?

Unfortunately, I'll have to give tomorrow's Paint Party Friday a miss, as when this (scheduled) post appears on my blog, I'm already in England, for a long relaxing weekend of beach walks, picturesque villages, and cream teas. I just hope that the weatherpeople got it wrong, and it's not going to rain the entire 5 days, as they forecast.

Have a terrific weekend!