How Did Apollo Carry His Water?

The “Olympus” exhibition at Quebec’s Museé de la civilisation includes a series of art-laden pots and pitchers that make ideal drawing subjects, as long as you’re not easily frustrated by a bunch of design details.  This particular jug is about a foot in diameter and a bit taller.  My view of it, from sitting on my stool, only exposes the bottoms of some of the characters and trees that wrap around the top of it but the placard explains that these folks are Apollo and his buddies and that the jug was used to carry water.  I mostly take a ‘who cares’ attitude towards such things as the important thing to me is that it’s a stunning piece and something fun to draw.

I started with a pencil to organize basic shapes and to lay out the detailed banding – banding that drove me nuts as I tried to draw it.  I used Strathmore Series 300 (vellum) bristol for this drawing.  Once I was happy with the proportions I switched to a Pilot Prera (F) filled with De Atramentis Brown ink, one of the new permanent fountain pen inks made available by the company.

I can’t recommend these inks enough.  They’re a dream come true.  If you haven’t seen them, go to Jane Blundell’s blog where she’s mixed up a series of colors using them.  Then you’ll want to head to Goulet Pens to buy some (grin).  To me these are the ink equvalent of Stillman & Birn’s great sketchbooks entered my life.  Both provide ideal solutions to my sketching material needs.

Apollo water jug

Apollo water jug

I’m a ‘line’ kind of guy.  I’m not a watercolor guy who happens to do his drawing with a pen.  And so when the drawing is done, I feel that I’m done.  If I add color it’s mostly done as an afterthought.  In this case, however, I decided to try adding some color.  Rather than using the original, I scanned it and printed to Canson Montval Watercolor paper.  This is my first time using this paper and it may be my last.  I much prefer the paper in my Stillman & Birn sketchbooks when it comes to using watercolors.  Anyways, this is what it looked like when I was done abusing the paper, or it me.

2014-11-26HydriaDeApolloC

2 thoughts on “How Did Apollo Carry His Water?

  1. Interesting to see the water jug colored and not. I’ve only been using it a short time, but I’m really liking DeAtramentis Document Brown, too.

    • Yes, it is fun to see the differences. When you think about it, those of us who produce this stuff get to see the difference with each sketch, though others may not have that opportunity.

      Isn’t De Atramentis Document Brown great? I’ve fiddled with several of the Noodler’s browns, trying to find one that I could count on and never solved the ‘brown problem.’ This one does.

      Cheers — Larry

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