sketching with Suhita and Maria

I was very much looking forward to Maria Cornell-Martin’s latest live demo with Suhita Shirodkar on Friday, but a dentist appointment interrupted my plan. Instagram’s recent update seems to have changed where to find these events when they are no longer live — or it takes me longer to figure out how internet things work!

Anyway, I was finally able to watch this demo and it was wonderful! A reminder that I am sketching first of all to have fun! In the demo, they both sketched their cats on toned paper. I found a small scrap of kraft paper and attached it to my journal page to play along . . . I sketched Mikala’s new calf, Sierra, instead. She is a blue roan short horn and not as intensely dark as my sketch turned out, but I had fun trying. (It looks like the left page is toned but it’s only in shadow.)

Looking back in Suhita’s Instagram feed, I found a post about her mostly-neutral palette with a primary triad. I once played around with something similar, using ultramarine and burnt umber, but hers uses transparent red oxide instead. The large pan where she mixes both together is supposed to be a gray; mine turned out more of a sepia. But I can add ultramarine to this for a variety of grays. Instead of her transparent pyrrol orange and cobalt, I chose lunar red rock and cerulean blue chromium. Then I added a large pan of titanium gouache plus mixing pans. This set would especially be fun to use on toned paper . . . Maybe that will be my next choice after this journal is filled.

BTW, this pocket palette is an impostor, though it is still filled with pans from Maria’s Art Toolkit. This is a Wellspring Flip Case I found at a used bookstore. I added a business card magnet and attached white contact paper to the inside lid.