Monday, January 31, 2011
SURPRISES!
The second wonderful surprise was finding all three of my blogs mentioned on Donna Zagotta's blogsite highlighting 29 blogs to watch this coming year. She had asked for nominations, so a big "Thank You" to Donna and all of you who mentioned my blogs. It is such an honor to be singled out. There are some other terrific blogs on the list, so check it out.
Tomorrow night is another live drawing session at the Palo Alto Art Center, so I will have something new to post to Drawn from Limb to Limb.
Posted by Myrna Wacknov at 9:10 PM 8 comments
Labels: FLASHBAG, self portraits
Saturday, January 29, 2011
DAY 3 PORTLAND WORKSHOP SLIDE SHOW!!!
Posted by Myrna Wacknov at 11:34 AM 0 comments
Labels: Mike Henderson, Portland, Variations Workshop, Workshop Student Work
Thursday, January 27, 2011
PORTLAND DEMOS DAY 3: LINE!!! AND A SLIDE SHOW!!!!!
As luck would have it, my draw paired TEXTURE as a secondary element with LINE as the primary element. These just happen to be my two favorite elements. Here are my demos for the day.
The first painting is done on YUPO. I used watercolor crayons, watercolor sticks and Dr. Martin Hydrus liquid water color straight from the dropper full strength. Then I spritzed and sprayed with water and alcohol. I am very pleased with the results. I will work with this idea again!
The second painting was drawn on top of an old painting that had been collaged with different hand painted tissue papers. I used a Daniel Smith watercolor stick, a Stabilo watercolor crayon and acrylic inks. I will be developing this combination of materials more in the coming months.
The class did some exciting work today. Everyone is very engaged in the process. I love when everyone gets into the spirit of experimenting and trying new things. Sometimes what doesn't turn out is the best lesson.
I finally found a new place to create a slide show. Thank you, Photobucket!!!! Here are the paintings from day two dealing with shape and texture.
Posted by Myrna Wacknov at 9:18 PM 5 comments
Labels: collage, Demo, Hydrus watercolors, LINE, Mike Henderson, Portland, texture, Variations Workshop, Watercolor Sticks, YUPO
Wednesday, January 26, 2011
PORTLAND WORKSHOP DEMOS!
Posted by Myrna Wacknov at 8:48 PM 4 comments
Labels: Demo, Mike Henderson, Portland, Shape, Value, Variations Workshop
Friday, January 21, 2011
UNLEASHING MY INNER PICASSO!
I am not much of a doodler but I thought this would be fun way to practice some of my pattern designing. If the prompt suggests a figure or face, I am going with that. Otherwise, I am dividing the space up and filling it with various patterns. I am trying to remember to photograph the initial squiggle. You will have to guess where it is in the first doodle. The hand came out a little lame, but the rest came out satisfactory. This should be a fun project.
Posted by Myrna Wacknov at 10:16 PM 19 comments
Wednesday, January 19, 2011
LIFE LESSONS!
I have started another blog dedicated to my figure drawings. You can see the rest of the nights efforts there. I had a difficult time finding a name that wasn't taken! Lots of bloggers out there. www.drawnfromlimbtolimb.blogspot.com was available.
I found a fabulous new book EXPRESSIVE FIGURE DRAWING by Bill Buchman. He has some different approaches to drawing the figure. I love the combination of materials and the looseness of his work. I also got a dvd of his creative painting techniques. I am excited and ready to try out these ideas.
I received great news while in San Diego. The trip to Bruge has enough participants to be a definite GO! There are 3 spaces left, so if you are thinking about joining us, contact French Escapades asap.
Posted by Myrna Wacknov at 2:31 PM 14 comments
Saturday, January 15, 2011
LAST DEMO FROM SDWS!
I am on my way home for the next few days. Repacking and leaving for a workshop in Portland the week after next. I had such a good time with everyone in San Diego. A wonderful group of artists and an amazing workshop team. Overall a very impressive group of people.
I am looking forward to seeing everyone in Portland again. I love going around the country making new friends!
Posted by Myrna Wacknov at 8:13 PM 4 comments
Labels: Demo, San Diego Workshop, workshops, YUPO
Wednesday, January 12, 2011
MY DEMO DAY 3 SAN DIEGO "VARIATIONS" WORKSHOP
Posted by Myrna Wacknov at 10:21 PM 2 comments
Labels: Demo, San Diego Workshop, workshop
Tuesday, January 11, 2011
ALL IN A DAYS WORK...SAN DIEGO WATERCOLOR SOCIETY WORKSHOP
Today is the second day of the Variations Workshop. I am working with an exciting group of artists. Everyone is so helpful and friendly. It is a real joy to be here. Yesterday we worked on creating shapes and changing shapes in the morning. The afternoon was spent working on value patterns for the morning drawings. Today we had something to start a painting with. Everyone made at least two paintings today. There was amazing creativity exhibited. We had a little show and tell at the end of the day. I took photos but I am too tired tonight to make the slide show, so stay tuned for tomorrow night.
Tuesday is the meeting night of the society and I was the program!! The top painting is my demo for the evening. It was drawn and painted in less than an hour. It is a fairly straight forward portrait. The bottom painting is my demo for the class this morning. It is a very stylized version of the same gentleman. I want to do another painting of this image with a few changes, The second image is painted with acrylic inks. This is the first time I tried these paints on this particular paper. It dried very fast, which I liked but the lines feathered quite a bit. Not sure why this is happening. I will have to explore a little more when there is more time.
Between the end of class and the demo, we made a little trip to a Dick Blick store which was lots of fun. Across the street was a great Italian restaurant where we had an excellent dinner and time to visit a bit.
Posted by Myrna Wacknov at 10:18 PM 3 comments
Labels: acrylic inks, art work, Demo, San Diego Workshop, Shape, TYVEK, Value
Saturday, January 8, 2011
ON MY WAY!
I just bought a new Moleskine small watercolor sketchbook. I decided I needed to do more live sketching, so I have done 3 little paintings in it. This is the best of the three....my view from the restaurant at lunch. We had just come back from seeing the Elephant Seals. There were hundreds on the beach, many with brand new babies. I was hoping to see one birthed but after watching for quite awhile, we gave up.
Tomorrow we will drive most of the day to reach San Diego. There we stay with our oldest son. It makes it extra special when I can combine teaching with visits with my children. It is a wonderful way to start the new year. Life is good.
Posted by Myrna Wacknov at 10:00 PM 9 comments
Labels: Cambria, moleskine, sketchbook
Tuesday, January 4, 2011
SETTING GOALS NOT MAKING RESOLUTIONS!
I do think there is a difference between setting goals and making resolutions for the New Year. Each day flows into the other in a seamless stream but there is something about a fresh start, a beginning point. New Years is a good time for that. Especially, after the crazy rushing around in December, it feels cathartic to be still and think about ideas and goals for the coming year. Focusing in on a few things helps me to learn, grow and be more creative, and this is actually my true goal which doesn't change from year to year. Working in a series, each successive painting growing out of an idea from the last helps me to delve deeper into an area of interest. This year I have decided to work with the figure, explore pattern, and experiment with acrylic materials. I have exhausted my interest in self portraiture ( I am so sick of my own face) but still am intrigued with collage and the potential of working with a grid. Lastly, I want to explore color using Robert Burridge's color wheel based on Munsell's color system. This gives me lots to work with.
I have had very little time to paint since I returned from Israel but I did find a fabulous new way to create
a stamp for my exploration of pattern. This stamp was created on a sheet of colored foam. This is a very inexpensive material found in craft stores. It is usually in the children's craft section. The beauty of this stuff is how easy it is to cut into shapes and can be incised with a ball point pen to create a pattern. Even better is this nifty tool I bought at Michael's Craft Store. It is a wood burning set PLUS a soldering iron, all in one. All you have to do is change the point. This set has quite a few tips. The one I have used has a good point on it so you can do precision work. I not only used it on the foam sheet, but I used it as a stencil cutter on clear contact paper. Fabulous!!! I used my 40% off coupon, making it a good value!
Since I am not a doodler, or natural pattern designer, I have found Zentangle to be a wonderful resource for pattern ideas. http://tanglepatterns.com/ has lots of patterns organized alphabetically by name. Each pattern is shown step by step. I am keeping my eyes open for other pattern ideas. They are everywhere when you pay attention.
I hope everyone is off to a good start on their 2011 goals!
Posted by Myrna Wacknov at 8:30 PM 14 comments
Labels: goal setting, PATTERN, Zentangle