GREAT FIND!

Las Vegas has a new complex of very contemporary glass buildings called City Center.  I found this piece of art in one of the overpriced, over hyped stores.  From the doorway it looked like a mosaic but upon close inspection, I realized it was created from Rubic's Cubes!!!!  If you get far enough away you can see Mick Jagger and Keith Richards.  A very clever fellow who created this piece!   

Passing time on the plane

Here are two images I created in transit . Plane travel will never be the same!

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Location:Las Vegas Blvd S,Las Vegas,United States

PONDERING!

I can't remember how many layers are on this painting.  I am taking it slow.  I am pondering where to go from here.  I have a few ideas.  I will be spending the next 4 days in Las Vegas.  That should put my imagination into overdrive!   

SOMETHING NEW!!! and SUMI BRUSH PRACTICE!

  My blog now has the ability to have separate "pages" for more detailed information.  I have created a page with my workshop schedule.  You can find the link right under the title image.  Check it out!  There are a few videos I "borrowed" for the French Escapade website showing where we will be staying  in Belgium for the European workshop.  Also a video of places we will be painting there.    I will be adding additional pages as time and inspiration strike.  If you have any suggestions of things you might like me to create a page on, drop me a note.  

Now, about this painting...

This iPad application is called Eastern Drawing.  It simulates rice papers and Asian Brush marks.  The faster you move your finger or stylus, the thinner the line you can make.  Just like in real life, the longer you keep your finger to the surface, the more the ink pools.  Practicing with this app is helping me to stop, think about the mark I want to make and then act quickly and decisively.  I already see more control in when I use my Pentel Japanese Brush Pen.  I wish they had Kanji for the red stamp.  Just a regular alphabet and places for 4 letters.  This is the best chop I could design.  It doesn't look right to me and I feel like there is a different set of characters hidden from me that I can't find.  

ANOTHER iPAD APP TO PLAY AROUND WITH

My self portrait a day project is not without precedent!  There is a woman, Julia Kay, who wound up doing over 1,000 self portraits, one day at a time.  I ran across her project as I wandered through the tangled paths of the internet.  Many of her self portraits were done with her iPhone apps.  This is where I discovered some very fun art applications.  The one pictured here is from the application TypeDrawing.  I imported an ink drawing from my daily self portrait series and then layered the type on top.  I haven't spent much time with this application, but it has great potential for some interesting ideas.  By combining several apps in one image, the variations possible are in the stratosphere!  

I'M JUST CRAZY FOR JACKSON!

Here are a few digital paintings I made on the iPad using the Jackson Pollock painting application.  What a fun way to drip and fling paint!  Once you get a spatter pattern you like, you save the image to the photo gallery and then you can open it in another app program and add controlled lines and other elements.  I think these would be fun to print as cards.  Looks like a party going on!!!

ADDING TO THE MIX!

I saw this idea of tissue collage on Tyvek.  Normally, I don't alter the surface of Tyvek because it is the surface that I find interesting to work on.  The wallet project, however, might make a good Tyvek collage.  In fact, it creates a more substantial feel to the finished product.  I already  had my drawing in place.  I tore patterned tissue and stuck it down with Elmer's glue (according to the instructions I had)  It works fine!  After it dried, I went over part of my lines with the Sharpie pen I had drawn with.  I put a glaze coat of Orange Interference Acrylic over the whole piece.  I added some Inktense Watercolor Pencil and used a gold metallic pen to fill in around the heads.  It turned out quite snazzy!  I love metallic sheen and shimmer.  The finished wallet has a leather like feel to it with more body.   Want to try one?  Send me a photo to share.

LAYERING!

I have been working with my sample book and experimenting with some Inktense Watercolor Pencils by Derwent.  I bought a small set of six colors awhile back and didn't do much with them.  Lately I have seen others working  with them to great effect, so I got them out and now I am excited about the possibilities. (check out Robert Burridge's blog.  He did some fabulous pieces)  Naturally, I want a larger set but I think I want to select the colors I want as many colors are easy to mix and not necessary to have a separate pencil.  Jerry's Artarama has them individually on sale for $.88 each which is quite a bargain.  Sadly, I don't trust the colors I see on the monitor, so I need to see the set in person to select the colors and then order them.

The first image is a layered background page.  First, printed tissue paper collaged down, then a layer of plain tissue with gesso hearts stenciled onto the tissue,   I then wet the Inktense pencil and covered a textured rubber stamp and applied it here and there.  When dry, I glazed the whole page with Orange Interference acrylic.  I love the subtle metallic sheen.  These things don't every photograph properly.  

Second image is just the book board material stamped with dull gold and then I colored in the shapes with the Inktense pencil.  Looks rather Art Deco!  I glued a small print of one of my paintings on to cover up an area I messed up!  

Last image is a permanent ink drawing with my favorite Pentel Japanese brush pen, then coloring in with the pencils.  I usually wet out the pencil after I apply it.  You can take a wet brush and lift color right off the pencil to apply, as well as dipping the pencil into water and then applying it.  Exceptionally strong color is released with the latter technique.  Endless fun!!

TELEVISION AND ART

Yesterday I was reading a new book on expressive drawing.  It had exercises for intuitive mark making.  I decided to get out my iPad while watching "So you think you can dance" and make expressive marks following the rhythm and movement of the dancers.  This was lots of fun to do and a good use of this little device.  I changed colors and width of line etc. messing around.  This one suggested a face (what a surprise!) and so I went back in with intention and pulled it together.  The "eraser" tool helps to clean up and eliminate some areas.  This image reminds me of wire sculpture I have seen using phone wires which are very colorful.  The second image is a moving figure.  I like working with the element of line and exploring many ways to use it.  The book is called "Expressive Drawing" by Steven Aimone

In a different combination of art and television, a friend just sent me a link to the new reality show pitting artist against artist for a big monetary prize and a solo show at the Brooklyn Museum.  Click on the title of blog post and it will take you to the link.  The first challenge involved portraits, so I was very fascinated with this episode.  I will let you draw your own conclusions.  I'm just glad I didn't sign up for this kind of madness.

COLLAGE TEXTURE BACKGROUNDS!

I found these blank white board books at Aaron Brothers recently and thought they would make an interesting project. The surface will accept almost any art material and the weight of the pages is ideal for collage. I bought this 6" square book and another 8" square book. I decided yesterday to do something with them. I think I will use them as sample books and try different ideas out. This book will explore tissue paper collage mixed with metalic acrylic paints in various combinations as backgrounds. Then I will draw on top of that with different materials to see what interesting effects I get. The first image is just bronze metallic acrylic with a stamp. It reminds me of a Klimpt background! There is no tissue collage with it. The others are tissue, stamping, brayering and anything else I could think of!

USING A STYLUS WITH THE IPAD

I was sitting at the Foster City Art and Wine Festival in the art exhibition room where I had some paintings on display for the two days and thought I would spend my desk duty time playing with the iPad. I had purchased a Pogo stylus yesterday because I wanted a little more control with drawing in the art program. This stylus was $15 at the Apple Store. Overall, I am pretty happy with the way it works. You have to press a little harder than I thought. The most maddening thing is the clip cap falls off!!!! I could take i t back and get a new one but a little glue will do the trick with less effort. I was able to connect lines more accurately with this tool.

Great news! I just discovered I Was accepted into the San Diego Watercolor Society National Exhibition. Now I have to figure out how to mail a 40 x 40 painting! I don't have any boxes that size.
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First post from my iPad!

I am in San Diego for a few days helping my son settle in to his new house. I only took my iPad along instead of my laptop. During the flight I worked with a new drawing program and made a digital painting. When I tried to create a post to the blog, I discovered that I couldn't upload any photographs from the iPad. Today I went to the Apple store to see what I could do. Turns out there's an app for that!!! So, here Is the first post created entirely with the iPad. The people at the Apple store are so knowledgeable and helpful! The name of the painting program is Sketch Book Pro. It is more sophisticated than the last one I used and I am struggling to figure it out. If anyone knows where I might be able to get my hands on a manual for this program, please pass on the information.



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