Write On

 

Sketchbook page, ink and watercolor with some Inktense.  NFS.

  So if you read yesterday's entry, I went to the Mad Writers' Club at the Mad Raven bookstore yesterday and got inspired to write and make art to go with my writing.  I want to marry the two, maybe illustrate some poems and maybe write a children's book and illustrate it.  

   Our assignment for this week was to write about a color without naming the color (synonyms ok).  On my way home the moon was almost full and everything was shades of... yeah, blue, I'm sure you guessed that.  So yesterday morning I wrote this little piece to evoke the moody blue, and though the events described are fictional, I have certainly felt that way.  I love living in the country where the stars are alive.  Anyway, the whole thing went in my sketchbook today with the paragraph I wrote for the assignment and a wee watercolor painting to illustrate it.  

   Oooh! This is the first time I've broken out my fancy new Copic multiliners (I sprang for the good ones where you can replace the cartridges and the nibs both), although I only used them for writing.  They're mostly just hanging out till Inktober!

   Speaking of my sketchbook, I wrote this reminder to myself in the front of it, because I have decided that it's pretty important to me to master drawing people, my one gigantic weakness in art, and I've already got a hideous drawing in it that I'm not even brave enough to show you right now.  Maybe after I improve I'll share it to show the improvement, ha!  And, I want to do more plein air/urban sketching, which means some hasty doodles that are not going to knock anyone's socks off.  That's all okay, as long as I'm still making art.

    I hope you made something today, and if you love it, wonderful, and if you don't, I hope you make some more art tomorrow.  <3

Succulent

 Succulent

Watercolor & Inktense (blocks) on Canson Moulin du Roy 300# Cold Pressed Paper

$30 shipping included CLICK HERE TO PURCHASE

My friend Marcy Bell (click on her name to go check out her beautiful jewelry) posted a picture of this gorgeous succulent that was flowering in her garden , and I immediately wanted to paint it.  It was a challenge!  I haven't done anything monochromatic in watercolor.  It makes me want to paint a pure value painting with a glaze over it, the same way I've done in oil, and watercolor would really lend itself to that.  Something to file in the try this in the future file.

This evening I went to the Mad Writers' Club at our local bookstore, The Mad Raven.  Back in the day (high school and shortly after... it was a long time ago) I assumed I'd be a writer.  It was what I did and what I was good at.   If you'd told me I'd be an artist I'd have laughed at you and said I had no talent (pay attention, people who say the same thing, it's not true!!).  

Lately -- for the last six months or so -- I've been thinking about marrying the two somehow.  Maybe illustrate some of my poems, or write a children's book.  It's an intriguing concept.  I was looking for inspiration at the Mad Writers' Club, and I found it.  More to come!

Just Wild

Trillium catesbaei

Mixed media on watercolor postcard

Will be for sale as part of a series

 The weekend looms... I have a craft show this weekend (jewelry and henna), and I'm preparing for the whirlwind of activity.  BUT!  I squeezed in my painting this morning.  Actually I didn't squeeze, it kind of took over the morning.  That's okay, it looks like I'll get my stuff done, barring any glitches.

Trilliums are easily in my top five favorite wildflowers -- some of them smell amazing, and some of them are so lovely and delicate, like this one.  They pop up in the dreary leaf-fall of an early spring forest floor and look so cheerful.  This is one of several southeastern US varieties, Catesby's trillium, which comes in white, pink, and a sort of variegated mix of the two.  

I expect there will be no squeezing in painting tomorrow unless you count henna (should I?  hmmm....), so I'll be playing catch-up next week, three paintings behind, but I should have plenty of time to do it.  

Love & Wildflowers From Tennessee

 

Cypripedium acaule

Mixed Media on Strathmore Watercolor Postcard

Will be for sale in a series as originals and prints

Last April, I had the opportunity to participate in Chuck Sutherland's "Epic Photography Weekend" where he invites photographers from near and far to come and be guided to the most amazing places in the Upper Cumberland area of Tennessee to take waterfall, sunset, wildflower and other nature photographs.  They are hard core and on day one I slogged a mile up a creek with them, climbed a waterfall, and got some very nice photos.  It was a fantastic experience to meet with other photographers and share ideas and experiences, and make a few new ones.  Here's one of my photos from the weekend.

Mertensia virginica

Eastern Bluebell

You can see more of my photography at Great & Small Photography on Facebook

One of the highlights of EPW was spending an afternoon with Don Hunter, a naturalist and photographer from Georgia.  We meandered along a back road in caravan along a place Chuck knew in Jackson County, TN, where there were wildflowers in abundance (in April).  I learned a lot about flowers, and also about photographing them.

When I decided to do friends' Facebook photos for 30 Paintings in 30 Days, Don was the second person (after Chuck) that I thought of.  So I'm excited to finally paint one of his wildflower photos.  The hardest part was choosing one to paint, so I thought I'd do an entire series of Southeastern US Wildflower Postcards painted from his photos, a few of my own, and maybe (hopefully, since I want to do more of this) from life.  

I'm beginning to get a rhythm in the various media I'm using... watercolor for the background, Inktense pencils for any texture in the foreground, Inktense blocks for smooth foreground areas, and highlights in  white Sakura Gelly Roll pen.  Throw in some pen and ink first if that's the style I'm using, and I expect to be using it more since I want to do Inktober in October and I just bought a fancy series of Copic technical multiliner pens for the purpose.  

This is painting #6/30.  I'll be playing catch-up next week, since this weekend will be a little nutty.

Heavyweight

 

What's New Pussycat

Mixed Media on 300 lb. heavy cold pressed paper

$25 with free shipping

CLICK HERE TO BUY

   I painted a 6x6 yesterday with no end of frustration when, once again, my paper tore where I was using the masking fluid.  The paper went straight to the trash and I headed to Hobby Lobby to buy the most expensive single piece of paper I've ever bought... a full sheet of 300 lb. Canson Moulin du Roy.  My plan is to buy Cheap Joe's sampler packs and find THE BRAND (and weight) that I love. I do love using paper that is heavy enough that I don't have to stretch it, so that's a factor.  Plus even when I cut it (with a probably fairly dull letter cutter) it gets those lovely torn-looking edges that I love on watercolor.

   But, not bad on this one.  The frisket (I am using Daniel Smith's masking fluid) pulled up the paper on a tiny spot.  I think maybe I'm getting too anxious to pull it up and doing it prematurely while there's still wet on the paper?  Anyway, this kitty's reference came from Wet Canvas and he turned out a bit orange but I still like him.  I did the base colors in Winsor Newton watercolor with inktense pencil layered over that, and then Sakura Gellyroll pen for all the white fur texture over that (which shows up better in person than it does in a photo).  Oh, and the whisker shadows are Copic fine liners.  I need more Copic fine liners in my life, my sepia set is awesome but I want black.

   I think I might be back on track, but still 2 paintings behind.  This weekend is going to be super busy -- I will be at Fall Fun Fest craft show in Cookeville TN selling jewelry and doing henna.  I'll share a couple of those with you then (does that count as a painting? .... hmmmmm).

I Gotta I Don't Wanna

Calm Evening

Original Inktense & Micron Postcard, $10

CLICK HERE TO PURCHASE

The muse is a flighty creature.  Yesterday I was utterly obsessed with painting, today there was this strange resistance.  I think it was because I was pressuring myself to paint things from my friends' photos rather than just whatever.  This same thing happened when I had commissions a couple of years ago (it didn't help that they were not paid commissions).  I don't know, some days it comes easy and some days it doesn't.

I'm still obsessed, but I thought I'd take it "easy" today and paint a simple silhouette scene.  I bought these nifty postcards at Jerry's Art-A-Rama.  They are Strathmore watercolor paper with the postcard stuff printed on the back so you can actually send them, and then your recipient can frame them, if they want.  I think I might like to do some original greeting cards, as well.  This particular scene was done in Inktense blocks & pencils, with the heron and grasses done in Sakura micron pens.  It's standard postcard size.

It doesn't help that I have a bad headache today, so maybe tomorrow I'll be raring to go again.  The important thing is, I showed up at the studio and I did my thing.

Hope your day is going easier. 

OBX

 

Bodie Island Light, Inktense &Watercolor, $40 (shipping included)
Done on 12x9 Arches 140# watercolor paper (painted area is 5x7, so can be framed either size)

CLICK HERE TO PURCHASE THE ORIGINAL PAINTING

Happy September, and happy 30/30 challenge!  My month kicks off with a pic I requested from a friend traveling to NC's Outer Banks. I have a ton of awesome OBX memories, since we used to go every year when my son was little.  I'd love to go back.  Thanks to my friend Jerry Hutchinson for the inspiration!

Bodie Island lighthouse is one of only 12 operational tall lighthouses left in the US, and it still has its original Fresnel lens.  It was recently renovated and you can walk up the 112 steps to the top.  Its name is pronounced like "body" -- some sources say it's because a family named Body once owned property in the area, and others say it's because of the many shipwrecked sailors' bodies that washed up from the "graveyard of the Atlantic" (the waters near the Outer Banks are quite treacherous).

Young Photographers

 

The photo below is the one that gave me the idea to paint my friends' Facebook photos for the 30 Paintings in 30 Days challenge.  My friend Chris posted the photo, which her son Mathias (age ten) took while they were out hunting Pokemon (Team Valor!!).  I was really impressed with his eye for framing the photograph and I instantly adored all the linear perspective, which I haven't played with in YEARS.  Looked like the perfect time to play with some "urban sketching" style painting.

I did the sky in watercolor because I was pretty sure I couldn't lift out Inktense the way I needed to, in order to get the crepuscular rays.  And I fell in love with my Daniel Smith watercolors all over again and decided I need more of those (maaaaan....).  I penciled the rest of it with my handy dandy vanishing point ruler, then inked it with Micron pens, then filled the rest of it in with Inktense blocks & pencils.  Yes, it's a lot more color than in the original, but I think I like that about it.

The really infuriating thing is that the masking fluid I put on the tops of the buildings and the brightest parts of the clouds pulled up and tore the cheap watercolor paper -- it's 140# but it's Hobby Lobby's Master's Touch brand, BLAH, it's going into the circular file and I am GETTING MYSELF SOME GOOD WATERCOLOR PAPER, help need recommendations!  I really dig the 6 x 6 size for daily painting, you can say a lot in that little space but it doesn't take an age.

 

So this is Legacy Village in Lyndhurst, Ohio, one town over from where I grew up.  This is what shopping malls turned into in the US, these little shopping towns.  Legacy Village was new when I left greater Cleveland ten years ago.  I got a tiny bit homesick painting this.

Mathias, thanks for the awesome picture and the good memories painting it brought up. Keep taking pictures, you have a good eye!

Silky

  

Among the many ideas kicking around in my head, one of them I'll eventually get to is silk painting. Because of the nature of silk, in order to keep the colors from running together, the French serti technique uses a resist called Gutta that is not washed out of the silk but remains as a three dimensional texture.  It's often metallic colored, but it keeps the pools of paint in each section, giving a lovely stained-glass feel to the piece.  In case you don't know what I'm talking about, here is one Etsy shop with the kind of silk painting I'm referring to:  GABYGA.

I thought I'd try something like that for this piece.  I used Yupo paper, which is challenging because the paint puddles on it and evaporates rather than soaking in.  So in order to keep the colors separated I used Sakura Gelly Roll Souffle gel pens for the "resist".  Souffle gives a puffy, raised line that worked pretty well and didn't have any problem sitting on the yupo paper.  In between the lines I used the same ink I'd use on silk... Inktense.  I used the blocks (as pan watercolors, basically) dabbled into puddles of paint and moved around.  The nice thing about Yupo is that it's really easy to keep a wet edge, which is important working with Inktense because once it dries, you're stuck with it (maybe... Yupo seemed to make that a little more fluid).  Then I went back with the Inktense pencils for the lines and softened them a bit with water.  It was a fun process, actually.   

Lovely photography courtesy of Nicole Hanna

I've been racking my brain for a theme for the rapidly approaching 30 Paintings in 30 Days and yesterday it hit me (and then obsessed me... well, that happens):  my friends' Facebook pictures.  I have some friends who are amazing photographers and other friends whose family and pets I've wanted to paint for ages.  Well, this is a good excuse to do it.  So I put it out on Facebook and tagged some people, and the response was overwhelmingly positive and instantaneous.  

My friend Nicole Hanna is a woman of limitless talents who does a lot of the same things I do -- she takes breathtaking photographs, she is an artist herself, and not only makes the most amazing wire woven jewelry known to man, but shares her techniques with the world.  If jewelry interests you at all and you don't already know her (how do you not?), you should check out her website.

As soon as I had this idea her Facebook photos were one of the first to come to mind.  She does adorable photos of her cats and crazy cool stop-action water droplet photos.  But when I put up the post she shared this picture.  I still want to do one of her cats, but it's not September yet so I still can.  ;)

Anyway this photograph looks like a watercolor already so I thought I'd go a little surreal with it, with the silk painting technique, and I'm fairly happy with the results.

Actual silk painting is still in my future.   I can do it with Inktense, too.  And I think I'll try this on Yupo again, this time with some sort of metallic resist, and maybe on the transparent Yupo.  Mmm, ideas.  Thanks Painting Muse.

Ain't So Hot

My friend Penny and I have a standing joke between us... cat videos are all right, but if you REALLY want to cheer someone up, share a goat video.  So we do, frequently.

Another friend shared this picture of her goat guy and he made me laugh.  I told her that even though I had a dozen projects, everything was going to have to go on hold till I paint Nerd Goat.  Isn't he adorable!?

  

Yeah, so I bought this hot press paper when Bran and I went to Jerry's Art-a-Rama.  I cut myself a 6x6 piece of it and got to work.  Well, I don't know if it's only sized on one side and I used the wrong side or what, but it was really not workable with wet media, it kept balling up the way you'd expect a napkin to if you tried to paint on it.  BLAH.  I may try it again, but the way it responded was completely unworkable for this piece so I scrapped it.  Darnit... NERD GOAT MUST BE PAINTED!  Maybe I will save him for September's 30 Paintings in 30 Days, though.

I didn't want to start all over because I knew I didn't have enough time to finish at this point, so I tinkered with another project that's been rolling around in my brain for a little while now.   I think I'll save it for another post, though.

Check back in for Nerdgoat!

Scratchboard Experiments

I ran across some amazing scratchboard + inktense art  (check these out, rah-bop on deviantArt and that's just her first one, check out her gallery!, and Karen Hull -- WOW!) that I thought was absolutely mind-blowing.  I had those scratchboard kits before and sorta liked them, and I'm enjoying my toned ink on black paper, so I thought this might be something I'd like.  Before I go investing in the stuff to do this (I tend to get a million crazy ideas, buy the stuff, and only some of them come to fruition), I thought I'd pick up one of those cheap scratchboard kits with the art already done on the top for you, you just go over it and scratch it out.  And it was on clearance, yay!

 

Sure 'nuff, I like doing the texture on these.  This particular one is not the plaster that the Ampersand Scratchboard is, but a metallic stuff underneath.  So the ink didn't become one with the board the way I assume it will with the plaster.  It actually stuck better than I expected, though.

 

Most likely, more experiments forthcoming on this front.

Eevee

 

I'm slacking a little on my nature journal entries.... maybe because it's been too godforsaken hot outside to notice much in nature.  It's been a bad one here in TN.   So while puppes are only sort of "nature", my nature journal is a little more encompassing than just the traditional observational nature journal.  It's usually one picture to a page.  One of these days, I'm going to make a website where you can feel like you're turning the pages.  It's next to best, because I love this book.... it's got paper that feels almost like fabric (it doesn't warp with water media either, which is nice, but erasers and frisket are NOT ITS FRIENDS, either, which is a little intimidating). 

Anyway, this is the story of Eevee.  I named her that because we were out hunting Pokemon when a wild Eevee appeared, and she's the right color, and I have no idea what she's going to turn into.  That's a super nerdy Pokemon reference, I know.

I know this:  I want to draw/paint more dogs, and get better at it.  It's amazing how much life a shiny nose and eyes adds to a painting, though.

I work with a group called Friends of White County Animals, and they want me to write Eevee's happy story for the local newspaper.    

Happy tails to little Eevee, her fur-ever family, and to you!

Cute Falcon is Cute

I got to play with my new Inktense pencils this morning.  I used a ref from Wet Canvas (love that site!) for it.

Mr Falcon (Falco peregrinus) says I elongated his head too much and made him look like a pigeon. It's bad for his image. Sorry Mr Falcon. 

Later that evening I snagged another ref photo from the same site and tinkered with Inktense flowers (this is an anemone).  I used gel pens for the white in the water droplets (man, I really think I got that one water droplet PERFECT... wish I felt that way about all of them), so this is technically mixed media.  I like it pretty well, though.  First time I've ever framed anything like this, with a border on a 6x6 square piece of watercolor paper.  I think some experiments with toothless hot press paper are in order.

This is art every day this week except Wednesday, and two today. Go me!  This means that I am very well on track for... *drumroll*

Yep, I'm doing it.  Even though I have a yuuuge craft show to get ready for in October, this is where my heart is right now.  Maybe longer than right now, despite my fickle artistic nature.  

That's Intense

 

My Inktense came today!  This is the first time I have ever bought a complete set of ANYTHING art related so I am super excited.  I have the full set of blocks and the full set of pencils in their dreamy fancy wooden box.  So I stole a little Art Time and made myself some swatch cards (very important when starting out with a new set of anything).  

 

I didn't have time for much other than that, so I just made this little mushroom doodle from a photo I took a couple of years ago.  I REALLY like them.  They fill in the gaps where I was struggling with watercolor, and I love the texture that the pencils can add to the mix.

 

Yesterday Bran came by to work for me in my day job business, and I taught him to do henna.  This is the first time I've been on this end of a henna cone in years.  Then we went to Sparta Green Market, where he did henna for free so he could practice.  Didn't take him any time at all to get the hang of it.

He starts class again next week, his official senior year as an art major, so he'll be working on his thesis.  But he's recently made the decision to try to make a living from his art, which is always a big step.  My friend Janin is doing the same... she said, "Two weeks ago today, I left the steady no future/ no appreciation/ no benefits day job I'd had for three years...In that two weeks, I've been cleaning up my arts and trying to help turn them from a hobby into a life (with various results); I'm at that stage where I'm scared to fail...and equally scared to succeed."

I know it well.  I'm at a similar crossroads myself, trying to figure out where my passion is.  But then again, I always seem to circle around to that crossroads and the ground here is well worn.

You can check out Brandon's art HERE, and Janin's art HERE.