Ian Fennelly

I came across the work of British artist Ian Fennelly yesterday and immediately wanted to try doing something in his style. He does pen and watercolor, a style I keep returning to (with mixed results.) One of the signatures of his style is use of unexpected colors that should look out of place, but don’t. …

Butterfly

Based on a photo I took at the U of M Landscape Arboretum butterfly exhibit in 2014. Painted at 8 x 10 inches on Strathmore 500 cold press paper. © 2020 Bob Amundson Like so many paintings, it didn’t come out quite the way I envisioned, but in the end I’m OK with it. Somehow …

Milan, MN

In June of 2017 I went for a drive through the countryside in western Minnesota. Just outside the town of Milan, I saw a barn in the distance. © 2017 Bob Amundson Today I found this picture while looking for something to paint. The subject is far enough away that the sketch didn’t need to …

Pine cone

A quick pen and watercolor of a pine cone today, from Watercolor With Me in the Forest, drawn and painted on Strathmore 400. Given the color scheme, I thought this would be a good opportunity to use sepia instead of black. I bought some sepia Pigma Micron pens a few years ago and always meant …

Trillium

Another pen and watercolor from Watercolor With Me in the Forest, drawn and painted on Strathmore 400. The flower is a Trillium, and I wasn’t sure what colors to use, but ended up using just Cadmium Yellow and Sap Green. The line work was done with 03 and 08 Pigma Micron liner pens. I found …

Dragonfly

Today’s painting is a pen and watercolor. The drawing came from Watercolor With Me in the Forest, and the color scheme was inspired by a dragonfly I saw in Minnesota a few years back. Like yesterday’s maple leaf, this is painted at 4 x 5 inches on 140 lb. Strathmore 400 cold press. I’m trying …

Caterpillar

Another painting from the book Watercolor With Me in the Forest, again on Strathmore 400 140 lb. cold press. The instructions called for using black, but it doesn’t seem like black watercolor ever dries dark enough. So instead I used black ink from a Pentel brush pen. The pen was the first thing I put …

Raspberry “research”

When I did the raspberry painting a couple days ago, I was “painting from a painting,” trying to replicate a painting someone else had done. Realism wasn’t the point of it, but as I was drawing, I have to admit I wondered if it was anywhere near accurate. I went through some old photos and …

Raspberries

A pen & ink today, from the book Watercolor With Me in the Forest by Dana Fox. The book contains 50 small watercolor projects, and includes line drawings for the paintings on watercolor paper right in the book. So you can flip the book open to any page and have the instructions and an example …

Gate and stone wall

Found a fairly simple-looking subject on Pinterest and decided I wanted to paint it. Using a 6 x 12 inch sheet of Strathmore 400. The painting I was trying to replicate had ink linework… and to be honest I have so many markers I don’t remember which ones(s) I used prior to painting. And it …