A Pastel Project – Work in Progress

Photo of stems in a vase

My contribution to Studio Shots – Tuesday for this week is a pastel work in progress. The inspiration for it came out my post for last week when I showed a page out of my sketch book and  the supplies I use in my portable art studio, which consists of a plastic box full of colored pencils. The project I was working on was a vase of flowers, which was wilting before my eyes, way before I was through with the sketch. I took some pictures so I could still draw before its condition deteriorated completely, and one of those pictures was of the vase with the stems only. It was an interesting subject to me and I decided to do a pastel painting of it.

Pastel drawing of a vase with stems - in progress

I have the bare bones of it established. Next, I will add  some unexpected color, shape or texture to make it a little more exciting. I also think it needs a curled leaf or two in the lower right hand corner. I’ll post a photo of the finished painting soon.

I found some storage/carrying cases for pastels a few years ago that have worked out very well.  A layer of rice in the bottom of each plastic case keeps the pastels clean. I thought I would add a link to the cases, and although Artbin, the maker of them, is still in business, a thorough search of the website did not turn up the cases.  Perhaps they don’t make them any longer?  There were some other cases, however, that looked like they would be useful.

Storage/carrying case for pastels

When I grow up

William graduated from kindergarten yesterday. He and his classmates looked so young, yet so grown up, in their cheery red caps and gowns.  They entertained us with an impressive musical presentation, then each child received his certificate, stepped to the microphone, and told us what he wanted to be when he grew up.  Among the dreams – a teacher, a gymnast, a football player, a doctor, a famous pianist, a zoo keeper, a veterinarian, a lawyer and a cabinet maker. When it was William’s turn, I was not surprised to hear him  say, “When I grow up, I want to be an artist.”

When I grow up.......

 

William and Miss Nancy

Today he will come to my house for a few hours, and he will want to work on an art project. He’s been making books lately, filled with drawings of alien characters and pictures printed from my computer.  We set a limit on how many he can print, not because I think it isn’t money well invested, but so he is aware that supplies and material cost money and it is not respectful of the planet to be wasteful.

If we talk about what he said at graduation, I will point out that he is already doing what he wants to do when he grows up.  I would love to hear his explanation of why he loves to make art, but I won’t push the conversation for fear of making him self-conscious about it.  I want making art  to be as natural as breathing to him.

 Today the scissors and colored pencils are out on his table and I have finished everything I need to do on the computer so he can click on the Poptropica bookmark on my menu bar, and get to work. When he grows up he can analyze why he wants to be an artist.

Taking Stock

 

Looking at the big picture.

 

In art, whether in story or on canvas, one generally starts with an idea, then sketches, develops and completes, although it’s rarely a straight line in effort or in time. Typically there are periods for taking stock and testing the direction your creation is taking, when you go a distance away and look back with your eyes squinted, or you turn your story pages face down and go away for a day, a week, a month. Upon returning with a fresh perspective, you can decide to continue, gesso over what you’ve done, or save the parts to use in something else. You might also decide to go and sell shoes instead, I suppose, but if you make art, you probably won’t do that.  You have to make art, like Salmon must swim upstream. That might not be the prettiest analogy, considering what happens to the Salmon at the end of the journey, but it does make my point.

I have several art projects in the works, not the least among them, my blogs. It has been a spring full of travel, broken bones (now fairly well healed), and good intentions that have been interrupted by life, all in a good way. Projects have languished, as has the spring clean-up of the yard, because of all the above, and rain, rain and more rain.

Spring clean-up tools.

Three days ago I could not put the weeding off any longer.  It was the fifth of May, and it is my rule to be finished with spring yard work by June 1.  This is not an arbitrary rule. On June first, the mosquitos are more than I can stand. I’m a magnet. So, I went out in the rain with the Move n’ Groove, the clippers and the weed digger, and lost myself in the job.

Next best thing to a mountain stream.

It was cool. Of course it was, it was raining! The ditch in the front yard, which usually gives me fits because all the new construction on our street has increased run-off and makes it flood, was gurgling like a mountain stream, providing music as good as any sung by Willie, Lucinda or Etta. There was nothing in my world for a little while except the sound of flowing water, the satisfying removal of chickweed and violets, and my mind refreshing itself, taking stock. It was a productive time, part meditation, part therapy.

Weed be gone.

I have been mulling over my blogs, and as I weeded, I picked up on the thought about what I was writing, and  where I was going with them.

Last October I held the opinion that blogs are a fad written by people who have nothing important to say, and read by probably no one. Everyone writing, no one reading! Last October I received two emails from people I slightly knew that contained links to their blogs. One was on photography, the other on art. I read and enjoyed them, noted that both were written using WordPress, checked out WordPress, set-up an account (I LOVE the computer!), and wrote a blog entry.  I couldn’t say how that happened.  It just did.

My first post was personal, a sweet remembrance of a tender moment between my daughter and grandson, and a tribute to my mother, whose birthday was coming up. My grandson loved it because it had a picture of him.  My mother was very touched.  Then I posted a story about Halloween that contained pictures of every costume ever worn by my grandsons, which was not too hard as they are only  five, two and two.  They loved it and wanted me to pull it up and read it to them whenever they came to my house. I was hooked as a blogger. What I was writing wasn’t important to many, but in my world it was a success.

My next effort was an art post about blind contour drawing. It’s a good thing I liked the result, as my family wasn’t interested in the slightest, and I was my only reader. I posted a link to it on my Facebook page, and started to get some responses from people who were interested in blind contour drawing. That sounds crazy, even to me! It was clear I had two distinct audiences. My solution was to create a second blog. One would be for family, one would be for art and photography. The problem since then has been, in addition to it being a little stressful trying to keep up with two blogs, that often the two subjects are the same.  

My mind played with my blog issues, helping me take stock of the situation, and I came to some conclusions.

I’m going to return to making one blog. Art and photography are intertwined throughout my life, in what I choose to do, and how I see the world and people in it. It never worked, and it never will work, to try to separate them. I learned this from writing a blog. I have changed from thinking of myself as a person who sometimes makes art, and sometimes takes photos, and the rest of the time does the important stuff, to realizing that the art I make and the photos I take speak for who I am.  I have always filtered everything through these two mediums in order to answer for myself the big question of what is my place in the world, but I didn’t realize it until I tried to compartmentalize them into a blog that separated them from the rest of my life.

I also learned that even if everyone is writing, and no one is reading, there is a great benefit in blogging. I know mine showed me some important things when I stepped back and squinted my eyes for the bigger picture.

The Difference between Life and Art

One of the good guys

William has it all figured out.

An old-fashioned Western came on TV the other night, and William was cautioned that there would be a lot of shooting, but it was just a movie, and none of it was real.  William assured his parents that he knew that.  In movies, he told them, the good guys always win, and the bad guys always lose.  In life, well, you just don’t know.

Too bad life doesn’t imitate art.

As for me, I’m still going by the hat color.

Earth Secrets – Torn Paper Landscape

 

Earth Secrets - Torn Paper Landscape 11" x 14" ©K.Grace All rights reserved

I had no concept for this abstract landscape exercise when I began.  It was one of several I worked on at the same time using the happy accident process.  There is so much ’stuff’ to pull out of folders and boxes for torn paper collages, that it seems inefficient to work on only one at once.

Some of the collages I begin end up on the incomplete pile, but this one named itself the minute I added the square shapes. It became a visual statement about the vast, unseen part of Earth that is beneath every step we take. The squares could be lockboxes, treasure boxes, or even caskets.  The leaf and the writing, though, remind us that life and knowledge are part of the cycle of Earth time. Water is received, sunshine warms, trees grow, and if we don’t trash it beyond its ability to sustain itself, then it will sustain us.

Too philosophical from a matter-of-fact girl? OK, then it’s an abstract linear representation of trees, a field and the earth below.  The colors are warm and natural and there seems to be the softness of spring about it, or maybe of a summer day after a shower. If there are unknown mysteries in places we can’t see, we can ignore them and just enjoy the beauty of the world that is within our vision.

I began with a piece of watercolor paper that I had washed with burnt siena and white. The papers I tore and applied with Matte Medium include handmade with fiber and plant inclusions, and some stamped designs leftover from some other project.

I think about earth secrets. Those crocuses by my porch are continuing their journey to the light despite the fact that it is still freezing, snowy  January. Earth Promises would be a good name, too.

Dressed in White – Torn Paper Landscape

 

Dressed in White

It’s snowing! And the temperature has zoomed to a reasonable 35 degrees from the zero and below of the past week.

I don’t know if these flurries will amount to anything. We haven’t had any significant snow since 2006, when I took the photo I used as part of this collage.

The support used in the torn paper landscape is a sheet of Bristol board built up with several washes of black acrylic paint, and handmade paper, the photograph, and bits of corrugated cardboard glued in with Matte Medium. The tiny evergreen bits buried in the handmade paper fit into the forest theme, and the metallic gold threads in the black paper liven up the monochrome color scheme. I stock up on packets of handmade paper when I shop at Plaza Art, and find many more from on-line sources. An observant eye will find lots of free treasures in the mail, magazines, and on packaging.  Yogurt cartons and coffee cans have lovely metallic liners.

Collage art is the ultimate recycling hobby. Absolutely anything might find its way into a collage, so nothing can be cavalierly tossed in the wastebasket. There is always that slight pause of the wrist while possibilities are considered. The beauty of this is also the problem, as the mind hesitates over coffee grounds, eggshells, and, well, garbage.  Sliced vegetables make lovely prints, and that leaf that came in on your shoe could be preserved for use in something! It can become overwhelming.

A person has to have the right psychological make-up. Some could be driven over the edge faced by all the junk, and if organization isn’t a strong point, it might be better to stick to an art outlet with fewer moving parts. If you do go ahead with this madness, you must constantly use your treasures in new artwork.  Friends and family will worry about you if they think you’ve crossed the line from saving collage supplies, to……hoarding!

Make art today! Maybe a wintry landscape collage?

Inland Passage – Torn Paper Landscape

 

Inland Passage

Blame the inspiration for these torn paper landscapes on the wintry blast from Canada that is making us all in Tennessee remember that we aren’t so far from the land as we sometimes think.  I have only to look around my house with the blankets thumbtacked in front of the fireplace and towels rolled up in front of every door, and look at myself to see that I’ve picked the warmest sweaters I own to put on over long underwear for the third straight day in a row, to admit, yet again, that you can’t fool Mother Nature. It’s cold, and there is no pretending that all the insulation, electricity and natural gas that we talk about so much these days can keep us completely comfortable in the face of sub-zero temperatures.

I’ve decided to put my current obsession with the elements to work with something more constructive than watching CNN wrapped up in a blanket. It could be worse. I could have been ditched into the frigid Hudson River on a plane that I thought was taking me to the sunny south, as were 150 passengers on US Air, Flight 1549 yesterday!  Of course, at the moment there is no sunny south.

My new attitude is that it’s not cold, it’s exhilarating!

On page 51 of Nita Leland’s, Creative Collage Techniques, is Project Sixteen: Creating a Torn Paper Organic Design.  She discusses supports, materials, adhesives, and a brief design approach. Her chapter became inspiration for my landscape collages. I used a Bristol board support and matte medium (applied with a  wide,  inexpensive acrylic brush) as adhesive material. Matte Medium also works as a protective coating against fading from ultraviolet rays. I used tissue paper, some fabric pieces, a stamped fish design, some hand-made paper and Bristol board that I had previously painted as the background.  I set aside a day every so often to paint (watercolor or acrylic) a background color on lots of sheets of paper that I can then either tear up for collages, or use as a background as I did with Inland Passage.

The scene in Inland Passage looks a lot more hospitable than it does around here today, although the temperature has zoomed to 12 degrees since I became more interested in making art than in what was going on outside. Now, would someone tell the Siberian Husky waiting by the front door that there is not going to be a walk today?!

Cardio for the brain – digital version

Here’s how to do digital cardio for the brain. Go to Art Pad. Choose light green and a large brush. Paint in a background. Choose pale orange and the paint can. Throw some color on your background. Choose red and a small paint brush. Paint in some holly berries. Change to dark green. Paint in some leaves. Beautiful! Choose a frame. Email your art to a friend.

Now comes the fun part. Click here to see what my friend saw when she opened her email.

My friend wants to play this game, too.  She opens a blank canvas, paints her art, adds text, adds a frame, enters my email address and hits send.

When I open my email, a paintbrush starts recreating my friend’s art. What is it? In a few seconds I see it is a piece of pumpkin pie.  I am delighted with my art gift.  Then I see where I can add to the painting! So I “eat up” the pie, write, “Yum! Burp. Good!,” and send it back to my friend.

If this sounds like children playing, well, I showed this to the five year old in my life, and he started right in painting and throwing color onto his computer canvas.  I should add that I use a Wacom tablet and pen.  I think my grandson would have had a hard time drawing with a mouse.

There you have it.  A digital art journal. It doesn’t matter where you make art, as long as you just do it! That should be a commercial!

Cardio for the brain – the art journal

I draw in an art journal.  I would say I do this every day, but new babies, elections and some photography commissions have taken precedence in the last few weeks.  No excuses.  I could at least have done a five minute contour drawing.

If a blind contour drawing is the artist’s warm-up exercise (November 16, 2008), then drawing regularly and consistently is the cardiovascular component to keeping the right brain in shape.  A painting session gets started faster and progresses more efficiently if the brain has worked a little bit everyday.

Art journal page- Watercolor background

This picture of an art journal page with a watercolor background shows one of the ways I make it easy for myself to make drawing a habit.  I take a new journal to my kitchen counter along with a tray of watercolors, a plastic container of water and a few brushes, and I leave it there until I have added color to every shiny, white page.  The whole book is then ready for me to do a contour drawing or sketch every day for weeks until it is filled.  The space it takes up on the counter is never a problem, since more art than food prep takes place in my kitchen anyway.

 Journal page – Feb. 28, 2008

I drew three apples and pasted a magazine picture of something I liked on my journal page for February 28, 2008.  Sometimes I make lists, jot down ideas that come to me for art projects,  or record book titles, songs, poetry or quotations I like.

 

Journal page - Sept. 22, 2008 ©3DogStudio

I raid my kitchen for items to sketch while I watch TV.  A kitchen is most useful when it is providing art props.  I admit it, I buy plates and serving utensils at T.J. Maxx, not to use to serve a meal, but as props for my drawings.  Sometimes these items inspire me to think about fixing something for dinner.  I think we had taco salad on September 22.  This drum table, in front of the couch where I usually sit, appears on many of the pages in my journals.  I use colored pencils for these drawings because they can fall into the cushions without making a mess.  A plastic storage container contains an assortment of colored pencils, drawing pens, pencil sharpener and an eraser that I can easily take with me if I go out of town, or meet a friend somewhere to sketch.

Making art with your eyes closed

So Handsome

We all know what happens if you don’t warm up muscles that are going to do hard work. They become stiff, and give you a lot of back-talk about not wanting to do what you’re asking of them. Next thing you know they are weak and flabby from disuse because exercise is just tooooo hard. What a difference with a little warm-up routine. Those same muscles are ready for lift-off, begging for a four minute mile and an extra 20 pounds on the leg press.

It’s the same with the brain before you start to draw or paint. Without a warm-up there will be awkward lines, muddy colors, proportions out of control, values heading over the cliff, and the left brain singing a little song about how you never could draw, and here is just another example.

So, here’s a warm-up for art exercise called blind contour drawing. Take a piece of paper and a pen, (a flair tip works well), put an object in front of you (your hand is always handy, ha ha), and without looking at the paper, begin to draw.  Relax and go very slowly, paying attention to and drawing every detail. Do not look at the paper, and do not lift the pen until you have completed the drawing. Relax, relax.  Don’t get ahead of the point where you’re drawing, and don’t worry about what is happening on that paper where you are positively not peeking!  Nothing should be happening in your brain except the impulse that is going to the hand that is drawing what the eye is seeing.  You will be surprised at the result.   Even if it’s unrecognizable, it will have some charm and strength to it, and you’ll think if you can do that without even looking, then the sky is the limit. Your right brain is ready for the hard work, and your left brain is speechless, which is precisely what you want. 

I’ve posted the very first blind contour drawing I did, showing, at least, that I have a sense of humor.  It’s my hand, and while it looks like it could use a good physical therapist, or maybe even a surgeon, I still remember that after doing a few drawings like it, I could sense that my hand, eye and brain were being nicer to each other and were ready to get to work.

If you want additional stretching after the blind contour warm-up, progress to modified contour drawings where you look at your paper every ten or twenty seconds while you are working. Some of the drawings will look good with color or shadows added, but it’s surprising how finished and fresh most of them look without anything else.  Betty Edwards, “Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain,” has much more to say on this subject.