Night on the Canal

I'd seen pictures of these step-roofed buildings and wanted to try them on my houses.

I began with a random gray wash in a few places, and water-soluble color pencil in others (all light-fast materials). It's a little odd that I left a few places simply black-and-white, but I think it works. I also used colored ink on the houses, and color pencils for some shading.

The moon was a bit of an issue. It's quite large! Originally I used silver leaf but it just wasn't working. I scraped it off. The art sat around for a while as I wondered what it wanted. (I think part of inspiration is patience.)

Then it struck me: I've saved a few bits of holographic papers! I knew they would offer varying colors depending on the angle of view. I cut out the moon shape and glued it on. I liked it! But... it was a bit stark and too obvious. I thought of drawing a little on it, but the paper is very slick. Thank you Sakura microperm pens! I added wiggly lines and now I'm quite happy with it.

Night on the Canal
(c) 2015 Margaret Bremner
Tangles: Bunzo, Diva Dance variation, Flux, Nipa, Pearlz, Sanibelle, Seljuk,

Marvellous micro pencil-tip sculptures

I haven't (yet) used a magnifying glass when creating artwork, although the thought has occured to me on several occasions. Perhaps it's only a matter of time with my love of detail and my middle-aged eyesight. I'm sure if I was doing this kind of thing I'd be into the magnifying glass.




Dalton Ghetti carves tiny sculptures in the tips of lead pencils. Yes. Really, he does. Regular-sized, ordinary pencils.


I had his stubby pencil alphabet as my computer wallpaper for a while. I changed it  because I kept misplacing files amongst the shiny colors.







One of my other favorites is the saw, which uses the lead for the metal part and the wood for the handle part.


See more examples of his very fine motor skills here and here.