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.

FRENCHMAN: LINE AS COLOR #1

This one was a lot of fun to create. I used my drawing from the "wire sculpture" challenge. I created a few value studies since I just completed a workshop where that was the emphasis. I really didn't know how to approach all the color so I just started making colored lines. I knew I wanted the background dark and a contrast in value with the outside edge. I used Caran d'ache for the colored lines and then used the Hydrus Liquid watercolors. This one is on Tyvek. The paint did a surprising thing. It appears it slipped under the resist crayon line and seeped into the next area in a very interesting way. The paint went through the paper on this sheet. It normally doesn't. I like the effect but I'm not sure I could recreate it again.

This marks the FIRST ANNIVERSARY of my blog! I can't believe it has been a whole year. I want to thank all of you who have followed along and helped to make it a big success.

LINE AS TEXTURE PAINTING STAGE 1

I absolutely love Ann Bagby's paintings. She makes her own stamps. I have purchased the necessary materials to do so, but haven't taken that step yet. I have made some stamps with this very cool stuff that you heat with a stripper gun and then press into a textured surface to create a stamp. You can reheat this foam block with the gun and the image disappears and is ready to accept a new impression. I used one of those stamps in this painting. It is the area around the eye in the detail image. The rest of the stamps are purchased. Click on each image to bring it up in a separate screen, enlarged.

I drew my image on Yupo with a permanent finepoint pen. Then I created a stencil from tracing paper for each shape so I could stamp just the shape I wanted without slopping over into the adjacent area. I thought about keeping the stamped tracing paper to use as collage but decided it wasn't usable. I think next time I will use tissue paper for the stencil so I will have good collage material left over. After I finished the stamping using regular archival stamp pad ink, I redrew the lines with a heavier line. I'm not sure I like it better with a heavier line, but everything is an experiment and gaining knowledge for next time around.

This process is really forcing me to slow down! I need to embrace the process. I completed this step last night and started painting it today. Very slow going but it is looking interesting. This looks nothing like anything I have every done. It does have a graphic quality that I am seeing in lots of contemporary work these days.

I hope everyone is having fun trying new things. Can't wait to see what you come up with. I have added a number of new paintings to the slide show, so check it out again.

DOMINANT ELEMENT: LINE...WEEK 2...LINE AS TEXTURE!

Staying with LINE as the dominant element, use it as texture! Keep colors to maximum 5 tubes, your choice. Texture can be either visual or tactile. In some cases, both. Think of Van Gogh who used repeated lines to create visual texture but his paint was thick so it was also tactile.

Visual texture can be linear patterns that read as texture. Check out Ann Bagby ( I have posted one of her paintings but her website is full of incredible examples) She uses stamps to create the patterns. Here's my interpretation of pattern as texture:


I have posted some of my paintings and few from my "clip files" of other artists to give you some ideas.


The Vern painting was done with different striated combs into wet thick gesso. The Bone painting was aluminum foil collaged onto the watercolor paper after I created linear patterns with a stylus.

Notice with all these examples how the LINE grabs your attention and dominates.

I hope these examples gets your creative juices flowing!

8 SKETCHES IN 8 DAYS

Peggy Stermer-Cox is the first to send in her sketches from the 7 day challenge. They are very creative and exciting! I can see a series of paintings from these sketches. Peggy is an artist from Ocean Shores, Washington and is part of the team that is putting together my workshop up there in October. Check out the link for the workshop and check out Peggy's website at
http://peggy.stermer-cox.com
http://www.stermer-cox.com

I was doing some very simple drawings of a single cala lilly. Peggy was really going to town! I think I need to pick up the pace a bit.

I look forward to seeing what the rest of you are working on. Send in those drawings!

POPCORN BY ANY OTHER NAME.....

I have finished my popcorn drawing. I worked on a light gray pastel paper with powdered charcoal, vine charcoal and a pressed stick of charcoal for the darkest tone. I used white conte crayon and white hard pastel for the lightest tones and a kneaded eraser for blending and lifting. It is an interesting challenge to recreate all the values. "Is this area lighter or darker than that area?" "How much lighter or darker" These are the kinds of questions one begins to focus on. I stuck the popcorn down on the drawing board with double stick tape so it wouldn't move around. Now the problem is to find an image in these shapes. I photographed the drawing and then duplicated the photograph 3 times so I could see it in all 4 directions. Nothing much except flower shapes is coming to mind. I don't want to do flowers because that is too easy and seems like a cop out. I will stare at these photos for awhile until something jumps out at me. I think it will be like those "magic" images that were popular a few years ago. If you stared at it long enough a 3-d image showed up. This is turning out to be more difficult than I thought it would be. Feel free to contribute any ideas you have regarding hidden images in this drawing. It's all part of the fun.

POSE MANIAC ADDICTION! A new drawing challenge

I did a lot of drawing today. I have posted a few of the drawings from my sketchbook with the recycled paper. Let me tell you about the amazing website I used to do these drawings. Somewhere in my roaming about the internet from website to blogsite, etc. I found in a links column the Pose Maniacs blog. The title intrigued me so off I went to explore. It is in Japanese with a few words in English. I saved it in my computer and didn't do anything with it until today. Now I am hooked. I am going to try and draw from this website a little each day. The best way to get to this blog site is to Google it first by putting in pose maniacs (keep it two words) The blog site comes up first and you can click on the "translate this page" so it will appear in English.
http://www.posemaniacs.com/blog/

The images are computer drawn with all the muscles showing (no skin, hair, genitals) and floating! You can see the bottom of the feet in many of the poses and other amazing angles. You can also rotate the figures so you can get the same pose from 360 degrees! There is a pose for the day, every day. There is also a cast shadow on many of the poses. You can also do fast poses. I did the 60 second one, but there is also a 10, 15, 30, 90 second option. You choose. They put up 15 different poses which change every 60 seconds (in my case) so it is like having a life drawing session as often as you want. I believe they have a different set of poses each day. Having the muscles showing is a great learning experience which you absorb as you draw. There is probably much more on this website but I haven't taken the time to check everything out. They do have a section where the figure is solid gray but I personally didn't find that worthwhile. There are also U Tube videos of people drawing the 30 second fast draw that are very fun to watch. They also post some suggestions on how to do the fast draw exercises.

This website is designed for artists and designers, cartoonists, etc. and they encourage you to utilize it with total freedom.

So this is going to be my drawing challenge to myself and others. If you do some drawings for this site, send them in an e-mail and I will make a fun slide show. You don't have to do the fast studies, just any drawings based on the material on this web site.

COLLAGE GRID PAINTING / FRIDAY DRAWING CHALLENGE #10

I decided to do a close up portrait of the Duke rather than the three figures of the other grid paintings. I thought it would be too busy if I did the figures over the collage papers. I experimented with the Hydrus liquid watercolor on the collage papers. Surprise! The acrylic in the papers didn't resist the watercolor. I am very happy with this result. I hate how acrylics dry on the palette so fast. These Hydrus watercolor paints are very versatile! Now I will spray the painting with acrylic varnish and then brush on acrylic medium. By spraying first, the watercolor won't lift at all.

The drawing challenge for the week is to do a cross contour drawing of a crumpled piece of paper or any other object that interests you. Cross contour means that you travel inward and make a topographical map of the object. If you followed the stripe in a plaid pattern on a crumpled piece of cloth you would have the cross contour line. Create a number of lines going horizontal and some going vertical and some meandering around in random directions. I will do one tomorrow and post it for those of you confused by my directions. I am also going to continue working on my ink drawing. I wonder how many hours it will take to finish it?

2ND HOUR DRAWING CHALLENGE/ STUDENT SLIDE SHOW

Here is the drawing after 2 hours. I wasn't quite as restless working on it this time. Following a plaid pattern is stressful. Interesting, though. I used to sew and I noticed that this was a well made shirt because they matched the pattern perfectly. I am anxious to be done with the shirt. I think the most important thing I am going to learn from this exercise is discipline.

The week before Thanksgiving was very busy for everyone but my students still found time to work on their paintings. Here are their latest efforts. So far we have been working on full or 3/4 view and then profiles. Now we are working on infant/small children. My demo isn't quite finished, so I will save it for another time.

The end of the month is fast approaching. I need to finish my painting. I have been getting some wonderful work sent to me based on the challenge. I will create a slide show at the end of the month of all the "grid" paintings. Be sure and send me what you are doing so I can include it in the show.

FIRST HOUR OF INK DRAWING IN PROGRESS

I decided I wanted to use a cartridge pen so I didn't need to keep "dipping". I figured I would need a fresh pen so as not to run out of ink. I went through the "Strokes of Genius" book to see what pens others have used and settled on a set of Staedtler pens with 4 different widths. The ink is permanent, archival, waterproof, etc. Found them at Staples. I decided to try a drawing on the Tyvek paper as I am going to really explore all it's potential. The pen works very smoothly. So far, so good. I couldn't decide whether to pencil in the figures first or just go for it....surprise! I decided to just go for it! I had fun putting my photo of a crowded market scene in a small country village in France through lots of Photoshop Elements configurations. I printed out a 8 1/2 x ll of the full scene and then a detail of the area I was going to start with. I started with the widest pen (0.7mm) and a countour drawing, then went to the smallest pen (0.1mm) to shade with. Interesting trying to get the intermediate values with pen lines. Working on the plaid took every ounce of patience I could muster. I kept looking at my watch to see how much longer I had to go but after awhile I settled into it and found myself trying different ways of marking etc. Well. this is how far I got in one hour. At this rate, I may complete the 24 hour challenge after all. I think this looks very old fashioned but it is challenging and I feel myself stretching.

FRIDAY CHALLENGE #9 "5 HOUR INK DRAWING"

Yes, it is Saturday, but I will still call it the Friday Challenge. I have been thinking about the 24 hour drawing and think I want to build up to that, so I figured I could work on a drawing for an hour a day and since I may miss a day or two I am making it a 5 hour drawing. The hour can be broken up into smaller segments throughout the day. It will be relaxing to sit and make marks. I need to go through some of my European crumbling walls and tiled roof photos for some complex, detail riddled image to obsess over. It should be fun! Anyone else want to try? I have posted some pen and ink drawings I did this summer in France to give you some ideas. It didn't take me nearly 5 hours, but you get the idea. Any subject is fine, but it needs to be something that has enough detail to spend a lot of time on it.

This has been one of the most exhausting weeks that I can remember. The studio was so trashed, I couldn't work out there and couldn't find anything, so I bit the bullet and spent three days going through everything and throwing stuff out, giving stuff away, rearranging all my books and supplies and now I am excited to get in there and really do some work! I was able to give Ronald McDonald House tons of craft supplies and took some art books and magazines to my students today so everything has a happy new home. After the big clean up it was on to cooking for Thanksgiving and then spending time with my visiting children and my grandson home from college on Friday. After teaching all day today, I am ready to retire early and start painting tomorrow!

1st TYVEK WORKSHOP SCHEDULED & ELLIPTICAL DRAWING #1

I am excited to schedule my first Tyvek Workshop! SWA in San Bruno, Ca. will host a 2 day workshop where we will explore different ways of working on this interesting paper. It will be Saturday and Sunday, February 2nd and 3rd. They have a very big room to work in so we can accommodate a large group. If you are interested, let me know and I will pass your name on to the co-ordinator. This is process oriented, so any subject you want to work with is fine. Now that there is a reliable source for the paper, I want to push the envelope as much I can to explore it's possibilities.

In the meantime.....I challenged myself to do ellipses this week, so I thought I should get to it! I used a Micron pen in a very fine point. I think the pen is pretty much shot, but I kept going. I will probably need a new one to do the 24 hour drawing challenge. I chose to work in pen because you can't erase. I'm sure I could have done a better job if I could erase, but I wanted to train my arm to make smooth arcs. Lots of practice needed. Interesting that I could work in one direction much better than the reverse direction. I started shading and then thought better of it for this pen drawing. I don't know if it is possible to draw an accurate ellipse without a tool or template but I'm sure I can do better than this with more practice. Years ago, when I was attending San Francisco State University, I took a class in Chinese Brush Painting. Lesson two was lesson one and lesson two. Lesson three was a repeat of one and two plus three, etc. By the end of the semester, I was going through newsprint like crazy and drawing for hours. All that practice created a steady hand and sure movements to make the characters. Your arm is never braced for steadiness in Chinese brush painting, so it is miles and miles of brush stroke practice that produce quality results. The "Carnegie Hall" principle (practice, practice, practice). Painting Still Lifes probably helps as there are vases, bowls, cups et. al. often in the arrangements. It's interesting how certain subject matter gets some people all jazzed and others not too excited. If required, I can get involved in most things, but left on my own, images of people always win out. This image is an unusual small clay Chinese Tea Pot set on a round mirror with the lid sitting next to it. There is a lazy suzanne behind with a cast shadow so lots and lots of ellipses. I hope to do a small drawing each day this week with curves.

MY STUDENTS WORK & 24 HOUR PEN & INK DRAWING

Today was the 3rd session of my watercolor portrait workshop. Everyone was finishing up their first portrait. I always suggest painting it again if there is time because they always get better. Working with shapes helps everyone get a better likeness. We do a lot with color, shape and composition ideas. I thought I would share a slide show with everyone to show off these great paintings. For many, it is their first portrait, ever.

Rita Hellyer (the inventor of the bleeding Elegant Writer drawing technique) happen to bring in two incredible examples of the 24 hour ink drawing idea. I think she spent more than 24 hours total on each of these but it gives you one idea of an approach to take. Rita broke her image into two values - black and white - and then used the shapes that would be black and filled them with detailed root drawings that she did over a period of weeks. She used a fine pen nib. I start to see animals and other images in the roots. They are really amazing. Be sure and open them in a separate window for an enlarged detail view.

I am not ready to post my demo painting for today. It needs some work yet.

Hope you enjoy today's art show.

FRIDAY CHALLENGE #8 DRAWING ELIPSES & SLIDE SHOW

I am thrilled that the slide show is expanding as more and more of you are sending me your solutions to the challenges. Some great work happening out there!

I actually have two challenges for today. The first will take longer than the week so I thought I would put it out there and see if anyone besides me wants to do it. It is from a wonderful book of 100 drawing lessons from different college instructors. A number of the lessons require an entire class to do but this one struck me as an interesting challenge: Using a pen and a large sheet of paper (a full sheet of hot press watercolor paper would work) create a drawing (subject matter your choice) and spend 24 full hours to complete it. Break up the time as you have time to work on it...just keep track of the hours. I don't think I have ever spent this much time on a drawing but the concept intrigues me. You can't erase and you can't start over. Part of the idea is to find ways to cover up errors or parts you don't like, etc.

The other challenge is to do drawings of objects that have ellipses. I have a difficult time drawing them accurately free hand so I thought it would be good to spend the week getting better! Coffee cups and mugs from every angle and perspective, plates, vases, spoons, wine glasses, pitchers, what ever you can think of. Try different drawing materials, holding the mark making tool different ways, using your whole arm...or not!

A reminder to Bay Area artists. There will be a drawing marathon on Sunday at the Palo Alto Art Center. I am very excited that I can go this time. Most of the time there is some other obligtion in my life that keeps me from going. I usually do the long pose but this time I think I am going to do the fast paced gesture drawing, at least for half the day. I am going to bring a phone book to work in. Hope to see a lot of you there.

MENLO ART LEAGUE DEMO & SKETCHES PLUS TYGERAG SOURCE

I spent yesterday morning traveling again! I am so tired of cramped airplanes, rediculous regulations (they took my yogurt away still sealed, that I had purchased at the airport - seems it is classified as a "liquid or gel") long waits, yada, yada, yada. I did take the time to do some additional sketchs of my old man from the Toronto airport as I intended to do another version for the demonstration for the Menlo Art League. I got home in plenty of time and enjoyed meeting everyone at their meeting. They were a very attentive group and were intrigued to see painting on Tygerag synthetic paper. I have posted the sketches and demo painting plus a detail. You can see them in greater detail by clicking on the image. It will come up larger in a new window.

As promised, here is the contact information for the Tyvek source I discovered. The company is Material Concepts and the Sales Specialist is Lisa Conway. This is a wholesale distributor of Tyvek products. The toll free number is 800 372-3366 and the email address is lisa@materialconcepts.com. Company web site is www.materialconcepts.com The product that looks the most like what I have been using is Tyvek sheets for printing 7.5 mil (18#) I am going to order a carton of 500 sheets (that is the smallest order!) in the size of 25" x 38". That way I can do a large piece or cut in half for 2 pieces 25 x 19 which is a great size for me. I will be sharing this box with other artists in the area. I suggest others get together and share an order, too.

Tomorrow is the slide show. I have been receiving very exciting work from many of you. Everybody is really getting into the challenge and stretching their imaginations!

"SHAPE" PAINTING - CLASS DEMO

Here is the painting I did in my workshop today. I used the "shape" drawing and loosely based the colors on the "posterized" photo. I decided to leave much of the head undefined initially, but now that I have had a little time to study it, I may put in some light washes and move the right eye over a tad. This is painted on Tygerag and has to be flat to work on it so the paint doesn't run all over. It makes it harder to evaluate the painting. I need to prop it up when it is dry and evaluate things. Over all, I am pleased with the results.

I received the packet of samples of Tyvek and did a quick color study on it to make sure it is the same as Tygerag. Looks like we are in business. This company has rolls but you can also purchase a box of cut sheets with 500 sheets to a box. If you can get a group of artists together to share, it is very reasonable. A sheet of 25 x 38 runs $1. There would be a shipping charge to factor in but what a bargain! I don't have the contact information right at my finger tips this minute but I will post later with the info or you can e-mail me if you are interested.

I will be leaving Sunday morning on an a last minute trip and will return on Wednesday. I will be doing a demo for the Menlo Art League on Wednesday night. Looks like the next post will be Thursday. Keep drawing and painting and sending me your work.

FRIDAY CHALLENGE #7 DRAWING "SHAPES"

Here is the challenge: Take one of your digital images - any subject - and open it in Photoshop Elements (or a similar program) Find the "posterize" setting. In Elements it is under image, then adjustments, then posterize. Set it to 4 or possibly 5. If you want smoother shapes, proceed to Filters, then "noise" then "median" and put in a low number. This simplifies the shapes. Print out the results. What has happened is the program has broken down the image into 4 or 5 values. Each value has become an interesting shape. Now, draw these shapes to get your image. Think of it as a puzzle. Once you start seeing "shapes" instead of "things" you will automatically draw more acurately. I have posted an example of what I am talking about. You can click on any of the images (including the slide show) and it brings up a new screen with a larger version of the image so you can check it out better.

I found this very cool sketch book with recycled paper which is tan at the Barnes and Noble Bookstore in Hillsdale Shopping Center. I used the Elegant Writer pen in brown and then a little in black for accent. It doesn't bleed as nicely on this paper but I like the effect.

When I am in a bookstore, I always check the art department. I noticed they did have a copy of the Kaupelis Experimental Drawing book if anyone is looking for it. I bought the book "Strokes of Genius" which is a fabulous compilation of different drawings by contemporary artists full of inspirational work and great ideas! It is a North Light book similar to the Splash series but this one is about drawing. Can't wait to try some of them. Especially the one where you partiallly wet the paper (outside in the yard) then throw powdered charcoal all over it then throw a bucket of water at it!!!!! How fun is that going to be! That would be such a fun summer party idea for a group of artists friends. I was reading through the book and found a wonderful drawing by Jane Ferguson. It is a big accomplishment to be published in a book!

The slide show tonight has some fabulous work in it. More and more of you are sending me what you are doing. Some of these images don't relate specifically to the challenges but I wanted to share them with you. Check out Mike's initial drawing for the November challenge. He has a more detailed explanation on his blog. Abeer has completed last month's challenge using Matisse, Van Gogh, Picasso (my personal favorite) John Lovett and a few others. Great Job!! Nava and Joyce both are excited about color with rich results. Carrie and Bonnie are first timers on the blog and round out a great Friday show!

MY TRAVEL SKETCHBOOK

Every time I go on a trip, I load my carryon tote with all this art material and then I use only a little of it. In the meantime, I am dragging around carry too much weight in my bag. I have finally found a nice system I like with a few supplies and I am much happier. I went to a smaller sketch book, one that I can get in my everyday bag as well. It is 5.5" x 8.5" and spiral bound so it stays flat when open. It is very inexpensive but I think I will upgrade to a better quality paper when I have filled this one up. I am enjoying working with the "Elegant Pen" and better paper will give a nicer result. I experimented this weekend with using two colors - brown and black. The brown is more sanguine so has a flesh tone quality. Very fun. Along with these pens, I carry one of those Japanese brushes with the water in the handle. A packet of tissue and a watercolor set the size of a mint tin. It all fits into a plastic bag in case something leaks. I have been thinking how I can get the effect of the Elegant Writer on watercolor paper. I doubt that these pens are light fast. I am going to try liquid watercolor full strength on tygerag and see what happens. I will try that tomorrow.

Flew Southwest Airlines this weekend. Their inflight magazine had an article on the movie "Lonesome Dove" and some great photos which I played around with. These two images were from the magazine. I did some others which I will post another time.

I have made a slide show of my "people hanging out in the airport bored to death" sketches. Some are from this trip and some are from my 11 hour layover in the Toronto airport in September. In Toronto, I used a Copic wide pen with an extra broad nib (about 1 inch!) in a taupe color, to quickly block in the shape and then went back with a sanguine pen to put the detail in. I used a mechanical pencil for the ones I did this weekend. Never have to sharpen them. I found I could very quickly scribble in the shape, then if they hadn't moved significantly, I could go back and do a fast contour drawing. If I still had time, I could go back again and focus on some details - features, hands, feet, etc.

I have been receiving some very nice e-mails from some of you who I have never met. I almost deleted a few thinking they were spam. Be sure and put something in the subject line so I know what it is about.