I have only recently had the fortitude to move into trying to capture animals. No I don’t mean with cheese and a trap, lol. Until now, I didn’t feel confident enough in my skills to actually render a drawing that encompassed all the wonderful things animals embody. They’re so cute, fluffy, curious and full of life. I wasn’t sure i could accomplish what I wanted to. Then I met Jenny. She won one of my recent giveaways and we began conversing over email. She’s just beginning watercolor and when I mentioned in a subsequent post that squirrels were one of my favorite animals, she sent me some great pics of a friendly squirrel that she feeds. That was all the inspiration I needed.
Squirrels are not only fluffy and adorable, with twitchy, sweet personalities, they also have another meaning to me. (go here to read #7 about why). My mom fed a squirrel when I was just a baby and throughout my life I’ve known about Skippy the peanut butter loving squirrel. He used to come onto our deck looking for his daily fix of peanut butter sandwiches. Yes, I know you’re not supposed to feed the wild animals but sometimes we humans just have to get a grip and be friendly to other species. :o)
It was such fun using some interesting colors to capture the beauty in Jenny’s squirrel. I used my Schmincke watercolors in Cobalt Turquoise, Transparent Sienna, Pure Yellow, Helio Cerulean, Ruby Red & Payne’s Grey Bluish. I’m really thrilled at how she turned out. Much of the heavy lifting, so to speak, was done with a fine point technical pen by Zebra. I’ve recently switched to them from my old faithful Microns. The Pigma Microns have increased in price and I found I fell in love with Zebra’s brush pen, it seemed smart to try all their pens out. So far, they’re awesome. I hear they may be coming out with colored brush pens, now THAT would be awesome!
I used Hahnemühle Britannia Quattro paper for this little cutie. I’m actually loving this paper, the square format is kinda spectacular. It does, however, come in many other sizes. I can’t get over how flat this paper stays even though I do work it quiet hard. I’ve had such a great experience with Hahnemühle paper and I’m so grateful to the company for letting me try so many of their products. I really never thought I could find paper I liked better than Arches but I did. And I get SUCH A RANGE of selection from Hahnemühle. I’m never bored. I’ll be using the Britannia more in the coming weeks so you’ll get a more thorough review in the near future. Until then, just know that I’m loving this cellulose based paper as much as the cotton rag that the Cézanne and Leonardo is made of. Here’s the breakdown of it’s qualities and sizes of the Britannia.
HAHNEMÜHLE BRITANNIA QUATTRO WATERCOLOR PAPER:
Kind: Akadamie Watercolor Paper, alpha-cellulose
Qualities: Natural White, Lightfast, acid free, extremely age resistant
Weight: 300gsm/140lb
Surface: Hot Pressed, Cold Pressed, Rough
Use: watercolour, wet-in-wet painting as well as lavis, gouache, tempera and acrylic
Sizes: Blocks (Panorama, Quattro/Square, Regular), Sheets, Rolls
PAPER SIZES:
Hot Pressed | Cold Pressed | Rough | |
Block/glued | 7″x 9″ 9″x12″ 12″x16″ 14″x19″ 16″x25″ |
7″x 9″ 9″x12″ 12″x16″ 14″x19″ 16″x25″ |
7″x 9″ 9″x12″ 12″x16″ 14″x19″ 16″x25″ |
Block/Panorama/glued | X | 8″x20 | X |
Sheets | 20″x26″ 27″x39″ |
20″x26″ 27″x39″ |
20″x26″ 27″x39″ |
Quattro (square) | 10″x10″ 12″x12″ 16″x16″ |
X | X |
Roll | X | X | YES |
*All sizes are approximate
Jenny
LOVEloveLOVE!!!!! You captured ‘Sally’ beautifully 😉 You really did! Zebra brush pens in colors would be wonderful! Your Skippy the squirrel story is adorable Jenn…. This paper sounds amazing, Staying tuned for the bigger project your rolling out soon. 😉
Linda K
wow Jenn your squirrel is absolutely spectacular!!! I have a love/ hate relationship with the real critters who are wreaking havoc in my yard but I can enjoy this one knowing she won’t get into trouble:):)