MARCH CHALLENGE DRAWINGS 1, 2 & 3

I was anxious to try out my challenge, so this afternoon I went looking for some interesting materials to draw with. I used walnut ink drawing with a stick, sharpened wooden match, Japanese Brush Pen with a black ink cartridge and then I discovered the oiler boiler (finest tip) from Cheap Joe's.

The first image is on Cold Pressed Arches. I wetted the paper and then started drawing with the stick. It fuzzed out quite a bit. I went back into the drawing with the Japanese brush pen. I used a flat brush and started adding some value, painting with the walnut ink. I drew back in with the sharpened match stick. Finally, I loaded an oiler boiler with the walnut ink and made some additional lines. I had a real "Eureka" moment when I saw that the oiler boiler was making such an interesting line. I also spritzed the paper for texture as well as dropping small dots of walnut ink into the wet areas for textural interest. I tried to be conscious of the light and dark pattern I learned in Geo. James' workshop. I had fun trying different tools for drawing and experimenting with the walnut ink. It lifts fairly easily. This came in handy!

I loved how the oiler boiler worked in the first painting. I thought I would try to draw with it on dry watercolor paper. WOW!! It became a 3 dimensional line as I drew. The ink was just sitting on top of the paper. It surprised me how the sensation of making a 3 dimensional line was so exciting to me. It looked like a fine wire sitting on my paper. I wish I could figure out how to keep it like that when it dried. Anything that would hold its shape when dry will clog the fine needle. Eventually the ink gets absorbed but it took a long time. The nature of the fine needle and bottle creates an irregular line on textural paper and these little "dots" of ink when you pause ever so slightly. This is my favorite piece of the day.

Now I was running around trying to find different papers to see how the oiler boiler would work on other surfaces. I got out my sketch book from Summer with the parchment like paper. The ink was instantly absorbed as I drew so I had a wider line and totally different look. This is the 3rd drawing in the post. Next I tried it on Tyvek, first on a dry surface and second on a damp surface. Again, totally different look. It dried looking a little like a reed pen....darker on the edges of the line and slightly lighter in the middle. I just wrote my name on a scrap of paper and then dampened a spot where I made a few marks just to see what would happen, Lastly, I took a piece of scrap YUPO and drew on that. Loved the look on YUPO and Tyvek.

Now I have to order more oiler boilers so I can have them loaded with different colors so I don't have to empty and clean the one I have every time I want to work with a different color.

Today was a perfect art day...having fun, discovering new things and generating ideas for future paintings. The joy of art is in the "doing"

MORE TRAVEL SKETCHES

A last minute decision found me back on a plane to meet up with my siblings in Denver. We haven't all been together for a long time. I will be turning around and going back to Denver next Tuesday to teach a workshop in Littleton next Thursday, Friday and Saturday. I printed out a number of photos of George James which I took in the workshop so I would have something to work on during the trip. I choose to draw with a pen so I cannot erase. Each drawing is an attempt to correct the errors I noticed in the last drawing. I like to draw over and over rather than erase and erase. This way you have to redraw everything and consider every line in relation to the whole. You can see how each drawing gets more a more accurate likeness.

While I was in Denver, we went to the bookstore so I could get an Artist Magazine for my sisters and brother. While I was there I discovered another drawing book by Robert Kaupelis called "Learning to Draw..A creative approach". It has some wonderful drawing exercises plus examples of master drawings and student drawings. If you are struggling with drawing or want to do something more interesting than these "atelier" type of images, you will fall in love with this book. I can't wait to try some of the ideas.

Tomorrow is the last day of the month. I will post the paintings people sent me recently and reveal the next challenge.

PAINTINGS FROM GEO. JAMES WORKSHOP

I hope everyone enjoys the slide show. I didn't get the full names of a few of the participants. The images are reversed, and the color is slightly off but you can still see the beauty and variety. It was such a fun group of people to spend time with. One person came down from Oregon for the opportunity to work with Prof. James. I have put my painting in the slide show and also posted it above. I like the color and value shifts. I had fun with the figures. They are from some of my figure drawings. The imagery in the painting is strange but it was fun experimenting with the ideas of paint application and light and dark patterns. Check out Sandy Maudlin's blog. http://www.sandymaudlin.blogspot.com/ She has shared some additional information for working with YUPO. As soon as I get a free moment, I want to try some of these techniques on the Tyvek.

GEORGE JAMES DEMO DARK LINKAGE & WHITE PASSAGE

Today was the last day of the George James workshop. Everything came together and people finished paintings with pretty amazing results for a workshop effort. I was able to photograph each one and I will post that slide show tomorrow. Today I am sharing the two small demos George did to explain his way of designing shapes. One strategy is to have dark shapes connecting through the painting. He calls this linkage. If you do the same with light shapes, he calls this passage. He demonstrated both. This is a concept I think I will be able to utilize in more of my paintings. It doesn't work if you are following the logic of how light works in the real world. He calls this "light logic". His method is arbitrary light and dark shapes with a focus on design and contrast. You create a very different kind of painting using this idea.

The second part of his morning discussion dealt with entering competitions and the jurying process. I found this information very very valuable. He described the heirarchy of types of shows. Starting with local shows, then regional, national and lastly international. The competition increases as you move up in the heirarchy. The awards also increase. The larger the prize money, the tougher the competition.

There are two types of judging. One is a single judge and the other is multiple judges. A single judge has more time to look at the slides and review them to make his decision. In this case, where your slide was in the pack was not very critical. When there are multiple judges, they all get together and decide at one time. George noticed that the judges were being hyper critical of the first few trays to insure a top notch show. If there are 3 judges, then if all 3 vote yes the painting is in, if 2 vote yes it may be reviewed if they need more paintings after the first round of viewing is done. If only one or no judges vote yes, the painting is out. George decided to send his slides into competitions somewhere in the middle of the receiving dates to position his slide past the first trays because the slides are placed in the slide trays in order of being received.

If you are accepted into the National Watercolor Society, you have the option of sending in an additional 3 paintings in mats to be reviewed by a panel. If they feel your work is up to the society standards, they will grant you signature membership. I always thought it was a separate viewing from the painting in the show by a different group of people than those who selected the show paintings. It turns out they put a slide of the painting accepted into the show on the wall and then place the additional 3 paintings underneath that so they are seeing all 4 at one time. Therefore, it is best to have all 4 related in subject matter and definitely of the same degree of excellence.

The other piece of information I found interesting is that the American Watercolor Society has quotas on how many signature members can be in their yearly national show. They are competing against each other for these slots. That way there are always opportunities for the unaffiliated entries to be accepted.

George shared how he evaluates slides submitted for a show where he is the single judge. This is his method and not necessarily the way all judges do it.
He receives the submitted slides which have been placed in order of being received. He views them at his home and can take as much time as he needs to decide. He is given the total number of paintings he can accept for the show. This number is related to the exhibition space available. Let's say there are 700 entries and space for 100 paintings. The first thing he does is go through the slides and get a feel for the range of SUBJECT matter. The next thing he looks at is CRAFT (how well painted)
Next he pares it down to 200 paintings. If more than one slide was permitted to be entered per person, he eliminates all but one per person. Now, to get it down to the exact number of paintings for the show, he looks for STRONG DESIGN, STRONG COLOR and UNIQUENESS. The juror is always working towards a balanced show in terms of subject matter and styles of painting.

GEO. JAMES WORKSHOP DAY 3: 2 FIGURE DEMOS

Today was exciting to see how George James develops his figurative paintings. We also had the privilege of seeing his sketch books. If you want to know how to draw from memory with conviction, the sketch books reveal the answers...draw every day, draw everything, practice, practice, practice. No real surprise, here! I think he has drawn every image in Bridgeman's Constructive Anatomy Book. This was the first art book I ever purchased. I can still feel the thrill I felt when I first saw this book. I had to save my baby sitting money for a long time to be able to purchase it. I don't know where this book is buried in my house (I would never get rid of it) so I purchased a soft bound edition a few years ago. The original will show up sometime. Now, I am inspired to do more drawing from this book.

Regarding the slide show images: I was sitting on the far right shooting the overhead mirror, therefore most of the images are reversed and have some distortion. When I had a chance, I photographed with the painting in front of me. The two details where done this way. The color is off. Somehow it looks too yellow. I corrected as much as I could. He did a second fast demo of a head in 4 steps of values.

Tomorrow is going to be super interesting as he is going to give a lecture about how jurying works in art society national shows. He is most active in the National Watercolor Society which has it's headquarters in Southern California where he lives.

I have been chugging along painting the worst paintings of my life this week! I am receiving comments from some of you excited to see what I have done. I promise to post it, but don't have too high of expectations! I rarely have a good painting from a workshop. I find it a place to try new ideas and processes. It takes awhile to integrate this information into my work. George likes flat images, simplified shapes, hard edges, strong geometry in his composition, works almost exclusively with a flat brush. All of these things are contrary to my sensibilities....I like lost and found edges, round brushes, ambiguity, texture, line. So what am I gaining from the workshop? New ways of developing Composition ideas, texture techniques, new ways of working with watercolor paints, alternation of contrasts, new tools to manipulate paint. Lots to process and think about.

GEORGE JAMES PAINTING DAY 2 OF WORKSHOP

I am posting the painting sequence that George James went through to show us how he builds a painting. I was sitting in about the 3rd row and was photographing the overhead mirror. You can see the distortions that creates. The final finished piece was taken directly looking at the painting. The color is as close as I can get it but "no cigar" as they say. I hope it gives you some idea of his process.

It is so interesting to take a workshop and experience the "student" mentality as opposed to giving the workshop and watching what others do with your information. I noticed real resistance in myself to painting in a new way. I always make an effort to try it the instructors way, so I did but was unhappy with what I produced and felt "lost" much of the time, not knowing how to proceed. You think you want to paint like someone else but it feels "wrong" when you do it. The other thing I noticed in myself was how quickly I want to give up and tell myself this isn't for me because I'm not any good at it. We don't give ourselves very much time to succeed, do we? Another observation is that, almost to a person, everyone was pretty much painting the way they always do instead of forcing themselves to work in his manner. I think there are two general categories of workshops. The first is a "technique" workshop where you attempt to paint in the style of the instructor. The second is a non-technique workshop where you are focusing on something other than technique and apply the information to your style of painting. The workshops that I give tend to be the latter. The trick for the "technique" type of workshop is to figure out how to adapt the ideas and integrate them into what you already do. It takes some time and experimenting. It seems the older I get the less time I feel I have and the less patient I am with myself. There is no skirting the learning curve. Tomorrow he will demonstrate working with the figure. That should be great fun.

Tonight a few of the workshop participants went out to dinner with George and his wife. He is a very genuine individual, with no prima donna traits. An interesting man with a great deal of experience in the art world and shares generously. I have taken quite a few workshops and have found every instructor, so far, to be very personable. I do hear stories of a few who have delusions of grandeur but haven't met them yet.

Kathy Mitchell is also taking this workshop and did a beautiful painting today. I am posting it with her permission.