1ST. DEMO FOR OKLAHOMA PORTRAIT WORKSHOP!

Here in the Tulsa, Oklahoma suburb of Broken Arrow, the weather is running hot and cold, wet and dry but the workshop is HOT HOT HOT!  Everyone is really into the work and progressing nicely.  Tomorrow I should be able to create a slide show of the first paintings.  This is the first demo.  I always like to start with a forward facing older face.  I put a textured gesso surface on the paper and used Dr. Martin's Hydrus watercolors.  

KANUGA REPORT!

This was the final result of my demo for Kanuga.  It went very well and I think I will have a full class when I teach a workshop next year.  I stressed out unnecessarily.  Everyone was very supportive and I  have lots of new friends!!  This is a terrific place with lots of energy, friendly folks and gorgeous scenery.  I call it "art camp" and every creative adult should experience immersing oneself in art surrounded by like minded interesting people and being fed three great meals a day!  The perfect vacation!

DEMO FOR CAMBRIAN ART CLUB

Here is the painting I did as a demonstration for the Cambrian Art Club in San Jose, California.  Actually, this is how the painting was finished .  I had to move the right eye over a tad.  I wasn't sure if it was possible since I was using thalo blue, but fortunately I was able to do so.  Here is the painting after the demo.

I have to work flat so I am never sure how it looks until it is dry and I can stand it up. This was a good start but it needed some serious work. You can see the adjustments I made.  I am happy with the final results.

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.

PORTLAND WORKSHOP DEMOS!

Computers can be so darn exasperating!!!!  I have had the worst time trying to connect to the Internet using my host's wifi connection.  Somehow I figured something out tonight because I finally was able to get it to work.  

We just completed day 3 of the workshop.  All 21 participants are having too much fun!  They are embracing the concept and running with it.  I am hoping to be able to create a slide show to share with everyone.  That will be my next tehno challenge!  In the meantime, here are the first two demos I painted on Tuesday.  The first one is showing VALUE as the dominant element. Painted on Tyvek. Everyone, including me, draws a slip with a color combination to work with.  This one was green, violet and orange.  

The second painting has SHAPE as the dominant element with analogous colors of yellow green, green and blue green.  This one was painted on textured gesso.

The group talked me into dealing with texture tomorrow instead of Friday.  Half the group are already texture junkies.  I think I draw them to me.  The rest of the class will be texture converts by the end of the day.  

LAST DEMO FROM SDWS!

This is the last demo I did for the San Diego workshop.  It is acrylic ink on very thin YUPO.  I am still not happy with the background.  It turns out that alcohol removes acrylic ink very easily, so I will wipe out some stenciled letters, I think, to make the background more interesting.  I was experimenting with the surface.  Lots to explore here.   I am very frustrated that the Slide.com website isn't working properly and I can't get the slide show accomplished.  I can't figure out the Blogger version, either.  Maybe when I get home I will try again.d

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!

MY DEMO DAY 3 SAN DIEGO "VARIATIONS" WORKSHOP

I am trying to create a slide show of the work from Day 2 but the slide.com web site is not working properly and I cannot get it to "save" the slide show.  If anyone knows how to fix this problem from my end, let me know.  

This painting started out as a failed painting.  I collaged several hand painted and stamped tissue papers I had made previously, leaving a little of the original paper for contrast.  When the collage dried, I painted on top with Hydrus Liquid Watercolor by Dr. Ph Martin.  I used a little white gesso for the opaque areas.  The challenge was I brought the wrong set of colors.  All my favorite colors are sitting in my studio!  So this was done with Thalo Green, Sepia, Cobalt Violet, Permanent red (practically day-glo [yuck]) and lemon yellow.  Somehow I made it work.

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.

ANOTHER DEMO SEQUENCE FROM ISRAELI WORKSHOP!

This demo is on Tyvek so I had to work flat.  Using the tray as a support turned out to be a great solution.  Of course, it limits the size you can work on.

I met with my friend, Janak, today to bring him some Tyvek paper.  He is planning to visit family in India and they wanted paintings.  His solution was to work with Tyvek using acrylic and oils, then travel with them rolled up.  A great idea!  The acrylic and oil looked excellent on the paper and there was no problem with the paint flaking off when it was rolled up.

Enjoy the slide show!

PHOTOS FROM ISRAEL WORKSHOP

I am back home and now I have to spend a few days reorganizing my art and setting my house in order.  Looks like the mail and dust piled up during my absence.  In the meantime, I have some images to share with you.   Carol Feldman (Drawing Tel Aviv) did a fabulous job of photographing the workshop.  It was wonderful getting to meet her in person and have her in the class.  I'm not sure what I had to teach her, as she is incredibly accomplished.  Carol has all the photos posted in an album on the web.  You can click on the title of this post to see the entire album.  Here is a sequence of one of my demos.  I started on a gessoed surface.  After the painting was part way completed, I let it dry, then applied white tissue collaged over it.  When that was dry, I completed the painting.

DEMOS FROM ISRAELI WORKSHOP

I held a Beginning Watercolor Portrait Workshop in The Artists' House in Tel Aviv.  It is a most unusual building by American standards with exhibition spaces and work spaces tucked in and around in an irregular manner.  It was a bee hive of activity.  There was preparation for over 5 new exhibits this past week with an opening reception on Thursday night.  Over a thousand people came for the reception.  The space I taught in was very crowded but all 15 of the participants eagerly went to work and produced quite a bit of work.  I will be sharing more in the coming days but here are two of the demos I did for the class.  Because of space limitations, I worked on quarter sheets of watercolor paper.  The first painting was created by covering an unpainted sheet of watercolor paper with white tissue paper, glued down with diluted matt medium.  When it was dry, I drew the image with a brush and painted it.  The second image started out as a painting on gesso covered watercolor paper.  I wasn't too happy with the painting, so I added a layer of white tissue with the same glue mixture as above, and let it dry.  I then added paint on top.  

LA CROSSE DAY 3 DEMO: LINE

I have been admiring Norman Laliberte's work lately.  This is my tribute to him.  Torn black paper silhouette and white and black ink with some matalic paper collage.  Everyone is really in the spirit of the workshop and all are having fun.  

SHAPE DEMO FOR LA CROSSE WORKSHOP!

With a roll of the dice, each participant discovered which element of design they would be working with along with Shape.  Can you guess which one I rolled?  This was done on photo paper using analogous colors Blue, Blue Green and Blue Violet.  Here is the slide show of student work.  Be sure and click on the little x in the right hand corner of the box to get rid of the stupid annoying "pet" ad.

READY FOR THE DEMO!

Friday I will be doing two classes at the Presidio Officer's Club in San Francisco  for the California Watercolor Association's Outreach Program.  We are going to have lots of fun making wallets out of a single Tyvek Envelope.  The instructions are on a YouTube video by tkellerman.  I had to create a diagram and written instructions because everyone will have to put the wallet together at home.  My son, Kevin, the graphic designer, took my rough drawing and made it look so professional.   It took me awhile, but I have the folding technique down cold!  Now I can relax and look forward to sharing this project  with everyone.  I hope there will be a lot of kids in the morning but with school already starting in lots of places, it will probably be mostly adults.

This is the design I have painted with regular watercolor and a Micron 05 pen.  I started another design today using letters to spell out my name.  I thought it would be good to have a design idea everyone could relate to.  This design was done entirely with Extra Fine colored Sharpie pens.  

DEMO FOR CALIFORNIA WATERCOLOR ASSOCIATION

I have been conducting a portrait workshop this week for the California Watercolor Association.  I have a wonderful slide show to share of some of the work that is being created.  I will post it tomorrow night.  Wednesday was the monthly meeting and I was the guest demonstrator.  A little challenging after standing all day teaching but after a lovely dinner, and a little wine, I was ready to share my love of Tyvek Paper and Dr. Ph Martin's liquid HYDRUS watercolors.  I arrived at the meeting to discover that the technical person who opperates the video camera and other equipment had failed to show.   To compilcate matters, there was no overhead mirror because the usual proceedure is to project what the artist is doing onto a big center screen.  The solution to work at an upright easel so others could see was out of the question because of the slick nature of the Tyvek paper.....all the paint would slide right off!  We finally decided that the best solution was to put the painting table in the middle of the room and have all the chairs circling me with the first rows seated and others standing.  I stopped a few times to let people circulate, come up close to see what I was doing and change positions in the room for a different view.  Having been a sketch artist at outdoor shows, I was used to people gathering round to watch what I am doing.  We had a nice question and answer session while I was painting.   As we have all found our selves in challenging situations when things didn't fall into place the way we had planned, everyone was undestanding and gracious and hopefully enjoyed the evening.  I was concerned that people would go away disappointed that they had made the effort to come to the meeting and couldn't see the demo well enough.  Checking with a few insiders this morning, I was told everyone had a great time and enjoyed the evening.  

This is a portrait of David Levine, one of America's great artists.  He passed away this year.  I don't know how wonderful of a likeness I achieved, but I like his face and love his work.  I am fortunate to own a book about his life and art called The Arts of David Levine published in 1978.  

DEMO PAINTING FROM OREGON WORKSHOP!

I had a few days at home and then I was off to Portland, Oregon last Monday to do a three day workshop for OSA.  I was able to spend Monday and Tuesday with my long time friend before the class began.  She took me to Powell's Bookstore...I think I could live there!  If you are ever in Portland, Powell's is a MUST!  I controlled myself and only purchased 3 books. (mostly because I had to carry them all afternoon)  They have the used books and the new books all on the same shelves.  Rows and Rows and Rows of books on art.  Rooms and rooms and rooms of books on every subject in the world.   We walked around the Pearl District looking for galleries.  Many had closed but we saw lots of interesting art.   Portland was looking especially lush this week with all the flowering trees in bloom.  Lots of forested areas in and around the city.

The workshop was wonderful.  Everyone worked hard and there was a wide range of experience in the group.  I will post a slide show tomorrow after I get all the photos labeled and adjusted.  In the meantime you can pop over to Carrie Holst' blog and get her perspective on the class.  This is my demo piece.  Good old Morris is painted one more time.  I just love his face, hat and beard.  I showed texturing gesso with stamps.  You can see the effect in the detail photo.  This painting came together very, very quickly. Sometimes the gods are with us!

  

MY DIRECTORIAL DEBUT!

I purchased a wonderful little mini camcorder today and this is my first effort! I am excited about the possibilities. It will take me some time to fully understand how to do everything. Please share any helpful hints and/or suggestions for improving the quality. Also what other demos you might want to see. I am thinking I could video each drawing I do for the Drawn to the Mirror project.

MEET JACOB!

This is the demo I did from the last workshop when we were working on children.  I chose Jacob because he is my cousin's new grandchild.  This beautiful child was adopted from Ethiopia.  I will be able to meet him in person in March.  In the meantime, this will be the baby gift for his parents.  Jacob looks like he is full of joy and personality.  I hope I did him justice.

In the meantime, I have taken all the thoughtful comments on my last post to heart.  I will set the painting aside for awhile.  I'm not sure what I will do with it.  I appreciate everyone sharing their perspective.  Ultimately, it is always the artist that must make the decisions.  It is helpful for me to know what others see in the image I have created.  I did work on creating some new collage papers today for the next painting.  I made some new stamps and a stencil then used them with gesso on white tissue paper.  Tomorrow I will collage them down and get started painting again.

In the middle of everything, I started working on my taxes.  I should have everything together by the end of the week.  Nothing will make me happier.  Then I don't have to think about it for another year!

PROFILE DEMO PAINTING ON TYVEK FOR SCVWS WORKSHOP

Today everyone worked on profile paintings.  The results were excellent.  It is a smaller group these last two days, so I will be combining the children's paintings with the profiles for a slide show on tomorrow's post.

This was a young man totally engrossed in his laptop computer at the airport.  He has that wonderful quality of young men who have grown tall and lanky but still have some of that awkwardness of  youth.

DEMO PAINTING ON A GESSO SURFACE: WORKSHOP DAY3 SLIDE SHOW!

I demonstrated how to put a texture into the gesso surface this morning.  I painted this image on the paper in the afternoon.  Everyone was working hard at finishing up their first painting after days of drawing!   Here is a slide show of the terrific results.  Notice the interesting compositions everyone came up with.

Answers to questions in yesterday's comments:  If you are interested in painting tissue paper for collage, the best information is found in the Creative Catalyst DVD by Carrie Burns Brown  "Water Media Collage Workshop".  Someone asked if I stretched my watercolor paper before painting.  Not any more! I am in too much of a hurry these days.  I flatten them out after I have finished and don't seem to have a problem.