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.  

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.

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.

DAY 2 VARIATIONS WORKSHOP SLIDESHOW!

Here are the two demo paintings I painted today. One is on Tyvek and the other is traditional watercolor paper with some aluminum foil shapes, some acrylic medium resist and Dr. Martin's Hydrus liquid watercolor with GAC200 mixed in to adhere to the foil. You can make watercolor acrylic by adding acrylic medium to it.

Everyone was really into the assignments and did some fantastic work (as you can see in the slide show). Not everyone had their paintings at a finished stage, so I will be adding some more to the show tomorrow. Also, I am slow at learning names. I have left some names off for now and probably made a mistake or two assigning names to paintings. I was excited about the work and wanted to show it off tonight, but I will make additions and corrections to the slide show tomorrow. Be sure and check back! In the meantime, sit back and enjoy....

MINNESOTA "VARIATIONS" WORKSHOP DAY 1: SHAPE AND VALUE DRAWINGS

From San Diego, I flew to Minneapolis on Sunday. Today we started "Variations" workshop with 15 enthusiastic participants. Everyone is excited and working hard. I am seeing some great drawings and ideas emerging. Creating shape drawings in various modes fills the morning, then the afternoon is working on various value patterns for these drawings. Tomorrow starts the painting process. I can't wait to see what everyone comes up with. This is as much fun for me as it is for the workshop students. I will be doing a demo and then everyone will get to work. I will do my best to take some photographs to post tomorrow night.

Here are some variations and value patterns I created from one of my drawings to give you an idea of today's lesson. We are all working from the same image this week. Does she look familiar? I did a few paintings of this image the last few weeks as a warm up for the workshop.

BROMMER WORKSHOP DAY ONE: LINE & SHAPE

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This is going to be a FABULOUS week! Gerald Brommer is a masterful artist, an experienced teacher of teachers and students alike, and a humble and charming gentleman. His manner is low key, his discussions full of humor and I like his critiques. He always finds the good in the work but they are honest and instructive. Of course, I would expect as much. I have been in classes where the critiques were useless.

Today's lesson was about light colored shape washes unrelated and subordinate to the line. We worked with starting with line first and then starting with shape first. When you are done, you can't tell which came first. I can't wait to pre-paint my sketch book pages with this idea. The last half hour we painted washi papers for tomorrow's session.

Here are my efforts for the day. They are quarter sheets. I usually don't work this small but it is a good size for a workshop where there is limited space. I wish I had brought my Frenchman photo to work with. I plan to work with him for the rest of the workshop, along with some other faces.

FRENCHMAN WITH SHAPE, COLOR AND TEXTURE AGAIN!

I am having difficulties with technology today. My internet connection comes and goes and it is my computer that is the problem. My "experts" can't figure it out. I am also having trouble adjusting my digital image to reflect the proper color and value. This is as close as I can get. Not quite right, but you get the idea. I tried some different stamps and texturizing ideas, then painted using the same palette as yesterday but I didn't use the yellows and Burnt Sienna. The only red was Brown Madder and the "yellow" was an olive yellow green. It actually is Seniellier 's (spelling is wrong but I am too lazy to get up and look at the paint tube) Quin Gold. It is very different from any other brand and is very greenish. Works perfectly for this palette. I used Neutral Tint, Payne's Gray, Indigo and Indanthrone Blue as my other colors. I wanted a dominance of cool colors. The value pattern was my attempt to follow the Rembrandt scheme as described by Robert Burridge in his last two newsletters. I'm not sure I achieved it but the results are satisfying. That really is the point, anyway. It doesn't matter if you "get the right answer". It isn't math. By having an idea to work from it gives you a starting point and then the painting takes on a life of it's own and you work to resolve whatever challenges show up. If the best solution doesn't match the original concept, who cares?

Tomorrow is the 80/20 warm dominant painting with this drawing. Then I am going to see how a more realistic rendering looks over all this texture.

FRENCHMAN WITH SHAPE, COLOR AND TEXTURE!

Today I sat at the Gallery. I was expecting to be alone so I was surprised to find the committee for CWA Annual Exhibit working in the kitchen, preparing the letters of acceptance and rejection to be sent out. I was treated to a slide show of the accepted entries which was playing on a laptop. I hope they make a cd available for purchase of these paintings.

Knowing I would have all afternoon to paint, last night I prepared a half sheet of watercolor paper with different textures in the heavy Utrech gesso. I had been experimenting with other acrylic mediums and was surprised that after they dried, if they were rewetted, some of them started to soften and dissolve. Gesso seems to stay hard once it dries. I used different stamps and stencils from my ever-growing supply. Once at the Gallery, I drew this stylized version of the Frenchman onto the paper and worked with my neutralized palette from Nita Leland's book. I am growing extremely fond of this combination of colors. I like this painting and had a very enjoyable afternoon painting bigger than a 5 x 7 inch mini! I want to try this again focusing on a stronger dominance of cool vs warm tones. I think they are too even on this one with no dominance of temperature. I may do two more...one with 80/20 cool vs warm and the other 80/20 with warm vs cool.

It was so easy to paint with the drawing decided, the color palette decided, the texture done. I had fewer things to concentrate on so less stress, yet there were still plenty of decisions to make to keep it interesting and surprises to experience. If everything was totally worked out in advance then the joy of discovery would have been gone. Today was the perfect balance!

ONE DOWN AND ONE MORE TO GO!

This is almost the last triad I will be doing. One more tomorrow and then on to split primarys. There are two versions of that. I am following Nita Leland's book and using her combinations. The truth is that there are limitless combinations of red, yellow and blue. So far none of these combinations I have tried work for all mixes. If the greens and purples look great, the orange range doesn't and if the orange looks good, the greens are dull. The split primary concept solves these color problems but I am getting ahead of myself.

This is the combination of a cool Yellow, Quin Magenta and Thalo Blue. Hansa Yellow was called for but I didn't have it, so I started to research. I do have Cad Yellow Lemon but I don't like working with Cad colors because I prefer a transparent color. Aureolin was the closest I came, so I used it. After all my research, I think Hansa Yellow Light is my prefered pigment for a lemon yellow color. Dull oranges with this combo because of the Magenta but the violets and greens are gorgeous I rather like this little man.

I spent a few hours roaming around Michael's craft store seeing what ideas I could get. I had it in my head that they had empty bottles with dauber tops.. I could swear I saw them when I was in Thousand Oaks. That is the biggest Michaels I have ever seen and they have lots more "stuff". Anyway, the closest I could find was a bottle filled with stamp ink remover. I will empty the bottle and fill it with a mid value liquid watercolor for fast sketching. I thought I could quickly lay in the mass and then go back with line. We'll see how that idea works out. If anybody knows where I can find empty bottles with this kind of top, let me know.

I bought a few $.99 magnetic picture frames for small 4 x 6 paintings I plan to give as little gifts for the holidays. They had ugly patterns on the frames so I covered them with thick gesso and stamped into them. I will paint them tomorrow. The frame is more trouble than the picture to go in it!

PRIMARY TRIADS #5 & #6

These Frenchmen are sure looking strange! I paid particular attention to my value study today and then attempted to mix as many colors in that value with the 3 hues I was working with. Consequently, the paintings have more colors than I might ordinarily use in one area. I am also exploring the different neutrals. I am going to stick with this particular drawing for all the primary triad combinations and then I am going to pick a different drawing for the next series of color explorations.

The other thing I did today was make a sketch book out of one piece of watercolor paper. I am very excited about this idea. In fact, I dreamed about it last night and couldn't wait to make one this morning. Here is the website for instructions. http://ninajohansson.blogspot.com/2008/01/fold-simple-sketchbook.html

POOR FRENCHMAN GETTING MORE WEIRD BY THE MINUTE!

I decided to draw with a sanguine pen today. Got to mix things up! I found each time I drew his face it became increasingly strange. I am letting go of the photos more and more....creating lines where I want them based loosely on his. I could do this all day long and get years of workable images but I am close to moving on. I simplified one of the faces and really liked what happened, so I spent some time making a few value patterns for this one. I will create some additional simplified faces from this group of distortions and then work up lots of value patterns. Once I have this motherlode of material, I can do all kinds of color, texture, pattern and line ideas quickly.

I am saving my value sketches for another post in case I have a day I don't get any art done. I want to fulfill my pledge to post everyday for the month of November. So far I am on track.

I received an e-mail today from Connie Michael telling me about a great website for creativity. www.milliande.com I watched a u-tube video of cutting a rubber block for printing. I already have all the materials, just haven't ever done it. Now I can visualize a Frenchman image in this process. I need to go back to this site and see what else I can find. Connie has started her blog back up, so check it out and give her some encouragement. conniemichaelart.blogspot.com/

Tomorrow night I will be doing a demo for FALC (Fine Arts League of Cupertino). It should be fun. I am taking a break from the Frenchman and will go through my photos and find a new face to do. If anyone needs additional information, go to the FALC website or send me an e-mail.

FRENCHMAN: SHAPE ALL ANGLED LINES W/EXAGGERATION!

This was so much fun to paint! I think I can be a cartoonist. Every time I draw this face from my drawings rather than from the photo, it gets looser and looser. Stylizing it this way releases me to use more inventive color. I learned a lot from my first effort on this new paper. I think I kept the color fresher and was able to control the application much better this second time around with the Stonehenge Paper. I used all flat brushes on this painting. The angled edges of the shapes made the flats a good choice plus I can control the amount of water on the paper better with a flat. I decided to make the left side cool this time and I like the sense of light on the face. Although this is very exaggerated, I like the emphasis on the two different sized eyes, his interesting nose and his long creased face. As a thank you for lending me his face, I gave him back his youthful dark hair and eyebrows. It's only fair.

Tomorrow I am going to do a collage painting. I read the directions in the new Daniel Smith Winter Sale Catalog.

November is Paint everyday month. I think the goal is to post everyday as well. I am off to a good start so I will set this for my goal. Thirty shape paintings? I will throw in some other stuff. I am in awe of the Urban Sketcher blog. I am going to try my hand again at fast sketching on sight.

AWARD WINNERS FOR SCVWS ON DISPLAY!

Click on the blog title and you will go directly to the Winners of the Annual Show for Santa Clara Valley Watercolor Society. Pay particular attention to the one called "Simple". Can you find 2 shoes and a pair of glasses?

Today was the first real rain of the winter season for the SF Bay Area. Naturally, I had to go running around in the mess. Fortunately, it wasn't really raining when I arrived in San Francisco to pick up my 2 very large paintings at the CWA Signature Member show at the Academy of Art Gallery. Then I was off to Gallery Concord because it was my turn to sit. I had Googled myself a few directions to figure out how to get onto the Bay Bridge from the AAU Gallery. A little tricky but no mishaps and I was a half hour early at the Gallery Concord.

Usually on rainy days we have little or no traffic at the Gallery but today we had a few brave souls come in. I spent most of my time drawing various shape versions of the Frenchman using tracing paper. I kept trying to simplify and find the right lines to make the statement I wanted to express about his face. Now I have lots of choices to play around with when I concentrate on the other elements. I like to draw on tracing paper or other sketch paper and then glue the results that are useful to me into a "good" sketch book. This practice takes away the fear factor of messing up. Here is the slide show of my efforts today.

Tomorrow I shall create a painting or two with my new drawings.

BACK TO THE FRENCHMAN - EXAGGERATED SHAPE

I am back to working on my variations of the Frenchman. I didn't have time to explore shape this month so I am going to continue with Shape as a dominant element for November. I have written down different ideas for modifying shape and this is one I have wanted to try for awhile. The first photo shows how I created a grid to elongate the image and then drew it freehand after I saw how the shapes changed. Then I drew it with my oiler-boiler onto the paper. It becomes more exaggerated every time I draw him!

This is the paper I won from the self-portrait competition. I was anxious to try straight watercolor on it. The name of the paper is Stonehenge. I think it is mainly a paper used for printing but does accept watercolor. It has a hot press finish and it seems like each brushstroke shows. I tried mingling color in a wet wash but that technique wasn't great on this paper. I think glazing works better. If I work with this paper I think I will get better at a la prima technique where I need to be more decisive and purposeful with each brushstroke. This paper will also be great for collage and stamping. I can always coat it with Gesso or Matte Medium, too.

I think the image is fun, a little unusual in the color department. Part of it became too neutralized. I am hoping to try it again tomorrow.

NEW MONTH...NEW ELEMENT!

During the month of October, we are going to do our Frenchman focusing on the element of SHAPE. If some of you are just joining us, you can find the photo in my blog archives. I think I should have started with Shape instead of Line but now is a good time to introduce this element. After taking Donna Zagotta's workshop, I am much more impressed with the importance of shape. It is the structure of the composition. You will notice that line and shape can go hand in hand as the edge of a shape by it's nature becomes a line, even if only implied. For week one work with the Frenchman and break up the image into as many shapes as suits you. Then, consider simplifying the image into fewer shapes. Do this a number of times continuing to reduce the image to it's minimalist essence.

The above Frenchman was done on my 9 x 12 YUPO paper. I had ordered a set of SAI Japanese watercolor brush pens from JetPens the other day and was surprised to have them delivered today. Turns out they were sent from Mountain View which is less than 20 miles from my house! I had seen these pens recommended on a Watercolor Journaling blog and this company is the only one who carries them. I had a drawing from the Sunday Marathon on a sheet of YUPO that needed some color and then I decided to do one of the Frenchman, as well. I had such a good time trying lots of techniques and seeing what I could do with this new tool. I used the wire sculpture drawing of the Frenchman as my base. This was already a simplification of the shapes. I think the end result has the strongest element being texture but shape was the starting point.