30 Days of Drawing: Day Fifteen

I have this wonderful Fabriano journal filled with colored paper.  It’s around 8” x 6” and is perfect for quick studies like this one.

I also worked on this large piece from my 14” x 17” Canson XL Mixed Media pad.

I’m really enjoying blending the colors on these pieces.

It’s nice to have such a large space to work in, and since I am doing these to play I am not stressing over how realistic the finished image is.  It’s letting me explore different ways of laying down the color and apply the layers. 

There’s still time if you want to join us!

30 Days of Drawing: Day Thirteen

Today I chose to go a little larger and also on a white background.  It was more difficult to build up a good layer of color as the texture of this paper was very defined.  I also was challenged by recreating the metal of the beads and buttons on this necklace.  I’m pleased with how the turquoise bead turned out as well as the black bead in the lower right corner.  Overall the drawing worked for me.  I do think that I may pre-color the paper before attempting another drawing on it, at least if I go for another color drawing.

Imaginary Pie

I was reading today’s post over at Havi’s blog when she mentioned eating imaginary pie.  Which reminded me of the pie art I’ve made over the past year or so.

It started so innocently, as an illustration to a grocery list.

Then progressed to a collaged homage to my Mom Mom’s kitchen and her mad cooking skilz.

Then who wouldn’t like a little pie from the sky?

And finally, even the cake is starting to look like the pie :)

Where’s my imaginary fork?

The Sketchbook Project

Several of my friends at Facebook are participating in The Sketchbook Project.  I was intrigued, so I checked it out.  For $25, you get your choice of Moleskine cahiers in red, natural or black, and you can choose from among several themes, including the option of letting the organizers choose a theme for you.  The books are sent back to The Brooklyn Art Library and will be touring the country next year.

I went with the theme “Dirigibles and Submersibles”, which felt like it could inspire some steampunk and fantasy creations.  Once the book arrived, I let it sit for a few days while I pondered how to begin.

Finally, I picked up the book and began to draw:

Pilot pen over a pencil drawing. 

The paper was thin, so I ended up gluing pages together.  This page was collaged with pages from an old AAA guidebook, listing stations from Michigan.  After I applied a thin wash of Golden Quinacridone Burnt Orange acrylic, I stamped the spread with a hand carved stamp.  Once that all dried, I drew in the submarine and waves with india ink.  Details are filled in with gouache and paint pen.

Here you can see some of the detail of the listings. 

The third image, so far:

View from inside the sub.  Pilot pen over pencil drawing.  I plan on going back into both this and the inside front cover and coloring them in.

Future ideas include the view from inside a dirigible, and dirigibles and subs made in different shapes.  (I’m thinking a banana dirigible would be really cool).   Then, who knows?  Right now, I’m having fun, and it’s a nice break from my other work.  The rules do say that artists can diverge from the theme of their book, but I am enjoying the parameters at the moment and intrigued by possibly doing something similar on my own once this book is full.  The possibilities are endless.

Shows, Shows and More Shows

Over the past week I’ve managed to put in some good studio time.  Some of the work has been for specific shows, while others have been play/spec.

First, the play.  I have a set of Liquitex Basics 22ml acrylics, and I’ve been practicing my painting:

Cow Bird in process.  This painting is based on my quilt of a similar cow and bird couple.  Right now I’m still building the layers of color.  I love how the table underneath is its own piece of art with all the layers of old paint on it.

Bunny Pierrot II, one of three rabbit pierrot paintings I’m planning.  This one will be on the far right.  The full piece will be 8” x 24” when finished.

I also committed to sending a shoe piece to a show at Ten Women Gallery, so I applied some of my painting practice to this piece, still in process:

I drew the shoes using a regular #2 pencil, then began layering in colors.  The fish are a silkscreen I made based on a stamp I carved several years ago.  This piece is 10” x 10”.

And finally, I mixed the media up in this piece for the Art Quilt Network Fire and Ice show at Galleria Evangelia:

 

So far it’s untitled.  It’s based on the bead drawings I did last month, and I used hand painted paper which has been screened with the fish print.  I sewed fabric onto that to fill out the image.  It measures approximately 15” x 15”.

Detail of the painted paper and fabrics.  I really like how this piece came together and want to play more with the painted paper concept.  I would love to be able to get such painterly colors and crisp images on fabric.  Maybe Jane Dunnewold’s new book Art Cloth: A Guide to Surface Design for Fabric will have some good ideas.  We do have several dry days coming up and there’s nothing like painting in the yard. :)

Tomorrow I will share images from my work for The Sketchbook Project. 

When Life Gives You Lemons

Make lemonade.  When Life gives you lots and lots of empty cereal boxes, and an empty house, make art:

Layer one on this one was red, then I spray painted squirrels using the leftover wood frames from the wood puzzle sculptures that Izzy received for Hannukah.  The next step was the bamboo shapes carved from Speedball Speedy Cut, octopus stencil based on my octopus bag of late last year, and finally another layer of shapes carved from Speedy Cut.

This one was simple Green Gold and Cobalt Teal, then I painted some big bubble tape with some Folk Art metallic blue and printed over that.

Deep ultramarine blue, then the octopus stencil painted with sequin waste to make the repeated small dots.  The larger dots are more bubble wrap paint transfer.

Red-orange with a layer of bamboo print.  Not sure what is going to come next, maybe Cobalt Teal somethings?

                                                                                                               Top: Cobalt Teal, followed by Titanium Buff stenciled through sequin waste, then star stencil made by repeatedly punching construction paper with a star punch.

Bottom: Green Gold mixed with yellow, then stamped with the Speedy Cut shapes.

My favorite so far, bright red stamped with teal bamboo and then stencilled with polka dot octopus. :)  Each cereal box was primed first with a layer of gesso.

Octopus stencil, cut from card stock. 

Of course I could have done all of these if people had been home yesterday, but where my youngest son and my husband were out on a day long ski trip, it was much easier to spread everything out on the living room floor and just play.  I love days like that, where my only responsibility is to myself.  They need to come around more often.

2009, The Year of the Pen

Or pencil, or marker. Some drawing instrument. I used to love to draw, in high school I would stay home to work on drawings, I was constantly drawing something. This continued for a bit after high school as I took the "hiatus" path, taking two years between high school and college (this was in part because my dad's job moved to Mexico and so he started working at universities; imagine, a 9-5 Monday-Friday year round job instead of the continual afternoon shift he worked as a metal pattern maker in the Detroit metro area; it's a miracle we didn't kill each other), and even a little bit here and there since. But overall I have followed other creative paths, knitting, quilting, beading, even the occasional vision collage.

Through all that time I keep saying (usually every fall) "I want to draw". I love the feel of an Ebony pencil as it slides across the paper, filling in the forms I am looking at or the forms in my head. But somehow life gets in the way and the pencil goes back to the drawer, only a little smaller than it was when I took it out.

However, my intuition, my intention, for the year 2009 is to make this the year where I draw again. To that end I found an old journal that I made probably 10-12 years ago, filled with Strathmore 400 paper, I am sure (I had ordered a package wholesale from one of our suppliers and made a bunch of signatures with it). I spent part of New Year's Eve making a new slipcover for it out of some zebra print fabric I'd bought to make plush animals with. And on January 1st, I intend to start to draw. Whatever takes my fancy. As often as possible.

Some good books for inspiration on keeping a visual journal are:
An Illustrated Life
Everyday Matters
The Creative License
all 3 by Danny Gregory, all very good, filled with drawings and observations about daily life. you can read old posts at his blog as well. Fun stuff!

Drawing from Life: The Journal as Art Jennifer New
A Life in Hand Hannah Hinchman
A Trail Through Leaves Hannah Hinchman
The Decorated Page Gwen Diehn
The Decorated Journal Gwen Diehn
Creating Sketchbooks for Embroiderers and Textile Artists Kay Greenlees

The point of this is not necessarily to work out ideas for in the flesh works, but I know that will be part of it. All of the cleaning in the studio and all of the experiences I have had over the past year are begging to be processed into something new. Components are whispering stories to me, and documenting the process via drawing instrument on paper is the best way I know to help bring these stories to the outside world, where they can share their secrets with others.

Reward for Work Well Done

In between completing the projects for Lark (shipped today, instructions and photos waiting to be uploaded and emailed) and vending at Boogie on the Bricks next week, I feel like a kid on the last day of school. These wonderful Herman Munster green beads arrived on Tuesday with a shipment of Silamide and other wonderful beads that are now wonderful earrings and bracelets and... But I waited, carrying them with me in my purse, taking them out in the car and caressing them in the full sunlight, until the bulk of my other commitments were complete. And so today I bring you this:


I don't know her name yet, only that she has gnarly toes and wears a lavender dress. The head is about 2 1/2" high so far, and I am just having so much fun. Yay for last day of class! I also am taking mental notes so that I can teach this at some point (one thing I also need to do in the next week is work on my class proposals for Byzantium and St. Theresa Textile Trove).

Volume Four

I have been doing plain drawings with a black BIC crystal stick pen in one of my sketchbooks and I decided to take it out of the book and onto the wall.


Full bunny so far, Setacolour paints and machine embroidery on cotton twill PFD.

Detail of mushrooms and holes.


Detail of bunny eyes and cloud.

Once the machine embroidery is complete, I plan to put him on a quilt sandwich and bead him. Then, who knows? I'll keep you updated!

Volume Two

Several years ago I did an online healing doll class with Barb Kobe. While I never did complete the class (life got in the way and when you make art for your living, making art for yourself sometimes takes the back seat). I did get my shadow doll done, and she has sat in my studio this whole time. I thought I would hate her, but I found myself having compassion for this constantly needy side of myself, with her constant screaming for more, her pig nose, her blobby body. Everything I felt was bad about myself.

Yesterday, while working in the studio, a car went by, and I heard a rattle begin. When I looked, it was the doll, sitting on top of my printers drawers. I moved her to next to my sewing machine, and the rattle stopped. But as I looked at her, I realized she was no longer complete. At the time I made her, she expressed all my rage and anger at my bad qualities, but now I found I am ready to love all of myself, even those parts that may not be pleasant. It is time to love my shadow.

Busy Beader

I have been busy making beaded beads as part of larger necklaces in my ongoing play with the necklace as a wearable art gallery. Here are a few images of pieces I've worked on in the past week. Each beaded bead is sculptural peyote, in Czech and/or Japanese seed beads. I'm using bead shop beads as filler to complement the beaded beads.


The centerpiece is something I received way back when we first opened our shop. His color went just right with the greens in the ovals.

These are the shells and coral I have so far for my cabinet of curiosities necklace. Next up, sea urchins.

Trees, Trees, More Trees

I have a piece with a tree in the upcoming AntiCraft book, and in the meantime, here is another start of a tree I am working on right now.


8"h x 6" w, on Peltex, base fabric is old Lunn Pointillist Palette, and the tree is Dutch Wax Batik from Becky at St Theresa Textile Trove. I finally got to use some old Japanese ceramic bugles I got way back when at Byzantium, as well as newer Japanese 15/0 and some stash French and Czech seed beads. I'm really liking how this is going.

Detail of the beadwork, you can see the colors a bit better in this shot. The whole piece will eventually be covered in beadwork, I like to have a fun base to work on, which is why the choice of base colors for this one. Summer is also in process and I have plans for spring and winter.

Sock in Progress

I am treating myself to a pair of handmade socks while working on everything else. This is my evening tv project or my in the car project and sometimes my at Donkey project. I started last Sunday. I'm using the toe-up generic pattern from the new Vogue Knitting Ultimate Sock book and Arucania wool/nylon blend. They are very luscious on the feet and leg :) I need to pick up some elastic for the tippy top to make sure they stay up but other than that I am very pleased for just winging it.