Making Marks

Independence Day

Happy Independence Day!

Penguin Love 3

In a continuing attempt to render this image in different media until it "feels right", I tried again. This time I tinted Murano drawing paper with a watered down acrylic paint. Then I tore the paper into the basic penguin shapes. The shapes are glued to a watercolor paper substrate (approximately 9 x 12).

My original plan was to use gel pens to create shadows and highlights. The pens worked well on the beaks. You can see some of my little squiggles where I was attempting to shade the bodies.  The problem was that the pens had such a fine point that the shading looked odd on their bodies, so I picked up my oil pastels and added shading and highlights with them. After adding oil pastels, I couldn't use any more collage techniques since the gel medium wouldn't stick on top of the oil pastel. Therefore the head feathers are drawn, and the yellow sky is also oil pastel.

I like the dimension that I achieved in their bodies, and I really like how the beaks turned out. I wish I could have added more collage, such as with the head feathers. Assessment - I'm going to try another medium with the same image and keep building on what I like.

Shaky - Illustration Friday

This week's theme for Illustration Fridayis shaky. The illustration was made with pen, colored pencils and watercolor.

Maxine wondered if bunny feet were suited to shaky ladders.

See the rest of my blog here. See the rest of my Illustration Friday drawings here. See my Etsy shop (with illustrations) here.

Fortune Friday

Be yourself and you will always be in fashion.

Penguin Love 2

My first attempt in developing this sketch into a drawing resulted in an oil pastel painting. I liked the image, but I wanted to try it out in different media to work toward something that felt more like my internal vision.

I painted archival tissue paper with watered down acrylic paint (got this idea from a Carrie Burns Brown DVD). Then I tore and layered the paper over a sketch of the penguins. My favorite part of the work is their little head feathers. I also like how  their beaks developed.

This process was rather tedious,took lots of scraps of paper, and almost a full ounce of gel medium to glue all the little bits to the watercolor paper substrate. The yellow sky is acrylic paint onto the paper. The finished size is approximately 9" x 12".

I also took some photos of the work in progress to share.

All about Drawing and embracing imperfection

Michael Nobbs is fanning the flames of the recent revival in everyday drawing. I've been seeing evidence of increasing numbers of people drawing, and items like Start to Draw Your Life, are encouraging regular folks to quit with the idea that they either need to draw like Michelangelo or give up. There's a happy medium which is to enjoy the marks that you make to record your observations, ideas and doodles.

I took art classes in college and decided I wasn't good enough. Much later in life I discovered artistic rubber stamps and was excited that other people had drawn images I could use. Now I'm interested in making my own images. We are all going to have our own path, and I'm so grateful for encouragement from people like Michael Nobbs. His other free inspiration is 75 Ways to Draw More.

In another era of my life, I would have been really upset that the printer goofed and pulled two pages as I was trying to follow the directions and print the Start to Draw booklet. This time, I just MacGyvered the pages to make it work and thought that my sketchbook will be full of little blips to add character and interest.

Fragments

I swear I saw a mouse scurry into my studio office the other night when I was brushing my teeth. (One of my night-time rituals is to brush while I survey what needs to be done the next day.)

My sweet husband came to the rescue with a bucket to trap the thing, and he set about looking through the stack of flat paper I have behind the door. No mouse to be found. Michael suggested that midnight was not a good time to tear my office studio apart to look for a furry beast, and I agreed. (I'll ignore the damage that could be done and accept that I probably don't know half of what goes on in our house in terms of unwanted guests.)

The next day I sorted through the paper to put it back and found a file with painted paper from a forgotten project. I still love the house.

I also sorted through my papers from the final few days of school, including some meeting notes. I found these little sketches and am proud that they actually look like humans. However, they most certainly don't look like the "models".

Worn - Illustration Friday

This week's theme for Illustration Friday is worn. In this case, Maxine finally figured out what to do with worn out socks. 

Like many recent illustrations, I used several media including china marker, colored pencil, gel pen and watercolor. 

See the rest of my blog here. See the rest of my Illustration Friday drawings here. See my Etsy shop (with illustrations) here.

Fortune Friday

With patience, mulberry leaves will become a silk gown.

Penguin Love

As I work on developing shading and adding different values to my work, I've been taking successful sketches to translate into color. It's more challenging than I would have guessed. It's much easier for me to think about colors than value. However, in a class I took from Fred Mullett, he said that all color is subordinate to value. I can see how this is true and I need to adjust my vision.

These penguins are oil pastel on watercolor paper. I will be interpreting the same image using at least one other mixed media technique. My goal is to compare what I like and don't like as my style and media preferences continue to evolve.