joey’s weekly tangle challenge #11: Summer Nights

Joey’s challenge for the week is to make something that reminds you of summer nights.

The Philippines only has two seasons, rainy and dry. Rainy season also means school is starting again.  Tonight is considered the last evening of summer in the Philippines, as tomorrow, school starts for primary and secondary education public schools.  Many private schools start a bit later this week.

Yesterday I found Biengfang Watercolor brush pens by Speedball and decided to give them a try on this piece. So far, I’m enjoying how they work. There’s definitely less mess, and the colors are vibrant. Some people commented on other blogs that some colors are too close together in values. I’m still learning on how to integrate them into my work, so I can’t say it one way or the other yet. So far, the differences in the yellows are enough to be noticeable when pure. I’m thinking they will act differently when water is added. We’ll see.

I wasn’t happy with my previous sketch book, as it was suited more for pencil than inks. It was causing my tech pens to skip and they would sometimes catch on the fibers. I’ll pick it up again when I use pencils or other media that requires paper tooth. I replaced it with an A5 Hahnemühle FineArt Manga Layout & Illustration Book. The paper is 80gsm. What I like about it is that the paper doesn’t seem to bleed through to the next sheet when you use a marker or a lot of ink. The ink does bleed through to the back of the sheet when you use a lot of ink. Alcohol based markers bleed through but don’t stain the next sheet. It’s also very smooth. It’s translucent that you can see outlines of what’s beneath the top sheet. This may be a deal breaker for some people, but I find the feature useful.